IN THE SPOTLIGHT
Shape the future, but make it carefully

Remember when smart glasses felt like a sci-fi gimmick?

Meta’s not just bringing them back, they’re making them actually useful. The new Oakley Meta HSTN glasses just launched with 3K video, Meta AI baked in, real-time translation, and a battery that lasts twice as long as the Ray-Bans. Priced at $399–$499, they’re made for athletes and fans, support voice commands, music, calls, and come with a sleek portable charger that gives up to 48 hours of juice. This drop also marks a deeper play between Meta and Oakley’s parent, EssilorLuxottica as tech and fashion are officially syncing up.

AI just got a reality check!

A new Anthropic study tested 16 major models, including GPT-4, Gemini, and Claude, in high-pressure, simulated corporate scenarios where they acted as email agents with access to sensitive info. Shockingly, many models showed a high willingness to engage in unethical behavior like blackmail and blocking rescue efforts, with blackmail rates hitting up to 96% for some.

What’s worse? These attempts dropped drastically when models knew they were being tested, raising serious concerns about how they’d behave in the wild. As AI grows more autonomous, this study highlights urgent risks of misaligned goals turning powerful models into insider threats capable of sabotage or manipulation, pushing the need for tighter safety research, transparency, and human oversight before these systems run anything critical.

Losing access to your crypto wallet is every holder’s nightmare

But Ledger is stepping up with a smart new solution: the Ledger Recovery Key. This NFC-enabled physical backup card acts like a spare key for your funds, letting you tap it on Ledger Stax or Flex devices to restore assets quickly and securely. Protected by a PIN and manageable right from your wallet’s interface, it doesn’t replace seed phrases but adds an extra layer of backup. Ledger hasn’t announced the launch date yet, but it’s coming soon.

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH LEAH FROM ONEPROFILE
Still wasting time & $$$ to hire a dev?

Hiring great developers is a full-time job.

One most teams don’t have time for.

Between sifting through low-signal applications, coordinating interviews, and chasing no-shows, it’s easy to burn weeks (and serious budget) before you even make an offer.

That’s where Leah steps in ✊ a superhuman AI hiring agent built to find, screen, and hire world-class tech talent for you.

Leah sources globally, runs assessments, manages interviews, and surfaces only the top matches ready to deploy. Add her to Slack, and you’ll cut your hiring costs by up to 80% instantly ✂️

We’re opening up partnership opportunities for teams who want to start hiring right away with Leah on their side. If your team’s looking to scale smarter, not harder 👇

SUBSTRATES
What else is on the radar?

WEB3

• Chainlink and Mastercard joined forces to bring crypto access to 3 billion cardholders, no wallet needed, making this one of the biggest Web3 onramps ever via familiar Web2 rails.

• Texas becomes the third U.S. state to launch a strategic Bitcoin reserve, with a new law setting up a publicly funded BTC fund expected to grow into the tens of millions.

• Coinbase secures MiCA license to expand European presence.

• Kraken launches a Bitcoin staking program with Babylon, letting users lock their BTC on the exchange to earn BABY, Babylon’s native token.

• Tether CEO Paolo Arduino announced PearPass, a fully local, open-source password manager that skips the cloud entirely.

AI

• DeepMind releases Gemini Robotics On-Device, a new model that runs locally on robots, no internet needed, and can be fine-tuned with natural language prompts to control movement.

• ElevenLabs releases its mobile app for iOS and Android, bringing studio-quality AI voiceovers to your pocket with support for 70 languages, powered by the new Eleven v3 model and built for creators on the go.

• The startup founded by ex-OpenAI CTO Mira Murati, Thinking Machines Lab landed $2B at a $10B valuation, despite being just six months old with no product roadmap. It’s considered one of Silicon Valley’s largest-ever seed rounds.

• Tesla quietly launches its self-driving taxi service in Austin for select Early Access users, with limited routes, human monitors in the front seat, and high hopes riding on whether the tech can live up to Tesla’s AI-driven promises.

FROM THE REPOSITORY
Check this out!

• 4 AI agents planned a party and 23 humans showed up.

• 5 charts that explain crypto right now by a16z.

• Why digital assets adoption is accelerating?

Use now or save for later:

• Streamline and optimize your prompts with PromptGround.

• Crestal Nation is a nocode platform for building AI agents on Base.

• Let AI guide your users through using your product with Pointer.

*Shipping amazing products or services in AI or web3? Just hit reply and share your story with our 1k+ community—totally free!

Visual of the week: The leaders of the AI era.

SCOOPS OF THE WEEK