Switzerland now requires all government software to be open source: ZDNet reports the United States remains reluctant to work with open source, but European countries are bolder.

China is getting secretive about its supercomputers: Big machines are critical for developing weapons and AI, so scientists hunt for clues about Chinese progress. WSJ

A Kamala Harris presidency could mean more of the same on AI regulation: The presumptive Democratic nominee has won concessions from Big Tech leaders on AI, but she hasn’t successfully pushed Congress to regulate. NYT

In Silicon Valley, where Trump made inroads, Democrats are now invigorated: Elon Musk, Marc Andreessen, and others have endorsed Donald J. Trump. But President Biden’s withdrawal has re-energized Democrats across the tech industry and may blunt that momentum. WP

Donald Trump and cryptocurrencies: The underside of a recent love affair: A long-standing critic of crypto-assets, the former Republican president has made a 180-degree turn and is now an unconditional supporter of Bitcoin. Le Monde

The Securities and Exchange Commission gave the final signoff for ether-based exchange-traded funds to start trading.

The FTC demands to know more about how Mastercard, Chase, Accenture, and others are using AI to set dynamic pricing based on customer behavior. 

Congress calls for tech outage hearing to grill CrowdStrike CEO: The House Homeland Security Committee called on the chief executive of the cybersecurity firm to testify on the disruption. NYT

House committee calls on CrowdStrike CEO to testify on global outage: The software security company faces the prospect of a congressional grilling over a botched update that caused widespread havoc. WP

CrowdStrike says bug in quality control process led to botched update: Reuters reports a CrowdStrike software update that crashed computers globally last week hitting services from aviation to banking and healthcare was caused by a bug in the US cybersecurity firm's quality control mechanism, the company said on Wednesday.

+ US Fortune 500 companies, excluding Microsoft, will face $5.4 billion in financial losses from the recent CrowdStrike outage, insurer Parametrix said on Wednesday.

TC: CrowdStrike offers a $10 apology gift card to say sorry for outage

Mark Zuckerberg just intensified the battle for AI’s future Time

These are the 10 AI startups to watch in 2024: OpenAI, Perplexity, Suno, and more—Bloomberg’s second-annual leaderboard of AI upstarts. Bloomberg

Microsoft’s AI assistants will revolutionize the office — one day: Early adopters say deploying the company’s Copilot bots requires cleaning up corporate data and lots of employee training. Bloomberg

Bloomberg: Musk asks X users if Tesla should invest $5 billion in xAI

+ CEO takes poll on whether EV maker should back his startup

+ The two companies have intermingled on procurement, recruiting

FT: US markets suffer worst day since 2022 as Tesla and AI stocks fall

Tesla’s auto woes crash Elon Musk’s AI dreams: The electric-vehicle pioneer’s second-quarter results showed a challenged car business, while its CEO just wants investors to think about autonomy. WSJ

Big Tech says AI is booming. Wall Street is starting to see a bubble. The industry has rushed head-long into AI, and stock market investors are following them. But a growing number of analysts are skeptical. WP

+ OpenAI may lose $5 billion this year and may run out of cash in 12 months, unless they raise more cash, per analysis The Information.

Google fails to ‘wow’ as AI bills mount: WSJ reports the advertising business faces tough growth comparisons, while AI spending continues to surge.

Microsoft aims to boost AI workload capacity with Lumen partnership: Reuters reports Microsoft will use Lumen Technologies' network equipment to expand its capacity for AI workloads, the companies said on Wednesday, as the technology giant looks to meet growing demand at its data centers.

Reuters:  Facebook removes 63,000 accounts in Nigeria over 'sextortion' scams 

Apple is working on a foldable iPhone that could be released as early as 2026.

DW: Ferrari to accept cryptocurrency payments in Europe

Paris 2024: Controversial AI-led video surveillance put to the test during Olympics: Regional transport authorities are preparing to extend the use of so-called 'smart' algorithm-led video surveillance throughout the Games. These tools have already been tested in France, but their effectiveness has been questioned. Le Monde

Enjoy the ride + plan accordingly.

-Marc