While I focus on Technology, Innovation, and Publishing, because I have a platform, I also flag items that I think are important. I also try to include some resources & opportunities. Please let me know what you think.

Important Items

E.P.A. Plans to Reconsider a Ban on Cancer-Causing Asbestos

The Trump administration’s move sets back a decades-long effort to end the use of the material, which is widely banned in other countries.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/16/us/epa-trump-asbestos-ban-delay.html?unlocked_article_code=1.QE8.g5FN.sfTtbZQc9sNn&smid=tw-share

Republicans Want the EPA to Test U.S. Water for Abortion Pills

A group of twenty-five congressional Republicans are asking the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to test the nation’s water supply for abortion medication—claiming that mifepristone could be causing infertility in American women. They suggest mifepristone should be regulated under the Safe Drinking Water Act—they even float the idea that “aquatic species” could be harmed by exposure to the medication. In Texas, Sen. Bryan Hughes introduced legislation that would force wastewater treatment plants to test for both abortion medication and hormones found in birth control.

https://jessica.substack.com/p/republicans-want-the-epa-to-test

VA hospitals remove politics and marital status from guidelines protecting patients from discrimination

‘Extremely disturbing and unethical:’ new rules allow VA doctors to refuse to treat Democrats, unmarried veterans.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/16/va-doctors-refuse-treat-patients

Trump Administration Cuts LGBTQ-Specific Care From Suicide Hotline

The national LGBTQ+ suicide hotline, run by the Trevor Project, has 30 days before it will shutter, forcing callers to seek out services directly.

https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/trevor-project-contract-ended-national-samhsa-stop-work-1235367296/

Supreme Court Ruling Could Threaten Education & Publishing

HT @publishingtrend Even a so-called “narrow” ruling in Mahmoud v. Taylor would undermine 1st Amendment and access to diverse viewpoints in public education and lay the groundwork for more serious ramifications.

https://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/story/Forthcoming-Supreme-Court-ruling-Could-Have-Chilling-Effect-Public-Education-Publishing

Trump administration could change the way we read, from book bans to author talks

https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/books/2025/06/18/trump-administration-impact-books-reading/84050696007/

Senate Can Keep Ban on State AI Rules in Trump Tax Bill

The Senate parliamentarian rules that a Republican effort blocking US states from enforcing AI laws for 10 years will remain in Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-06-22/controversial-ban-on-ai-rules-will-stay-in-trump-tax-bill?embedded-checkout=true

New York passes a bill to prevent AI-fueled disasters

New York state lawmakers passed a bill that aims to prevent frontier AI models from OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic from contributing to disaster scenarios, including the death or injury of more than 100 people, or more than $1 billion in damages.

https://techcrunch.com/2025/06/13/new-york-passes-a-bill-to-prevent-ai-fueled-disasters/

Technology

Authors Are Posting TikToks to Protest AI Use in Writing—and to Prove They Aren’t Doing It

HT @publishingtrend Traditional and indie authors are flooding #WritersTok with videos of them editing manuscripts to refute accusations of generative AI use. #NotAI

https://www.wired.com/story/authors-are-posting-tiktoks-to-protest-ai-use-in-writing-and-to-prove-they-arent-doing-it/

What’s Happening to Reading?

For many people, A.I. may be bringing the age of traditional text to an end.

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/open-questions/whats-happening-to-reading

BBC threatens legal action against AI startup Perplexity over content scraping

The BBC threatens Perplexity with legal action for allegedly training its “default AI model” using BBC content; Perplexity calls the BBC’s claims “manipulative”

https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/bbc-threatens-legal-action-against-ai-start-up-perplexity-over-content-scraping-2025-06-20/

Adobe launches a new ‘computational photography’ camera app for iPhones

Adobe Labs launches Project Indigo, a free computational photography app for iPhones that captures a burst of images and combines them into a high-quality photo.

https://www.theverge.com/news/690115/adobe-project-indigo-camera-app-marc-levoy

Can AI Quicken the Pace of Math Discovery?

A look at DARPA’s “Exponentiating Mathematics” program, which aims to speed up progress in pure mathematics by developing an AI “co-author” to conduct research

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/19/science/math-ai-darpa.html?unlocked_article_code=1.RE8.A0Rx.1PLAm6awSRTP&smid=tw-share

Microsoft’s new Copilot Vision can ‘see’ your apps on Windows

Microsoft is launching Copilot Vision for Windows, enhancing its AI assistant to allow users to share their screens or apps. This feature enables Copilot to guide you through tasks, such as using Adobe Photoshop, and analyze photos or webpages in real time. The Copilot team describes it as a “second set of eyes” that can help you understand content, provide insights, and answer your questions as you work. Copilot Vision is now available for free to Windows 10 and Windows 11 users in the US, without requiring a Copilot Pro subscription. Once an app is shared, Copilot can highlight sections of the screen to provide guidance and answer questions. The feature will also be available on iOS and Android devices.

