DoorDash buys Instacart 🛒, Reddit requires login 👽, making agents faster ⚡
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TLDR 2026-10-30
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Tune in and join us on the main stage for talks featuring Lin Qiao (Fireworks), Jensen Huang (NVIDIA), and Jay Parikh (Microsoft) as they explore the future of specialized intelligence.
Tune in and join us on the main stage for talks featuring Lin Qiao (Fireworks), Jensen Huang (NVIDIA), and Jay Parikh (Microsoft) as they explore the future of specialized intelligence.
Plus, get access to live and on-demand sessions featuring leaders from Meta, Salesforce, Cognition, Genspark, Factory, and more.
Topics include:
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- When the Stakes Demand Specialized Intelligence
Join the leaders shaping the future of specialized intelligence.
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Big Tech & Startups
DoorDash to Buy Instacart for $17 Billion, Uniting 2 Delivery Giants (7 minute read)
DoorDash will acquire Instacart for $17 billion. Instacart shareholders will receive $65 per share, 26% over the company's price on October 22. Combining the companies' technology and infrastructure will result in faster deliveries and more affordable prices. The deal is expected to close late next year or in 2028.
DoorDash will acquire Instacart for $17 billion. Instacart shareholders will receive $65 per share, 26% over the company's price on October 22. Combining the companies' technology and infrastructure will result in faster deliveries and more affordable prices. The deal is expected to close late next year or in 2028.
Reddit is moving to “a logged-in-only experience,” CEO says (2 minute read)
Reddit will start testing a logged-in-only experience in select non-US markets in Q4. The company's CEO says the login requirement will help Reddit retain new users. It will also provide more signals for ads targeting and help protect access to the site's data. The changes will make it significantly easier for Reddit to understand who uses Reddit and why, which will help the site manage things like AI scraping and evolving search habits.
Reddit will start testing a logged-in-only experience in select non-US markets in Q4. The company's CEO says the login requirement will help Reddit retain new users. It will also provide more signals for ads targeting and help protect access to the site's data. The changes will make it significantly easier for Reddit to understand who uses Reddit and why, which will help the site manage things like AI scraping and evolving search habits.
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Science & Futuristic Technology
Elon Says Blindsight Is Ready 2 Years After FDA Breakthrough (2 minute read)
Neuralink's Blindsight implant is now ready from an engineering standpoint. The device is designed to help blind people see. It is currently waiting on regulatory approval before it can be sold to customers. It has already received Breakthrough Device Designation from the US FDA, which will help speed review of the device.
Neuralink's Blindsight implant is now ready from an engineering standpoint. The device is designed to help blind people see. It is currently waiting on regulatory approval before it can be sold to customers. It has already received Breakthrough Device Designation from the US FDA, which will help speed review of the device.
A golden age of science is coming (16 minute read)
Progress has started to accelerate in science in the last two years. AI can send hordes of superhumanly fast, well-read, and mathematically gifted researchers to accelerate scientific research. It is possible AI will enable new types of discovery and ways of understanding the natural world that no network of humans would ever be able to discover. Unless humans have actually somehow discovered most of the actual exploitable regularities in the Universe, we're about to enter a new golden age of science.
Progress has started to accelerate in science in the last two years. AI can send hordes of superhumanly fast, well-read, and mathematically gifted researchers to accelerate scientific research. It is possible AI will enable new types of discovery and ways of understanding the natural world that no network of humans would ever be able to discover. Unless humans have actually somehow discovered most of the actual exploitable regularities in the Universe, we're about to enter a new golden age of science.
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Programming, Design & Data Science
Alexa+ is live, and partners are already building (Sponsor)
Services reach customers at the moment they're ready to act, with relevant, personalized experiences from day one and built-in payments to complete tasks in conversation. The opportunity to build is now.
Explore the Alexa+ Partner Opportunity
Services reach customers at the moment they're ready to act, with relevant, personalized experiences from day one and built-in payments to complete tasks in conversation. The opportunity to build is now.
Explore the Alexa+ Partner Opportunity
A Little Determinism (16 minute read)
Adding constraints to AI agents usually makes them less capable. Sometimes the solution is to create a template or a complete multi-stage workflow. The challenge is in creating the deterministic behavior while retaining the agent's freedom to use the best tools for the job. This post discusses a solution that uses a man-in-the-middle egress proxy that forces behavior by denying actions and forces reactions via automated messages.
Adding constraints to AI agents usually makes them less capable. Sometimes the solution is to create a template or a complete multi-stage workflow. The challenge is in creating the deterministic behavior while retaining the agent's freedom to use the best tools for the job. This post discusses a solution that uses a man-in-the-middle egress proxy that forces behavior by denying actions and forces reactions via automated messages.
