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Greetings loved ones,

We did briefly contemplate skipping the newsletter this week to give the whole team a deserved holiday.

Then we realised that would install a bit too much confidence in the slaves interns, so we scrapped the whole idea and made everyone work overtime.

Memes don’t make themselves, you know (at least not yet).

Anyway, let’s get you up to speed with what happened in the world this week.

⏰ Today's reading time is 6 minutes

Artificial Intelligence has been used to design brand new viruses that are fully functional and can replicate in the laboratory, according to US researchers.

It is the first time whole genomes have been successfully designed by AI.

The resulting 16 novel viruses were created to infect bacteria and pose no threat to people. Or bats.

Just don’t ask about the bats.

The breakthrough has been labelled a "very significant turning point" in science that could unlock a new era for treating disease.

But experts have also warned AI-designed viruses raise "urgent" safety and security concerns.

And not the pissing contest kind of ‘safety concerns’ going around in the tech world. Actual safety concerns.

The technology works similarly to large language models, like ChatGPT, which predict sequences of text.

In this instance the AI models, known as Evo1 and Evo2, predict the language of life rather than stuff you want to hear.

Prof Patrick Cai, chair of synthetic genomics at the Manchester Institute of Biotechnology, said the study was an "important milestone".

"It suggests that genome language models are beginning to learn the design principles encoded by evolution, opening the door to AI-assisted genome writing."

Worst case: Man made viruses that could wipe out humanity.

Best case: Test-tube designer babies.

Following months of watching weird-looking cars around central London, Transport for London has given the green light to the first driverless taxis hitting the capital’s streets. 

The first companies to be licensed are Uber and Wayve, who beat out Waymo and Baidu’s Apollo Go to launch first in the UK. They claim that over 100,000 mouth breathers people are already on the waiting list to use the service. 

TfL approved the licenses only for cars which have a TfL licensed “safety driver” in the front during rides, with the safety driver ‘oversee[ing] the trip’ and taking over driving in a pinch. 

We take some comfort from this phased approach, but we suspect that the average Uber ride won’t change much i.e., it will still involve pretending not to listen to your driver’s obnoxiously loud WhatsApp call.

Under the scheme, cars will only hit the roads without a safety driver if and when TfL issues a subsequent license for Uber and Wayve to offer fully autonomous journeys. 

After all, no self-respecting British regulator would miss out on an opportunity to require more licenses than reasonably necessary.

Still, it buys us some time before the autonomous vehicles try to overrun suburban neighbourhoods or test their aquatic capabilities in the Thames.

Like a single white bloke in his late 20s, the U.S. government showed keen interest in Japan this week. 

Specifically, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent put $5-10bn of yen on his shopping list as the U.S. government and the Bank of Japan bought yen to stabilise its price. Apparently, it was a gesture of goodwill from the U.S. too: 

“... they wanted a little bit of help, and we’re always there for Japan. Japan’s been very good to us, with the exception, of course, of Pearl Harbor.” - Dementia Donald 

Contrary to Trump’s statement, the key driver of this intervention was that the BoJ would have sold off some U.S. government bonds to buy yen without outside intervention. 

As Japan is the largest foreign holder of those bonds (around $1tn), a sell-off would have pushed up U.S. bond yields which are already approaching 20 year highs. 

Not quite an altruistic gesture then. 

Japan’s trade deficit and low domestic interest rates in Japan continue to put downward pressure on the yen, but the country’s central bankers have been more likely to stick their hands in a blender than raise interest rates in recent years. 

However, further shopping sprees from Bessent seem inevitable unless the BoJ raises interest rates, or domestic fiscal policy is tightened up.

A better job than Andy Burnham? Or at least Liz Truss. Mind you, that wouldn’t be too difficult…

Thanks to our friends over at Fantasy Parliament, you can find out if you have what it takes to run the country.

They’ve created the most realistic political simulator ever, where you draft super realistic policy, deal with the the media, voters, interest groups and more.

I passed the following policy in my first few weeks as PM, and the people already love me.

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Wealthy Chinese citizens were shocked this week as the Chinese government opened tax investigations into their affairs going back over a decade with a 20% tax on citizens’ worldwide income from offshore trusts - a common tax “optimisation” strategy in China.

The crackdown targets profits from property, equities, precious metals, and (theoretically) cryptocurrency held in offshore trusts.

Unsurprisingly, this has made wealthy Chinese nervy, and one individual was even reportedly investigated as far back as 2000. Perhaps they’ve broken even on some Intel stock from 1999.

This crackdown is officially aimed at ensuring all overseas income has been declared, and definitely not annual income tax revenue falling since 2021.  

This uncomfortable hole in state finances has been made more difficult by revenue from government land sales, which usually tops up the budget, staying low due to the ongoing property slump in China.

The move brings China’s stance on offshore trust income into line with the U.S.

In U.S. style, China also treats many citizens who predominantly live elsewhere or hold foreign passports as Chinese tax residents, unless they renounce Chinese citizenship.

Socialism with American characteristics, anyone?

Anthropic AI’s Dario Amodei made waves this week as reports emerged regarding his concern to colleagues that new hires were joining the $965-billion corporation in pursuit of “money”, rather than “mission.”

The CEO, estimated to be worth over $15 billion, has also expressed concern that young recruits ignore other, non-financial upsides.

To our source, he listed, among other company perks:

In contrast to its rivals in the AI space, Anthropic expresses a commitment to 'AI safety', seeking to offset the potential risks of artificial intelligence by making sure the artificial intelligence is as powerful as possible.

The firm also boasts, compared to other firms, the highest pay for its employees, with some event planners earning upwards of $400k a year.

How that might have invited workers who were interested in high pay is anyone's guess.

In the latest update to the social contract, the number of job vacancies in the UK has tumbled to the lowest level in five years.

The number of jobs being advertised slid by 3% in January to 695,000, according to the job search site Adzuna, marking the first time advertised vacancies have dropped below 700,000 since January 2021.

In other words, not a fantastic time to be graduating from the University of Cambridge Ringroad with a Desmond 2:2 in Intersectional German Literary Theory.

This trend has particularly affected young jobseekers, at a time when unemployment among 18- to 24-year-olds rose to 14% in the final three months of 2025, adding to concerns that the UK is slipping down the global youth employment league table, behind the likes of [shudder] France and Estonia.

There are a couple factors at play here:

To show that it’s not slowly metamorphosing into a southern European country, the UK is at least trying to do something about it.

14-16 year olds will be able to study a wider range of more technical subjects to equip them with the skills needed for the new post-AI workforce.

Besides, someone is going to have to work if there’s going to be enough of a tax base to pay for 100 gazillion granny and grandpas taking their quarterly all-inclusive Carribean cruises.

Most coverage tells you what happened. Fintech Takes is the free newsletter that tells you why it matters. Each week, I break down the trends, deals, and regulatory shifts shaping the industry — minus the spin. Clear analysis, smart context, and a little humor so you actually enjoy reading it. Subscribe free.

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There’s an old saying that you usually see the shittest journalism in August, because that’s when all the good journalists are on holiday.

The BBC appear to be no exception to that, as they published a column this week arguing that “loudspeaking” i.e being inconsiderate and playing music/speaking loudly in public, may actually not be anti-social at all.

So if you thought you were being polite by listening to music on your headphones, think again!

Well, I’m off to go and connect with my fellow humans by blasting my playlist at full volume on my JBL speaker.

We’d love it if you left us some feedback as to how you found this edition.

Our intern will get back to you within 4-5 business days, once we’ve let them out of the basement for some fresh air.

Thanks to Harry & Pat