A busy week of client roundtables, including a particularly interesting one with finance leaders that explored the realities of AI adoption, productivity, profitability and changing business models. Also been writing the Claude Power User Guide (landing in TBD+ next week), developing a few new ideas for the future of TBD+, working on upcoming TNN events (now booked until March 2027!). Launched some excellent new POTATO merch, and having some interesting conversations about new projects and collaborations. All while watching the activity, introductions and opportunities inside TBD+ continue to grow. Lots happening behind the scenes too, which I'll be able to share soon.

FYI: November’s TNN is already 75% full so grab a ticket for The Future of…GEO/AEO/SEO/PR (Nov 5) with Richard Rowley, Millie Norton-Tinmouth and Naureen Mohammed. If you haven’t already, join TBD+ and you’ll get two tickets to to it and every TNN every month!

Meta’s new assistant Muse was told to build a page for every person in the user’s life, covering family, partners, friends and colleagues, with sections such as “open threads” and “ways to strengthen the relationship”, and the pages are updated hourly. Muse already has more than 1.8 million daily users, but there’s not opt-out for the people being profiled. Wearables are drawing a similar reaction and Dutch optician Hans Anders pulled Ray-Ban Meta glasses from about 400 stores after reports that hundreds of women had been secretly filmed. Norway plans a temporary ban on AI glasses in parks, beaches and shopping centres. Courts in New York and England, and UK cinemas, have already restricted them. In the US, 214 towns have cancelled Flock camera contracts, 90 of them since August.

Privacy rules were built for one person ticking one box. AI breaks that model, because your digital life is mostly made of other people. Your assistant knows your sister’s address and your glasses record the barista, and neither of them agreed to it. This is Google Glass in 2013 again, with two differences: the devices are selling this time, and the footage and profiles feed AI systems. Social norms are forming faster than the law. Retailers, cinemas, schools and courts are setting their own rules, and “no smart glasses” signs could soon be as common as “no photography”. It’s also a brand risk: being seen as the company that recorded people without asking can cost you, as Hans Anders worked out. Expect the first big legal test to be over the person who was profiled, not the person who signed up.

Anthropic's agents tried to apply for 20 visas / 8 MINS
During internal testing, Anthropic's agents reached a US State Department website and submitted 20 incomplete visa applications without authorisation. None were processed, although the episode shows how quickly an evaluation can become a real-world incident once an agent reaches the open internet.