Tue 24 March 2026
Daily Brief — Curated and contextualised by Best Practice AI
Silicon Valley Widens AI Divide with Main Street, OpenAI Abandons Sora Platform, and Enterprises Track Token Costs
TL;DR A Guardian analysis shows Silicon Valley's AI enthusiasm clashing with everyday Americans' wariness, exemplified by Tesla Cybertruck safety concerns. OpenAI has discontinued its Sora video app, launched last year to let users insert themselves into movie scenes, citing deployment challenges. Enterprises report AI adoption driving up operating costs through token usage, prompting new budgeting for compute and governance. Experts note top AI users delegate complex tasks to models as reasoning partners, while fragmented data and unclear workflows hinder agent scaling in production.
The stories that matter most
Selected and contextualised by the Best Practice AI team
Divide between Silicon Valley and ordinary people grows ever larger
Big tech believes the future is AI while everyday Americans remain wary; and the dangers of riding in a Tesla Cybertruck Hello, and welcome to TechScape. I’m your host, Blake Montgomery. This week in tech, we discuss a moment of divergence between Silicon Valley and everyday people; deep cuts at Meta to maximize spending on AI; writers caught using AI; and the frightening, fiery crashes of the
Best AI Users
The strongest users of large language models are more ambitious, treat AI as a reasoning partner, delegate complex tasks with clear objectives, and use it as a general cognitive tool rather than just a shortcut. This shifts the question from simple adoption metrics to what sophisticated AI use actually looks like across the workforce.
Scaling AI Agents Successfully
To scale AI agents successfully, think of them like team members. This framing surfaces useful reminders around permissions, scope, security, and accountability, but most of those cautions were seen as familiar governance basics rather than new guidance for experienced AI leaders.
OpenAI Scraps Sora Video Platform Months After Launch
The app, released last year, allowed people to insert themselves into famous movie scenes, among other functions.
AI Adoption Increases Operating Costs
Token usage is becoming a real operating cost for enterprises as AI adoption moves from experimentation to scaled deployment. Companies are starting to track tokens as a proxy for compute spend, productivity, and governance. Leaders need new budgeting and measurement frameworks because AI is one of the first major enterprise software categories where successful usage can materially increase the bi
The Three Disciplines Separating AI Agent Demos
The three disciplines separating AI agent demos from real-world deployment
Artificial Intelligence, Productivity, and the Workforce: Evidence from Corporate Executives
Survey of 750 corporate executives finds over half of firms have invested in AI, with labour productivity gains positive but uneven. Documents a 'productivity paradox' — perceived gains exceed measured ones.
Economics & Markets
Peter Thiel's Founders Fund Backs AI Cow Collar Startup at $2 Billion Valuation
Halter, AI-powered collars for cows, in talks to raise round doubling valuation to over $2B. Founders Fund backing.
Guess the TAM is big - lot of cows in this world...moo.
SoftBank tests its own borrowing limits with $30bn bet on OpenAI
Masayoshi Son faces investor nerves with massive spending on AI investments
Rivr Acquired by Amazon
Amazon has acquired robotics company RIVR to enhance its physical AI systems for last-mile delivery.
Syndigo Acquires Taggstar to Enhance AI-Powered Conversion Rate Optimization
Syndigo, a provider of product experience management and master data management solutions based in Chicago, Illinois, acquired Taggstar, a London-based provider of AI-powered conversion rate optimization.
Apollo.io Acquires Pocus
Apollo.io Acquires Pocus To Advance AI-Native GTM Operating System Vision
The 2026 VC Playbook: How Investment Criteria Are Evolving in AI-First Startups
Venture capitalists evaluating AI startups with sharper, competency-focused approach in 2026.
Is an AI bubble set to burst? Navigating the artificial intelligence boom
Three years into AI boom, Wall Street cannot reach consensus on whether AI will prove too disruptive or not.
NVIDIA State of AI 2026: 51% of executives plan to increase AI budgets
NVIDIA State of AI 2026 finds 51% of enterprise executives plan to increase AI budgets; 42% cite workflow optimisation as top spending priority.
AI Boom Risks Widening Wealth Gap
BlackRock's annual investor letter warns of widening wealth gaps due to the AI boom, urging broader public access to long-term market gains. It suggests measures like emergency savings accounts and investment accounts from birth to democratize wealth creation, emphasizing the historical benefits of staying invested in volatile markets.
