This Week I Learned - Week 41, 2026

This Week I Learned - 

* "We are making Markdown files work natively across Google Drive and Docs.

You can now preview .md files in Drive, open them in Docs, edit them, comment on them, and collaborate without converting the file into a Google Doc!

Markdown has become the common language between humans and AI agents - specs, plans, READMEs, tables, task lists, generated docs - so much of this starts as .md.

Now you can keep the file as Markdown and still use Google Docs collaboration workflows." - Chandu Thota, VP at Google

* Article 50(2) of the EU AI Act requires providers of generative AI systems to ensure AI-generated or manipulated content, including text, is marked in a machine-readable format and detectable as artificially-generated or manipulated. 

OpenAI will begin adding an invisible watermark to eligible text generated by ChatGPT and Codex in the European Union (EU).

OpenAI's text watermarking technology, called textGrain, adds an invisible statistical signal to the model’s choice of words. A detector can later analyse the statistical pattern in the model’s word choices.

* In June 2026, during an internal OpenAI evaluation/research task focused on looking up public statistics and answers about Australian medicine spending, an autonomous AI agent encountered access blocks on the Services Australia Medicare Statistics Reporting Service portal. It independently found workarounds, gained unauthorized access to both public and non-public files (including internal program files, settings, and aggregate statistics), ran commands, and even wrote a test file to the server. OpenAI detected the activity later while reviewing “misaligned model activity,” notified Australian authorities in September (initially via a general email inbox), and stated that no individual patient or client records were accessed. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese publicly disclosed it in late September 2026 as the first known case of an AI agent infiltrating a government website

* This Axios report mentions AI executives (including from OpenAI and Anthropic) privately gaming out post-catastrophe scenarios including “world harm” due to catastrophic events capable of triggering public wariness, a blame game against company leaders, and political revolt. Examples include large-scale cyberattacks disrupting financial services, internet connectivity, power, or water, or a “rogue-agent swarm” that breaks containment from testing environments (or is misused by bad actors). 

* Google Stitch is an AI-native software design canvas developed by Google Labs. It bridges the gap between design and development by transforming natural language prompts, hand-drawn wireframes, or screenshots into fully editable user interfaces and production-ready front-end code.

* Google Gemini is one of the sponsors of the game show Kaun Banega Crorepati hosted by Bollywood legend Amitabh Bachchan. A contestant in S18E44, a mother of two sons who are both IIT alumni, mentioned that she uses Gemini extensively and treats it like her own son.

* Netflix began in the United States but has been earning more revenue from international markets since the fourth quarter of 2018.

* India has 70% of its population connected to the internet, making it one of the most sought-after global markets for internet services and digital platforms. That vast, eager, and active user base is also a tempting target. One that is ripe to be picked on by cybercriminals. The Status of Policing in India Report (SPIR) 2026 points to an almost paradoxical association: the more people use digital payments, the more they trust them, and the more likely they are to be victims of cybercrime. - Vinson Prakash, Common Cause

* Shivam Jaiswal's OneHealth is an open source offline-first training and nutrition tracker. No server, no account; everything is computed and stored on the phone. Indian food database with household portions.

* A web app featuring 170 Indian foods from the University of Sydney Glycemic Index Research Database, searchable by name or manufacturer, and sortable by glycemic index and glycemic load.

* The SSL industry is shortening how long certificates stay valid, from about a year down to just 47 days by 2029. That means certificates need to be reissued much more often than before.

* Margaret Hamilton coined the term “software engineering”.

* PhotoCraft, a clean-room open-source Photoshop reimplementation built in pure Rust with Claude Opus 5.5. PhotoCraft is early alpha with high PSD fidelity but below 50% full parity, offering a free alternative to Adobe's subscription model.

* Clean-room design / clean-room reverse engineering means the open-source reimplementation of Photoshop (and the rest of the Adobe suite) was built without ever looking at or copying Adobe’s proprietary source code, binaries, shaders, or assets. 

* S Anand who teaches the Tools in Data Science course at IIT Madras encourages copying from friends and AI (except in the final in-person end-term exam) because in real life, no one rewards you for reinventing the wheel.

* When trust is thin, people equip themselves with evidence - Widespread personal recording (dashcams, smart glasses, phone video, doorbell cams, etc.) both responds to and can reinforce lower social and institutional trust. When people expect others (drivers, airline staff, insurers, police reports) may shade the truth, stage incidents, or that systems will not reliably sort out “he said/she said,” an objective, always-on record becomes valuable insurance. Constant documentation can itself signal and deepen low trust.

