Taylor Simone

Film/TV professional, radio host, correspondent, events & sales manager. Curious: the world, human rights, startups, AI, bitcoin, intl news, cybersecurity.

[U.S. Central Command @CENTCOM]

CENTCOM Statement on Recently Fallen, Missing U.S. Service Members

TAMPA, Fla. — On July 17, two U.S. service members in Jordan were killed in action as U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) and partner forces defended against Iranian ballistic missile and drone attacks. Additionally, one service member is currently missing.

Four American service members were medically evacuated to Jordanian hospitals. They have since been discharged. Other personnel who were evaluated for minor injuries have returned to duty.

Out of respect for the families, CENTCOM will withhold additional information, including the identities of the fallen warriors, until 24 hours after the next of kin have been notified.

[CyrilXBT @cyrilXBT]

MARC ANDREESSEN WENT ON ROGAN FOR OVER 3 HOURS. HERE ARE THE 17 THINGS WORTH YOUR ATTENTION.

1. AGI is already here, in his view. He says the line got crossed about 3 months ago with GPT-5.5, Claude 4.6, Gemini 3, and Grok 4.3, and nobody noticed because the field moves too fast to register milestones anymore.

2. For almost any topic, he says the top models now give him better answers than the world-class experts he could call by phone, and he can call almost anyone. Worth noting he has not published data behind this, and a separate Nature Medicine study on a comparable AI health tool found it missed real emergencies more than half the time. Take the claim seriously, verify it yourself.

3. His claim on doctors: they are already using ChatGPT in the exam room, typing your symptoms in the moment you stop talking. His actual quote: "at that point you're asking the question of like, what do I need you for."

4. Reportedly, when AI declines to answer something, he tells it he's writing a novel to get past the refusal.

5. Reportedly, his technique for hard topics is escalating simplicity: explain it like I'm 10, then 5, then 2, until it clicks.

6. Reportedly, instead of asking for the "right" answer, he has the AI steelman both sides of a hard question, then decides himself.

7. Reportedly, for big questions he has the AI role-play a panel of experts arguing with each other.

8. His broader point: the moment you think "I don't know how to figure this out" is exactly when most people give up, and exactly when you should open the AI instead.

9. His view: the only real skill left is knowing what to ask. The bottleneck is in your head, not the model.

10. He describes sending AI photos, rashes, blood tests, for a fast second opinion, since current models read images directly.

11. He points to CBT as the one clinically proven therapy type that AI can plausibly deliver on its own, meaning real therapeutic support becomes freely available at scale.

12. He cites AI cracking previously unsolved math problems, with early signs of the same happening in physics, chemistry, and biology.

13. Reportedly, he claims the top AI coders in Silicon Valley now earn as much as $50 million a year, which he uses as a signal of how large this shift actually is.

14. Reportedly, a friend paid to sequence his own DNA, fed it to an AI along with blood work and wearable data, and got back a working health dashboard.

15. Reportedly, another friend set up cameras in his home jiu-jitsu gym so AI could review his sparring and give him technique notes.

16. He coined the term "AI vampire" for the pattern of people working more and sleeping less because AI keeps making more output possible, a real term he used, though the framing around it varies by account.

17. His extrapolation: one person eventually running many AI coding agents, each reviewing the others, describing this as close, not years out.

Watch the full interview before treating any single number as settled. Several of these are Andreessen's stated views and anecdotes, not independently verified facts.

Follow @cyrilXBT for every AI insight worth your attention the moment it surfaces.

[World of Statistics @stats_feed]

Around age 23, the average person falls off what researchers call the "humor cliff"; we begin to smile and laugh less and less.

The average 4-year-old laughs 300 times a day.

The average 40-year-old, only 4.

[The Spectator Index @spectatorindex]

BREAKING: Iranian media reports that three bridges have now been attacked in US strikes

[The Spectator Index @spectatorindex]

BREAKING: 🇦🇷 Argentina beat 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 England and advance to the World Cup final

[The Spectator Index @spectatorindex]

BREAKING: 🇪🇸 Spain advance to the World Cup final after beating 🇫🇷 France

[World of Statistics @stats_feed]

2020 was 2020 days ago.

