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Covering the week of February 9, 2026

The AI Round-up: Year 4, Issue 5

I really struggled putting this week’s round-up together.

It’s been a stressful two weeks for us. By us I mean you, me – all of us who have been tracking AI to this point. The AI boogeyman, OpenClaw, jumped out of a closet and freaked a lot of us out.

Then, this week we had our Weather Channel moment. You know, when the weather forecasters get so excited about something terrible coming our way? Except our hurricane was a series of alarm bells being rung by people leaving AI companies or those who were just tired of battling their conscience.

No matter how you cut it, shit’s getting real. There’s no other way to put it. And when you consider a central theme of this round-up has been preparation, as in, how do we prepare for what surely is coming, yet so few people even thinking it’s raining, well, it adds up to an anxious week.

Consider this the trigger warning message they flash up before shows, documentaries, etc. If you’re already nervous about AI…maybe skip this week. Because it’s been a doozy.

Let’s get to it.

8ish stories – Here we go.

Story 1: Something big is coming. (Matt Shumer)

Matt Shumer, CEO of Hyperlink rocked everyone with his essay where he compares this period to February 2020.

Some of us still aren’t ready to talk about or think back to early 2020…so this essay immediately gave me an uneasy feeling—because I’ve used the same metaphor a few times myself.

It’s a long essay worth your time but if you want to know the gist (as if that opening paragraph wasn’t enough) he shares his non-cocktail party version of what’s going on with AI. And what it all means for us. Job loss. Skills loss. And soon.

He shares his version of what he thinks this means for us as a society and how we can prepare. It’s not that outlandish and you can easily see some of what he’s describing, happening. (Mainly because we’ve been talking about some of it here in this newsletter.)

So why share it here? Because it’s my responsibility. When I took this on it wasn’t to just share the cool stuff. It was to keep you informed and educated on AI—and offer a helping hand or shoulder to lean on as we process this.

Story 1a: Christopher Penn’s reaction, i.e. ‘ignore at your own peril’

Story 1b: Ann Handley’s reaction, i.e. ‘bah, we got this’

Story 2: I’m a poet in case you didn’t know it. (Mrinank Sharma)

Matt’s essay would be freaky enough…if it wasn’t proceeded by some big news a day earlier.

Mrinank Sharma, who led the AI safety team at Anthropic decided to abruptly resign, feeling he had achieved what he set out to do. Oh, and he used the phrase ‘the world is in peril’ and said he’s moving to the UK to work on poetry and become invisible.

WTF bro? You’re the equivalent of that person who drops a message on Facebook saying ‘need prayers right now!’. Which is equal parts worrisome (what’s wrong?!) and annoying (everyone asking you what’s wrong in the comments).

Except in this case, you work for a very powerful AI company (Anthropic), leading a very critical AI function (safety) and said some very scary things (mainly world and peril in the same sentence). Let’s work on your delivery a little.

Regardless, that’s two major warning signs in one week, all within roughly 24 hours of each other.

Story 3: Enough of this. What’s Ethan Mollick have to say? (Prof G)

Ethan Mollick joined The Prof G Podcast to talk about what CEOs are getting wrong about AI. And you will be equal parts excited (Hey! I know what he’s talking about!) and terrified (Wait…CEOs don’t know this?) as you listen.

But it’s worth it because you have Prof G AND Ethan Mollick in the same ‘room’ talking about a topic that we know and care about.

Story 4: Money where your mouth is, eh? (Sherwood)

This seemed like a good time to sprinkle in a dash of optimism and hope. Dario Amodei, head of Anthropic, has donated $20M to a pro-regulation PAC. Which seems to say something about the donations OpenAI has made to groups trying to ease restrictions against AI.

Game on, I guess.

Story 5: Lex Fridman spends 3.5 hours talking to OpenClaw creator Peter Steinberger

If you make it past the open/trailer…let me know.

Story 6: Here’s something fun – I think? (Mashable)

Will Smith eating spaghetti has really evolved. He doesn’t even stop to slap Chris Rock anymore.

Story 7: A raw look at AI fatigue. (Siddhant Kare)

Told ya it’s real!

Story 8: Seedance 2.0 is here. One writer says ‘it’s over for us’. (Shelly Palmer)

If you saw clips of Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt fighting on a rooftop…yeah, that’s Seedance 2.0.

This week, I’m not talking about:

1. U.S. Border Patrol signs deal with Clearview AI for ‘tactical targeting’ at the border. (Wired)

2. Elon’s thoughts on moon cities and space catapults. (Quartz)

3. Ring’s AI ‘search party’ feature helps you find dogs. And is a cyber risk. (Fox43)

4. Ice dancing duo skated to AI music at the Olympics (TechCrunch)

-Ben

As a reminder, this is a round-up of the biggest stories, often hitting multiple newsletters I receive/review. The sources are many … which I’m happy to read on your behalf. Let me know if there’s one you’d like me to track or have questions about a topic you’re not seeing here.