🛁 Don’t Ask, Don’t Smell

Code, iris scans, or conditioner. They won't tell.

29 avril 2026

Tim Sweeney, chief executive of a company valued at $22B, down from $31B in 2022, once argued on X that disclosing the use of AI in a video game was about as informative as disclosing the developer’s choice of shampoo. In January, Valve agreed. Steam’s AI transparency policy, introduced in 2024, now exempts everything the player cannot see or hear: code assistants, debuggers, procedural « efficiency tools », the entire invisible workshop. The revised argument, burnished by legal teams in Bellevue and Cary, runs that AI is now infrastructure, like Unreal Engine or AWS, and nobody asks which servers their deathmatch runs on. The analogy works provided one ignores that AWS doesn’t write the dialogue.

8,000 games disclosed some form of machine assistance on Steam in the first six months of 2025, an eightfold jump on the previous year. The disclaimers read like depositions filed by people who would rather be elsewhere. Arc Raiders, Embark’s shooter with ex-DICE staff and Nexon money, clarifies that « procedural and AI-based tools may assist content creation ». « Procedural » was the word that sold No Man’s Sky its infinite universe in 2016, and it still earns overtime, laundering synthetic voice actors into « supervised creative assistance ». What was once direction is now quality control, a job description reached for when the actual work happens elsewhere.

While Valve concludes that verifying the human origin of entertainment is no longer worth the paperwork, Sam Altman has decided the opposite problem requires a $250M-funded company, an NVIDIA-powered chrome sphere, and a retail footprint in Nashville. Tools for Humanity, the venture behind World, has been suspended, banned, or investigated in Spain, Hong Kong, Argentina, and Germany. Kenya eventually signed off after its own inquiry. By September, 15M irises had been scanned against a target of one billion, which in Silicon Valley accounting qualifies as a promising early indicator. Six American boutiques from Atlanta to the country-music capital now exchange proof-of-humanity for a WLD airdrop and thirty seconds at the orb. The aesthetics fall somewhere between an Apple Store and a Scientology audit, which is presumably the pitch deck’s point.

The surveys are less ambivalent than the executives. 49% of Americans say they’d enjoy a painting less on learning a machine made it. 48% shrug. The figure that should worry anyone building these tools lies elsewhere: 66% of under-thirties reject AI-generated art, against 36% of the over-sixty-fives. The generation raised inside the feed is the one refusing to buy what the feed now produces, not out of Luddism but out of familiarity. They know what’s behind the curtain because they helped sew it. Between a label the industry no longer wishes to print and an orb one must lean into for verification, the market has chosen forgetting. The young, for now, are the only ones bothering to look. The industry is counting on them to get tired.

🛁 Don't Ask, Don't Smell

🗞️ Top Story

  • 🇬🇧 Royal Flush. King Charles III used light humor and formal manners to subtly counter Trump’s criticism of Britain and NATO, all while championing checks and balances. (New York Times)
  • 🇬🇧 Whip It Good Keir Starmer used a strict three-line whip to block a parliamentary probe into his handling of the Mandelson ambassador scandal, sidestepping a Conservative-led motion. (El Pais)
  • 🇺🇸 Beach Please. James Comey’s innocent-looking seashell snap lands him in legal trouble for allegedly threatening Trump, because nothing says menace like seaside décor. (Wall Street Journal)
  • 🇺🇸 BlueAnon Files. Viral posts from left-leaning accounts allege Trump orchestrates fake attacks on himself, with this latest shooting fueling 80M conspiracy views in days. (Le Monde)
  • 🇵🇪 Margin Call. Peru’s electoral authority still has not confirmed who faces Keiko Fujimori in the runoff, as Sanchez and Lopez Aliaga are nearly tied. (Le Monde)
  • 🇨🇺 Fuel’s Paradise. Cubans in Havana are caught between fears of a US attack and hopes for change as fuel shortages and bilateral talks drag on. (Le Monde)
  • 🇸🇩 Drone Alone. A drone strike in Rabak, Sudan killed eleven people when it targeted pro-army forces, as the country’s war keeps spreading by remote control. (Ouest-France)
  • 🇲🇱 Power Outage. Mali’s ruling junta lost its defense minister and 23 lives in a deadly Kati assault by Tuareg and jihadist forces, with the general’s fate briefly unclear. (Le Monde)

