THE RUNDOWN

Behind the scenes at Apple, there's real urgency about how far behind Siri has fallen. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports that CEO John Ternus is pushing AI chief Craig Federighi hard to accelerate Siri's roadmap and turn it into a proper AI agent — something that can actually do multi-step tasks the way ChatGPT and Gemini already can. Apple has the hardware advantage with its M-series chips, but software is where it's been caught flat-footed. The pressure is clearly on.

Speaking of Apple and AI, code spotted in the iOS 27.3 beta hints that Apple may be adding chatbot support to HomeView, its smart home hub interface. A flag labeled 'Conversational Apps' suggests third-party AI assistants could soon live right inside your home controls. It's early days — beta code doesn't always ship — but it signals Apple is thinking seriously about AI everywhere, not just on your phone. Worth keeping an eye on if you're into what's coming next in AI.

Suno, the AI music generation startup, is back in legal trouble. Rights holders for Elvis Presley's recordings and the publisher behind some of Eminem's biggest tracks have both filed lawsuits against the company, alleging their music was used to train Suno's model without permission. This follows earlier actions from major labels and adds to what's becoming a defining legal battle over whether AI companies can train on copyrighted music. The courts are going to be very busy.

Epic Games Launcher is officially coming to Valve's SteamOS, the Linux-based operating system that powers the Steam Deck handheld console. This means Fortnite and the broader Epic library could soon run natively on Linux devices, something the gaming community has been pushing for a long time. It's a quiet but meaningful win for open platforms — and a sign that the PC gaming world is slowly accepting that Windows isn't the only game in town.

TechCrunch's mobility team is calling it: the Cybertruck experiment is over. Tesla's angular stainless-steel pickup, once hyped as a revolutionary reimagining of the American truck, never really found its footing in the market. Sales were underwhelming, the design polarised buyers, and the EV truck segment itself got far more competitive than Tesla anticipated. It's a rare stumble for a company that usually makes bold bets pay off.

Here's a story you might have missed but shouldn't. Researchers in Germany have cracked the mystery behind coordinated power disturbances that have been quietly haunting electricity grids around the world. The drops were happening in sync across different countries, spooking grid operators who couldn't explain the pattern. The team identified the underlying cause — a finding that matters a lot as African nations invest heavily in grid infrastructure and renewable energy connections. Good news for energy security globally.

The New York Times has added an AI-powered recipe modifier to its Cooking app — and by most accounts, it works. Users can ask it to swap out ingredients, adjust portion sizes, or tweak a recipe for dietary needs, and the results are genuinely helpful rather than generic. It's a small but telling example of AI being quietly embedded into everyday tools in ways that actually add value. Not every AI feature needs to be a headline; some just need to be useful.

A new report claims that several Sequoia Capital partners were caught off guard when Roelof Botha, the firm's managing partner, joined SpaceX's board without the kind of internal consultation they expected. The story paints a picture of a firm navigating real internal tension as it tries to stay close to Elon Musk's growing empire while managing the reputational and governance questions that come with it. For Africa's startup ecosystem, which looks to Sequoia as a benchmark for VC governance, this is worth watching.

Stephen Ward has had quite the arc: Secret Service agent, CISO at Home Depot, wrongly accused after helping arrest a hacker, spent 18 months clearing his name — and now he's back, raising a second fund of roughly $250 million for his cybersecurity-focused VC firm, Brightmind Partners. His story is a sharp reminder of how messy the intersection of law enforcement and cybersecurity can get, and also that there's serious institutional money moving into cyber defence right now.

That's your Monday sorted. The Nvidia story alone could reshape conversations about AI governance, executive accountability, and US-China tech tensions for weeks to come — so don't sleep on it.