WIRED is producing a special issue on gender and power in Silicon Valley and will record a live episode of its Uncanny Valley podcast in San Francisco on October 8. The event, co-presented with KQED, features a conversation between former WIRED writer Paulina Borsook and editorial director Katie Drummond, followed by a panel with Brian Barrett, Zoë Schiffer and Lauren Goode discussing Goode's search for the most powerful woman in tech.
wired.com
· 2026-09-15
A new State of Open Source AI report from Mozilla, shared with Ars ahead of its September 15 release, finds that top open-weights models from Chinese developers now perform nearly on par with closed frontier models from US firms like Anthropic and OpenAI. It cites Moonshot AI's Kimi K3 scoring only three points below Anthropic's Fable 5 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, despite costing roughly 30 percent as much to run.
arstechnica.com
· 2026-09-15
In a new opinion piece, Cohere co-founder Aidan Gomez argues that a small group of dominant Silicon Valley AI companies should not be allowed to single-handedly write the safety standards and competition rules governing artificial intelligence worldwide. He acknowledges AI carries real risks, citing Cohere's own work deploying systems in banks, telecoms and defense ministries, but insists the real debate is about who gets a seat at the table in shaping oversight, not whether oversight is needed.
cohere.com
· 2026-09-14
Concerns about artificial intelligence's risks and disruptions are increasingly showing up outside of specialized tech and policy circles, reaching everyday American conversation. The shift suggests AI has moved from an industry-insider talking point to a broader cultural and political issue.
wsj.com
· 2026-09-12
A commentary piece examines why large companies remain stuffed with sprawling, disorganized software stacks—from SAP and Workday to countless spreadsheets and scripts—despite growing AI capabilities. It challenges the Silicon Valley assumption that generative AI will let anyone instantly build custom tools to replace this mess, arguing that most workers aren't tool-builders and don't think in terms of reinventing their workflows.
ben-evans.com
· 2026-09-06
Yang Zhilin, a 33-year-old researcher, chose to return to China rather than pursue a U.S. career, founding Moonshot AI. The startup's open-weight model has drawn significant attention and is reportedly unsettling established players in the global AI industry.
wsj.com
· 2026-09-04
Celeste Amadon, founder of AI dating app Known, launched a public nomination campaign called 'San Francisco's Hot List,' inviting people to nominate attractive, accomplished singles in the city. The X post drew mixed reactions—mockery alongside genuine engagement—but generated over 15,000 submissions within a day, according to Amadon. The campaign taps into a growing narrative pushing back on San Francisco's reputation as an undateable, style-deficient tech hub.
wired.com
· 2026-09-04
Security personnel working at San Francisco offices of major AI firms, represented by SEIU-United Service Workers West, voted this week to authorize a strike. The vote gives union leadership the go-ahead to call a walkout if labor negotiations with contractors fail to produce an acceptable deal.
fastcompany.com
· 2026-09-03
Sequoia Capital chairman Doug Leone, worth an estimated $11.7 billion, told his dentist to perform a root canal without novocaine so he wouldn't miss a scheduled meeting. He described gritting through the drilling by comparing it to a soldier's battlefield injuries, then went straight to his meeting before changing his sweat-drenched shirt.
entrepreneur.com
· 2026-09-03
Tim Cook appeared in the Oval Office to praise President Trump and presented him with a glass-and-gold trophy in front of press cameras, an event the author calls the most embarrassing act ever done in Apple's name. The piece contrasts Cook's deferential display with Steve Jobs' history of defying authority and institutions, noting Jobs himself was the son of an immigrant on a student visa.
anildash.com
· 2026-09-01
A New York Times reporter who has tracked tech industry influence in education for over a decade argues in a new book, 'Coding Kids: Big Tech's Battle to Remake Public Schools,' that major technology companies help write learning standards, sit on curriculum committees, and push schools to adopt industry-aligned subjects like coding and AI. The reporter contends these efforts often function as marketing rather than neutral education, giving students and teachers a sanitized view of tech products and their risks.
news.slashdot.org
· 2026-08-30
A venture capital commentator argues that the next major wave of American innovation is shifting from software toward physical infrastructure like energy, logistics and manufacturing, and that the Gulf South region is positioned to lead it. The region accounts for over 40% of US crude production and half of national refining capacity, alongside major LNG, aerospace and defense hubs, plus global trade links to Latin America, Africa, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. The author points to events like the 3rd Coast Venture Summit in New Orleans as evidence that founders and investors are already organizing around this thesis.
entrepreneur.com
· 2026-08-28
GoKawiil