🏛️ Economy

  • 🇪🇸 Back Above Ten. Spain’s unemployment rate rebounded to 10.83 percent in Q1, losing 170,300 jobs and ending the country’s single-digit streak. (Wall Street Journal)
  • 🇬🇧 Farage Against the Machine. UK business minister Peter Kyle warns that Nigel Farage’s Reform UK could take Britain even further right than Liz Truss, with “dangerously irresponsible” plans. (Spiegel)
  • 🇺🇸 Yield Signs. Treasury yields climb as the oil rally revives inflation worries and douses any immediate dreams of a Fed rate cut. (Bloomberg)
  • 🇦🇷 Cold Call. Argentina is scrambling to secure LNG imports for the winter as war has made the global gas market a brutal contest. (Bloomberg)
  • 🇦🇪 Crude Awakening The United Arab Emirates is quitting OPEC after nearly 60 years, blaming the Ormuz Strait blockade and years of quota squabbles for the break. (El Pais)
  • 🇮🇱 Flour Power Play. Ukraine and the EU confront Israel after another ship with allegedly pilfered Ukrainian wheat lands in Haifa, with Brussels hinting at possible penalties. (Le Temps)
  • 🌍 Current Affairs. Brent crude surged past $110 as the Strait of Hormuz remains blocked by diplomatic gridlock between Iran and the US, fueling more price anxiety for oil markets. (Le Figaro)
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
  • 🇬🇧 Ctrl Alt Britain. Liz Kendall urges the UK to take command of AI policy instead of letting US firms dictate the future, with most AI hardware out of British hands. (The Guardian)
🇺🇸 United States
  • 🇺🇸 Mood Swing. The Conference Board’s April survey shows consumer sentiment ticking up to 92.8, defying forecasts of a drop and outshining rival polls. (Wall Street Journal)

🏢 Real Estate

🇬🇧 United Kingdom
  • 🇬🇧 Frozen Assets. Downing Street has rejected Rachel Reeves’s reported idea of a private rent freeze, insisting the government will not cap rising rents. (The Guardian)
  • 🇬🇧 Let It Freeze. Buy-to-let mortgage lenders Paragon and OSB Group saw their shares slide as Rachel Reeves considers a rent freeze to shield tenants from war-driven inflation. (The Guardian)
🇺🇸 United States
  • 🇺🇸 Rate Expectations. The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Index showed U.S. home prices grew 0.7% year-over-year in February, with affordability keeping many buyers on the sidelines. (Wall Street Journal)

🔗 On-chain

  • 🇺🇸 Secret Service. Special Forces member Gannon Ken Van Dyke denied in court that he used confidential government data to place prediction-market bets on Venezuela’s leadership. (Wall Street Journal)
  • 🇺🇸 Chain Reaction. World Liberty Financial, the Trump family’s crypto firm, partnered with AB, a venture linked to two men sanctioned for running global online scams. (Wall Street Journal)

💱 Listed Markets

  • 🇫🇷 Concrete Appeal. Lafarge and eight former executives are appealing convictions for financing terrorism in Syria, after being found guilty of paying jihadist groups to keep a factory running. (Ouest-France)
  • 🇬🇧 War Chest. BP doubled its quarterly profits to $6.2B as oil traders seized on Middle East conflict volatility, giving new CEO Meg O’Neill an explosive debut. (Wall Street Journal)
  • 🇨🇭 Buyback Mountain. UBS reports $3B in profit and promises even more share buybacks this year, because nothing says confidence like buying yourself. (Bloomberg)
  • 🇺🇸 Talent Show. Citi celebrated snatching Vis Raghavan from JPMorgan, but the $52M “incentive” arrived just as he was being quietly ousted. (Financial Times)
  • 🇭🇰 Listing Up. Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing posts a record quarterly profit thanks to a flood of IPOs and heavy trading, keeping its fundraising crown polished. (Bloomberg)
  • 🇭🇰 Claude Control. Goldman Sachs has cut off Anthropic’s Claude AI for Hong Kong employees, citing contractual caution as AI export fears intensify. (Financial Times)
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
  • 🇬🇧 Loan Wolf. Barclays will scale back lending to riskier borrowers after taking a £228M loss from the collapse of mortgage firm MFS, which is under fraud investigation. (The Guardian)

🛎️ Big Deals (M&A)

