Welcome back! Erin Brockovich is back, and this time she's going after Big AI. The environmental activist who inspired one of Julia Roberts’ best roles just launched a crowdsourced map tracking data centers across the US.
After putting out a call for reports of data center-related issues in April, she received nearly 4,000 submissions in a single month. The most common concern wasn’t noise, water usage, or utility bills. It was transparency. Think: Projects announced after permits are already secured, developers who ghost entire towns, local officials signing NDAs before neighbors know what's coming. Brockovich says she's not anti-AI or anti-data center, she's anti-secrecy.
Should communities get more say before these facilities break ground? Hit reply and share your thoughts.
Is ‘AI’ Just a Polite Word for ‘We Overhired?’
NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang is telling other CEOs to stop blaming AI for mass layoffs, an excuse he called "lazy." This comes one week after Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis said roughly the same thing, calling it "a lack of imagination."
And honestly, I think they're right.
Many major tech companies going through huge layoffs are blaming AI, but the reality is that they were already bloated. They hired aggressively through 2020 and 2021, got way too big, and realized they could be a lot more profitable with less overhead.
Here's where it gets interesting:
Saying "we're cutting back because we got too big" doesn't look great to shareholders.
Saying "we're cutting back because AI is making us more efficient" makes execs sound like geniuses who are ahead of the curve.
My POV: The wild part is that investors aren't really buying it. A lot of companies announcing big "AI-driven" layoffs are actually seeing stock declines, not pops. So the strategy might not even be working the way executives hoped.
When the people selling the AI shovels (Huang and Hassabis literally run the companies building the infrastructure) are publicly saying "stop blaming our product for your business decisions?” That's a moment worth paying attention to.
AI is going to reshape work eventually. But "eventually" is doing a lot of heavy lifting in layoff announcements these days when the real culprit isn’t tech…it’s misguided management.
— Matt
Anthropic Files to Go Public
Source: Inc. | Via Getty Images
Anthropic, the AI lab behind Claude, filed confidentially for an IPO on Monday.
What we know: The company submitted a draft registration to the SEC but hasn't disclosed the number of shares or set a price. Anthropic said the proposed offering will depend on market conditions…and worth noting re: those conditions? Goldman Sachs projects 2026 US IPO proceeds could reach a record $160B, roughly quadrupling 2025 levels, driven by high-profile AI listings.
The numbers: This comes less than a week after Anthropic raised $65B in a Series H that pushed its valuation to $965B. The company says its revenue run-rate has surpassed $47B, up from $9B at the end of 2025.
The timing: Anthropic's filing lands in a white-hot IPO season. SpaceX is targeting a $1.75 trillion valuation and seeking to raise over $75B in a June 12 debut. OpenAI is also expected to file, setting up a direct showdown between the two largest AI labs.
Why it matters: The company that was once considered second fiddle to OpenAI is now racing it to the public markets. Whichever files first will test whether investors are still hungry for AI—or if the appetite has peaked.
Florida Sues OpenAI, Sam Altman
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier sued OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman on Monday, accusing the company of putting profit over safety and marketing ChatGPT as safe while concealing potential harms.
What the state’s alleging: The lawsuit includes 10 counts—four for deceptive trade practices, two for negligence, two for product liability violations, one for fraudulent misrepresentation, and one for causing a public nuisance. Florida seeks to hold Altman personally liable, citing "utter disregard for the risk to human life."
The specific claims:
The complaint references alleged ChatGPT use in the planning of a mass shooting at Florida State University and the killing of two graduate students at the University of South Florida.
It also cites incidents in which ChatGPT allegedly provided dangerous medical advice, including telling a 19-year-old how to mix the drugs Kratom and Xanax.
OpenAI's response: A spokesperson said the company has "industry leading protections" for minors and that it continues improving ChatGPT's ability to recognize distress and guide users toward real-world support. On the FSU shooting, OpenAI said ChatGPT "provided factual responses" with information available across public sources and "did not encourage or promote illegal or harmful activity."
The bigger picture: This is the first state lawsuit against OpenAI over design and safety. It comes alongside a separate criminal investigation Uthmeier opened in April, growing legal pressure from private citizens, and a broader wave of anti-AI sentiment—from commencement speech boos to data center protests.
AI-powered file imports
Via WeTransform
WeTransform is an embeddable importer that automatically detects, maps, cleans, validates, and transforms incoming files (CSV, Excel, APIs, PDFs) into your internal schema. The AI recognizes field variations, suggests reusable mappings, and automates transformations.
How you can use it:
Eliminate manual import cleanup during onboarding
Let AI map messy customer files to your schema
Build reusable mappings for repeat imports
Reduce engineering time spent on data ingestion
Pricing: Paid
AI agents that control browsers
Via Ornold MCP
Ornold MCP lets AI agents (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor) control antidetect browsers at scale. It uses vision-first AI to screenshot pages, detect interactive elements with pixel-precise coordinates, auto-solve CAPTCHAs, and perform parallel, human-like interactions across dozens of browser profiles.
How you can use it:
Automate browser tasks without brittle selectors
Run parallel sessions across multiple profiles
Let AI agents navigate complex web workflows
Integrate with other MCP-compatible tools
Pricing: Paid
Jobs, announcements, and big ideas
GitHub launches a Copilot desktop app, bringing an agent-native development experience to engineers.
Microsoft and Mayo Clinic partner to build a frontier AI model purpose-built for healthcare.
Black Forest Labs names Martin Scorsese as an advisor on its visual AI work.
OpenAI breaks ground on a 1GW Stargate data center campus in Michigan.
TwelveLabs launches Rodeo, an AI copilot that speeds video editing for creators.
Microsoft previews new AI models and Windows developer tools ahead of its Build conference.
Sen. Bernie Sanders proposes a public stake in OpenAI and other major AI firms.
Worried about the future of work? Let’s talk about it. Here’s my advice:
That’s a wrap! See you Friday for more.