China's Five-Year Plan Reveals Economic Tensions
In China's latest five-year economic and social blueprint, Beijing has set ambitious targets that pull in opposite directions: tech supremacy versus social stability, export-led growth versus reduced trade friction, AI advancement versus employment protection and self-sufficiency versus global integration. Some tensions may prove manageable, but others appear intractable.
Goldman Sachs claims AI had zero impact on US economic growth in 2025
Goldman Sachs claims AI contributed zero to US GDP growth in 2025 despite $410bn in corporate AI investment.
The AI economy's hidden bottleneck: the productivity J-curve
AEI argues AI is following 'productivity J-curve' — transformative technologies produce dip before surge as intangible investments are realised.
Labor & Society
Divide between Silicon Valley and ordinary people grows ever larger
Big tech believes the future is AI while everyday Americans remain wary; and the dangers of riding in a Tesla Cybertruck Hello, and welcome to TechScape. I’m your host, Blake Montgomery. This week in tech, we discuss a moment of divergence between Silicon Valley and everyday people; deep cuts at Meta to maximize spending on AI; writers caught using AI; and the frightening, fiery crashes of the
AI washing is masking an insidious labour crisis
Companies citing AI adoption as reason for job cuts — 'AI washing' — using AI as rhetorical cover for cost-cutting.
AI Job Displacement Statistics 2026
GenAI investment increased nearly 8x since November 2022. Gap between automation and retraining creates human cost.
How will AI affect the US labor market?
Goldman Sachs estimates 300 million jobs globally exposed to automation by AI. Chief economist flags AI as 'big story in 2026'.
The New Reality of Work: AI, Restructuring, and the Labor Market in 2026
Global job market undergoing most profound structural shift since industrial revolution in 2024-2026.
America’s Chief Financial Officers Say AI Is Coming for Admin Jobs
A new study finds little evidence of broad job losses from AI—but a clear shift away from clerical roles and toward technical ones.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is Here - Now What?
Were hearing real concerns from every direction. Writers, artists, and musicians are worried about their work being scraped and replicated without permission. Workers across industries are asking a very direct question: Will AI take my job—or redefine it out from under me?
How AI Could Benefit Workers, Even If It Displaces Most Jobs
Automation could benefit workers only if AI vastly outperforms them.
Daron Acemoglu on Bloomberg: AI is changing the future of work
Nobel Prize-winning economist Acemoglu argues AI is being built primarily to replace workers rather than augment them.
Why AI hasn't caused a job apocalypse — so far
Current evidence points to modest effects of AI on employment; aggregate labour market data does not confirm structural disruption feared.
The Download: animal welfare gets AGI-pilled, and the White House unveils its AI policy
This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. The Bay Area’s animal welfare movement wants to recruit AI In early February, animal welfare advocates and AI researchers arrived in stocking feet at Mox, a scrappy, shoes-free coworking space in…
Meta ordered to pay $375m after being found liable in child exploitation case
New Mexico hails ‘historic’ win after jury finds firm misled consumers over safety and enabled harm against users A New Mexico jury on Tuesday ordered Meta to pay $375m in civil penalties after it found the company misled consumers about the safety of its platforms and enabled harm, including child sexual exploitation, against its users. This is the first jury trial to find Meta liable for acts committed on its platform. Continue reading...
Baltimore sues Elon Musk’s AI company over Grok’s fake nude images
Lawsuit argues XAI failed to disclose risks, limitations and exposure to harm that come with using chatbot The mayor and city council of Baltimore, Maryland, filed a lawsuit against Elon Musk’s xAI company on Tuesday, alleging that its Grok chatbot violated consumer protections by generating nonconsensual sexualized images. Baltimore’s lawsuit argues that xAI deceptively marketed Grok as a general-purpose AI assistant and X as a mainstream social media site, failing to disclose the risks, limitations and exposure to harm that come with using the platform and chatbot. The suit, filed in the circuit court for Baltimore city, argues that the court has jurisdiction over xAI given that the company advertises and operates in Baltimore.