  • Pernod Ricard 🇫🇷 and Brown-Forman 🇺🇸 announce the failure of their merger discussions.
  • BNP Paribas 🇫🇷 sells 25% of AG Insurance 🇧🇪 to Ageas 🇧🇪 for €1.9B.
  • Forvia 🇫🇷 sells its interior equipment business to American investment fund Apollo 🇺🇸 for €1.82B.
  • Emosia 🇫🇷 acquires Culti Milano 🇮🇹 for €45.8M.
  • O2 🇩🇪 invests in and partners with Steffl Drilling & Pump 🇩🇪.
  • Bertelsmann 🇩🇪 combines its music arm BMG 🇩🇪 with U.S.-based independent label Concord 🇺🇸 in a cash-and-stock transaction, including a $1.16B cash payment to Concord shareholders.
  • Kone 🇫🇮 is close to finalizing a €29B deal to acquire TK Elevator 🇩🇪.
  • RELX 🇬🇧 in exclusive negotiations to acquire Doctrine 🇫🇷, a French legaltech company, after its acquisition by Summit Partners for €120M in 2023.
  • CVC 🇬🇧 weighs a €9B bid for Nexi 🇮🇹 after a significant decline in share price.
  • LDC 🇬🇧 acquires Green Label Holdings Ltd 🇬🇧, receiving approval from the Competition and Markets Authority.
  • DSM Firmenich 🇨🇭 sells Action Pin 🇫🇷 to a consortium led by Benjamin and Felix Frowein.
  • Pelican Energy Partners 🇺🇸 acquires Environmental Alternatives, Inc. 🇺🇸.
  • Fusion Capital Partners 🇺🇸 acquires AQUALIS 🇺🇸 from DFW Capital Partners 🇺🇸.
  • Sierra 🇺🇸 acquires Fragment 🇫🇷, a startup helping businesses integrate AI into workflows.
  • Grant Thornton US 🇺🇸 to acquire Grant Thornton Australia 🇦🇺 as part of a global consolidation strategy.
  • Sazerac 🇺🇸 makes a minority investment in 818 Tequila 🇺🇸, a fast-growing brand popular with Gen Z.
  • Rox Capital Partners 🇺🇸 sells The Scruggs Companies 🇺🇸 to The Sterling Group 🇺🇸.
  • Pacific Equity Partners 🇦🇺 offers to acquire oOh!media 🇦🇺 for $537M.

🧳 Private Markets & VC

  • 🇫🇷 Space Barred. Elon Musk’s X went dark in multiple countries for about an hour, with no comment from the company and plenty from stranded users. (Le Parisien)
  • 🇫🇷 Le Chat Potin. Le Chat de Mistral, censé incarner l’excellence de l’IA française, propagerait régulièrement des intox russes, iraniennes et chinoises, selon un audit Newsguard. (Le Figaro)
  • 🇪🇺 Private Woes. Debt-for-equity swaps are forcing European private credit funds to become reluctant owners of distressed companies, turning loans into unwanted stakes. (Bloomberg)
  • 🇺🇸 Golden Goose Robinhood’s profit jumped thanks to prediction markets and Gold subscriptions, but Wall Street still found the eggs a bit ordinary. (Wall Street Journal)
  • 🇺🇸 Greed or Creed. Elon Musk blames Sam Altman for steering OpenAI away from its founding mission, but the company says that’s pure fiction. (New York Times)
  • 🇺🇸 Trial by Fire. Elon Musk unleashed over two dozen posts attacking Sam Altman and OpenAI on X just before their court battle began, setting the social media stage early. (New York Times)
  • 🇺🇸 Mind the App. Neurable, a startup, is offering its “mind-reading” brain-computer interface tech to consumer device makers, hoping brainwave sensors become as common as heart rate monitors. (TechCrunch)

