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Hello friends. Guess who? That's right, it is I, the Replacer. Once again, I've been called on so you can play the new Call of Duty Black Ops 7 with three expansive modes, 18 multiplayer maps, and the tastiest zombie gameplay you've ever freaking seen. Call of Duty Black Ops 7 available now. Rated M for Mature welcome to the tech we write home for Friday, November 14, 2025. I'm Brian McCullough. Today, OpenAI is testing out group chats as a sort of collaborative prompting experience. The hyperscalers are lining up against Nvidia in one specific arena. The Sam Altman Elon Musk feud isn't over. Google knows who sent you those fake ups, shipment alert texts, and of course, the weekend lottery. Suggestions. Here's what you missed today in the world of tec when your business evolves, so does your risk of data loss. But with Veeam, your data is always on the map. Partner with veeam for coverage that keeps you moving, and get protection for workloads of all shapes and sizes, even the ones you haven't created yet so you can stay resilient as you scale. With Veeam, it's all good. Get workload coverage that works for your business@veeam.com that's V E E A M.com OpenAI is piloting group chats in ChatGPT in Japan, New Zealand, South Korea and Taiwan, letting up to 20 users create profiles and prompt ChatGPT in a shared space, the better to collaborate, I guess. Quoting TechCrunch the group chat is available to free, plus and team users on both mobile and web platforms. OpenAI says the pilot is designed to explore how people use group conversations in ChatGPT. The announcement comes after earlier reports that OpenAI had been testing a direct message style tool. The ChatGPT maker describes this pilot as just a small first step toward creating a more shared experience in the app. Early users will be invited to provide feedback, which the company says will help shape how the feature eventually expands to more regions and offerings. According to OpenAI, private chats and personal ChatGPT memory stay completely private. Group chats are invitation only, and members can leave at any time. Most participants can remove others, though the group's creator can only leave voluntarily. For users under 18, content is filtered with extra safeguards and parental controls in place. Starting a group chat is easy just tap the people icon and add participants either directly or by sharing a link. Groups can include one to 20 people. If you add someone to an existing chat, a new group is created leaving the original conversation unchanged. Each group has a short profile, and all chats are organized in a labeled sidebar for easy access. Group chats work just like regular ChatGPT conversations, but with multiple people joining in. GPT 5.1 auto handles responses and comes loaded with features such as search, image generation, file uploads, and dictation in group chats. ChatGPT's usage limits, which restrict how many AI responses users can receive per hour, only count when ChatGPT responds. Messages between human participants don't count toward those limits. ChatGPT has learned new social skills for group chats, knowing when to jump in and when to stay quiet. You can tag chatgpt to get it to respond. It can also react with emojis. Use profile photos to create personalized images for the conversation. End quote Two things to give you a heads up about in case they become big deals somewhere down the road. First up, sources say Amazon and Anthropic now support legislation called the GAIN AI act, which would give US Buyers first priority on advanced AI chips, joining Microsoft, which has already voiced support for this bill. Now here's the interesting bit. Nvidia opposes this, quoting the Journal Amazon is joining Microsoft in supporting legislation that threatens to further limit Nvidia's ability to export to China a rare split between the chip designer and two of its biggest customers. The move by Microsoft and Amazon to work against a company they are deeply intertwined with, highlights the fierce nature of the artificial intelligence race. The companies are all jockeying for favorable policy to stay ahead of competitors. Nvidia is fighting for access to the lucrative Chinese market despite security concerns. The legislation would require chip firms to satisfy U.S. demand before sending products to China and other countries subject to arms embargoes. It is one of the first efforts by Congress to address chip exports, which are vital for the data centers that train AI models. Microsoft publicly came out in favor of the legislation, known as the GAIN AI Act. Officials at Amazon's cloud unit have privately told Senate staffers they also support it. Congressional aides and people familiar with the matter said the policy would give tech firms platforms, including Microsoft and Amazon, preferential access to chips at their data centers around the world. The backing from two of the world's biggest tech companies could boost the act, despite opposition from some White House officials. Nvidia and other semiconductor companies, experts say. Peers Meta Platforms and Alphabet's Google haven't taken a position, and neither has President Trump, the people said. Anthropic, a top AI model developer that generally supports export restrictions and uses chips from Nvidia, Amazon and Google is also supporting the policy, the people said. Congress is weighing whether to include the act as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization act, which typically lands on the president's desk by the end of the year. The policy has won support from key Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, but still likely needs to get the approval of Senate Banking Committee Chair Tim Scott and top House Republicans to move forward. Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang frequently talks to Trump about AI policy, and the company has ramped up its lobbying this year. It spent nearly $3.5 million the first three quarters of the year, up from $640,000 in all of 20, according to data provider Open Secrets. The GAIN AI act is testing Nvidia's influence in Washington. It would include an exemption for tech companies and other trusted entities that would no longer need export licenses approved by the government when sending chips to regions such as the Middle East. That provision has won over Microsoft and Amazon, who have faced delays getting export licenses and would potentially gain a leg up on competitors. Usually the tension between hyperscalers and Nvidia is about the product itself and pricing, said Ray Wang, lead semiconductor analyst at the Futurum Group, a research and advisory firm, referring to the rapidly growing tech firms. Right now, that tension is getting more complicated, he said. End quote. And second thing, Note that The litigation around OpenAI and Elon Musk is not over. A US judge has ruled that Apple and OpenAI must answer to a lawsuit filed by X and Xai accusing them of conspiring to thwart competition in emerging markets. In AI. Quoting Bloomberg, US District Judge Mark Pittman on Thursday rejected a bid by Apple and OpenAI to dismiss the lawsuit, which was originally filed in August. Pittman didn't explain his decision in his written order, but he directed both parties to submit further filings arguing their positions on the case. The lawsuit seeks billions of dollars in damages from Apple and OpenAI based on claims that Apple's decision to integrate OpenAI into the iPhone's operating system inhibits competition and innovation within the AI industry and harms consumers by depriving them of choice. Lawyers for both companies rejected those arguments. In separate court filings, OpenAI accused Elon Musk of waging a campaign of lawfare against the company due in part to his long standing feud with Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman. Apple's attorneys argued that the underlying allegations in the lawsuit are inaccurate, given that the company does not have an exclusive agreement in place with OpenAI and intends to work with other AI companies in the future. End quote, Cursor has had quite a week. I told you yesterday that that big new round they raise means they have 10x their valuation just this year and now Cursor says it has also crossed $1 billion in annualized revenue. Also, it has more than 300 employees and its in house models are generating more code than almost any other LLMs in the world. Quoting CNBC, cursor is one of just a handful of AI startups including OpenAI, Anthropic, Xai, Safe Superintelligence and thinking machines that are valued at over $10 billion. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang called the company his favorite enterprise AI service In an interview on CNBC Squawkbox in October, the company said its in house models generate more code than almost any other large language model in the world. Cursor CEO Michael Truell told CNBC this startup is not looking to IPO anytime soon. Our immed is on building out the company and growing the team and we have a lot more to do there before thinking about anything like going public, he said on closing bell over time on Thursday In September, Anthropic said its coding tool Claude Code has already generated more than $500 million in run rate revenue for the company since its full launch in May. As of July, competitor windsurf was generating $82 million in annual recurring revenue, Cognition said in a blog post at the time. Internally we often talk about how high the ceiling is for how great Cursor can become and how much work still remains to get there. True said. End quote. We all remember the choices that shaped the course of our lives in business. World renowned venture capital firm Sequoia Capital calls them Crucible Moments. Their podcast brings you inside the pivotal decisions that defined some of today's most influential companies. Hosted by Sequoia's Rule of Botha, Crucible Moments Season 3 pulls back the curtain on the untold stories behind companies like Stripe, Zipline, Palo Alto Networks, Klarna supercell and more. I loved the recent episode with the founder of Zipline and how even late to the game, they are leapfrogging the bigger players to bring true autonomous drone delivery not just to hospitals, but now to customers of the likes of Walmart and Chipotle. I might win that burrito delivery bet someday soon. Tune in to Sequoia's new season of Crucible Moments to discover how some of the most transformational companies of the modern era were built. Crucible Moments is available everywhere you get your podcasts and@CrucibleMoments.com is the daily commute making your muscles feel stiff? Well, there could be a natural way to help relieve that discomfort. Cornbread Hemp creates premium USDA organic full Spectrum CBD gummies designed to help with stress, body aches and sleep. Their products are made exclusively from the hemp flower, the most potent part of the plant for maximum purity and effectiveness. Every batch is third party lab tested to ensure quality, safety and consistency. In short, Cornbread Hemp gummies are formulated to work with your body, not against it. Right now Tech Brew Ride Home listeners can save 30% on their first order. Just head to cornbreadhemp.com brew and use code BREW at checkout. That's cornbreadhemp.com Brew and use code Brew I get them, you get them and hopefully we are smart enough not to click on them, though I did once and had to scramble to make sure I was safe. I'm talking about those fake texts about things like package delivery notifications that show up on your phone. Well, we've all been trying to find the guys who do that and maybe we finally have. Quoting Fast Company if you've ever been hit with a sketchy text warning you of an overdue toll road payment or mysterious US Postal Service fees, you've likely been targeted by one of the largest cyber scams sweeping the globe. Now Google is suing an international cybercrime group it believes is responsible for the ubiquitous text based phishing scheme, which may have raked in as much as $1 billion over the last three years. In the lawsuit filed Wednesday, Google alleges that 25 people are part of a sprawling scam operation known as Lighthouse that was designed to swipe the and passwords of victims caught in its web. The Lighthouse scam hinges on tricking people with bogus texts, prompting them to click a link and share their credentials on fake websites. The sites display legitimate looking logos of brands such as Google, Gmail