You ever wake up in the morning, check the news, and think—wait... didn’t I use that company to fax my résumé in 1998? Well, now it’s building battlefield drones.
Yeah. Nokia, Dell, Oracle—remember them? Once the kings of cubicle nation. Now? They’re making AI war tech. Nokia’s not just connecting people—they’re connecting tanks. Dell’s not selling you laptops; it’s selling the front line a battlefield laptop that can survive a missile strike and a spilled Red Bull.
Meanwhile, Microsoft’s having a bad hair day in the Red Sea. Apparently, undersea cables got sliced—by who? A rogue jellyfish? The ghost of dial-up? Either way, Azure cloud went from "everywhere at once" to "hold on, I’m buffering."
Amazon, not to be outdone, is going full Frankenstein. They're reviving their AI game with custom chips called Trainium2. Which sounds like a workout supplement but is apparently for training Anthropic’s models. You know what Anthropic is? It’s like OpenAI’s chill cousin who also wants to rule the world—but nicely.
Speaking of OpenAI—GPT-5 is now good at saying, “I don’t know,” which officially makes it smarter than most people on Twitter. Progress.
Over in the media, YouTube streamed an NFL game from Brazil, and Fox lost its mind. ESPN too. Apparently, YouTube's rating method was too creative. Nielsen used “custom methodology,” which is TV-speak for “we guessed.”
Meanwhile, the NFL is dancing with private equity. Billionaires buying pieces of billionaires. It’s like Monopoly, but with fewer rules and more yachts.
Elsewhere, cities can’t afford bathrooms, so startups are installing app-powered toilet pods. You want to pee in public? There’s an app for that.
And on the weird side of the internet, OnlyFans creators are hiring robots to delete pirated content, but now the bots are taking down bee research. We’ve reached the point where defending your nudes kills science.
And finally, Pumpkin Town—yes, it’s real—turned canned squash into a billion-dollar seasonal moat. You want Q4 dominance? Get yourself a gourd.
America, land of reinvention.
Whether it’s war, Wi-Fi, or whipped pumpkin—it’s all just bandwidth, baby, And it’s all right here in THE COMUNICANO!!!
Andy Abramson
What I Wrote Last Week
Six Hats, One Future: How Superlist, Todoist, and Supernotes Are Reimagining Productivity with AI — I put on Ed de Bono’s six hats and play traffic cop for three apps racing to make AI your copilot, not your overlord. Strategy, value, and risk—the runway. Want AI that saves time without stealing your voice? Start here, then tell me which app you’re wearing. Read more here
Why I Say “Press 1” Is Dead — IVR menus are museum pieces. With SIP-native AI, you just say what you need, and it happens faster than any Tier-1 agent. I trace the line from Dialpad–TalkIQ to today’s super agents. Spoiler: empathy stays human; drudgery doesn’t. If you’re still building keypads, you’re building fossils. Time to ship intent, not minutes. Read more here
The EDC Revolution: Why Your Daily Carry Matters More Than You Think — I used to hear “EDC” and picture the Electric Daisy Carnival or a pocket .22. Wrong. It’s designing momentum. My Bellroy Transit 5L Sling tames the chaos: everything from the iPad mini to chargers, cables, a pen, and wallet has its own lane. The real upgrade isn’t gear; it’s intent. Pack on purpose, move faster, miss less. What’s in your kit—and why? Start small, select ruthlessly, carry only what matters. Read more here
MilTech Watch
That 1990s Tech Brand? Its New Gig Is in Battlefield Data (WSJ)—Veteran hardware companies like Nokia, Dell, and Oracle—brands we associate with office life—are quietly transforming into defense powerhouses. As battlefield tech evolves with AI-guided drones and real-time sensor streams in Ukraine and Gaza, these firms are pivoting. Nokia is adapting its 5G systems into portable battlefield communications tools, collaborating with Lockheed Martin, Rheinmetall, and aiding NATO’s 5G rollout for jam-resistant data links. Dell is supplying rugged AI-packed front-line computers. Oracle, born from a CIA project, is now powering NATO’s AI-driven intelligence systems alongside Palantir. These civilian giants are doubling as battlefield data innovators. Read more here
Microsoft Watch
Microsoft Says Azure Cloud Service Disrupted by Fiber Cuts in Red Sea (Reuters)—Microsoft reported that multiple undersea fiber cables in the Red Sea were cut, causing significant latency issues for its Azure cloud services, especially between Asia and Europe. The disruption highlights the fragility of global internet infrastructure and the strategic importance of undersea cables. Microsoft rerouted traffic to minimize impact and committed to regular updates. The incident affects latency-sensitive applications but not core Azure services globally. As cyber and physical threats to infrastructure rise, this event underscores the need for diversified routing and redundancy in global cloud networks. Read more here
Amazon Watch
Amazon's AI Resurgence: AWS and Anthropic's Multi-Gigawatt Trainium Expansion (SemiAnalysis)—Amazon is staging a comeback in AI by investing billions into custom chip infrastructure and deepening its partnership with Anthropic. With Anthropic's revenue now annualizing at $5 billion, AWS is building over a gigawatt of new capacity to support model training on Trainium2 chips. While Trainium2 lags behind Nvidia in benchmarks, its memory bandwidth efficiency provides a cost advantage. This infrastructure play positions AWS to capture a larger share of the fast-growing AI cloud market, potentially reversing its lag behind Google and Microsoft in generative AI. Read more here
OpenAI Watch