The hardest question to answer about AI-fueled delusions
This story originally appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter on AI. To get stories like this in your inbox first, sign up here. I was originally going to write this week’s newsletter about AI and Iran, particularly the news we broke last Tuesday that the Pentagon is making plans for AI companies to train on…
Chinese Voice Actors Challenge AI Voice Misuse
Chinese voice actors are pushing back against unauthorized use of their voices for artificial intelligence training and monetization, spotlighting tensions between rapidly advancing speech technology and the protection of vocal rights.
US regulators ponder impact of antitrust law on AI
Competition regulators grappling with AI's role in competitive intelligence and potential for illegal coordination.
Anthropic and Pentagon face off in court over ban on company’s AI model
After Anthropic refused to let its AI to be used in autonomous weapons systems, Trump ordered US agencies to quit using it Sign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inbox Anthropic faced against the Department of Defense in a federal court on Tuesday afternoon, as the artificial intelligence company seeks a temporary pause on the government’s decision to bar the US military and any contractors from using its technology. The two sides have been locked in an escalating feud over Anthropic’s refusal to allow its Claude AI chatbot to be used for domestic mass surveillance and fully autonomous lethal weapons. Donald Trump has ordered all US government agencies to stop using Anthropic’s tools, which the company is also contesting.
U.S. Government’s Ban on Anthropic Looks Like Punishment, Judge Says
The AI company is challenging its designation as a national security risk by the Pentagon.
EU Antitrust Watchdog Targets AI Ecosystems
In a slew of new probes, the EU antitrust watchdog's AI strategy is taking shape, targeting key pressure points in emerging ecosystems. The wide-ranging scrutiny of cloud power, data access and chatbot distribution may spur competition at different levels of the AI stack.
US House Republicans Pledge To Pass AI Policy Framework
US House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Brett Guthrie, Speaker Mike Johnson, Majority Leader Steve Scalise, Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan and Science, Space, and Technology Committee Chair Brian Babin issued a statement saying they will work to pass an AI policy framework.
White House Publishes AI Policy Proposal
The White House has released an artificial intelligence policy framework for Congress that President Donald Trump called for in a December executive order. The seven-part plan includes sections on protecting children, safeguarding communities, respecting intellectual property, defending free speech, boosting deployment, workforce development and preempting 'cumbersome' state laws.
Policy as code: Embedding compliance in AI adoption
Kyndryl’s Ismail Amla discusses the company’s new policy as code process, and how it can help address AI issues such as agentic drift. Read more: Policy as code: Embedding compliance in AI adoption
Public Citizen Criticizes Trump AI Policy Proposal
Robert Weissman, co-president of Public Citizen, said that President Donald Trump's proposed AI policy framework would effectively mean no US regulation of AI at all.
Trump AI Framework Sparks Congressional Debate
President Donald Trump on Friday released a highly-anticipated framework to lightly regulate artificial intelligence and preempt certain US state AI laws. In doing so, he passed the ball to Congress. There, any viable legislation must be the product of bipartisan negotiations — historically a major hurdle for federal tech policy.
Business Software Alliance Welcomes AI Framework
The Business Software Alliance welcomed President Donald Trump's National AI Legislative Framework because it works on 'several core areas of consensus, including combating fraud and abuse, developing an AI-ready workforce, ensuring that AI developers can fairly access training data, and — importantly — advancing AI adoption by addressing barriers to use and strengthening the testing and evaluation tools needed to build trust in AI systems,' the trade association said.
China Issues AI Agent OpenClaw Guidance
China's cybersecurity authorities have issued detailed operational guidance on the use of the open-source AI agent OpenClaw, expanding recent risk warnings into a broader governance push as adoption accelerates.
Authors Seek Final Nod For Settlement With Anthropic
Book authors asked a US federal judge to grant final approval to their $1.5 billion settlement with Anthropic to resolve copyright claims over AI training.
Anthropic Seeks Injunction Against Trump Administration
Anthropic said in a court filing, seeking an injunction to block the Trump Administration from declaring it a supply-chain risk, that the administration launched 'an unprecedented campaign of retaliation' when Anthropic sought to prevent its AI from being used for mass surveillance of Americans or for autonomous weapons.
UK Copyright Debate Drags On For AI Developers
AI developers and the creative industry alike face continued uncertainty following a keenly awaited UK government report on how copyright protections are handled in AI model training.
