× + newsletter-2026-06-18
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// Tech news at terminal velocity

cat 2026-06-18.md

Midjourney's Meat Scanner, Anthropic's Export Ban, & Waymo's Cone Fetish

$ cat TLDR.md

• Midjourney pivots from generating six-fingered anime girls to building full-body ultrasound scanners for a futuristic SF spa.

• The Trump administration abruptly blocked foreign access to Anthropic's new Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models, leaving everyone confused.

• Waymo recalls nearly 4,000 robotaxis because they developed a dangerous habit of barreling into closed highway construction zones.

Headlines & Launches

🛑 Anthropic's Export Headache

The Trump administration just slammed the brakes on Anthropic's newest models, Fable 5 and Mythos 5, ordering the company to cut access for all foreign nationals. The abrupt export control has left the AI lab scrambling and experts warning that governing AI via opaque, ad hoc interventions is a terrible idea.

Source: The Verge

🏥 Midjourney Wants to Scan Your Insides

Because generating AI art wasn't enough, Midjourney is now building hardware. They've unveiled an 'Ultrasonic CT' scanner that promises a radiation-free, full-body scan in 60 seconds, which they plan to debut at a 'Midjourney Spa' in San Francisco by 2027.

Source: India Today

🚗 Waymo's Construction Zone Fetish

Waymo is recalling over 3,800 of its robotaxis after discovering a software quirk that causes the cars to confidently drive into closed freeway construction zones at full speed. They've temporarily restricted freeway driving while they teach the cars what orange cones mean.

Source: Engadget

🎮 Fortnite Skins Go Multiversal

Epic Games is finally making good on its metaverse promises with Unreal Engine 6. The new engine features a shared cosmetic system that will allow developers to let players bring their hard-earned Fortnite skins into entirely different games.

Source: The Verge

Deep Dives

📱 Apple's RAM Reality Check

Tim Cook sat down with the WSJ to deliver some bad news: the ongoing memory shortage is making RAM expenses 'unsustainable.' The translation? Your next iPhone is going to cost more, as Apple can no longer shield consumers from the rising costs of silicon.

Source: The Verge

🔓 The Mother of All Credential Spills

A massive breach has exposed credentials for thousands of highly sensitive networks, including Oracle, Lenovo, FedEx, Fortinet, and even a NATO contractor. If you're in SecOps, you might want to cancel your weekend plans and start rotating keys.

Source: Ars Technica

💻 AMD's Silent Security Downgrade

AMD quietly removed memory encryption from consumer Ryzen CPUs in a recent AGESA firmware update, leaving users completely unaware that a key security feature vanished. When pressed about the change, AMD engineers reportedly went radio silent.

Source: Tom's Hardware

Engineering & Research

🤖 Cloudflare's Agent Infrastructure

Cloudflare is betting that AI agents are ready to graduate from cute demos to load-bearing infrastructure. They've launched a three-layer stack—Flue, Pi, and the Agents SDK—designed to handle the distributed systems nightmares of running agents in production.

Source: Cloudflare Blog

🩺 Google's AMIE Levels Up

Google Research just published a paper in Nature showing their medical AI, AMIE, has evolved from simple diagnosis to long-term disease management. Using Gemini's long-context window, the dual-agent system matched primary care physicians in handling complex, ongoing health conditions.

Source: Google Blog

⚛️ Quantum Error Correction by 2028?

Amazon and QuEra are making bold promises, claiming they will deliver useful quantum error correction by 2028. It's a massive leap for beyond-classical hardware, assuming they can actually pull it off on schedule.

Source: Ars Technica

Odds & Ends

🪰 FDA Approves More Maggots

The FDA just cleared a second species of carcass-eating fly for maggot wound therapy. It remains a fascinating, albeit deeply gross, fail-safe for treating stubborn wounds.

Source: Ars Technica

📸 VSCO's $500 Subscription

VSCO is taking on Adobe with a new Studio Pro editing app for iOS and macOS. The catch? They want $500 a year for it. Good luck with that.

Source: The Verge

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