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Issue 258 · September 23, 2026 · 5 min read

California reaches for an AI off switch while builders spend toward a trillion-dollar year

California is drafting rules to audit and, if needed, shut off the most advanced AI systems. At the same time the companies building AI are pouring record money into chips, memory, and power, betting demand keeps climbing.

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Inside this issue

The Big Story

California orders state agencies to draft AI safety rules, including a 'kill switch'. What happened and why it matters to your business, in plain English.

The Research

3 new research findings, translated into plain terms:

  • A new design let 128 AI agents work together and pass 49% more tasks
  • Trimming what a coding AI keeps in memory cut its running cost by up to half
  • A memory system built to track who said what in group conversations

The Money

What Nvidia (NVDA), Micron (MU), and Alphabet's Google (GOOGL) did with their money this week, plus the five-day move in the AI stocks.

The Discourse

What Sam Altman, head of OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, Andrew Ng, a Stanford professor and longtime AI investor, Joseph Cox, a reporter at the tech outlet 404 Media, and Ethan Mollick, a Wharton professor who studies AI at work said on X this week, and where the consensus is forming.

The Rules

3 government moves on AI worth knowing: federal, state, and global.

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