Simon Willison: Changes in the system prompt between Claude Opus 4.6 and 4.7 (Apr. 18, 2026)
Opus 4.7 updates Claude’s system prompt with PowerPoint tools, stricter child-safety, acting-over-clarifying rules, tool_search checks, brevity guidance, disordered-eating limits, and refusal of short answers on complex topics.
Sam Henri Gold: Thoughts and Feelings around Claude Design (Apr. 17, 2026)
Figma’s rigid systems are losing ground as code becomes the source of truth, and tools like Claude Design prioritize HTML, JS, and direct design-to-code workflows.
WSJ: Intel Is Making Progress. But It Isn’t Out of the Woods Yet. (Apr. 19, 2026)
Intel’s stock has surged toward a $350 billion valuation, despite an unfinished turnaround in manufacturing, design, and servers. Nvidia, Google, and Terrafab deals, plus CPU-focused AI demand, help.
WSJ: America Is in the Middle of a Stealth Manufacturing Boom (Apr. 18, 2026)
U.S. factory output has risen modestly, even as manufacturing jobs fell, driven by strong demand for AI equipment, including semiconductors, networking, and power gear.
Derek Thompson: AI vs Electricity (Apr. 16, 2026)
Early electricity—rival inventors, nascent monopolies, slow then surging demand, financial mania, and federal regulation—parallels AI. If AI follows that path, expect some firms to fail, not a full bubble, and new rules treating frontier labs as regulated monopolies.