News & Updates
The latest news and updates from companies in the WLTH portfolio.
David Sacks accuses Anthropic of regulatory capture against open source AI
The White House tech advisor warns that a proposed self-regulatory body could quietly kill open source AI models through compliance requirements they can never meet David Sacks, venture capitalist and co-chair of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, is sounding the alarm on what he calls a quiet regulatory strategy to suffocate open source AI. His argument: you don't need to ban something outright if you can just regulate it into irrelevance. During an episode of the All-In Podcast, Sacks laid out a scenario in which a self-regulatory organization designed for AI oversight gradually morphs into a mandatory pre-release approval agency. Think of it as a DMV for AI models, except instead of waiting in line to renew your license, developers would need to get their models blessed before releasing them to the public. The compliance trap The core of Sacks' concern is structural. A pre-release approval regime would impose compliance requirements that proprietary, closed models from companies like Anthropic could feasibly meet. Open source models, by their very nature, cannot. Once you release an open source model into the wild, it's out there. It's decentralized, forkable, and immutable. You can't recall it for a safety audit the way Anthropic can update Claude behind a closed API. Requiring pre-release certification would essentially create a regulatory framework where closed models pass and open models fail by default. Sacks specifically named Anthropic, the company led by CEO Dario Amodei, as the primary actor pursuing what he described as "sophisticated regulatory capture." In his telling, Anthropic has positioned itself as the responsible adult in the room, advocating loudly for AI safety while quietly lobbying for regulatory structures that happen to favor its own business model. The industry split What makes Sacks' framing notable is the degree of isolation he attributes to Anthropic. According to him, virtually the entire tech industry supports open source AI development, with Anthropic standing as the notable exception. Meta, which has invested heavily in its open-weight Llama model family, represents the other end of the spectrum, betting that open release accelerates adoption and ecosystem development. The competitive dimension extends well beyond Silicon Valley. Chinese-developed open-weight models have recently topped or approached critical benchmarks, a development that Sacks has used to sharpen his argument about American competitiveness. If the US constrains open source AI through regulatory friction while China faces no such limitations, the talent and innovation gap could widen in the wrong direction. Sacks has been vocal on X about this framing, repeatedly invoking the principle of "permissionless innovation," the idea that developers should be able to build and release technology without needing prior government approval. What this means for the AI landscape The companies most exposed to this regulatory risk are the ones building in the open. Meta's Llama ecosystem, Mistral, Stability AI, and the broader constellation of startups and research labs that depend on freely available model weights all face a scenario where their core distribution model becomes legally complicated, if not outright impossible. Sacks' warning also carries weight because of his current position. As co-chair of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, he's not just a podcast commentator. He has a direct channel to policy discussions, which means his framing of the issue, regulatory capture dressed up as safety, could influence how the White House approaches AI governance.
I found this Claude feature so good that I canceled ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity
Parth, a seasoned tech writer, wields the keyboard (or pen) with finesse to unravel the intricacies of both Windows and Mac operating systems. He has covered evergreen content on mobile devices and computers for multiple publications over the last six years. You can find his work on AndroidPolice, GuidingTech and TechWiser. Whether it's demystifying system updates, deciphering error codes, or exploring hidden features, Parth's prose guides readers through the binary maze. When not immersed in tech jargon, you'll find him sipping chai, pondering the next software review, and occasionally indulging in a friendly debate about mechanical keyboards. I have spent enough time switching between ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and Claude to know that most AI assistants are starting to feel similar. Switching between them often comes down to small differences in speed, integrations, or output quality. But recently, I came across something in Claude that felt different (in a positive way). Once I started using Claude Design for actual projects, I just didn't find myself opening the other apps much anymore -- so canceling them felt like an easy call. What is Claude Design, anyway? It doesn't aim to rival Figma or PowerPoint Claude Design feels like a separate creative workspace built around Claude. The interface makes that obvious: a conversation area on one side and a visual canvas on the other. I can explain what I want in plain English, and Claude starts building it directly on the canvas instead of just telling me how to create it myself. Claude Design is Anthropic's beta tool for creating visual work through conversation. It can handle