Friday links for October 23rd 2026
The predictability issue
1. Websites are closing their doors to AI agents
This was entirely predictable. Agents, being LLMs, are unreliable. No business wants agents going loco on their website and having to deal with the complaints (“my agent bought 200 garden gnomes!”), chargebacks, and more. They also want real users on their site so they can build relationships.
2. Meta’s Hunt for AI Capital Strikes a Raw Nerve on Wall Street
One of many articles appearing right now and saying pretty much the same thing: the AI money is running out. Imagine what all that money could have done if it had been used for good rather than help people generate images of women with three breasts.
3. The Adult Children Cleaning Up Their Parents’ Feeds
“Dad, that’s not a real celebrity, and no, she doesn’t need your bank details”. Gen Z aren’t the only ones wallowing in slop and scams. It’s a multi-generational issue.
4. Trump says Sundar Pichai talked him out of renaming the Atlantic Ocean
I’m starting to believe the theory that we live in a simulation.
Every product migrates to a common final form. In software, that’s everything turning into a chatbot which, honestly, seems like laziness to me. A text- and turn-based interface is appropriate in some cases but it’s being wedged into everything. Evolution produced the crab multiple times and product teams seem determined to do the same with chat prompts.
On rotation
This week’s soundtrack is With a heartbeat by Pharoah Sanders & Bill Laswell.
See you on the flip side,
Colin