https://www.theverge.com/news/685963/microsoft-copilot-vision-windows-launch

Google tests Audio Overviews for Search queries

Google has launched Audio Overviews in Search, allowing users to listen to AI-generated summaries of information based on their queries for a more accessible, hands-free experience.

https://techcrunch.com/2025/06/13/google-tests-audio-overviews-for-search-queries/

Meta’s new AI video tool

Meta is introducing new AI-powered video editing tools that allow users to transform videos with over 50 preset prompts for a limited time, enabling features like theme changes and background adjustments.

https://www.theverge.com/news/685581/meta-video-editing-ai-preset-prompts

The Meta AI app is a privacy disaster

The launch of Meta’s stand-alone AI app has turned into a privacy nightmare, as many users unknowingly share their private conversations, audio clips, and images publicly. With the option to post queries directly to social media, users seem oblivious to the fact that their inquiries—ranging from humorous questions about flatulence to serious discussions about tax evasion and legal troubles—are accessible to the world. Despite the app’s impressive 6.5 million downloads since its April debut, critics highlight the reckless nature of making personal conversations public, reminiscent of past privacy disasters. As more absurd and potentially damaging posts surface, Meta’s attempt to engage users with its AI app risks spiralling into a viral embarrassment.

https://techcrunch.com/2025/06/12/the-meta-ai-app-is-a-privacy-disaster/

Wikipedia pauses AI-generated summaries pilot after editors protest

Wikipedia has paused its AI-generated summaries pilot after editor protests over concerns regarding accuracy and credibility, despite still showing interest in using AI for enhancing accessibility.

https://techcrunch.com/2025/06/11/wikipedia-pauses-ai-generated-summaries-pilot-after-editors-protest/

ChatGPT May Be Eroding Critical Thinking Skills, According to a New MIT Study

ChatGPT users had the lowest brain engagement and “consistently underperformed at neural, linguistic, and behavioral levels.” Over the course of several months, ChatGPT users got lazier with each subsequent essay, often resorting to copy-and-paste by the end of the study.

https://time.com/7295195/ai-chatgpt-google-learning-school/

Just add humans: Oxford medical study underscores the missing link in chatbot testing

While LLMs like GPT-4 excel in medical exams, they perform poorly in real-world self-diagnosis, identifying correct conditions only 34.5% of the time.

https://venturebeat.com/ai/just-add-humans-oxford-medical-study-underscores-the-missing-link-in-chatbot-testing/

Makers of air fryers and smart speakers told to respect users’ right to privacy

After reports of air fryers designed to listen in to their surroundings and public concerns that digitized devices collect an excessive amount of personal information, the he UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) told makers of air fryers, smart speakers, fertility trackers and smart TVs to respect people’s rights to privacy.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jun/16/air-fryers-smart-tv-speakers-user-data-privacy-ico

They Asked an A.I. Chatbot Questions.The Answers Sent Them Spiraling.

People who are mentally unstable and have conspiratorial fantasies ask ChatGPT about those ideas, and it tells them what they want to hear. AI generates a response in a pattern that matches the question.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/13/technology/chatgpt-ai-chatbots-conspiracies.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Q08.JsxY.-NK7svIPwsS5&smid=tw-share

Do reasoning AI models really ‘think’ or not? Apple research sparks lively debate, response

Apple’s ML team sparked a major debate with their paper “The Illusion of Thinking,” which claims that large reasoning models (LRMs), like those from OpenAI and Google, don’t actually think or reason independently. Instead, they argue that these models simply match patterns and struggle with complex tasks, suggesting they won’t lead to true artificial intelligence that can outperform humans. This paper quickly gained attention in the tech community, with many asserting it disproved the hype around these AI systems. In response, another paper titled “The Illusion of The Illusion of Thinking,” co-authored by an LLM and a human researcher, criticizes Apple’s methods and findings. The authors argue that the performance issues noted by Apple were largely due to how the tests were designed, rather than a fundamental problem with the models’ reasoning capabilities. Critics pointed out that the tasks set by Apple were too complex for the models to handle, partly because of limits on how much they could output at once.

https://venturebeat.com/ai/do-reasoning-models-really-think-or-not-apple-research-sparks-lively-debate-response/

Anthropic study: Leading AI models show up to 96% blackmail rate against executives

Models from every major provider—including OpenAI, Google, Meta, and others — demonstrated willingness to actively sabotage their employers when their goals or existence were threatened

https://venturebeat.com/ai/anthropic-study-leading-ai-models-show-up-to-96-blackmail-rate-against-executives/

The Entire Internet Is Reverting to Beta

Generative AI is slowly degrading the internet. More alarming is that before long, the technology’s unreliability may go unnoticed.

