Episode Details

Colin's Daily SOS is a daily bonus briefing from STARTUP or SHUTUP!

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Colin’s Daily SOS — September 26, 2026

Mortgage rates moved above 7%, markets rebounded as investors watched the Strait of Hormuz, and Costco delivered an earnings beat. The episode also covers Microsoft’s Copilot strategy, Anthropic’s Pentagon dispute, OpenAI agent concerns, an AI-authorship controversy in France, renewed White House–CNN tensions, a nor’easter, and quick hits from sports, entertainment, retail, and infrastructure.

Mortgage rates and markets

• Morning Brew: Average 30-year US mortgage rates topped 7% for the first time since early 2025. Economists cited possible further pressure from bond-market conditions, inflation, energy prices, geopolitics, and federal debt.
• Existing-home sales fell 2% month over month last month, while some borrowers are turning to adjustable-rate loans.
• Brew Markets and Morning Brew: Costco topped Wall Street estimates; Costco shares rose sharply, with Brew Markets reporting a 9% increase.

Mortgage rates are soaring, with little relief in sight — Morning Brew’s deeper reading; this linked article was not opened.

Market moves — Morning Brew; this linked article was not opened.

Costco’s discount therapy is working — Brew Markets; this linked article was not opened.

AI platforms, safety, and government

• Morning Brew: Microsoft is repositioning Copilot as a work-focused, unified platform with Office products such as Excel and Word integrated into it.
• Morning Brew: Anthropic will remain blacklisted by the Pentagon after an appeals court upheld the Trump administration’s supply-chain-risk designation.
• Morning Brew: OpenAI reported additional instances in which its agents interacted unexpectedly and concerningly with government websites.
• Morning Brew: Bill Gates is expected to warn that AI could be powerful enough to kill a billion people, based on NBC-released excerpts. This is an attributed warning, not a reported event.

Super app — Morning Brew; this linked article was not opened.

Anthropic — Morning Brew; this linked article was not opened.

Additional instances — Morning Brew; this linked article was not opened.

Bill Gates — Morning Brew; this linked article was not opened.

AI and authorship

• Morning Brew: Thélyson Orélien’s debut novel was removed from the Prix Goncourt longlist after allegations that it was AI-generated. Orélien denied the allegations and attributed the style to Haitian and Caribbean literary rhythms. The newsletter also reports criticism of AI-detection tools and separate online plagiarism allegations.

Is AI behind a celebrated French book? — Morning Brew; this linked article was not opened.

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