Tech Updates: Crypto Closures, Privacy in Messaging, and Brain-Computer Interfaces

We get our first look at how Google is integrating AI into search. You heard me warn you, but the most concrete example yet that Crypto VCs might be turning their attention to AI. WhatsApp is probably moving to usernames. The Weekend Longreads Suggestions. And, for this long weekend, Brian’s Book Recommendations.

Sponsors:

• Miro.com/podcast
• Bloomberg.com/careers

Links:

• Google starts rolling out Search Generative Experience (SGE) in preview (9to5Google)
• Paradigm broadening crypto-only focus to areas including AI (The Block)
• WhatsApp beta for Android 2.23.11.15: what’s new? (WABetaInfo)
• The FDA will apparently let Elon Musk put a computer in a human’s brain (The Verge)

Weekend Longreads Suggestions:

• Meta's ‘Efficiency’ Layoffs Take a Toll on Employee Productivity (Bloomberg)
• Sergey Brin Has a Secret Plan to Put Airships Back in the Skies (BusinessWeek)
• Some Neural Networks Learn Language Like Humans (QuantaMagazine)
• A husband hid $500,000 in bitcoin during a divorce — and got busted by a crypto hunter (CNBC)
• Going for a walk with Shift’s Moonwalker electric shoe-skates (TechCrunch)

Brian's Summer Book Recommendations:

• The Making of the Atomic Bomb: 25th Anniversary Edition
• Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945
• Americana: A 400-Year History of American Capitalism

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.