This week: OpenAI’s new Mac app buries chat behind confusing “work” branding, Benedict Evans asks whether AI labs keep their pricing power or become commodity infrastructure, and TP-Link tries to convince Washington it’s really cut ties with Beijing.

1. The ChatGPT “Super App” Sort of Super Sucks

M.G. Siegler
Published: 07/10/2026

OpenAI releases ‘Super App’ for Mac that merges ChatGPT with Codex in an attempt to shift from chat to agentic work environments
M.G. Siegler’s review of OpenAI’s new Mac app finds it a mess. It’s really Codex repackaged as ChatGPT, defaulting into a “ChatGPT Work” mode while ordinary chat gets buried in a pop-up sub-menu. OpenAI has usually nailed product design,

Their assumption seems to be that anyone downloading a desktop app is a power user who’ll figure it out. But “ChatGPT Work” is a strange signal to send casual consumers who just want to chat.

Filed Under: #generativeAi #productStrategy #uiDesign #userExperience #softwareDesign #chatgpt

2. Ways to think about token pricing

Benedict Evans
Published: 07/09/2026

Ways to think about token pricing
Benedict Evans lays out the core question behind AI token pricing: once today’s supply crunch eases, do foundation model labs keep pricing power, or do models become commodity infrastructure with the real value captured by what’s built on top? He points to cellular data as the closest parallel, a trillion-dollar industry where usage exploded but carriers never captured much value beyond the pipes.

Nobody actually knows which path wins yet. It hinges on whether the intelligence frontier keeps moving, whether network effects show up, and how much value ends up in the model versus the software built on top of it.

Filed Under: #generativeAi #tokenEconomics #aiInfrastructure #aiEconomics #valueProposition

3. TP-Link’s American Dream

Ella Apostoaie
Published: 05/17/2026

TP-Link’s American Dream
TP-Link has spent two years trying to shed its Chinese identity. It moved headquarters to California, split from its Shenzhen parent, and now says its US-bound routers are made in Vietnam. Washington isn’t buying it. The FCC banned imports of new foreign-made routers over fears Chinese law could force companies like TP-Link to help with intelligence operations.

Singling out one company doesn’t really solve the underlying problem. Cybersecurity rules that apply to all routers, regardless of maker, would do more to address the actual risk.

Filed Under: #investigation #nationalSecurity #cyberSecurity #consumerHardware #fcc