TLDR 2025-06-17
OpenAI Microsoft tensions π€, WhatsApp ads π¬, coding agents π¨βπ»
WhatsApp is officially getting ads (2 minute read)
WhatsApp will now show ads from businesses through its Stories-like status feature. Ads will be tailored to users using limited information, like location, language, and followed channels. Users can change their ad preferences from Meta's Accounts Center. WhatsApp will now also start showing promoted channels when users click on the Explore button and it is rolling out the ability to subscribe to channels to receive exclusive updates.
OpenAI and Microsoft Tensions Are Reaching a Boiling Point (4 minute read)
OpenAI wants to loosen Microsoft's grip on its products and computing resources and secure approval for its conversion into a for-profit company, but negotiations have been difficult. The company's executives have discussed the option of accusing Microsoft of anticompetitive behavior during their partnership - this could result in a regulatory review of the terms of the contract for potential violations of antitrust law. OpenAI must complete its conversion to a public-benefit corporation by the end of the year or it risks losing $20 billion in funding.
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Science & Futuristic Technology
Danish military using robotic sailboats for surveillance in Baltic and North seas (3 minute read)
Denmark's armed forces are trialing uncrewed robotic sailboats known as Voyagers. The 10-meter-long vessels carry no crew and are designed for surveillance. Powered by wind and solar energy, they can operate autonomously for months at sea. The vessels carry advanced sensors, including radar, infrared and optical cameras, and sonar. They are aimed at identifying maritime threats like damage to undersea cables, illegal fishing, and smuggling.
Finland warms up the world's largest sand battery, and the economics look appealing (3 minute read)
A small town in Finland recently started using the world's largest sand-based battery. Sand batteries are a type of thermal storage system that uses sand or crushed rock to store heat, which can be later used for various things like warming buildings. They are typically 'charged' by using electricity to heat the sand. The battery will help slash carbon emissions and help the town eliminate the costly oil that currently helps power its district heating network. The cost of the project has not been revealed, but the raw materials were cheap and the structure itself isn't particularly complex.
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Programming, Design & Data Science
Delve generated $1M in pipeline from TLDR newsletter ads (Sponsor)
Delve ran 4 ads across 2 TLDR newsletters and brought in 66 leads, with a meaningful chunk from enterprise. The result: $1M in attributed pipeline and a 52x ROI.
This case study breaks down their strategy, results, and example ads.
Read the Delve case study.
Coding agents have crossed a chasm (13 minute read)
Over the past few months, autonomous AI coding agents have gone from a neat curiosity to something some developers can't imagine working without. The technology has moved from a 'smarter autocomplete' to something you can genuinely delegate tasks to. These new tools can be incredible force multipliers, especially when users have enough knowledge to be good editors. However, they can be dangerous accelerants for confusion when users are out of their depth. The pace of improvement suggests we're still in the early stages of the shift - every week brings new capabilities.
Canine (GitHub Repo)
Canine is a deployment platform for Kubernetes clusters. It makes it easy to deploy and manage applications. A modern alternative to Heroku, Canine makes cheap hosting providers as easy to use as expensive ones. Canine has everything needed to deploy an app, including GitHub integration, one-click deployments and rollbacks, SSL certificate management, and easy autoscaling.
Meta and Oakley tease a smart glasses announcement for June 20 (1 minute read)
A new Instagram account called @oakleymeta has teased a video announcement for this Friday, with Instagram's own official account and Mark Zuckerberg sharing the post on their stories. Meta's web store has a banner saying 'The next evolution arrives June 20' and an option to sign up for updates on products, news, and innovations. This all indicates that Oakley Meta glasses will likely be announced this week. The video is available in the article.
Scale AI's Wang Brings to Meta Knowledge of What Everyone Else is Doing (12 minute read)
Alexandr Wang co-founded Scale AI, which recently received a $14.3 billion investment from Meta, at 19. Wang is known for his ability to cultivate influential relationships and to know what's going on in the AI industry. He has a direct relationship with a dizzying amount of people, in both junior and senior roles, and knows what they're working on and what they want to be doing. Meta's recent investment means that the company now has the one guy who knows what everyone else in the AI industry doing.
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