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Welcome Automaters, 👋
Y'all, remember that coding security tool we told you Anthropic casually launched last Friday. Well, thanks to that tool, the cybersecurity industry had what one Wall Street trader literally called a "mini-flash crash." 😬
To Jog Your Memory: On February 20, 2026, Anthropic dropped Claude Code Security. Think of it like a genius robot intern who reads every single line of your app’s code, understands the context, and flags the sneaky bugs human experts have missed for decades.
The Mic Drop Stat: During internal testing, the tool uncovered over 500 previously unknown vulnerabilities in open-source code. Many of which had been hiding in plain sight for years.
Now when that news came out, investors didn’t wait to read the fine print; they just hit the "sell" button. And here is exactly how bad the two-day bloodbath (Friday, Feb. 20 and Monday, Feb. 23) looked:
The Big Losers: JFrog was the single biggest casualty, plunging nearly 25% in one day.
The Titans: CrowdStrike and Cloudflare both slumped about 9% on Friday, then CrowdStrike dropped another 11% on Monday.
The Casualties: Okta declined 6%, Zscaler fell around 10%, and SailPoint shed about 9%.
The ETF Wipeout: The Global X Cybersecurity ETF hit its lowest level since 2023. Even crazier? The broader tech-software sector is heading for its worst quarter since the 2008 financial crisis.
So Is the Panic Actually Fair?
Here’s where we need a reality check. Claude Code Security is a code scanner, not a full security army in a box.
The Nuance: It doesn't detect live intrusions or stop hackers in real-time.
The Expert Take: Bank of America says the tool is a threat to code-scanning platforms like GitLab and JFrog, but it can't replace end-to-end security giants like CrowdStrike.
The CEO Cope: CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz took to LinkedIn to argue that AI actually increases the need for security. Bold move, though his stock dropped another 11% anyway. 😬
The Big Picture:
This isn’t a one-off panic; it’s a pattern. Investors are terrified of "vibe coding" (using AI to build apps), fearing it will kill demand for legacy software. Every time an AI lab launches a tool that touches a software category, that sector’s stocks get rattled.
For stockholders, it was a massacre. For the rest of us? Our software is about to get a whole lot better. Anthropic’s tool uses a multi-stage verification process to ensure it doesn't "cry wolf" on bugs, and the final decision to patch always rests with a human.
The Lesson: If your business model is "doing something an AI can now do in six seconds," you might want to rethink the whole thing.
Here's what we have for you today
🤯 Anthropic Accuses Chinese AI Labs of Stealing Claude’s "Secret Sauce"
Screenshot
Three Chinese AI labs allegedly created 24,000 fake accounts to steal Claude’s smartest tricks. Yes, really.
Picture this: You spend years becoming the smartest kid in class. Then one day you find out three other kids made 24,000 fake hall passes, snuck into your study hall, and copied your answers 16 million times. That is basically what Anthropic says just happened to Claude.
The Details: In a bombshell blog post, Anthropic accused Chinese AI giants DeepSeek, Moonshot AI, and MiniMax of using a technique called "distillation." Think of it as AI plagiarism: you prompt a smarter model (Claude) millions of times and use its clever answers to train your own cheaper model.
And hey, The "Heist" by the Numbers is no joke
MiniMax racked up a staggering 13 million exchanges targeting agentic coding, tool use and orchestration.
Moonshot AI clocked in at over 3.4 million exchanges targeting agentic reasoning and tool use, coding and data analysis, computer-use agent development and computer vision
DeepSeek reportedly went after Claude’s ability to handle "censorship-sensitive" and policy-sensitive queries/questions with over 150,000 exchanges.
Why this is a big deal: This isn't just about hurt feelings. It is a massive security risk. According to Anthropic's blog post, models built from "stolen" data can skip the expensive safety training that prevents an AI from, say, giving you instructions on how to build a bioweapon, launch a cyberattack or worse allow for offensive cyber operations, disinformation campaigns, and mass surveillance.
The timing of this announcement is no accident, if you ask me it’s rather spicy. The U.S. government is currently debating whether to tighten controls on selling advanced AI chips to China.
By going public now, Anthropic is essentially sending a carrier pigeon to Washington D.C. that says: "See? This is exactly why we need to keep the high-tech chips at home." cuz if you can't build the brain from scratch, you steal the thoughts of the brain that already exists.
The Big Picture
As AI adoption goes global, the "trust" factor is everything. If the models powering future apps are built on siphoned data without safety checks, we are moving into a very "Wild West" era of technology.
Anthropic is now rolling out new detection tools to spot these "distillation attacks" in real-time. They are basically installing security cameras in the classroom to make sure nobody is peeking at their test paper.