mockups, interactive prototypes, presentations, landing pages, microsites, and other design concepts. With a traditional chatbot, I might ask for ideas for a dashboard and get a written description, some HTML, or perhaps an image. Here, the design itself becomes the thing I am working on. It almost feels like having an AI-powered design app sitting inside my existing subscription. I can start with a rough idea, watch Claude turn it into something visual, and then continue working on the same project rather than copying the output into another tool. And that's before getting into the editing, prototyping, design system, and export features that made it useful for me. I can go from an idea to something tangible There are so many use cases Close This is where Claude Design started making a real difference in my workflow. I often have an idea in my head, but I don't necessarily want to spend an hour opening Figma, PowerPoint, or Canva just to see whether it works. With Claude Design, I can start with a rough description and turn it into something I can view, share, and refine. The built-in templates make the process even faster. I can even set up a design system, so Claude has a consistent set of colors, typography, components, and visual rules to follow across a project. This becomes useful when I want several screens or assets to feel like they belong to the same product. If I am discussing a jewelry e-commerce website, for example, I can quickly mock up a premium-looking storefront with product cards, category sections, filters, and a checkout flow. For a food delivery app, I can create mobile screens showing restaurants, menus, carts, and order tracking. And if I am working on something different, such as a presentation about financial planning, I can turn the same rough ideas into a polished deck with charts, layouts, and a consistent visual language. That flexibility is what makes Claude Design so useful to me. I am not limited to websites or app interfaces. One day I can be working on a client wireframe, the next on a presentation, diagram, flyer, or animation. The possibilities are endless. The Claude Code handoff sold me I'm not locked inside Claude afterward The part that sold me on Claude Design is what happens after I am happy with a concept. I don't have to treat the mockup as the end of the road. Claude Design can hand the project directly to Claude Code, which makes the transition from design to development much more natural. That changes how I approach quick client work. If I create a jewelry e-commerce mockup and the client likes the overall direction, I can move that design into Claude Code and start turning it into a working site instead of rebuilding the structure from scratch. The same applies to a food delivery app concept. I can first focus on the visual hierarchy, screens, navigation, and overall feel in Claude Design, then hand it over when I am ready to think about implementation. I also appreciate that Claude Design doesn't force me to keep everything inside Claude. Once I am done, I can export the project in several useful formats, including PDF, PPTX, standalone HTML, or a ZIP file. I can also send designs directly to tools such as Canva and other supported services. That removes one of my biggest concerns with AI creation tools: getting something impressive on screen, only to realize that it's trapped inside the service that generated it. Claude became more than a chatbot Canceling ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity wasn't really about deciding that Claude is better at everything. Most AI assistants can already handle the basics and code well. But Claude Design is what finally broke that pattern for me. It gave me a practical way to turn rough ideas into polished visuals, prototypes, and concepts without jumping between multiple tools. That one feature made it a complete creative workspace. I still think the competition has plenty of strengths, but for the way I work right now, Claude gives me something uniquely different. Claude Claude is an AI assistant that rivals ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity. See at Claude Expand Collapse
Anthropic's Claude Models Resume Normal System Operations After Elevated Errors on Requests
Amazon.com, Inc. is one of the world leaders in on-line distribution of products to the general public. The group also operates a marketplace activity, allowing individuals and distribution companies to conduct their purchase and selling transactions for goods and services. The activity is organized around three families of products and services: - electronic and computer products: toys, cameras, computers, laptops and peripherals, TVs, stereo systems, readers, wireless communication products, etc. Amazon.com also offers kitchen and garden equipment, clothing, beauty products, etc.; - cultural products: books, musical products, video games and DVDs; - other: primarily Internet interface and application development services. Net sales break down by source of income between sales of services (58.7%) and sales of products (41.3%). Net sales are distributed geographically as follows: the United States (68.3%), Germany (6.4%), United Kingdom (6%), Japan (4.3%) and others (15%).
Anthropic Says Australia is Falling Behind in Claude Coding Use
Anthropic PBC's customers in Australia are lagging global peers in using its Claude chatbot's coding capabilities, but are more heavily employing the artificial intelligence tool for simple tasks, according to the firm's country head. "When I look at our usage here in Australia, I think we ...
