This week the highlights are lawsuits, breakups, and billion-dollar bets on new hardware.
- Publishers declare war on Google's AI summaries
- OpenAI drops $300B to divorce Microsoft
- Meta pushes smart glasses as the next iPhone
- AI coding creates new job: "vibe cleanup specialist"
- Google builds payment rails for AI shopping agents
Publishers Finally Fight Back
Two major publishers sued Google this week over AI summaries destroying their traffic. Rolling Stone owner Penske Media filed the first lawsuit targeting AI Overviews, while People CEO Neil Vogel called Google a "bad actor."
Google search used to drive 90% of People's web traffic. Now it's down to the "high 20s."
The trap: Google uses the same crawler for search indexing and AI training. Publishers can't block AI without losing search traffic, which still represents 20-30% of their visitors.
Google spent decades getting publishers to allow crawling in exchange for traffic. Now they're using that same access for AI training without permission, keeping users on Google instead of sending them to publisher sites.
Google controls 90% of search, making them essential for publishers to reach audiences. Publishers must choose: allow the crawler and accept AI training of their content, or block it and lose all search visibility. There's no option to say yes to search indexing but no to AI training.
OpenAI's $300B Escape Plan
OpenAI signed a $300 billion cloud deal with Oracle starting in 2027.
OpenAI's relationship with microsoft has been souring for months. OpenAI launched a LinkedIn competitor. Microsoft integrated Anthropic's Claude into Office. Both companies are hedging while maintaining public smiles.
$300 billion over five years suggests either massive growth expectations or severe overpaying for independence. Oracle's stock jumped on the news.
Microsoft invested $13 billion expecting to be OpenAI's primary infrastructure partner. The Oracle deal shows OpenAI will spend enormous amounts to avoid depending on any single provider. Microsoft went from "exclusive partner" to "one of several cloud providers."
Even $13 billion investments don't buy loyalty when better alternatives emerge.
Meta's Smart Glasses Gamble
Meta unveiled two smart glasses models betting wearables will replace smartphones. The Ray-Ban Display ($799) includes a heads-up display and neural wristband that reads brain signals for gesture control. The Oakley Vanguard ($499) targets athletes with 3K video recording.
The strategy: Start with familiar brands, gradually add features until glasses become primary computing devices. Meta already sold millions of basic Ray-Ban glasses.
The challenge for Meta is that Apple and Google aren't standing still. Meta needs to move fast before competitors catch up.
Success to Meta probably means controlling the next computing platform. Staying dependent on iOS and Android forever may imply their failure.
AI Coding's Hidden Tax
A Fastly survey found 95% of developers spend extra time fixing AI-generated code. Senior developers are becoming "AI babysitters," spending 30-40% of their time on "vibe fixing."
One developer compared it to "hiring your stubborn, insolent teenager" who "does some of what you asked for, some stuff you didn't ask for, and breaks a bunch of things along the way."
The new job title: "Vibe code cleanup specialist" - a real position companies created to manage AI-generated technical debt.
The paradox: Despite the extra work, developers still find it valuable. Senior developers are twice as likely to ship AI-generated code compared to junior developers.
The industry is evolving toward developers as AI consultants rather than pure coders.
Google Builds AI Shopping Infrastructure
Google launched the Agent Payments Protocol (AP2) for AI-driven purchases, backed by Mastercard, PayPal, American Express, and 60+ merchants. The protocol lets AI agents shop and buy through a two-step approval process: "intent mandate" (what you want) and "cart mandate" (final approval).
The vision: AI agents negotiating hotel and flight packages simultaneously, or receiving real-time bundle offers while shopping for bike trips.
Perplexity already has "Buy With Pro." Stripe offers agentic tools. But Google's protocol has immediate scale through major payment processors.
Google is building infrastructure for an economy where AI handles complex transactions. Whether consumers want that level of automation remains unclear.
The big picture frames that every company in tech is either fighting for independence or trying to control the next platform. The collaborative phase seems to reach its end. Now it's a zero-sum game for who controls the infrastructure that everything else runs on.
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