1. A startup hit $300M selling AI budget cuts the same week GitHub started metering Copilot by the token GitHub Copilot dropped its flat monthly fee and switched to token-based billing. Developers reacted fast.

2. Erin Brockovich Has Spent Decades Forcing Companies to Open Their Files. Her Next Target Is the Data Center. Erin Brockovich, the environmental activist whose name became shorthand for taking on corporate stonewalling, has picked a new fight.

3. ClickUp Cut 22% of Its Staff for AI Agents. Box's Founder Says the People Approving Those Cuts Don't Understand the Jobs ClickUp cut 22% of its workforce this year and routed the work to AI agents. Tech layoffs in 2026 are already approaching the full-year total for 2025, with months still left on the calendar.

In Brief

• Google shipped Gemini Spark as a standalone 24/7 AI assistant Google released Gemini Spark, an assistant that summarizes inboxes, plans local events, and automates routine tasks. TechCrunch's hands-on test found it useful but questioned why Google split it from the main Gemini app.

• A Vatican adviser is shaping how Anthropic thinks about AI Wired profiled the cleric channeling Pope Leo XIV's positions into Anthropic's internal debates. He cannot constrain the technology, but he has secured ongoing access to the company's leadership.

• Turkey built a billion-dollar hair-transplant industry on machine learning Turkish clinics combined custom extraction motors with machine-learning algorithms to dominate the global hair-transplant market. Wired traced how iterative engineering, not a single breakthrough, drove the scale.

• University of Waterloo students built AI prototypes for education Waterloo students developed working prototypes, including a sign-language tutor. Google published the projects as examples of applied AI in teaching and work.

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