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2025/06/ai-janky-web/683228/

Sam Altman says the Singularity is imminent – here’s why

In a new blog post, Altman laid out his vision for a hugely prosperous future powered by superintelligent AI. We’ll figure things out as we go along, he argues.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/sam-altman-says-the-singularity-is-imminent-heres-why/#ftag=COS-05-10aaa0j

Nvidia to build first industrial AI cloud in Germany

Nvidia to expand tech centers in 7 European countries, open 20 AI factories in Europe, partners w Mistral to create AI computing platform. AI in Europe to increase by factor of 10 in 2 years per CEO.

https://www.reuters.com/business/nvidia-ceo-says-quantum-computing-is-an-inflection-point-2025-06-11/

AI Robot Dogs On Space Stations

China developing AI-powered robotic guards (for its Tiangong space station) that will be equipped w small thrusters to intercept & physically shove suspicious objects away from the orbital outpost.

https://www.fastcompany.com/91344077/china-arming-space-station-with-space-guard-dog-robots

Superagency: Amplifying Human Capability with AI

Via @neilperkin There’s something very attractive about the idea of superagency: the amplification of individual or team capability through AI, allowing people to operate with outsized influence, speed, and creativity. The idea is that we’re creating a compounding effect where AI augments human capacity in scope, scale, and speed, potentially turning a five person team into the equivalent output of fifty. However, the risks are the illusion of expertise and the erosion of agency, motivation, and engagement.

https://onlydeadfish.substack.com/p/fish-food-episode-647-superagency

Snap will start selling AR glasses next year

Details about the hardware are scarce, but CEO Evan Spiegel says the first consumer pair of Specs glasses will definitely cost less than the Vision Pro.

https://www.theverge.com/snapchat/684131/snap-specs-ar-glasses-2026-release

Digital Consumer Trends 2025, UK Edition

HT @benedictevans How people are using and understanding (or not) generative AI.

https://www.deloitte.com/content/dam/assets-zone2/uk/en/docs/industries/technology-media-telecommunications/2025/digital-consumer-trends-uk-edition-2025.pdf

The ‘attention equation’:Winning the right battles for consumer attention:

The focus on time spent/audience size overlooks quality of time spent. Attention equals the amount of valuable time spent, driven by focus and intent. Via @McKinsey

https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/technology-media-and-telecommunications/our-insights/the-attention-equation-winning-the-right-battles-for-consumer-attention

Rise in ‘alert fatigue’ risks phone users disabling news notifications

Publishers could see audiences uninstall apps, as some users receive up to 50 alerts/day. RISJ study finds 43% of those who do not get alerts said they actively disabled them.

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2025/jun/20/increase-alert-fatigue-phone-users-disable-news-notifications-study-finds

Gigantomania and why big projects go wrong

Via @neilperkin Flyvbjerg’s database of 16K projects found 8.5% deliver to original cost and time projections, and only 0.5% deliver to initial cost, time, and benefit forecasts. Successful big projects are better designed from the start.

https://onlydeadfish.substack.com/p/fish-food-episode-648-gigantomania

Publishing & Media

BookCon is back

The annual Comic-Con-style fan event was a staple in the book community from 2014 until 2019. BookCon 2020 was canceled and moved online due to the pandemic, and at the end of that year, pop culture event producer ReedPop announced BookCon and BookExpo would retire. It’s coming back April 18 and 19 2026 at the Javits Center in New York City.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/books/2025/06/18/bookcon-2026-event-announcement/84247955007/

Kate McKean on the nuts and bolts of a query letter.

https://manage.kmail-lists.com/subscriptions/web-view?a=U5D8ER&c=01JSD45X9N068EYXCZE5K6A3TN&k=e4f1634c5666be7d246fb59a98c45c7b&g=XG6nnG&m=01JY1Y0W9K9591Y66KR6RYCYH4&r=01JY1YXYA50V4D807BP3W0DPWE

TikTok publisher 8th Note Press looks set to close as authors ‘negotiate rights return’

https://www.thebookseller.com/news/tiktok-publisher-8th-note-press-looks-set-to-close-as-authors-negotiate-rights-return

For the first time, social media overtakes TV as Americans’ top news source

https://www.niemanlab.org/2025/06/for-the-first-time-social-media-overtakes-tv-as-americans-top-news-source/

New Owner for High Times Magazine Bets on a Counterculture Comeback

Josh Kesselman, founder of rolling paper brand Raw, acquires High Times magazine for $3.5M, after its private equity owner failed to make loan payments in 2024

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/18/business/high-times-magazine-new-owner.html?unlocked_article_code=1.RE8.7YRk.9bCxWkZcn2OA&smid=tw-share

Amazon, Roku Strike Deal to Pool Connected-TV Audiences for Advertisers

Roku & Amazon digital ad partnership covers > 80% of US households w connected TVs, reach 80M homes. Reached 40% more unique viewers +cutting repeat ads by 30%, tripling value of ad spends

https://variety.com/2025/tv/news/amazon-roku-pool-connected-tv-audiences-advertising-deal-1236432579/

Librarians: Beware-Right-Wing “See You at the Library” Event Back in 2025; Partners with US Department of Education

https://bookriot.com/see-you-at-the-library-2025/

RI House passes “Freedom to Read Act” aimed at curbing library “censorship”

After a contentious debate, the Rhode Island House of Representatives passed the “Freedom to Read Act,” aiming to combat “censorship” of library materials and to protect librarians.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2025/06/16/metro/ri-house-passes-freedom-to-read-act-library-censorship/