Good morning. It’s Thursday, March 19. Today we are covering:
FBI is buying location data to track US citizens, director confirms
Silicon Valley Musters Behind-the-Scenes Support for Anthropic
Why Walmart and OpenAI Are Shaking Up Their Agentic Shopping Deal
Google offers voice-driven ‘vibe design’ tool to build UIs
Meta changes course on Horizon Worlds VR shut-down
Let’s dive in
FBI is buying location data to track US citizens, director confirms
By Zack Whittaker via TechCrunch
FBI Director Kash Patel told lawmakers the bureau has resumed buying commercially available location data on Americans for investigations, marking the first public confirmation since 2023 that the agency is again purchasing data from brokers.
Critics, led by Sen. Ron Wyden, say the practice is an end-run around the Fourth Amendment because it lets federal agencies access sensitive location histories without first getting a warrant.
The controversy comes as lawmakers push the Government Surveillance Reform Act, a bipartisan bill that would require agencies to obtain court approval before buying Americans’ data from data brokers fed by phone apps, ad-tech systems, and other tracking tools.
𝕏: The FBI just acknowledged that the federal government buys Americans’ location data in its testimony to the Senate Select Subcommittee on Intelligence. This is a clear violation of the Fourth Amendment and is why I introduced the Government Surveillance Reform Act - to close the data broker loophole that allows intelligence agencies to buy Americans’ private data. - Rep. Warren Davidson (@Rep_Davidson)
Silicon Valley Musters Behind-the-Scenes Support for Anthropic
By Mike Isaac via The New York Times
Anthropic’s clash with the Pentagon has become a flashpoint in Silicon Valley, after the AI company resisted allowing its models to be used for mass domestic surveillance and fully autonomous weapons, prompting the Defense Department to label it a “supply chain risk” and cut off key military work.
The fight has widened into a broader debate over how far tech companies should go in supporting U.S. national security, with some firms moving closer to defense work while Anthropic argues the government is trying to force vendors to abandon their own safety limits.
What makes the story notable is that it is no longer just about one contract: it reflects a deeper split inside Silicon Valley over AI, military power, and corporate ethics, as courts, investors, and rival tech companies weigh the consequences of the Pentagon’s pressure campaign.
𝕏: “Inside Google, A.I. researchers created private chat groups to discuss how they could better support Anthropic in its pushback, two people familiar with the discussions said. Researchers at Google began speaking with their counterparts at OpenAI” - Shashank Joshi (@shashj)
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Why Walmart and OpenAI Are Shaking Up Their Agentic Shopping Deal
By Paresh Dave via WIRED
Walmart says OpenAI’s in-chat Instant Checkout has underperformed since launching in November, with conversion rates for products bought directly inside ChatGPT running about three times lower than for items that send shoppers to Walmart’s site.
In response, Walmart and OpenAI are shifting to a new model: Walmart’s Sparky will operate inside ChatGPT next week, syncing with shoppers’ existing Walmart carts and aiming to fix a core flaw of agentic shopping—single-item purchases that fragment orders and undermine how people actually shop.
The pivot signals a broader rethink of AI commerce: while ChatGPT is delivering Walmart roughly twice the rate of new customers as search engines, executives say fully automated shopping remains overhyped, and future success will depend on retailer-controlled experiences, better recommendations, and keeping consumers—not AI agents—in charge.
𝕏: OpenAI’s Walmart Shopping Dream Just Imploded – And It Reveals Everything Wrong With Their Agentic Commerce Fantasy Hey @sama and @OpenAI, remember October 2025 when you hyped the Walmart partnership as the dawn of true AI shopping? ChatGPT users could browse thousands of products and check out instantly inside the chatbot, with you pocketing fat commissions while turning your app into the ultimate virtual storefront… - Shootingstar (@Mo8552798975258)
Google offers voice-driven ‘vibe design’ tool to build UIs
By Simon Sharwood via The Register
Google has repositioned its Stitch UI tool as a “vibe design” platform, pitching it as an AI-first way to turn business goals, user feelings, and creative inspiration into interface concepts and working prototypes.
The revamped Stitch includes an AI-native infinite canvas, a design agent that can reason across a project’s evolution, and voice-driven controls that let users speak prompts aloud to generate critiques, landing pages, menu variations, and alternate color palettes in real time.
Google is also tying Stitch into the broader AI coding ecosystem with an SDK and MCP server, enabling integrations with assistants such as Gemini CLI, Claude Code, Cursor, and Antigravity to blend UI ideation with AI-assisted software development.
𝕏: Google Stitch vs Claude vs Human Pick your winner - Harshit (@uiux_harshit)
Meta changes course on Horizon Worlds VR shut-down
By Janko Roettgers via Lowpass
Meta reversed its plan to shut down Horizon Worlds on Quest headsets just one day after announcing the wind-down, with CTO Andrew Bosworth saying the VR version will remain available for the “foreseeable future.”
Bosworth’s comments indicate Horizon Worlds in VR will continue in a limited maintenance mode, while Horizon Unity Runtime Games will not expand to mobile and will remain VR-only.
The abrupt course correction underscores Meta’s shifting strategy for its metaverse platform, preserving a basic VR presence even as broader ambitions appear to be scaled back.
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