GPT‑5 Thinking in ChatGPT (aka Research Goblin) Is Shockingly Good at Search—Simon Willison describes how the “GPT‑5 Thinking” model in ChatGPT—his affectionately named “Research Goblin”—has turned using chatbots for web search from a bad idea into a surprisingly robust tool. He shares dozens of everyday queries, from Heathrow’s bouncy travelators to the official legal name of the University of Cambridge, all handled deftly on his phone—even via voice dictation. It reasons, searches, follows up, and cites sources, making it feel like a diligent research assistant. Willison sees this as a milestone: “Don’t use chatbots as search engines” is no longer good advice. Read more here
Why Language Models Hallucinate (OpenAI)—OpenAI’s latest research tackles a persistent problem: hallucinations—when AI confidently produces false or misleading answers. The team explains that traditional training and evaluation methods reward confident guesses rather than honest uncertainty. This system biases models toward fabricating plausible-sounding but incorrect responses because acknowledging ignorance (e.g., saying “I don’t know”) is penalized. Even though GPT‑5 and newer versions have reduced hallucinations, the tendency remains fundamentally rooted in incentive structures. OpenAI proposes improving evaluation strategies to reward uncertainty and honesty, aiming to shift model behavior toward more reliable outputs. Read more here
OpenAI Says ChatGPT Will Always Make Things Up, but It Could Get Better at Admitting Uncertainty (The Decoder)—OpenAI warns that hallucinations—AI-generated falsehoods—are baked into large language models because traditional benchmarks reward confident guessing over honesty. This scoring method discourages uncertainty: a model that says “I don’t know” scores zero, while a confident guess—even if wrong—earns points. OpenAI labels this bias an “epidemic” and proposes fixing it by redesigning evaluations to include “confidence thresholds.” Under this system, models would only answer when sure; guessing wrongly would be penalized, and admitting uncertainty would be acceptable. This shift seeks to incentivize more responsible and trustworthy AI behavior. Read more here
Streaming Watch
Fox, ESPN Cry Foul Over Big Nielsen Number Expected for YouTube’s NFL Brazil Game (Front Office Sports)—Before the Chiefs‑Chargers NFL game streamed live for free on YouTube from São Paulo—even before Nielsen released any data—Fox and ESPN analytics chiefs pushed back. Fox’s Mike Mulvihill blasted Nielsen for offering a “custom methodology” for the YouTube broadcast, calling it “a slap in the face” to long‑standing clients who rely on transparency. ESPN’s Flora Kelly added that the YouTube rating isn’t comparable, noting it isn’t aligned with Nielsen’s accredited approach. The networks are bracing for a massive Nielsen number—and want the same reliable standards across the board. Read more here
Money Watch
Slow Burn: The NFLs Private‑Equity Era So Far (Front Office Sports)—A year after NFL owners voted 31–1 to allow private equity investments in teams, only three franchises—the Dolphins, Bills, and Chargers—have taken on PE backers, yet the league is already calling the policy “a tremendous success.” Firms like Arctos and Ares have purchased passive, minority stakes (capped at 10%) in these teams under strict terms: no governance influence, six-year minimum holding, and limited approved investors. While valuations have soared—exceeding $5 billion per team—questions remain about how private equity will eventually exit these investments. Read more here
Piracy Watch
How OnlyFans Piracy Is Ruining the Internet for Everyone (404 Media)—The internet is becoming harder to use as innocent sites get delisted from Google due to error‑ridden copyright claims tied to rampant OnlyFans piracy. In an effort to protect revenue, content creators on platforms like OnlyFans are employing automated services to issue DMCA takedown notices. These tools, reviewed by equally automated systems, sometimes flag entirely unrelated content—like an academic article on honey bees—for removal because of overlapping names. This cascading automation without human oversight is making the internet less reliable and underscores the persistent piracy threat while leaving creators with few defenses.
Read more here
City Watch
Looking to the Private Sector for Public Restrooms (Morning Brew)—Public restrooms in major U.S. cities are notoriously hard to find, and when they are available, they’re often unclean or unsafe. Now, private companies like Throne Labs are stepping in with high-tech restroom pods operated via mobile apps. These app-connected units track usage, cleanliness, and even user behavior—rude or destructive guests risk being blocked from future access. Cities are piloting these solutions to fill gaps left by overwhelmed public infrastructure. It’s a modern, data-driven twist on an old civic need, driven by startup innovation rather than government spending. Read more here
Marketing Watch
Pumpkin Town’s Brand Moat (The Hustle)—A Rust-Belt town pivoted into a global canned-pumpkin hub—proof that niche category leadership can be a defensible brand strategy. Translate to marketing: dominate a specific seasonal narrative (taste, nostalgia, recipe culture) and compound with owned recipes, creator kits, and retailer exclusives. Seasonal spikes are predictable—use pre-orders, limited labels, and regional collabs to create cues for urgency. The overlooked gem: B2B storytelling. Tell grocers and foodservice operators how you de-risk their Q4 displays with guaranteed supply and co-op dollars. Be the metronome of the season. Read more here
Travel Watch
How the EU’s New Border System Will Work (BBC)—Starting October 12, 2025, the EU’s new Entry/Exit System (EES) will begin rolling out across Schengen borders. It replaces manual passport stamping for non-EU citizens with digital biometric checks, including fingerprints and facial scans. UK travelers heading to France, Spain, and other EU countries will register at kiosks before departure—via Eurostar, Eurotunnel, or Dover ferry. The transition will be gradual to manage queues, especially in tight spaces like Dover. EES aims to improve border security and speed up future trips. A visa waiver system called ETIAS will follow in 2026. Read more here