The Lesson: If you want to be the smartest kid in class, you eventually have to do your own homework
Here’s where you can find out more.
The Future of Tech. One Daily News Briefing.
AI is moving faster than any other technology cycle in history. New models. New tools. New claims. New noise.
Most people feel like they’re behind. But the people that don’t, aren’t smarter. They’re just better informed.
Forward Future is a daily news briefing for people who want clarity, not hype. In one concise newsletter each day, you’ll get the most important AI and tech developments, learn why they matter, and what they signal about what’s coming next.
We cover real product launches, model updates, policy shifts, and industry moves shaping how AI actually gets built, adopted, and regulated. Written for operators, builders, leaders, and anyone who wants to sound sharp when AI comes up in the meeting.
It takes about five minutes to read, but the edge lasts all day.
🧱 Around The AI Block
🤖 How AI agents could double Unemployment.
🫣 AI's dirty secret: It still can't read PDFs properly.
📱 Wispr Flow brings AI dictation to Android after iOS success.
🤑 Humanoid robots hit 10-week payback, ex-Citi exec claims.
👨🏫 Google launches free AI training for 6M U.S. teachers.
🗣️ Altman calls AI water concerns 'fake' in resource defense.
🤯 IBM crashes 11% as Anthropic threatens COBOL empire.
🤔 Defense Secretary summons Anthropic’s Amodei over military use of Claude.
🛠️ Trending Tools
For the Automation Architects: Gumloop lets you build complex, no-code workflows that use AI to scrape websites, process documents, and research leads in bulk. It’s essentially "Zapier with a brain," designed for heavy-duty batch tasks that require reasoning rather than just simple triggers.
For the Search Dominators: Surfer SEO analyzes top-ranking pages in real-time to give you a "Content Score" and specific keyword targets needed to beat the competition. It even includes an "AI Tracker" to monitor how often your brand is cited in AI search answers like Perplexity.
For the Visual Storytellers: Lexica Art is known for producing some of the most realistic and high-fidelity AI imagery, Lexica is the go-to for creating professional blog thumbnails and marketing assets. Its massive prompt library lets you "search" existing AI art to find the perfect style for your next project.
For the Experience Detectives: Fullstory uses "StoryAI" to track every click and cursor move on your site, automatically identifying where users get frustrated or "rage click." It turns thousands of individual sessions into actionable insights, helping you fix errors and boost conversions at scale.
Hope these tools help you reclaim some of your time today!
🤖 AI Workout Of The Day: How to Build a Professional Website Using Framer AI
AI Generated
Building a website used to be a special kind of torture involving broken brackets, CSS tears, and about 14 YouTube tutorials you never finished. But AI website builders have officially nuked that problem into orbit.
What makes this special: We have moved past "template dragging." Today, builders like Framer AI use pure text-to-site tech. You describe your dream site in plain English and get a fully designed, responsive, and actually beautiful layout in under 60 seconds. The AI handles layouts, fonts, color palettes, copy, and animations automatically. It’s the tool design agencies are quietly panicking about (and secretly using).
How to Use It:
Step 1: Go to framer.com and snag a free account. No credit card is required to get your hands on the AI.
Step 2: Click "Start with AI." A prompt box will appear. Alternatively, go to the "Insert" menu and select "AI Wireframer". This is your magic wand.
Step 3: Describe your website and be very specific.
Step 4: Framer generates a complete multi-page website in seconds. Scroll through: it already has sections, headlines, and placeholder images ready to go.
Step 5: Click anything to edit it. You can change text, swap colors, or upload your own photos. It works like a slick drag-and-drop editor once the AI gives you the starting point.
Step 6: Hit Publish. Your site goes live on a free Framer subdomain instantly. You can connect your custom domain whenever you are ready.
Pro Tip: Use the AI to regenerate just one section you don't love. Click the section, hit the AI wand icon, and describe what you want instead. It is like having a designer on speed dial who never gets offended when you ask for "more pop."
The Cost: Free tier available. Paid plans start at roughly $10 per month for custom domains. (pricing current at time of writing).
💡 Prompt To Try:
The Side Hustle: "A modern, bold landing page for a social media management agency targeting small restaurants. Use dark backgrounds and neon green accents."
The Personal Brand: "A minimal portfolio site for a UX designer. White space heavy, subtle animations, with sections for case studies and contact."
The Local Biz: "A warm, inviting website for a family-owned bakery. Include a menu section, an 'Our Story' page, and a contact form."Is this your AI Workout of the Week (WoW)? Cast your vote!
That's all we've got for you today.
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