Amazon CEO reportedly raised Anthropic model concerns before government crackdown | TechCrunch

June 15, 2026June 14, 2026 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Amazon CEO reportedly raised Anthropic model concerns before government crackdown.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy may have been the source of security concerns that led Anthropic to cut off worldwide access to two models on Friday.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Jassy told Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and other government officials that Amazon researchers used Anthropic’s Claude Fable 5 to obtain information that could be used in cyberattacks. The government subsequently imposed an export control ban on the Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models.

An Amazon spokesperson said in a statement that while it’s “not uncommon for governments to seek our counsel on potential security risks,” the company does not “share the details of those discussions.”

Source: Amazon CEO reportedly raised Anthropic model concerns before government crackdown | TechCrunch

They Started a Business in an Old Garage, Hit $500k a Year | Entrepreneur

June 11, 2026June 10, 2026 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

When did you start your business, and where did you find the inspiration for it?

Simpson: The first time I ever made beer, I was actually trying to make bread.

About 12 years ago, I was deep into sourdough: cultivating wild yeast, feeding starters, obsessing over fermentation times. One day I thought, If I can make this yeast rise bread, what else can it do? That question led me down a rabbit hole I never climbed out of. I started homebrewing out of sheer curiosity, and something clicked. The fermentation process, the patience it demanded, the way small adjustments produced completely different results felt like the most honest kind of making.

I eventually left my kitchen to apprentice at Arrowood Farm Brewery in Accord, New York, where I learned what it actually meant to brew at scale. But the whole time, I had a different idea in the back of my mind. Building a neighborhood place I could call my own. A classic public house, in the oldest sense of the term. Somewhere people could walk to, chill, not rush, and leave feeling energized.

The New Rules of Leadership in the Age of AI | Entrepreneur

June 11, 2026June 10, 2026 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

In early 2024, Klarna’s CEO made headlines by announcing that the company’s AI was doing the work of 700 customer service agents. The story quickly became shorthand for AI replacing knowledge work.

By mid-2025, the company had quietly begun hiring humans back after customer experience issues surfaced. Then, by the end of the year, Klarna reported that its AI was handling the workload of more than 850 agents, more than before, according to CX Dive reporting.

The breakdown happened in how success was defined and managed, not in how quickly AI was adopted. Klarna optimized for efficiency, and the system delivered exactly that, handling more volume, faster, and at lower cost. What it didn’t account for was the quality of those interactions, or who was ultimately responsible for the outcome.

All the iPhones getting iOS 27: Is yours on the list? | Mashable

June 10, 2026 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

On Monday, Apple surprised the iPhone world during its WWDC 2026 keynote… just not in the way you might think.

In a show full of detailed demonstrations of new features coming to iOS 27, including the new AI-fueled Siri upgrade, one of the biggest surprises involved which iPhones will actually support the new OS update. Rumors ahead of the show indicated that the iPhone 11 lineup would be excluded from software updates this year, effectively forcing obsolescence on anyone who owns an iPhone from that generation.

Well, the rumor mill had this one dead wrong.

Why VidCon still matters in 2026 | Mashable

June 10, 2026 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

When VidCon launched in 2010, being a full-time creator was still considered a novelty. The inaugural convention brought together some of the internet’s earliest stars, including founders Hank Green and John Green of Vlogbrothers fame, alongside creators like Philip DeFranco, iJustine, Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal, and Ryan Higa. At the time, many attendees were simply excited to meet people they had only seen on their computer screens.

Fifteen years later, creators host sold-out headlining tours, launch consumer brands, run production companies, and influence everything from entertainment to politics. What began as a gathering of YouTubers and fans has evolved into the annual meeting place for an industry worth hundreds of billions of dollars.

Which raises an obvious question: Why does VidCon still matter?

America’s job market looks strong. So why is it so difficult to find work? | CNN Business

June 4, 2026June 2, 2026 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

On paper, the job market looks pretty darn good.

The 4.3% unemployment rate is below both the 10-year average of 4.6% and the 50-year average of 6.1%. For the second month in a row, the official government tally of jobs added blew past economists’ expectations. And the most recent Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey showed hiring surged in March.

So why are so many people struggling to get hired lately?

How Costco sells such cheap gas so cheap | CNN Business

June 4, 2026June 2, 2026 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

In its 50-year history, Costco has never seen such demand for gas.

Many of its stations have been so overwhelmed that they’ve had to call in tanker trucks multiple times a day to avoid running dry, Costco said this week during its quarterly earnings call. A growing number of customers are buying just enough to top up their tanks, concerned about what tomorrow’s prices may be.

As prices have surged above $4 nationwide – and above $6 along the West Coast – Costco has become America’s destination for cheap gas. Well, relatively. Costco routinely undercuts local gas stations by around 30 cents a gallon.

NASA confirms fireball meteor exploded over northeastern US with force of 230 tons of TNT | Live Science

June 3, 2026June 2, 2026 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

NASA has confirmed that a bright fireball meteor exploded in the sky over New England on Saturday (May 30), releasing the equivalent energy of about 230 tons of TNT and generating a sonic boom heard across multiple U.S. states and two Canadian provinces.

The meteor was relatively small — about 5 feet (1.6 meters) in diameter, NASA wrote in a statement on X. However, it faced incredible friction while tumbling through the atmosphere at about 42,000 mph (67,000 kilometers per hour). The meteor broke the sound barrier as it split apart roughly 31 miles (50 km) over Earth, raining debris onto Cape Cod, according to NASA.

Heading a soccer ball just once is enough to raise levels of proteins associated with brain damage | Live Science

June 3, 2026June 2, 2026 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Heading a soccer ball just once is enough to temporarily release proteins into the blood that are associated with damage to brain cells, a new study suggests.

For two of the six proteins tracked, their levels rose higher the more frequently and the harder soccer players headed balls. The study authors say that while this could be evidence of acute brain injuries, further studies are needed to determine whether the cumulative effects of heading could increase a player’s risk of developing a neurodegenerative disease like Alzheimer’s.