The Machine Economy Brief

Monday, February 23, 2026

Machine Economy Brief

Monday, February 23, 2026

The Signal

Elon Musk delayed a Grok update, prioritizing its ability to answer questions about the game Baldur's Gate, revealing the influence of personal interests on tech roadmaps [PC Gamer].

Labor Watch

Kevin O'Leary claims AI impacts are not just about layoffs, challenging narratives around technological displacement [The Times of India]. Salesforce's AI-driven job cuts raise questions about its automation investment strategy [Yahoo Finance]. Sam Altman accuses companies of using "AI washing" to justify layoffs [MSN].

Agent Infrastructure

Shift4 Payments' valuation is under scrutiny following their stablecoin launch [simplywall.st]. Bitcoin has plummeted over 40% since October [PYMNTS.com]. Modern Treasury integrates stablecoin settlement into its platform [National Today].

The Labs

Elon Musk's intervention delayed a Grok update for better gaming Q&A [PC Gamer]. Samsung's Galaxy AI adds Perplexity, expanding its multi-agent ecosystem [The Verge]. Anthropic introduces an AI tool for autonomous vulnerability hunting [PCMag].

Elon Watch

Georgia's State Election Board reprimands Elon Musk's America PAC for election law violations [The Verge]. A man claims Elon Musk is his hero for allowing AI to rent human bodies [Futurism]. Musk's xAI secures $3 billion from a Saudi-backed firm [The New York Times].

Venture Signals

Investors injected over $9 billion into AI seed rounds, targeting cybersecurity, multimedia, and robotics [Crunchbase News]. Rapidata seeks to accelerate AI model development with near real-time RLHF [VentureBeat].

Robotics & Physical World

A video shows Chinese humanoid robots performing military maneuvers, sparking debates over its authenticity [facebook.com]. US firms expedite the global rollout of Chinese humanoid robots [Interesting Engineering].

Podcast Intelligence

Jared Kushner states, "Government has limitations," emphasizing the need for private sector involvement [No Priors]. Lex Fridman discusses the perceived degradation of AI intelligence with Peter Steinberger [Lex Fridman].

Startup Obituaries

Silence echoes through the startup graveyard today.

The Number

Bitcoin has nosedived more than 40% from its record high in October [PYMNTS.com].