What a great way to start into Saturday! Welcome back to Five Things Tech!
Kicking robots has become a surprisingly effective testing method for roboticists pushing humanoid balance, evolving from boots to shoves and even folding chairs, as explored in a Harper’s piece that grounds sci-fi hype in gritty reality. A deep dive into ASML’s dominance in EUV lithography reveals how decades of US research from DARPA, Bell Labs, and Intel handed the Dutch firm a geopolitical monopoly on next-gen chipmaking after American toolmakers faded. VC legend Fred Wilson draws parallels between OpenAI’s bold internet-wide training for ChatGPT - akin to Netscape’s web ignition - and Google’s late Gemini catch-up, mirroring Microsoft’s browser bundling, though he ponders AI’s true “search engine” killer app. Meanwhile, Anduril’s defense tech faces harsh field failures from engine mishaps and Ukraine drone flops, underscoring “fail fast” risks in weapons where lives hang in the balance, while a Sifted op-ed warns VC’s speed-scale obsession clashes disastrously with defense’s moral gravity and 90% startup death rate.
Enjoy! 🤖...
