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California's Department of Motor Vehicles has given Aurora Innovation and Kodiak AI the green light to test their self-driving truck tech on public roads. This move lifts a ban on driverless vehicles over 10,000 pounds from testing in California. Why does this matter? It paves the way for autonomous trucks to operate commercially in one of America's most populous states. Kodiak has already started tests around its Mountain View office, while Aurora will likely follow suit soon. The new rules require a human safety operator behind the wheel and restrict testing on roads with speed limits under 25 mph.
Thrive Capital's founder penned an investor letter that was leaked to Bloomberg, revealing the firm’s aggressive focus on AI through concentrated investments. Thrive pours about 90% of its capital into just 15 top picks in each fund, a stark contrast to diversified portfolios favored by other firms. This strategy has paid off with a gross internal rate of return (IRR) of 41%, and the firm returned over $1 billion to investors last year alone. Thrive's deepening relationship with OpenAI includes taking an ownership stake in its spinout, Thrive Holdings, which has made significant acquisitions and leverages AI for business transformation. Let's dive deeper…
In today's ContentBuffer update:
Iranian Hackers Strike U.S. Water Utilities Across Dozens of States
Pocket Shutdown Sparks Demand for Alternatives
Unforgetful: Persistent Notifications for the Forgetful Among Us
Google Ditches Visible Watermarks for AI-Generated Media
5 new AI tools & 5 new AI jobs
More tech news
Latest Development
Image source: techcrunch.com
Summary: California DMV clears Kodiak AI and Aurora for autonomous truck road tests — big win for self-driving tech in one of America's busiest states.
Key Points:
Kodiak began commercial driverless operations in West Texas' Permian Basin in January 2025, expanding to on-highway routes between Dallas and Houston soon after.
Aurora launched its self-driving truck service in May 2025 with a Dallas-to-Houston route, adding more paths since then including Fort Worth-El Paso and Laredo-Dallas.
Both companies applied for testing permits this spring under updated rules approved by the California DMV, lifting bans on autonomous heavy-duty trucks weighing over 10,000 pounds.
The new regulations mandate safety drivers in vehicles during tests but allow developers to test and deploy autonomously within their home territories.
Teamsters California filed a lawsuit against the state's DMV, arguing that it bypassed laws requiring studies on economic impacts of self-driving trucks before approving permits.
Why it matters: If you're in the logistics or transportation industry, this is a game-changer. Autonomous truck testing now legal in California means companies like Kodiak and Aurora can expand their operations into one of the most economically significant states. However, with Teamsters' lawsuit questioning safety and economic impacts, regulatory uncertainty remains high.
Image source: techcrunch.com
Summary: Thrive Capital is pouring 90% of its capital into top 15 investments in each fund, leading to a 41% gross IRR. They've returned over $1 billion to investors last year alone.
Key Points:
Thrive Capital's concentrated investment strategy allocates about 90% of funds to the top 15 picks per fund.
The firm boasts a gross internal rate of return (IRR) across all funds of 41%, with net IRR at 33%.
Over $1 billion in liquidity has been returned to investors by Thrive Capital in the last year alone, with potential for billions more.
Thrive Holdings, a spinout from Thrive Capital, has acquired over 70 businesses and employs 35 engineers focused on AI transformation.
The firm's IT services unit uses agents to solve half of its help desk tickets independently.
Why it matters: If you're an investor looking for high-risk, high-reward opportunities in AI, Thrive Capital’s concentrated approach is worth a look. With a gross IRR of 41%, the firm's strategy has proven effective. However, smaller investors might find this model too risky due to its heavy concentration on specific bets.
Image source: techcrunch.com
Summary: Iranian hackers are hitting U.S. water utilities across multiple states, causing disruptions and raising alarms about critical infrastructure vulnerabilities.
Key Points:
Over a dozen U.S. states have reported cyberattacks on local water systems since April.
The Water Information Sharing and Analysis Center (WaterISAC) confirmed the attacks align with warnings from CISA.
Local officials in Minnesota had to take water plants offline for several hours due to pressure loss issues.
In Georgia, residents were advised to boil water as a precaution after an attack disrupted local systems.
U.S. intelligence agencies are confident that Iran is behind these coordinated cyberattacks on critical infrastructure.
Why it matters: The recent wave of attacks targeting U.S. water utilities highlights the urgent need for enhanced cybersecurity measures in critical infrastructure. Local water companies, often with limited resources and expertise, face significant challenges in defending against sophisticated threats like those posed by Iranian hackers. This situation affects not only these specific utilities but also broader implications for national security and public health.
Image source: techcrunch.com
Summary: Mozilla is shutting down Pocket in May 2025, pushing users to alternatives like Matter and Instapaper. These apps offer unique features and varying pricing models.
Key Points:
Pocket shutdown: Mozilla announced the closure of Pocket in May 2025.
Matter app: $79.99/year for premium features including transcriptions, text-to-speech.
Instapaper free tier: Unlimited article saving without fees; paid upgrades start at $59.99/year.
Raindrop.io: Free version offers unlimited bookmarking with integrations like Zapier and IFTTT.
Recall app: AI-powered summaries for saved content, supports up to 10 free summaries.
Why it matters: If you're a Pocket user, the shutdown means exploring alternatives. Matter's $79.99/year plan offers advanced transcriptions and text-to-speech, while Instapaper's free tier allows unlimited saves with paid upgrades for additional features like notes and full-text search.
Image source: techcrunch.com
Summary: Unforgetful challenges Apple's Reminders by offering persistent notifications that never let you forget again. It integrates seamlessly and simplifies task management without complex features.