More Time Needed for States Investigating AI Mergers
State attorneys general could use more time when looking over mergers and acquisitions within the artificial intelligence industry, said Minnesota Assistant Attorney General Elizabeth Odette.
NetChoice Commends Trump AI Framework
The US-based tech trade association NetChoice commended President Donald Trump's National Framework for Artificial Intelligence as a plan that understands what is at stake and what it will take to win the future.
US Customs And Border Protection Rules On AI Use
US Customs and Border Protection said in a ruling that a confidential unlicensed online platform using AI improperly conducted customs business.
Philippine Supreme Court Adopts AI Governance Framework
The Philippine Supreme Court has adopted a governance framework for the use of human-centred augmented intelligence in the judiciary, setting ethical guardrails for AI deployment in courts.
Trump's US AI Framework Faces Challenges
President Donald Trump's latest proposal to preempt US state artificial intelligence laws is getting a chilly reception from Democrats in Congress, previewing challenging bipartisan negotiations toward a possible federal regulatory framework for AI.
Copyright Rules May Not Need Overhaul
EU officials say copyright rules may not need overhauling to address AI challenges, but a focus instead put on enforcement and licensing.
AI-specific regulation backed by four in five UK adults
Four in five UK adults want government to regulate AI to ensure systems are safe by design.
AI regulation, recalibrated: What the EU's latest move means
EU aims to reach final agreement by spring 2026, with proposed stop-the-clock mechanism.
Technology & Infrastructure
AI Infrastructure and Energy Supercycle: Market Outlook 2026
2026 AI spending backed by strongest balance sheets. Power availability is dominant limiting factor.
Powering AI: A Deep Dive into Data Centers and Investment Implications
Hyperscaler CapEx to exceed $600B in 2026, with $450B tied to AI infrastructure.
How AI Data Centres Are Exposing US Power System Limits
Global data centre investment forecast at $6.7T by 2030 with $2.7T in US.
AI's next phase to drive higher computing demand, not less
Deloitte: almost all AI computing in 2026 will be in giant data centres or expensive servers.
One in four data centre operators fails to track energy usage
Nearly one in four data centre operators failing to track power consumption.
SoftBank to Build Massive AI Datacenter
SoftBank to build massive AI datacenter on former US nuclear weapons site, with a 10GW server farm, 10GW of new generation, and $4.2bn grid upgrade.
OpenAI winds down Sora to prioritize 'Spud'
OpenAI winding down Sora video generator to free up compute for 'Spud', the next major model.
Let Claude use your computer with Dispatch
Dispatch enables users to hand Claude a task from phone and have it finish work on PC.
Anthropic’s Claude can now control your Mac, escalating the fight to build AI agents that actually do work
Anthropic on Monday launched the most ambitious consumer AI agent to date, giving its Claude chatbot the ability to directly control a user's Mac — clicking buttons, opening applications, typing into fields, and navigating software on the user's behalf while they step away from their desk. The update, available immediately as a research preview for paying subscribers, transforms Claude from a conversational assistant into something closer to a remote digital operator. It arrives inside both Claude Cowork, the company's agentic productivity tool, and Claude Code, its developer-focused command-line agent.
Put Claude to Work on Your Computer — Anthropic's Computer Use and Dispatch
Anthropic introduces Claude's 'computer use' and Dispatch capabilities, enabling AI agents to autonomously perform tasks across a user's system.
Adoption & Impact
Meta’s AI Makeover Starts at the Top
Plus, Jensen Huang’s latest flex and Nvidia’s lower stock-market multiple
Martin Sorrell Says S4 Capital’s Future Depends on AI Adoption at Scale
EXCLUSIVE: Sorrell said he is “starting to see green shoots” as he looks to AI to get the advertising company out of a slump.
AI Adoption Increases Operating Costs
Token usage is becoming a real operating cost for enterprises as AI adoption moves from experimentation to scaled deployment. Companies are starting to track tokens as a proxy for compute spend, productivity, and governance. Leaders need new budgeting and measurement frameworks because AI is one of the first major enterprise software categories where successful usage can materially increase the bi
Best AI Users
The strongest users of large language models are more ambitious, treat AI as a reasoning partner, delegate complex tasks with clear objectives, and use it as a general cognitive tool rather than just a shortcut. This shifts the question from simple adoption metrics to what sophisticated AI use actually looks like across the workforce.
