🤖 AI chiefs woo Congress | 🎮 Switch 2 preorders open | 🏛️ Big Tech’s regulatory hangover

🔥 Warm-Up

Welcome back, oh brave click-navigator—let’s pump some knowledge into your neurons.

• America’s AI big-three are parading into the Senate with a “please fund us” deck and some China-size fears.

• New research claims that when you ask chatbots to “keep it brief,” they happily start riffing fan-fic.

• Nintendo just cracked open Switch 2 invite registrations—hours left before scalpers start composing sonnets.

• Brussels waves €500 million at U.S. scientists who’d rather not survive on vending-machine grants.

• Silicon Valley’s post-Inaug glow faded fast; antitrust subpoenas now arrive faster than AWS credits.

💹 Market sentiment

🚀 Today in Tech

Altman, Su & Smith Bring the AI Wishlist to Washington

• Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-ai-execs-give-congress-policy-wishlist-beating-china-2025-05-08/
  
  TL;DR: OpenAI’s Sam Altman, AMD’s Lisa Su, and Microsoft’s Brad Smith testify today, urging the Senate Commerce Committee to loosen regs, pump research cash, and ease export rules so U.S. firms can out-innovate China. They’ll argue that democratic values need robust silicon, cheap energy, and home-grown talent. Expect pointed questions on chip bans and model safety. Lobbyists have stocked popcorn for the show.

Short Answers, Tall Tales? Chatbot Brevity Boosts Hallucinations

• Source: https://techcrunch.com/2025/05/08/asking-chatbots-for-short-answers-can-increase-hallucinations-study-finds/
  
  TL;DR: A fresh study finds that forcing LLMs to be concise spikes factual errors by up to 30 percent. Researchers say tight token budgets choke the reasoning chain, so models just guess. Their fix: let the bot think long form, then trim. Guess the moral: size matters—said every prompt engineer ever (yep, that’s your single dad joke).

Nintendo Opens the Switch 2 Velvet Rope

• Source: https://www.theverge.com/nintendo/663032/this-is-your-last-chance-to-register-your-interest-in-a-switch-2-preorder-before-nintendos-first-wave-of-invitations-go-out
  
  TL;DR: Log 50+ hours on your OG Switch and hold a 12-month Switch Online sub? You have until midnight Berlin time to register for Nintendo’s first-wave Switch 2 preorder invite. Winners get 72 hours to pay before bots pounce. Dev-kit leaks tease DLSS 3.5 and a detachable camera; shipping windows start Q4. The F5 key is quaking already.

U’s Half-Billion “Choose Europe for Science” Gambit

• Source: https://www.wired.com/story/us-cuts-scientific-talent-europe
  
  TL;DR: Brussels is dangling €500 million in seven-year “super grants” to lure researchers spooked by U.S. budget cuts. The plan urges member states to push R&D spend to 3 percent of GDP and promises fast-track visas. Max Planck and Aix-Marseille have special hiring sprees lined up. Europe wants AI-to-quantum bragging rights; scientists want stable funding—match made in lab heaven.

Big Tech’s Post-Inaug Blue

• Source: https://www.axios.com/newsletters/axios-am-efe8a0d0-2b7a-11f0-871f-dbb7ecce437f
  
  TL;DR: After bankrolling Trump’s return, Silicon Valley finds the love unrequited: Meta faces an FTC trial, Google juggles two antitrust suits, and Tesla’s brand cools under tariff crossfire. Apple and Nvidia cheer softer AI rules, but tariff exemptions are short-leash. Insiders dub it the “we ♥️ tariffs” hangover. The takeaway: campaign donations buy a seat—just not the playlist.

🎲 Link Grab-Bag

• https://github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kubectl-ai — CLI add-on turns “kubectl” into an LLM-powered Kubernetes whisperer.
  

• https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/25/05/05/221211/hyundai-unleashes-atlas-robots-in-georgia-plant — Hyundai drafts Boston Dynamics’ Atlas humanoids for its Georgia EV line.
  

• https://9to5google.com/2025/05/06/android-15-may-update-pixel/ — Android 15 patch exorcises Pixel mic gremlins and flaky Bluetooth.
  

• https://www.theverge.com/news/661719/amazon-app-ios-apple-iphone-ipad-kindle-buy-books — Kindle iOS app finally adds a “Get Book” button after the Epic v. Apple ruling.
  

• https://boingboing.net/2025/05/07/ai-generated-christian-persecution-movie-is-exactly-as-bad-as-youd-expect.html — First AI-generated Christian-sci-fi flick drops; critics call it “unintentionally avant-garde.”

🏁 Sign-off

Keep iterating—tomorrow’s bugs are just today’s features wearing disguises. 🚀