The future of tech is infrastructure, influence, and plausible deniability

Alright. Let’s do this.

Another year has passed, allegedly on purpose.

This was the year of bold announcements, soft launches, quiet reversals, and “we’ll circle back in Q1.” Every problem was one tool away from being solved. Every tool needed three updates and a Notion doc to explain why it didn’t.

We learned a lot. Mostly what didn’t work. Some things worked briefly, then raised their prices.

Thank you for reading this newsletter all year. You opened it. You forwarded it. You meant to read it later and didn’t. That still counts. Let’s take one last look at the chaos before we all confidently say “next year will be different.”

Let’s go.

This week from the AI for Founders podcast on Spotify:

Reality check every founder needs in 2026 - AI in review - LINK
Because 2025 was insane for AI. Every week felt like a new launch, a new model, a new panic, a new promise that this one would change everything. Faster code. Cheaper labor. Smarter agents. Louder fear. And somewhere in the middle of all that noise, a lot of founders quietly fell behind without realizing it.

OnDemandHuman — The “Break Glass in Case of AI Failure” Button for Founders — LINK
An inside look at how OnDemandHuman is turning stalled builds into shipped products by letting founders instantly summon real experts—live, pay-per-minute—when AI tools, prompts, and tutorials stop working and flow is on the line.

Tip of the spear:

Coinbase Makes a Power Move Into Prediction Markets - LINK
Coinbase agrees to acquire The Clearing Company, positioning itself as a serious infrastructure player in prediction markets and financial derivatives.

Larry Page Explains Google’s AI Search Endgame - LINK
Larry Page outlines how Gemini 3 Flash could redefine search through reasoning-first AI rather than links and keywords.

Instagram’s Plan to Beat TikTok Everywhere - LINK
Adam Mosseri explains Instagram’s strategy to win both mobile attention and living-room screens.

The Pentagon Is Partnering With Elon Musk’s xAI - LINK
The U.S. Department of Defense signs a major deal with xAI, signaling Musk’s growing influence in national defense AI infrastructure.

The U.S. Just Shut the Door on Foreign-Made Drones - LINK
The U.S. government is banning new foreign-made drones and components, escalating national security concerns around surveillance, supply chains, and tech sovereignty.

OpenAI Admits AI Browsers May Never Be Secure - LINK
OpenAI says prompt injection attacks may be an unsolvable problem for AI-powered browsers, raising hard questions about safety and trust in agent-driven web tools.

Palmer Luckey Wants to Build a Crypto Bank - LINK
Palmer Luckey is backing Erebor, a crypto bank seeking regulatory approval, reigniting debates about crypto’s place in traditional finance.

Claude, Chrome, and Cloudflare Collide - LINK
Anthropic’s Claude, Chrome extensions, and Cloudflare Workers combine into a powerful new AI deployment pattern worth watching.

Nvidia Partner Draws U.S. Attention Over China Smuggling - LINK
A Nvidia-linked supplier is under scrutiny amid fears advanced chips are leaking into China despite U.S. export controls.

Prompt of the week:

“The First 90 Days Reset”

Treat the start of the year as a strategic launch window. Analyze my startup and identify 5–7 high-leverage actions that, if executed in the first 90 days of the year, could dramatically accelerate growth, product adoption, or team performance.

For each action, include:
The Move: the specific, concrete step to take
Why It Works: a short, practical rationale grounded in market, product, or team realities
Immediate Experiment: one test, pilot, or implementation I could start this week to validate it
Expected Outcome: the tangible impact or metric this could improve

Tone: practical, no-fluff, founder-focused. Think of it as a quarter-one execution blueprint — identify the small set of moves that could set the tone for the entire year and get measurable traction fast.

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Keep it moving

GPT-5 Allegedly Solves an Open Math Problem - LINK
Reports claim GPT-5 independently solved a previously open math problem, reigniting debates about machine reasoning breakthroughs.

Binance Still Processed $144M in Suspicious Payments - LINK
Despite its plea deal, Binance allegedly continued processing massive volumes of suspicious crypto transactions, raising questions about enforcement teeth.

Amazon Quietly Blocks 1,800 North Korean IT Workers - LINK
Amazon stopped more than 1,800 suspected North Korean IT workers from infiltrating its systems, highlighting the scale of global labor fraud operations.

Italy Fines Apple €98.6M as EU Antitrust Pressure Escalates - LINK
Italian regulators fined Apple over privacy rules seen as anti-competitive, adding fuel to the EU’s widening crackdown on Big Tech power.

Yann LeCun Says AGI Is ‘Complete BS’ - LINK
Meta’s Yann LeCun publicly dismisses AGI as nonsense, prompting a sharp rebuttal from DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis.

iRobot Founder Admits China Beat Them - LINK
iRobot’s founder says aggressive Chinese competition—not Amazon—was the biggest reason the Roomba maker lost its edge.

China’s Z.ai Claims GPT-5-Level Performance - LINK
Z.ai releases GLM-4.7, claiming parity with GPT-5.1 while preserving internal reasoning—another sign the global model race is tightening fast.

Microsoft Plans to Replace C/C++ With Rust by 2030 - LINK
Microsoft aims to migrate massive portions of its codebase to Rust, prioritizing memory safety and long-term security.

Big Tech Warns Visa Holders: Don’t Leave the U.S. - LINK
Google, Apple, and Microsoft reportedly advised visa-holding employees to avoid international travel amid growing immigration and reentry uncertainty.

South Korea Pushes Facial Recognition on Phones - LINK
South Korea is expanding facial recognition requirements for smartphones, intensifying global concerns around biometric surveillance.

Neutral Atom Quantum Computing Is Quietly Winning - LINK
Neutral atom quantum systems are emerging as a serious contender in the race for scalable quantum computing.

Huawei’s HarmonyOS Is No Longer a Side Project - LINK
Huawei’s HarmonyOS is evolving into a full-fledged ecosystem as China accelerates its push away from Western platforms.

Code Story Podcast: It’s like therapy for startup founders, except the therapist is a microphone and everyone’s listening. Code, chaos, and confessions served weekly.

What I’m thinking about:

• The American Buddhist Entrepreneur - Interview

• Why Founders Should Be Guesting on Podcasts - Blog

• To be an Influencer Today - Interview

Uncover the AI tools (here) you didn’t ask for, but now you’re weirdly into.

Thanks for being here.

-Ryan

p.s. When you are ready, here’s how I can help.

We have successfully booked podcast interviews for over 800 funded startup founders, entrepreneurs with exits, and C-suite executives. If you're ready to lead your company from the front, let Kitcaster handle your podcast scheduling and create a powerful stream of content for you and your brand.

I write about Revops, Product, and Founder-led marketing on Linkedin, X, and my blog.