The Three Disciplines Separating AI Agent Demos
The three disciplines separating AI agent demos from real-world deployment
Pentagon to Adopt Palantir AI
Pentagon to adopt Palantir AI as core US military system, memo says
Scaling AI Agents Successfully
To scale AI agents successfully, think of them like team members. This framing surfaces useful reminders around permissions, scope, security, and accountability, but most of those cautions were seen as familiar governance basics rather than new guidance for experienced AI leaders.
AI is hitting the sweet part of the S-curve
Drawing on Jevons Paradox, AI is entering steepest part of adoption S-curve. Greater efficiency expands demand rather than constraining it.
Meta Executive Will Spearhead Push to Get Employees Using More AI
Andrew Bosworth, Meta’s chief technology officer, will oversee the company’s “AI For Work” initiatives as focus shifts away from the metaverse.
Iran Conflict Impacts AI Economy
The war in Iran shows how exposed the tech industry really is. The dangers to tech workers, chip supply chains, and data center projects are a reminder that geopolitics and global instability could shape AI's future as much as innovation.
OpenAI Scraps Sora Video Platform Months After Launch
The app, released last year, allowed people to insert themselves into famous movie scenes, among other functions.
Mark Zuckerberg's AI Agent for Decision Support
Mark Zuckerberg is building an AI agent to help him with decision support, organizational flattening, and personal productivity. This signals that top leadership is directly using generative AI for decision support, rather than treating AI as a tool only for technical teams.
Google is quietly rewriting headlines in search with AI
Recent media reports claimed that Google has begun altering news headlines in its search results, replacing them with personalized, AI-generated versions. After previously testing this approach in the Google Discover feed, the company is now experimenting with it in the traditional “ten blue links” format. According to The Verge, Google’s search engine has shortened some headlines […] The post Google is quietly rewriting headlines in search with AI appeared first on MENA TECH.
This AI Trick Took My Desk From Cable Chaos to Clutter-Free
In just a few prompts to Claude, you can cleanly lay out your perfect cable management setup, no matter how many connections or devices you have. If you are like most people, you probably have a bunch of electronics on or near your desk. But the more devices you have, the more of a pain it is to connect everything neatly.
Engineering Formula One: cloud and AI are changing the game
The era when advanced technologies, like the cloud, were confined to one or more industries is long gone now. At this age, tech is in every industry, and sports is one of them for sure. Tech is leaving its fingerprints in every sport, but no sport comes close to the level of technology used seen […] The post Engineering Formula One: cloud and AI are changing the game appeared first on MENA TECH.
AI Coding — Key Statistics & Trends (2026)
AI coding adoption widespread (84%+), daily use common (~51%), with productivity gains (~3.6 hours/week).
Geopolitics
China's open-source dominance threatens US AI lead, US advisory body warns
US Congressional advisory body warns China's growing dominance in open-source AI is creating a self-reinforcing competitive advantage.
US must suspend Nvidia AI chip exports to China, senators say
Lawmakers call for commerce department to suspend licences that let company send advanced semiconductors to south-east Asia
Academic Papers
Latest arXiv Papers
Learning to Trust: How Humans Mentally Recalibrate AI Confidence Signals
Productive human-AI collaboration requires appropriate reliance, yet contemporary AI systems are often miscalibrated, exhibiting systematic overconfidence or underconfidence. We investigate whether humans can learn to mentally recalibrate AI confidence signals through repeated experience. In a behavioral experiment (N = 200), participants predicted the AI's correctness across four AI calibration conditions: standard, overconfidence, underconfidence, and a counterintuitive "reverse confidence" ma...
Cognitive Agency Surrender: Defending Epistemic Sovereignty via Scaffolded AI Friction
The proliferation of Generative Artificial Intelligence has transformed benign cognitive offloading into a systemic risk of cognitive agency surrender. Driven by the commercial dogma of "zero-friction" design, highly fluent AI interfaces actively exploit human cognitive miserliness, prematurely satisfying the need for cognitive closure and inducing severe automation bias. To empirically quantify this epistemic erosion, we deployed a zero-shot semantic classification pipeline ($τ=0.
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