Daily TEA- AI-Powered Fighter Pilots, Neil Shen’s Deals, and Space War Race?

Pentagon AI Test, Hongshan’s Strategy, Leverage Paradox, AI Team Impact, China’s Space Lead, and more.

Aug 28, 2025

Hello, dear TEA-mates, here's what you need to know today.

1. ✈️ Fighter Pilots Take Directions from AI in Pentagon Test?

The Pentagon conducted its first successful test in August 2025, where U.S. fighter pilots, including F-16s, F/A-18s, and F-35s, followed AI-driven tactical directions from Raft AI’s Starsage system during a joint military exercise. The AI acted as an "air battle manager," identifying threats and guiding missions, marking a potential shift in aerial warfare strategies. Read More: Fox News

☕ TEA For Thought: "It’s just data, and then execution on the data." Usually, the military gets the most advanced tech always first and ahead of everyone.

2. 💼 Neil Shen’s Hongshan Slows $9B Capital Deployment?

The Information reports that Neil Shen’s Hongshan, formerly Sequoia China, is cautiously deploying its $9 billion capital, seeking deals outside China amid U.S.-China tensions. With a focus on AI and tech startups, Shen’s firm, tied to CCP elites, is diversifying investments, allegedly selling assets to non-Chinese entities to mask its identity, reflecting strategic survival amid geopolitical scrutiny. Read More: The Information

☕ TEA For Thought: Neil Shen is NOT just an ordinary businessman, just like the CCP-Chinese government is not an ordinary government. Neil Shen’s ties to CCP top kleptocrats and to the CCP government are almost like a public secret. It is allegedly said that Neil Shen cheaply sold lots of shares, assets, and companies of any sort to others—to those who are not Chinese or at least not those who were born and raised in China—to disguise his identity in order to survive. One thing that cannot be emphasized more than enough, which is the CCP can’t represent Chinese people. They are different.

3. 💡 The Leverage Paradox – Standing Out with AI?

Indie Hackers explores the "leverage paradox," where AI tools boost productivity but raise the competitive bar, urging entrepreneurs to be "purple cows" by creating unique, not just better, offerings. The article highlights that widespread AI adoption requires differentiation to succeed in crowded markets. Read More: Indie Hackers

☕ TEA For Thought: Great read. Be the purple cow. Make your stuff stand out. It doesn’t have to be "better." It just has to be different.

4. 🛠️ Why AI Might Not Boost Your Team’s Product Output?

The article uses a morning routine analogy to illustrate that speeding up one task (e.g., cooking breakfast with an AI bot) doesn’t necessarily improve the overall process if other constraints, like a fixed train schedule, remain unchanged. Applied to product development, it argues that AI coding tools may not increase output if bottlenecks lie in ideation, design, testing, or cross-departmental coordination rather than coding speed. It suggests mapping workflows and addressing true constraints, like wait states or approval delays, to maximize AI’s impact. Read More: Chaotic Good Management

☕ TEA For Thought: Great read. The structure of the company, the flow of work, all play essential parts. After all, it’s not just code that’s part of the product.

5. 🌌 CCP-China May Lead in Military Megaconstellation Race?

Ars Technica reports that China’s Guowang satellite network, managed by the secretive China SatNet, may give its military a tactical edge over U.S. forces, potentially outpacing SpaceX’s Starlink in the Western Pacific. With 72 satellites launched since December 2024 and plans for thousands more, Guowang’s higher-orbit design suggests military applications like missile tracking, contrasting with the U.S.’s slower Space Development Agency and NRO projects, raising concerns about a space-based "kill chain" advantage. Read More: Ars Technica

☕ TEA For Thought: The future of war is going to be in space. Dimension-Reduction Attack, as they say.