Key Points:
Unforgetful works directly with existing Apple Reminders databases, ensuring no data loss during transition.
Notifications in Unforgetful repeat until tasks are marked as completed and deleted from the system.
Snoozing intervals scale up over time to prevent users from being overwhelmed by multiple reminders.
The app includes a full suite of widgets for Lock Screen and Control Center, enhancing convenience.
Unforgetful is available on both Mac and iOS devices at $19.99 per year subscription.
Why it matters: If you're tired of losing important reminders in Apple's system, Unforgetful offers a simpler solution with persistent notifications that ensure tasks are never forgotten. The app's seamless integration with existing Reminders databases means users can transition without data loss or reconfiguration.
Image source: techcrunch.com
Summary: Google lets users remove visible watermarks from AI-generated media, improving usability but maintaining invisible transparency measures. Coming soon in Flow and Gemini.
Key Points:
Visible watermark removal available for Nano Banana, Omni, Lyria models and Google's video editor, Flow
Setting to turn off the visible watermark will be accessible via Settings > Media Watermark
Invisible SynthID watermarks and C2PA metadata remain in place for transparency purposes
Google is open-sourcing a new library called Credentio for local validation mechanisms
Support for Search is coming soon, expanding the feature's reach
Why it matters: If you're using Google's AI tools like Flow or Gemini for professional projects, turning off visible watermarks can make your content more polished and usable. However, keep in mind that invisible SynthID watermarks will still be there for transparency reasons.
New Tools & Job
MachineTranslation.com - MachineTranslation.com is an AI-powered translation platform that translates text and documents by comparing outputs from multiple leading AI translation models. Its consensus technology helps users choose the most accurate translation, reducing errors and improving quality across more than 330 languages. What it does Translates text and documents using AI. Compares translations from multiple AI models. Provides a consensus translation to improve accuracy. Supports 330+ languages. Helps users evaluate and refine translations. What makes it good Higher accuracy: Compares multiple AI translations instead of relying on a single model. Better quality: Consensus technology helps identify the strongest translation. Fast and easy: Delivers results in seconds with a simple interface. Broad language support: Covers over 330 languages. Useful for professionals and travelers: Suitable for business, marketing, legal, technical, and everyday communication.
Format Factory - Format Factory is a browser-based workbench for common audio and video conversion jobs. It supports batch processing for video and audio conversion, compression, merging, audio extraction, and audio removal, with transparent credits and temporary results. Try Format Factory for practical media conversion without installer bundles or per-file setup.
HappyHorse.AI - HappyHorse.AI is a multimodal AI video generator for creators, marketers, and social media teams. Users can create videos from text prompts, animate images, or generate videos from reference characters. The platform focuses on browser-based video creation and native audio support.
NeatScribe - NeatScribe is designed for anyone who needs to reuse information from recorded speech. It creates timestamped transcripts, supports translation, and exports results as text files, documents, subtitles, captions, or timed lyrics.
Sakana Marlin - Sakana Marlin is Sakana AI's first commercial product: an autonomous 'Ultra Deep Research' agent positioned as a Virtual Chief Strategy Officer. Given a research topic, Marlin works autonomously for up to roughly eight hours, forming hypotheses, gathering and reconciling information from online sources, and synthesizing a detailed strategy report up to ~100 pages plus executive-summary slides. It builds on Sakana AI research including AB-MCTS (NeurIPS 2025 Spotlight) and The AI Scientist (published in Nature). A closed beta ran from April 2026 with ~300 professionals across finance and consulting.
Machine Learning Engineer - Prototype state-of-the-art neural net models and launch them into production at Hive.
QUICK HITS
Meta Unveils Open-Source AI Model Glimmer - Meta released an open-source AI model called Glimmer this week, challenging the status quo with its accessibility and personal hardware compatibility.
Pony AI and Uber Plan to Deploy 2,000 Robotaxis in Europe - Uber and Pony AI are rolling out 2,000 robotaxis in Europe — a big step in the autonomous vehicle race.
Microsoft Merges Copilot Apps for Simpler AI Experience - Microsoft merges consumer and business Copilot apps into one streamlined version, aiming to simplify the user interface and compete better with ChatGPT and Gemini.
Nvidia Secures $500B for AI Data Centers From Big Banks - Nvidia secured $500B from financial giants like BlackRock and Goldman Sachs to build AI data centers, positioning itself as a long-term infrastructure player in the AI space. Why you should care: This vision could reshape how companies view and invest in AI hardware over time.
Bartesian Duet Serves Cocktails With a Push of a Button - The Bartesian Duet is a $300 machine that serves cocktails via capsules, perfect for hosting parties or using at retirement homes. Why it matters: It's not for everyone but offers convenience and ease of use.
Bluesky CEO Goes Full-Time After Interim Leadership - Bluesky names its interim CEO permanent leader, pushing for a human-centric rebuild in a market dominated by AI giants. Why it matters: Developers building social apps need to rethink engagement strategies.
THAT'S A WRAP
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Anthropic is watermarking Claude-generated text with SynthID-Text, a method that doesn't affect output quality. The company plans to release a detection API soon.
Thrive Capital's leaked letter reveals a concentrated investment strategy in AI, with 90% of capital going to top 15 investments. The firm boasts a 41% gross IRR and has returned over $1B to investors.
Flock now recommends police retain license plate camera data for only seven days. New 'Evidence Mode' and 'Audit Assistance' aim to curb abuse.