Note App Listens to Your Zoom Call
Also Anthropic Hides The Good API Key

The Note-Taking App That Just Wants to Help (Too Much)

The Notion Desktop application is facing scrutiny after users noticed it was preternaturally aware of when a meeting began, popping up an "In a meeting? Start AI Meeting Notes" notification with alarming speed. This apparent omniscience led some users to believe the application was actively recording their audio or secretly snooping on their calendar. The reality, according to Notion employees on the comment threads, is slightly less sinister and far more like a corporate overreach that mistook "helpful" for "creepy."

Notion confirmed the system uses a "sophisticated dual-detection approach" that combines microphone status monitoring with network port analysis to trigger the notification. Essentially, the desktop client on Windows and macOS is not recording the audio; it is simply observing if a process like Zoom or Google Meet is using the microphone to determine if you are busy. This is like your coworker standing just outside your cubicle and guessing your status based on whether the door is open. Many users remain unimpressed with the transparency, opting to uninstall the application or install firewall rules to stop the "Desktop meeting detection notification" from firing. The issue highlights the new reality where every major application, driven by investor demand, seems compelled to ship another "AI" feature regardless of user expectations for privacy.

Budget Cuts Hit the AI Supply Closet

Anthropic, the well-meaning but occasionally clumsy large language model company, has unilaterally tightened the usage limits for its Claude Code service without any prior notice to its subscribers. Users on the expensive $200 per month Max plan, which previously offered famously generous limits, were suddenly greeted with generic "Claude usage limit reached" messages. The lack of communication caused alarm among developers who had built entire workflows around the unlimited or near-unlimited capabilities.

The Max plan may have been simply too good of a deal; one user noted they were sometimes making over $1,000 worth of API calls in a single day for a fixed $200 subscription. Anthropic acknowledged that some users were experiencing "slower response times" but declined to address the sudden limit change directly. The whole episode serves as a reminder that turning your entire job over to a third-party service with unclear long-term availability is the modern equivalent of trusting the corporate mainframe. Users are now trying to find workarounds, with one developer simply stating the new restrictions made it "impossible to advance his project" since the changes went into effect.

The New Intern Can Automate Your Existential Dread

The 'Agentic AI' trend is now officially a market-wide phenomena; OpenAI rolled out ChatGPT agent, which promises to "bridge research and action" by combining its browser, its data analysis tool, and its conversational fluency into a unified system. Essentially, the AI is now a virtual coworker operating on its own virtual computer with persistent memory, capable of handling complex tasks like building financial models or scheduling your next meeting. The company is quick to reassure everyone that the human user remains in control, though you do have to be a bit more mindful about what websites this autonomous intern navigates.

Not to be outdone, Mistral also released new "Deep Research, Voice, Projects" capabilities in Le Chat, which sounds less like cutting-edge AI and more like a company trying to hit every feature checkbox on the Q3 roadmap. The collective output suggests a future where our jobs will consist entirely of actively supervising an assistant whose internal thought process is less transparent than a poorly documented YAML file. OpenAI itself notes the agent remains in "early stages" and is capable of making mistakes, which is a surprisingly honest description of all knowledge work.

Briefs

• Self-Taught Engineering: The blog post explaining why self-taught engineers often outperform their degree-holding peers is back on the front page; the argument is still mostly that hunger is a better motivator than student loans.
• Better Colors: An interesting piece discusses new colors without shooting lasers into your eyes; IT staff will likely file this under "another thing the graphics department wants and we cannot support."
• The Smell of Code: Gwern has published a set of in-depth perfume reviews, proving that even the most rigorous technical mind can still be convinced to buy overpriced scented water.