and YouTube in hopes of convincing potential victims that their fake web pages are real. Hence the company's involvement. Google says that it found 107 website templates misusing Google branding on their sign in screens in order to fool people into thinking those sites are safe and actually connected to Google's products. According to the lawsuit, almost 200 fake web templates connected to the Lighthouse Network imitate US websites like those belonging to the New York City government and United States Postal Service. Beyond Google's own logos, the fake sites display official looking logos of payment companies and social media platforms. Google and other security researchers believe that the text phishing scam Network is based in China, well beyond the reach of US Law enforcement. Bad actors built Lighthouse as a phishing as a service kit to generate and deploy massive smishing or SMS phishing attacks, google general counsel Halima Delaine Prado wrote on the company's blog. These attacks exploit established brands like EZPass to steal people's financial information. Google notes that this family of cybercrime is causing immense financial harm around the globe, and that the company intends to disrupt the scheme's core infrastructure with the lawsuit. Google alleges that the unnamed individuals connected to the Lighthouse scam have run afoul of the RICO act, the Lanham act, which protects trademarks, and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Because the operation is seemingly based in China, Google suit likely won't be dragging anyone to court overnight, but the suit could still disrupt the group's web hosting and other aspects of its infrastructure. Because Google doesn't know the names of the 25 individuals connected to the scam, the suit includes their telegram handles when they are known to fight cyber scams on US Soil. Google also announced Wednesday that it will back a handful of bipartisan bills designed to disrupt fraud, counter scams and block robocalls that originate overseas. Legal action can address a single operation, robust public policy can address the broader threat of scams, delaine Prado said. We encourage Congress to enact these crucial bills and help bring a decisive end to the financial harm and damage wrought by foreign cybercriminals. End quote Time for the weekend Long read Suggestions and first up, Bloomberg suggests that Sundar Pichai has pulled off a miracle with Google of late. Quote There was a time everyone seemed to have a take on why OpenAI's ChatGPT beat Google to market in November 2022. One view is that AlphaBets blo company culture had held it back and made it too touchy feely for cutthroat competition. Another was that protectionism over Google's advertising revenue had curbed the company's ambition, creating a code red moment that left it vulnerable to disruption, even destruction. Some question whether Sundar Pichai, the company's soft spoken leader, possessed the ruthlessness to be the wartime CEO Google needed. That talk has disappeared of late. Google is the strongest performer in the so called Magnificent 7 stocks this year, beating even Nvidia. The credit for that lies with the man at the top. End quote Vanity Fair takes a look at the meme coin traders Back in January it felt like everyone was about to get really really rich. We are in for face melting growth. Alex Taub the founder of the fantasy IP brand Goblin Town, who has long dabbled in cryptocurrencies, tells me at the time, this is the 1990s stock market. A monkey could throw a dart at a wall of stocks and make money. And it only seemed destined to continue. The Inc. Was not only crypto friendly, he had plans to mint his own meme coin. So did the president's wife. In September, when World Liberty Financial, a crypto venture led by the president and his three sons, launched a new coin, the company's holdings surpassed $5 billion. On paper, the running joke, says Taube, goes like this. You have the next four years to retire your entire bloodline. From the outside, it all looked too stupid to take off. Cartoon avatars shilling fart coins as a kind of currency betters, wagering millions on whether or not a politician would wear a suit. Financial markets have always been something of a game, but they were a game for smart people. Like chess, these new financial games were simpler, demanding all the intellectual rigor of Candy Crush. Being stupid actually was good. The dumber you are, the more money you make, says Taub. Still, it seemed far fetched that these games might constitute any kind of economic viability. This is one of the largest wealth creation events for young people in history, says Zara, a 28 year old crypto trader who lives on a cannabis farm in Northern California that she and her partner bought with their crypto winnings. Just how much money is churning through these markets is difficult to say, but in the past year, an insulated online economy has risen from a thicket of wallets and exchanges where fortunes are won and lost within a matter of minutes. On a Sunday in early August, when crypto markets were down, the leaderboard of a crypto wallet tracking website called Koiscan was topped by pain. A trader who as of that day had made just over $60,000 trading meme coins. But this was nothing compared to Cupsy, a figure of legend in the world of meme coin traders who, according to the site, had netted one and a half million dollars in a month. End quote. And finally, from cnet, the fear used to be putting your kids online because they might be embarrassed later in life. Or they could be target of predators, or they could be doxxed. But now, with AI, the fear is, well, their entire personhood could be cloned. This weekend, a bonus episode. A portfolio profile episode. Haven't had one of those in a while. Come to hear about the AI startup founded by ex Apple engineers that focuses on modernizing and maintaining the critical mainframe systems, especially those running on COBOL code that underpin much of the world's essential infrastructure. But stay to hear the inside information on what it's like to get into Y Combinator, and especially the best strategy I've ever heard for actually getting your application to Y Combinator. Accepted. Talk to you on Monday.