Uber teen livestream, Paul Graham on founders, $28k CAIO training, UChicago's AI ban, and Xiaomi's TSMC chip
Hello, dear TEA-mates! Here is what you need to know today.
1. 🚕 Your Teen's Uber Ride Is Now a Livestream
Uber said Tuesday it is rolling out live video streaming for teen accounts so parents can watch a ride in progress. The feed uses the driver's selfie camera. When a ride starts, the linked parent or guardian account gets a notification if the stream is available, and if they join, both the driver and the teen are notified. Only linked parent or guardian accounts can watch. There is no opt-out for other passengers who happen to be in the car with the teen. Once the ride ends, Uber says nobody (driver, teen, or parent) can access the video. The company calls the video "encrypted," but did not say whether that is end-to-end encryption when TechCrunch asked. The feature is live in nine U.S. markets, including Atlanta, Cleveland, and Rhode Island, and is set to expand nationwide in the coming weeks. Uber launched teen accounts in the U.S. in 2023 and has since expanded them to more than 50 countries. (Read More)
🫖 TEA For Thought: "This reminds me of a Black Mirror episode where a mom inserted a chip into a child's head to monitor her 24/7 for her safety until she became obsessed, and the child turned into a teen and found out that the mom was monitoring her while she was with a guy. Their relationship broke and the child left home… I mean, what else can be done for this sort of “censorship” in the name of protecting children?"
2. 🚀 Paul Graham: Stop Teaching "Entrepreneurship." Teach Building
In an August 2026 essay, Y Combinator co-founder Paul Graham argues that universities prepare founders best by teaching powerful ideas and letting students build, not by inventing entrepreneurship curricula. YC partners, he writes, look for people who are good at building things and have a habit of doing it. The hard part of startups is product (knowing what to build and being able to build it), which comes from computer science, mechanical engineering, molecular biology, and other building disciplines, not management or finance. He says the two real university changes that matter are making students feel starting a startup is something they can do, and encouraging their own side projects. On YC application data, Harvard alumni apply at about twice the rate of Yale and Princeton alumni, which he treats as evidence that culture, not talent, is the gap. He also notes Microsoft and Meta both got started during Harvard's reading period, when students are on campus with nothing due the next day. (Read More)
🫖 TEA For Thought: "The excitement of creating something new is a much more powerful motivator than the fear of doing badly on an exam."
3. 🎓 Want to Be a Chief AI Officer? That'll Be $28,000
Business schools are racing to train executives for the still-fuzzy Chief AI Officer (CAIO) role, even as companies argue over what the job actually includes. Bloomberg reports that Nancy Schieber, returning to a job market reshaped by AI after years away from advertising, spent $28,000 on the University of Chicago Booth School of Business 10-month Chief AI Officer program. As part of the class, she spent 12 hours building a 65-page AI transformation strategy modeled on Ogilvy, where she had worked for 13 years. Booth lists the program fee at $28,000. MIT, Harvard, and other schools have launched related executive offerings as employers hunt for leaders who can connect AI projects to risk, governance, and org-wide adoption. (Read More)
🫖 TEA For Thought: "When everyone is trying to figure out what CAIO means, how to lead or build an AI-native organization, higher eds are “leading” the efforts to capitalize/monetize this confusion."
4. 📵 UChicago Makes Core Social Science "Analog" Again
The University of Chicago will prohibit AI use in its core social science courses starting this fall, following a Social Sciences Collegiate Division memo first reported by the student paper Chicago Maroon. The three-course social science core is one of nine general-education sequences. SSCD Master Jenny Trinitapoli wrote that the sequences are best understood as a pedagogical setting without AI, and that for AY 2027 they are designed as "analog" courses. Students are expected to read on paper and hold device-free discussions. The policy requires in-person attendance, bans recording of class, treats classrooms as device-free spaces (laptops, phones, and wearable AI generally prohibited), and requires independent assignment work without AI tools. Professors may carve out limited exceptions, for example bringing laptops on a day to examine a dataset or revise a page of text. The move follows a July UChicago Law School pilot that bars electronic devices in core first-year courses this fall. (Read More)
🫖 TEA For Thought: "This I understand where it comes from, but I don't think banning it is the way to go. But after all, higher ed used to hold all this knowledge as their precious assets to charge ridiculously high tuition for. However, now with AI, anyone can learn anything with AI, a personalized tutor in your pocket. The monopoly of knowledge selling is just gone."
5. 📱 Xiaomi's New Xring Chip Will Be Built by TSMC
Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi unveiled a new in-house handset processor, the Xring O3, a year after its first proprietary chip, the Xring O1. The company is the world's third-largest smartphone vendor and is trying to join Apple, Samsung, and Huawei in owning more of its silicon. Two people familiar with the matter told Reuters that TSMC will manufacture the O3 on 3-nanometre process technology. One source said the chip is aimed at Xiaomi's upcoming flagship folding phone, with a shipment target of 200,000 to 300,000 units. Xiaomi said cumulative Xring O1-powered devices (phones, tablets, and watches) have already surpassed 1 million units, while sources put Xring O1 smartphone sales near 150,000 since the May 2025 launch. Xiaomi also said it contracted TSMC for two more chips: the Xring O100, a 6-nm neural processing unit for its MiMo model on consumer devices, and the Xring D100, a 3-nm chip for autonomous driving. Xiaomi sold 65 million handsets in the first half of 2026. (Read More)
🫖 TEA For Thought: "Being the king pretty much in the realm of manufacturing, now with AI, it’s only a matter of time."
🛠️ Skill of the Day
The Constraint Flip: find which "must" in your plan is actually optional, expensive habit, or someone else's preference.
You are my constraint auditor. I will describe a plan, project, or decision that feels stuck. Your job is to separate real constraints from fake ones so I can move again.
Situation:
[PASTE THE PLAN, GOAL, OR STUCK DECISION]
Do this:
1. List every constraint I stated or implied (time, money, tools, people, policy, taste, fear).
2. Tag each one as HARD (breaking it fails the goal or violates a real rule), SOFT (a preference or habit), or UNVERIFIED (I asserted it without evidence).
3. For every SOFT or UNVERIFIED item, propose the smallest test that would prove whether it is real.
4. Name the single constraint that, if relaxed, would unlock the most progress this week.
5. Rewrite my next step as one concrete action that respects only the HARD constraints.
Be blunt. Do not invent constraints I did not give you. If I have only soft constraints, say so and tell me to ship the imperfect version.Paste into ChatGPT, Claude, or your tool of choice. Replace the bracketed block with your stuck plan, then run it before you add another workaround.
TEAHEE Moment
Stay sharp, stay informed. See you tomorrow.
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