Weekly Links: Loops, OpenAI for Sovereign Wealth, and Space Communications

This week: European tech aims at an abundance mindset, there really are more software vulnerabilities being found, and Fable 5 is back. This week

I was at the AI.Engineer Worldsfair event in San Francisco, so this week's letter is a little shorter than usual.

The event was genuinely impressive: 6000+ people and sometimes up to 8 or 9 parallel tracks of content. AI has definitely crossed the chasm into mainstream software-type adoption. There are solutions emerging for every possible niche in the stack. More from San Francisco in a future write-up!

On to the main stories:

• Loop Engineering. At this week's AI.Engineer mega-event in San Francisco, "Loops" took center stage as the new focus in AI Engineering. This concept really isn't new (you'll recognize sense-act loops from the 80s if you've been in AI long enough), and it might hold the attention for that long (because it's obvious enough we need it). Still, it's now front and center in many conversations, and O'Reilly's overview is as good as any I've seen.
• OpenAI ‘in early talks to give 5% stake to US government’. I'm not sure how on point the Guardian's reporting is, but this is quite mind-blowing to me. OpenAI is reportedly donating 5% of stock to US sovereign wealth fund that is currently in formation. There's also a suggestion that other AI companies do the same. There's definitely logic to countries maintaining wealth funds, and it's good to have fast-growing companies represented, but there is really no precedent for a donation like this. Does it buy tolerance of AI from the general public? What precedent does it create for other companies in the US? Even those outside of AI?
• Lastly, this week Rocket Lab acquires Iridium - maybe Starlink will have some competition soon. No word from them yet on data centers in space, however.

Wishing you a great weekend, and back to full service next week!