Top News | OpenAI misses sales and user targets: The beleaguered AI giant saw its stock tumble on Tuesday after published reports confirmed that they missed user and sales targets for 2025. Cloud companies sharing high-profile relationships with OpenAI, including Oracle and CoreWeave, also suffered from some of the impact, as did chip makers like AMD and Nvidia. It’s been a bit of a tough news cycle for the company, as the high profile court case litigating its origins and switch from non-profit to for-profit status kicked off this week in Oakland. US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers opened the proceedings on Tuesday with a warning for CEO and co-founder Sam Altman — and his opponent, one-time OpenAI co-founder Elon Musk — to avoid using “social media to make things worse outside the courtroom.” Easier said than done. True Anomaly raises $650M: The Colorado defense tech startup focuses exclusively on space, building hardware and software systems to support the US military in orbit. Products include the Mosaic autonomy platform and autonomous orbital vehicles called Jackals, designed for situational awareness and “interception.” TA’s now raised $650 million — bringing their total funding to $1 billion — at a $2.2 billion valuation, after being selected by the US Space Force to take part in the executive branch’s new “Golden Dome” missile defense project. This will involve interceptors, stationed in orbit, that track and disable hostile satellites, along with missiles bound for the US. Anomaly is developing their first interceptor project as part of the mission. Meet “Talkie,” the AI model “from 1930”: What would you get if you trained a modern language model exclusively on material from before the year 1930? Essentially, Talkie, a “vintage” LM that simulates the experience of speaking with an AI built at the start of the Great Depression. In an introductory blog post, creators Nick Levine, David Duvenaud, and Alec Radford explain that Talkie can teach us a lot about AI; specifically its ability to develop wholly original ideas, as well as predict future events. (One big question on their minds: Can Talkie independently “discover” scientific insights first made by humans after its training data expired?) You can chat with it here, but only after waiting in a lengthy queue.
| TWiST 500 | Back in March, The Information reported that Apple has been cracking down on vibe coding apps, removing popular entrants in the genre like Replit and Vibecode from the App Store. The claim: these apps violate a long-standing App Store rule against “run[ning] code that changes the way it or other apps function.” | Apple explained at the time that the issue is not specifically vibe coding, as a concept, but the fact that many vibe code apps violate their developer guidelines. Anything, another vibe coding app, was removed from the App Store but later restored after making some backend changes. Essentially, you can vibe code on your iPhone, but you can’t run newly-generated apps inside the host app. To comply, those builds must move over to web browsers. | Undaunted, one of the most high-profile vibecode startups — Lovable — dropped a no-code AI-powered app builder in both the Apple and Google stores this week. Their new app is designed to allow builders to work on coding projects on their mobile devices, along with using voice or text prompts to quickly work through ideas and develop concepts. It connects directly to your main Lovable account, allowing you to start projects on your phone and then finish them on your laptop, or vice-versa. | It’s now available on the App Store, suggesting that the Lovable team pre-complied with all relevant Apple policies. – Lon | A message from Agree.com | E-signature, invoicing, billing & payments — all in one. Stop chasing invoices at agree.com. Tell them Jason sent you & get 50% off for life!! | This Week in Startups | E2281: Jason thinks the Chinese government blocking Meta’s acquisition of Manus might be the biggest AI story of the year. This was the deal that demonstrated that Chinese AI companies could move operations overseas (in this case, to Singapore) and start collaborating with Western companies. That loophole has apparently now closed. PLUS OpenAI and Microsoft changed the terms of their relationship, that viral video purportedly showing a Huawei self-driving vehicle hitting a young pedestrian, and Jason’s reaction to Russell Brand on Piers Morgan’s show. | BONUS: In this Saturday special, Lon and Jason run down some of the week’s biggest news. AngelList’s new USVC fund gives retail investors exposure to some of the world’s biggest and most sought-after private companies, but not every social media user likes the terms. Then, how should the US punish a Special Forces soldier who places wagers on America’s raid on Venezuela? Does it matter if he wagered on “his own team”? Finally, Jason’s thoughts on the controversial NYT podcast about “micro-looting” and “social murder.” | E2280: First up, Lon and Jason welcome Will Edwards, CEO and founder of Firehawk Aerospace. They’re using 3D printed solid rocket propellant to cut production costs, make missile manufacturing safer for employees, and 5x America’s output. Then we’ve got researcher Maruchi Kim, the developer of VueBuds. These camera-equipped earbuds connect to a locally-hosted small language model, giving an AI the ability to “see” whatever the wearer is looking at presently. | TWiST Partner Offers | IM8 Health: Start feeling like your best self every day. Go to IM8health.com/twist and use the code TWiST to get a free welcome kit, five free travel sachets, and 10% off your order. Deel: Founders scale faster on Deel. Set up payroll for any country in minutes, hire anyone anywhere, get visas handled fast, and get back to building. Visit deel.com/twist to learn more. Sentry.io: Your team should be focused on shipping features — not chasing down bugs. New users can get $240 in free credits when they go to sentry.io/twist and use the code TWIST.
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