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, I’m keeping things brief, as I’m covering the Game Developer Conference at Moscone Center all week. If you’re at the convention, I’d love to chat! Message me securely on Signal at cyd.01.
This is Manic Monday.
Brainrot is a virtue
Don’t worry if you’ve adopted a dialect basically unintelligible to people who read books and have families. Replit CEO Amjad Masad said it just means you’re “constantly monitoring the situation.” You’re touching digital grass. You’re monitormaxxing.
Frutiger Aero’s Mandela Effect
An AI-generated app called “Frutiger Zero” that claims to make websites that look “like it’s 2009” is fetishizing an already misremembered Y2K aesthetic known as frutiger aero. The internet, including Web Design Museum, is lamenting the loss of the sacred texts (neopets.com) and fact-checking OP with actual sites from 2009, which decidedly do not look like vibe coded versions of the Softsoap Clownfish packaging.
OpenAI employees catch strays from Amodei
In a leaked internal memo written amid tense negotiations with the Pentagon, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei called the OpenAI staff a “gullible bunch” and those who believed Sam Altman’s “mendacious” statements about OpenAI’s contract with the Department of War “Twitter morons.” Ever the pacifist, Amodei apologized for his tone once the memo went public but did not apologize for deadnaming X.
You can’t spell Nainai without AI
While American grandmas were getting scammed by Liam Neeson on Facebook, Chinese grandmas (among many others) gathered outside the Tencent headquarters in Shenzhen last week to install OpenClaw, the locally-hosted AI agent that, while occasionally helpful, has been known to mass-delete emails and may or may not open you up to serious security risks.
Ms. Hayes goes to Moscone
In case you didn’t read the italicized intro (rude!), I'm wrapping up Manic Monday early today because I’m currently running around the Game Developer Conference that’s happening at Moscone Center this week. If you’re attending, have a games-related tip, or are dying to get details from a particular talk, DM me on Signal at cyd.01.
The week ahead: Anthropic tries an analog tool against the Pentagon (the lawsuit).
