Here’s a roundup of interesting startup links I came across today:
No, Artificial Intelligence Is Not Conscious – The Atlantic
Generative AI is harmful enough when we understand it as a conventional technology, but if we confuse fluency at generating text with consciousness or moral agency, we’re at risk of assigning responsibility to entirely the wrong parties whenever anyone uses a chatbot. To appreciate the titanic magnitude of this error, we need to begin by understanding how LLMs work.
Enshittification, Despotification, and the Open Internet
This is the part most debates about tech and democracy miss. The real question is whether the underlying architecture creates incentives that concentrate power or that distribute it. It’s not about whether technology is inherently good or bad, liberating or oppressive. Architecture shapes incentives; incentives shape outcomes. And once you’ve built a chokepoint, the attempts to capture it will be relentless, because the payoff for whoever controls it just keeps growing.
Running an AI-native engineering org | Claude
We can all generate a lot of code really fast now, but this also brings up new questions: Is this code correct? How is it maintained? And one of the top questions I get from fellow engineering leaders: “How are humans keeping up with how you’re doing code reviews?”
With $12M second fund, fintech startup aims to pump more cash into climate entrepreneurs – GeekWire
The company provides financing of $100,000 to $2 million and, unlike venture capital investors, does not take equity in the startups it backs. The cash still comes at a price: annual interest rates run up to 15% to 17%, though additional fees are limited to a 1.5% origination fee.
Hillsboro erupts over data centers: ‘I feel betrayed’ – oregonlive.com
The city council held a work session Tuesday night to consider a “pause” on new data center construction in Hillsboro — the first time any Oregon jurisdiction has contemplated that step. Exhausted after nearly two hours of hostile public testimony, though, the council put off consideration and called a special meeting to resume discussion on June 9.
The trillion-dollar AI buildout is creating a cash crunch | Ctech
As a result, companies across the AI ecosystem are searching for new ways to secure capital, through layoffs, stock sales, debt issuance, fundraising rounds, and public offerings. The need for cash is becoming a defining feature of the AI era, regardless of whether a company is a venture-backed startup or a technology giant generating tens of billions of dollars in quarterly profits.
A Chatbot Knows What You Told It. An AI Persona Knows How You Think.
Here’s the distinction: a chatbot routes and retrieves. Fast, consistent, robotic. Bounded by exactly what it was told. Ask something outside that boundary and it either admits it doesn’t know or produces something that sounds plausible.
2026 Party in the Pinot
No description availableSet against the breathtaking backdrop of Scholls Valley Lodge, Party in the Pinot brings together more than 350 leaders, innovators, entrepreneurs, and community members from across the region’s tech ecosystem for a night designed to celebrate summer and the people driving Oregon’s innovation economy forward.
In-Person WordPress Meetup: Ask Questions, Meet People, Tue, Jun 9, 2026, 6:30 PM | Meetup
Whether you’re building your first site, thinking about moving from Squarespace to WordPress, or deep in the weeds with themes, plugins, or performance, this is a space to ask questions and get real answers.
Travel Oregon Names New Executive Director — Oregon Journalism Project
Kate Sinner, a director at Business Oregon with connections throughout state government, was selected Wednesday to take over as the executive director at Travel Oregon, the state’s tourism promotion agency.