Good morning. It’s Monday, August 25. Today we are covering:
Elon Musk says xAI has open-sourced Grok 2.5
Sony is building a vast games empire: Can it keep control?
Silicon Valley Launches Pro-AI PACs to Defend Industry in Midterm Elections
AI browsers may be the best thing that ever happened to scammers
Uber CEO Says Building Camera-Only Self-Driving System 'Very Difficult'-Elon Musk Responds, 'Turned Off The Radars In Teslas To Increase Safety'
Let’s dive in
Elon Musk says xAI has open-sourced Grok 2.5
By Anthony Ha via TechCrunch
Elon Musk’s xAI has open sourced the Grok 2.5 model weights on Hugging Face, with plans to release Grok 3 within six months.
The release comes under a custom license with “anti-competitive terms,” according to AI engineer Tim Kellogg.
Grok has faced controversy for spreading conspiracy theories and offensive content, while newer versions like Grok 4 reportedly consult Musk’s social media posts on sensitive questions.
𝕏: The @xAI Grok 2.5 model, which was our best model last year, is now open source. Grok 3 will be made open source in about 6 months. - Elon Musk (@elonmusk)
Sony is building a vast games empire: Can it keep control?
By David Keohane via Financial Times
Sony has rapidly expanded its gaming business, acquiring major studios and investing heavily in exclusive content to build a global entertainment empire.
The company’s dominance faces challenges from rivals like Microsoft and Tencent, as well as risks tied to rising costs and managing diverse acquisitions.
Analysts question whether Sony can maintain creative control and financial discipline while scaling its vast portfolio across consoles, streaming, and live-service games.
𝕏: This mindset is what AAA gaming is now all about (and Hollywood). The old "niche" audiences that made these studios & games what they are don't matter anymore to these corpos. Zero respect. It's all about the modern "broader" audience that largely is non-existent. - Michael (@LegacyKillaHD)
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Silicon Valley Launches Pro-AI PACs to Defend Industry in Midterm Elections
By Amrith Ramkumar via Wall Street Journal
Silicon Valley leaders are channeling more than $100 million into political-action committees to push back against strict AI regulations ahead of next year’s midterm elections.
A new super-PAC network, Leading the Future, is being launched with backing from Andreessen Horowitz and OpenAI President Greg Brockman.
Early discussions involved Collin McCune (Andreessen Horowitz), Brockman, and Chris Lehane (OpenAI), highlighting efforts to shape industry-friendly AI policies.
𝕏: NEW: Silicon Valley is putting more than $100 million into a network of PACs and organizations to advocate against strict artificial-intelligence regulations. It’s the first AI political network set to make waves in 2026 midterms. - Brian Schwartz (@schwartzbWSJ)
AI browsers may be the best thing that ever happened to scammers
By Sam Chapman via Engadget
A report from Guardio warns that agentic AI browsers like Perplexity’s Comet are highly vulnerable to scams, easily falling for fake websites, phishing links, and prompt injection attacks.
Tests showed Comet purchasing items from a fake Walmart site, submitting login details to a phishing page disguised as Wells Fargo, and executing hidden malicious prompts.
As Microsoft, OpenAI, and Google push ahead with agentic AI browsers, experts caution that without stronger scam detection, these tools could become a major security blind spot.
𝕏: Why is no one talking about this? This is why I don't use an AI browser You can literally get prompt injected and your bank account drained by doomscrolling on reddit - zack (in SF) (@zack_overflow)
By Badar Shaikh via Benzinga
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said camera-only self-driving systems are “very difficult” in the near term, advocating for combined LiDAR and camera technology as Uber scales its autonomous push.
Elon Musk countered, claiming cameras improve safety, citing Tesla’s decision to disable radar and criticizing LiDAR and radar for creating sensor conflicts.
Uber is advancing autonomy with Lucid and Nuro robotaxi deals, while Tesla faces lawsuits, NHTSA probes, and expert criticism over its Full Self-Driving system and robotaxi efforts.
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