While the normies were resting, I was mainlining tech discourse all weekend to bring you the latest trends, rumors, fights, and innovations from the sweatiest corners of the internet. This week: A startup is accused of fraud, AI slop in the Times, and friends of the DSA gather to slam the tech elite.
This is Manic Monday.
They (allegedly) Delve’d too greedily and too deep
Late last week, the corporate compliance startup Delve was accused of fraud in an extensive Substack post from an anonymous account called “DeepDelver,” who claims to be an employee of a now-former Delve client. The report is extremely thorough, with screenshots, emails, and long explanations of how compliance works and how Delve allegedly systematically cuts corners. Delve denied the accusations, but it’s not looking good for them. Over the weekend, I reached out to all 11 Delve clients named in the Substack, and of the handful that responded, not a single one stood by the company; in fact, many of them have made public statements about leaving the platform for another compliance software. One of them even appears to have deleted a blog post touting its relationship with Delve.
Claude is coming for my job!
For 20 seconds this weekend, tech Twitter was all abuzz over someone who had prompted Claude to compile its progress reports in the form of a newspaper. Unfortunately for Claude, he got the date wrong (March 20 was a Friday, not a Thursday), which, in the journalism school I come from, is what we call a Medill F. Phew, safe for now.
Modern Love? Writers hate-bonding over AI
On Sunday, Becky Tuch, a writer and teacher, found herself rereading a New York Times Modern Love column from November 2025, when she noticed some suspicious-looking prose: A section that began with, “Not hate. Not anger. Just the flat finality of a heart too tired to keep going,” had all the hallmarks of AI slop. Most commenters agreed, although at least one person pointed out that that’s just what Modern Love essays sound like.
All my homies hate the tech elite
On Thursday, the East Bay Democratic Socialists of America-born outlet Bay Area Current and hosts of the podcast This Machine Kills teamed up for a “night of left-wing tech criticism” and panel discussions in a Unitarian church on Cathedral Hill. Current tech editor Jimmy Wu posted later that the event drew more than 250 people and even piqued the curiosity of SF’s biggest AI hater, Guido Reichstadter.
We have Garry Tan at home
The Garry Tan at home: Some dude at a Chipotle who made the rounds on X this weekend.
The week ahead: The Standard covers a Garry Tan-lookalike lookalike contest.