Fundraising

  • CATL 🇨🇳 (Energy): $5bn
  • Emerald Lake Capital Management 🇺🇸 (Finance): $825M
  • True Anomaly 🇺🇸 (Aerospace): $650M (Eclipse, Riot Ventures, Paradigm, Atreides, G Squared, The Private Shares Fund, VanEck, Accel, Menlo Ventures, ACME Capital, Space VC, Meritech Capital, Narya, 645 Ventures)
  • MINISH Technology 🇺🇸 (Biomimetic): $110M
  • Sniffies 🇺🇸 (Dating): $100M
  • Kashable 🇺🇸 (Fintech): $60M (Goldman Sachs, Revolution, EJF Ventures)
  • Nervonik 🇺🇸 (Healthcare): $52.5M
  • OpenLight 🇺🇸 (Photonics): $50M
  • Fathom Therapeutics 🇺🇸 (Biotech): $47M (Sutter Hill Ventures, Chemistry, Alexandria Venture Investments, Empire State Development’s NY Ventures)
  • Actively 🇺🇸 (Revenue): $45M
  • Forest 🇬🇧 (Micromobility): £40M (B8 Venture Partners, Fen Ventures, Güil Mobility Ventures, Fintex Capital)
  • Iantrek 🇺🇸 (Medtech): $30M (USVP, Sectoral, aMoon, Visionary Ventures)
  • La Tête dans les Nuages 🇫🇷 (Entertainment): €27M (Byway Capital, Bpifrance)
  • Liquid 🇺🇸 (Fintech): $18M (Neo, Left Lane Capital, Haun Ventures, K5 Global, SV Angel, AntiFund, Sunflower Capital, Paradigm, General Catalyst)
  • Lighthouse Pharmaceuticals 🇺🇸 (Biopharma): $12M
  • Windmill 🇺🇸 (AI): $12M (Inspired Capital, Primary Venture Partners, Founder Collective, Oceans Ventures)
  • Clarasight 🇺🇸 (Travel): $11.5M
  • SkyfireAI 🇺🇸 (Aerospace): $11M
  • MagicCube 🇺🇸 (Security): $10M (e& capital, Verifone, Bold Capital Partners, Mosaik Partners)
  • Cybord 🇮🇱 (AI): $7M
  • Axomove 🇫🇷 (Medtech): €4M (Bpifrance, Go Capital)
  • Virvolt 🇫🇷 (Mobility): €3M (CoopVenture, AfriMobility, business angels, ADEME)
  • Fermeate 🇺🇸 (Biotech): $2M
  • IC Realtime 🇺🇸 (Security): $2M
  • RiskX 🇰🇷 (Fintech): $X

Fund Watch

  • Canada Strong Fund 🇨🇦: $18.4B
  • Blackstone 🇺🇸: $2B (QTS, data center operator financing electricity)
  • OSS Ventures 🇫🇷: €75M (industrial software fund, scaling in North America and Europe)
  • Nomi Capital 🇺🇸: $50M (inaugural defense fund, total platform deployments targeted)

🔔IPO

  • ST Group 🇫🇷 (Aéronautique): raised €2.1M in its IPO on Lise to support scaling efforts.
  • Canal+ 🇫🇷 (Media): set to go public in South Africa on June 3 following its acquisition of MultiChoice.
  • Airtel Africa 🇬🇧 (Telecom): planning a London IPO for its mobile money unit, aiming to raise between $1.5B and $2B.
  • RAC 🇬🇧 (Services): targeting a £5bn valuation for its delayed IPO, now set for later this year.
  • Ackman’s Fund 🇺🇸 (Finance): raised $5B in an IPO to support long-term investment plans.

🧳 Debt

  • Orange 🇫🇷: signed a €1.3B financing agreement with CaixaBank and BNP Paribas for the acquisition of Scorefit.
  • Clariane 🇫🇷: raised €230M in additional senior notes due 2031.
  • Caisse des Dépôts 🇫🇷: launched a €1B sustainable bond maturing in 2031.
  • Matrix Renewables 🇬🇧: closed £245M in non-recourse financing for a 500MW battery storage project in Scotland.
  • Columbia 🇺🇸: eyes $485M sale of taxable and tax-exempt bonds.
  • Petroperu 🇵🇪: needs to borrow over $2B to avert a fuel shortage.

❌ Failures

  • Gibert 🇫🇷: placed under judicial reorganization due to financial difficulties, aiming to shift to second-hand books amid rising fixed costs.

🎯 For a Few More Minutes…

  • 🇫🇷 Jura-Sick Park. A theme park near Montpellier made a splash with its dinosaur egg discovery, but experts say the scientific impact is pretty tame. (Libé)
  • 🇮🇹 Snack to Basics. Italy’s antitrust authority fined Amica Chips, Pata, and Preziosi Food a total of €23.3M for fixing supermarket snack prices. The companies admitted to secretly coordinating offers, proving chips can be salty in more ways than one. (Le Figaro)
  • 🇮🇳 Corpse Deposit. Refused a withdrawal without paperwork, Jitu Munda brought his sister’s remains directly to Indian Overseas Bank, forcing a face-to-face with red tape. (Le Parisien)

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