Max and AI expert Priya Deshmukh dive into how AI can cut the hidden “noise” in human decisions, from courts to insurance and hiring, and when humans should overrule with decisive context. They cover Big Tech’s rush to hire neuroscientists for efficiency and interpretability, WhatsApp’s ban on third‑party general‑purpose chatbots, cross‑border data sovereignty (OVHcloud vs Ontario), and Mexico’s national supercomputer initiative for climate, satellites, and public‑sector LLMs. Corporate news includes HP’s AI‑driven cost cuts. Research highlights: Harmonic AI’s $120M raise for formal math reasoning with Lean 4 and a study on activation steering showing inverted‑U behavior and the limits of vector metrics. Product updates: Gemini “Projects” workspaces on Android, Speechify’s voice typing and assistant, TierPoint’s VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 private clouds for AI workloads. Fintech in Africa: AXIAN’s shift from mobile money to full digital banking with AI underwriting. Social impact: how AI can be a lifeline for blue‑collar workers by parsing nontraditional résumés, verifying credentials, and prioritizing skills over polish. Three takeaways: reduce noise before adding complexity, use AI as a consistency engine with human overrides, and remember platform and product design choices determine who benefits.
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