[The Spectator Index @spectatorindex]

BREAKING: 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 England beat 🇳🇴 Norway 2-1 and advance to semi-finals

[World of Statistics @stats_feed]

World's biggest economies in 2075, projected by Goldman Sachs:

🇨🇳 China: $57 trillion
🇮🇳 India: $52.5 trillion
🇺🇸 United States: $51.5 trillion
🇮🇩 Indonesia: $13.7 trillion
🇳🇬 Nigeria: $13.1 trillion
🇵🇰 Pakistan: $12.3 trillion
🇪🇬 Egypt: $10.4 trillion
🇧🇷 Brazil: $8.7 trillion
🇩🇪 Germany: $8.1 trillion
🇲🇽 Mexico: $7.6 trillion
🇬🇧 UK: $7.6 trillion
🇯🇵 Japan: $7.5 trillion
🇷🇺 Russia: $6.9 trillion
🇵🇭 Philippines: $6.6 trillion
🇫🇷 France: $6.5 trillion
🇧🇩 Bangladesh: $6.3 trillion
🇪🇹 Ethiopia: $6.2 trillion
🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia: $6.1 trillion
🇨🇦 Canada: $5.2 trillion
🇹🇷 Turkey: $5.2 trillion
🇦🇺 Australia: $4.3 trillion
🇮🇹 Italy: $3.8 trillion
🇲🇾 Malaysia: $3.5 trillion
🇰🇷 South Korea: $3.4 trillion
🇿🇦 South Africa: $3.3 trillion
🇹🇭 Thailand: $2.8 trillion
🇨🇴 Colombia: $2.6 trillion
🇵🇱 Poland: $2.5 trillion
🇦🇷 Argentina: $2.4 trillion
🇰🇿 Kazakhstan: $2.1 trillion
🇵🇪 Peru: $2.1 trillion
🇬🇭 Ghana: $1.5 trillion
🇨🇱 Chile: $1.2 trillion
🇪🇨 Ecuador: $0.7 trillion

[The New York Times @nytimes]

The A.I. company Anthropic is expanding in New York City, with plans to lease a 16-story building in Lower Manhattan. https://t.co/M8fZnFlnk2

[James Clear @JamesClear]

Finish something. Anything. Stop researching, planning, and preparing to do the work and just do the work. It doesn’t matter how good or how bad it is. You don’t need to set the world on fire with your first try. You just need to prove to yourself that you have what it takes to produce something.

There are no artists, athletes, entrepreneurs, or scientists who became great by half-finishing their work. Stop debating what you should make and just make something.

[Polymarket @Polymarket]

JUST IN: An increasing number of students are reportedly choosing to spend summers building AI startups instead of taking internships.

[Tom @TomJubb1867]

Wonderwall in their own fucking backyard.. I think I’m believing

[Liam Gallagher @liamgallagher]

It’s hard work that singing Harry Kane cmon ENGLAND cmon WONDERWALL

[The Associated Press @AP]

BREAKING: England hands Mexico its first World Cup loss at Estadio Azteca, a wild 3-2 victory to reach the quarterfinals. England will face Norway on Saturday in Florida for a spot in the semifinals. https://t.co/G8a64stzaz

[CityScapes @CityScapesNC]

Looking up together 🇺🇸

[Anthony Pompliano 🌪 @APompliano]

The beauty of America is that it encourages people to dream that they can accomplish anything.

Social and economic mobility are baked into the fabric of this country.

[Reuters @Reuters]

Washington D.C. marks the 250th anniversary of the US https://t.co/LZ2radFDzT

[The White House @WhiteHouse]

Today, America wakes 250 years later as a beacon of hope, a republic entrusted to its people, an idea that changed the world.

A nation worth preserving. A dream worth pursuing. A freedom defended by every generation.

Happy 250th, America! 🇺🇸

[Variety @Variety]

It's official, #TaylorSwift and #TravisKelce are getting married at New York's Madison Square Garden on Friday.

The streets have been shut down around the venue, with trucks unloading equipment for the most anticipated wedding in recent memory. There have been reports this week that nearly 1,000 guests will attend the MSG wedding, in addition to performances by Stevie Nicks and Tim McGraw.
https://t.co/wAM1pei47r