Making agents fast - what I've learnt over the last 12 months (12 minute read)
Knowing what part of inference a project relies on for speed is important. Check thinking budgets, and read traces, as they often contain valuable insight into what an agent wants to do. Give agents the tools they want rather than what you think they need. Faster hardware still matters, sandboxing and microVMs add complexity, parallelization helps, and classic software performance optimization is still relevant.
Knowing what part of inference a project relies on for speed is important. Check thinking budgets, and read traces, as they often contain valuable insight into what an agent wants to do. Give agents the tools they want rather than what you think they need. Faster hardware still matters, sandboxing and microVMs add complexity, parallelization helps, and classic software performance optimization is still relevant.
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Miscellaneous
Binance Suspends Transactions After It Is Targeted in Biggest-Ever Cyber Heist (5 minute read)
Binance has suspended transactions after a hack that the exchange said totaled around $6.3 billion. Stablecoin providers Tether and Circle moved quickly to freeze some of the stolen assets. The heist appears to have been conducted by a North Korean hacking group. Binance's founder said in a post on social media that users' funds are safe.
Binance has suspended transactions after a hack that the exchange said totaled around $6.3 billion. Stablecoin providers Tether and Circle moved quickly to freeze some of the stolen assets. The heist appears to have been conducted by a North Korean hacking group. Binance's founder said in a post on social media that users' funds are safe.
We Won't “Just Hang Out” (3 minute read)
The standard answer for what humans will do after the Singularity is that people 'will just hang out'. However, AI will destroy the processes by which people come together and build relationships. With unlimited entertainment, people might not even want to socialize with other people. The people in the AI utopia will have no skills, education, or accomplishments, so they'll likely not be worth talking to, and you probably wouldn't want to hang out with them.
The standard answer for what humans will do after the Singularity is that people 'will just hang out'. However, AI will destroy the processes by which people come together and build relationships. With unlimited entertainment, people might not even want to socialize with other people. The people in the AI utopia will have no skills, education, or accomplishments, so they'll likely not be worth talking to, and you probably wouldn't want to hang out with them.
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Quick Links
You might be spending 43% too much per 1M tokens (Sponsor)
Ramp's AI Spend Management lets you see every AI dollar in one place, understand where to save, and set limits to keep spend on track. Try it for free.
Ramp's AI Spend Management lets you see every AI dollar in one place, understand where to save, and set limits to keep spend on track. Try it for free.
Nvidia Chief Seen as Target of Chinese Spy Plot (18 minute read)
American officials have concluded that Alice Huang, a top executive at a Singapore-based data center company suspected of steering Nvidia chips to China, was a Chinese intelligence asset feeding information directly to Beijing.
American officials have concluded that Alice Huang, a top executive at a Singapore-based data center company suspected of steering Nvidia chips to China, was a Chinese intelligence asset feeding information directly to Beijing.
General Hill-Climbing: The One Main Loop in AI (11 minute read)
The General Hill-climbing System, combined with AI, is a problem-solving framework that works on pretty much anything you throw at it.
The General Hill-climbing System, combined with AI, is a problem-solving framework that works on pretty much anything you throw at it.
LLM Voice (6 minute read)
If you want to communicate with humans, your humanity has to be visible in your prose.
If you want to communicate with humans, your humanity has to be visible in your prose.
You built the app. Take the next step with Microsoft guidance (Sponsor)
Frontier Accelerate for Marketplace Premium offers a named engagement manager, hands-on technical consultations, plus $30K in Azure sponsorship to navigate publishing requirements and prepare your solution for market. Explore Premium and check eligibility now
Frontier Accelerate for Marketplace Premium offers a named engagement manager, hands-on technical consultations, plus $30K in Azure sponsorship to navigate publishing requirements and prepare your solution for market. Explore Premium and check eligibility now
You can just ask AI to do things (5 minute read)
AI models are improving so quickly that many people don't realise that AI agents can now help automate particular tasks that it previously couldn't do.
AI models are improving so quickly that many people don't realise that AI agents can now help automate particular tasks that it previously couldn't do.
The Commanding Heights (Book)
The Commanding Heights are scarce, controllable positions of economic power whose holders durably capture the gains of increasingly capable and diffused intelligence.
The Commanding Heights are scarce, controllable positions of economic power whose holders durably capture the gains of increasingly capable and diffused intelligence.
How to Build an AI Writing System That Actually Sounds Like You (15 minute read)
This post discusses how to build an AI writing pipeline that turns rambling recordings into drafts.
This post discusses how to build an AI writing pipeline that turns rambling recordings into drafts.
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