Architects are sitting on a data gold mine, and Anthropic and other frontier AI labs can't get to it
Seven leading-edge firms reveal how they're building their own tools to win in the age of AI. Architecture may be one of AI's hardest pursuits. Unlike coding or writing, the data that could be used to train an architecture AI model is not widely available (or stealable) online. Rather, it's stored away in the servers and physical filing cabinets of individual architecture firms. Digital drawings, 3D models, and even hand sketches are the blood and guts of an architecture project, and they're all vastly more complicated than the résumé writing or HTML coding that AI tools have quickly mastered. None of the big AI labs are currently attempting to tackle this challenge. That's leaving the job up to the companies that actually hold all the data: the architecture firms themselves. Architecture firms, both small and large, are actively building out their AI capabilities. They're hiring data scientists and machine learning specialists. They're running Shark Tank-style AI ideas competitions, vibe-coding bespoke plugins and apps to automate highly specific tasks, and even developing their own hyper-niche large language models that can help them create building forms and floor plans that reflect their signature style. All this effort amounts to a broad recognition from across the industry that it's a sink-or-swim moment for architecture. As the practitioners change the way they work -- and as client expectations shift -- some architecture firms are starting to realize that their own portfolios contain exactly the kind of information that can help them stand out in a business that's only getting more competitive.
Anthropic confirms major Claude outage: API and Claude Code affected
Anthropic said on August 24, 2026 via its status page, that Claude was in the middle of a major outage. The disruption hit the Claude API, Claude Code, Claude Cowork, Claude Workspaces, and several models, including Claude Mythos 5, Claude Fable 5, and Claude Opus 5. On that same status page, the company said it was looking into elevated error rates across multiple Claude services and working on a fix. Anthropic still hasn't given a timeline for full recovery. Reports from users in the US, India, and the UK describe failed requests and "529 Overloaded" errors, which usually point to a server-side capacity or availability issue, not a problem with your device or local network. If you rely on Claude for development, support, internal assistants, content pipelines, or software operations, keep an eye on this one. User reports suggest Claude Code may be among the hardest-hit parts of the outage, and problems there can slow releases, debugging, automation, and day-to-day team workflows. This is also the second Claude disruption in August 2026, which is starting to raise broader questions about reliability. Anthropic still hasn't publicly explained the cause, shared a post-mortem, or spelled out the full extent of the outage outside those reported regions. If these errors are showing up on your end, your best bet for now is Anthropic's public status page while you wait for service to settle back down.
Vercel reports open-weight models hit 62% of AI Gateway traffic in August
Open-weight models nearly tripled their share of Vercel's token volume in two months, reshaping how enterprises think about AI spending Two months ago, open-weight AI models were a minority player on Vercel's infrastructure. Now they're running the show, at least by volume. Vercel CEO Guillermo Rauch reported on August 22 that open-weight models accounted for 62% of all tokens processed through Vercel's AI Gateway, up from 28.4% on June 24. How fast is fast? Open-weight models held just 11% of Vercel's token volume in April. By June they were at 29%. By late August they crossed 62%. Vercel's AI Gateway acts as a routing and traffic management layer for AI-powered applications, meaning its data reflects real production workloads from real companies, not benchmark experiments or lab conditions. The structural thing happening here is cost. Open-weight models can run at roughly one-tenth the price of their closed-source counterparts, and enterprises have figured out that not every AI task needs a premium model to get the job done. The spending paradox Despite commanding 62% of token volume, open-weight models are not commanding 62% of the money. Anthropic's closed models captured between 61% and 65% of total expenditure on the gateway in recent reporting periods. Claude is processing a minority of tokens but collecting a majority of the revenue. DeepSeek has climbed to the top, or near the top, of Vercel's token volume leaderboard, overtaking Google in processing share. What this means for AI deployment broadly Major companies including AT&T and Coinbase have been noted among those emphasizing cost-reduction strategies in AI deployment, which aligns with exactly the kind of workload routing the Vercel data describes.
