WTF-Beta

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/05/technology/ai-china-africa.html

In African tech hubs, developers are picking China’s cheap, freely available artificial intelligence models over more powerful U.S. ones.

China’s A.I. is surging, especially in developing countries, as people look for the best possible system at the lowest possible cost. Unlike models made by the leading American A.I. companies OpenAI and Anthropic — which are closed and charge fees — the Chinese systems are publicly available to download and modify without payment or approval.

In more than two dozen interviews across Kenya, Uganda and other countries, developers, policymakers and executives described a rapidly changing A.I. market where cost, computing resources, data control and customization mattered more than where a model was made. Often they were not looking for bleeding edge A.I. They just wanted something that worked well enough on limited resources.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/03/nyregion/gen-z-dating-too-expensive-cost.html

Gen-Z are dating less because dating is too expensive.

https://www.bmo.com/en-us/main/about-bmo/news-insights/blog/bmo-rfp-survey-americans-dating/

... the average “all-in” spend on a date in America – including pre-date grooming and gas money – is $189, up 12.5% from $168 in 2025.

So confident, so brave!

Responding to the title rather the opening post:

You need make it a $400 million ask and take it to Sand Hill Road.

Ugg

Twitter

Toonie

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/29/climate/trump-federal-data-centers.html

Trump Administration Is Repurposing Federal Land for A.I. Data Centers
In the latest example, the Energy Department will convert a shuttered Cold War-era uranium enrichment facility into a data center campus and gas plants.

Peg

Not sure I should be surprised. I thought it's well established that sleep duration is not the same as sleep quality. There has got to be better comparisons than to sleep duration.

The 2026 Fields Medal

No real harm done as long as no genetically compromised offspring is conceived.

Sorry it happened. Glad both of you are unharmed.

The U.S. Army is running low on AI tokens

https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/07/us-army-faces-ai-use-limits-after-exhausting-years-supply-of-ai-tokens/

A little over a month after the Department of Defense (DOD) bragged that nearly half of its 3.5 million employees were using AI at work, members of the Army’s Combat Capabilities Development Command (DEVCOM) received an email informing them that they were burning through tokens, and needed to limit use.

“Although the Army CIO announced in May 2026 that they were offering unlimited tokens, by mid-June the Army CIO pool was exhausted of tokens and had to re-establish limits,” the email reads. The email goes on to say that although the Army has chosen to renew token usage at “its current levels,” it’s unclear “if the Army CIO pool will be renewed after 1 Oct.”

Wonder if the roof leaks.