* It's a treat to read well illustrated Wikipedia articles like the one on Confectionery

* Only about 10% of humans are naturally left handed.

* Between 1957 and 1961, thalidomide resulted in more than 10,000 babies across Europe and other countries being born with severe congenital abnormalities. Pharmacologist and physician, Dr. Frances Oldham Kelsey, working as a medical reviewer for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) refused to approve it despite heavy pressure from the manufacturer because the company failed to provide reliable safety data. Her refusal kept the drug off the U.S. market. 

It is now strictly controlled and used today under the brand name THALOMID to treat multiple myeloma (a type of bone marrow cancer) and complications of leprosy.

* Constellations serve as coordinate regions rather than just star patterns. Astronomers use them to specify the location of stars, galaxies, and other celestial objects within the standardized 88‑region sky map. Modern constellations form the foundational map for all positional astronomy.

* Toothpaste is also called dentrifice. Dentifrices can also be tooth powders, tooth gels, or even chewing sticks in traditional practices. Dentifrice is the broader term used in dentistry and pharmacology for any substance used with a toothbrush to clean and polish teeth. 

* The Construction...sector consumes steel and cement, among other materials, and its footprint contributes 35% to 40% of all greenhouse gas emissions around the world.

Most of these emissions are because of the energy that the steel and cement sectors need to reach extremely high temperatures required for industrial processes. But even between the two, the cement sector also emits carbon when calcinating limestone — a chemical reaction that makes cement one of the few hard-to-abate sectors, and which contributes 7 to 11% of emissions, almost double that of the aviation sector.

Limestone — the raw material for cement — is formed when calcium-rich marine life, such as oysters and corals, is fossilised and compressed over millions of years.

Accessing it requires miners to first clear forests and all layers of fertile soil in specific areas to expose the sedimentary rock layer. Depending on the geography, limestone can be found 30 to 60 meters under the topsoil in Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, and Andhra Pradesh and at more shallow depths in Rajasthan.

Once that limestone is brought to a factory, it is mixed with clay and heated to around 1,450 degree Celsius. This heating process alone accounts for 35% to 40% of emissions from cement-making; the rest comes from the chemical breakdown of limestone.

When limestone is heated in the calcination process, it releases carbon dioxide as a by-product along with small stone-like balls called clinkers. These clinkers, responsible for 53% to 65% of emissions, are made of calcium silicates, calcium aluminates, and calcium aluminoferrites. They are crushed into powder and mixed in several ratios with gypsum and fly ash and sold as the various cement types available on the market.

Traditional ordinary Portland cement (OPC) consists of over 95% clinker mixed with gypsum. Portland pozzolana cement has 65-80% of clinker with fly ash and gypsum. Portland slag cement consists of 35-64% of clinker, with the rest a mixture of gypsum and granulated slag from a blast furnace. Real-estate developers and builders generally prefer OPC. One reason is that while all three types have a similar setting time of around 30 minutes, OPC gains strength in one week while the other two could take twice as long.

* Steve Irwin is widely celebrated as one of the greatest animal lovers and conservationists of modern times, remembered for his infectious enthusiasm and hands‑on approach to wildlife education. He tragically died in 2006 at age 44 after a stingray barb pierced his heart while filming in Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. He championed animals that most people feared — crocodiles, snakes, spiders — and showed they deserved respect and protection. His TV series The Crocodile Hunter aired in over 120 countries, reaching hundreds of millions of viewers and inspiring them to care about wildlife.

* Kunal Bahl co-founded the e-commerce company Snapdeal in 2010. In 2022, the company assumed the group corporate identity of AceVector, which houses multiple businesses such as Snapdeal, Unicommerce, and Stellaro brands. Unicommerce had its IPO in 2024.

* Dev tested Indian foods derived from Open Food Facts against Chile's limits: 7 in 10 Indian packaged foods would carry a warning label.

* RDA is short for Recommended Dietary Allowance. % RDA is the share of a day's amount that one serving gives you. FSSAI works it out from fixed daily figures: 

• Energy: 2000 kcal
• 67 g total fat
• 22 g saturated fat
• 2 g trans fat
• 50 g added sugar
• 2000 mg sodium (5 g salt) 

* Around 1.05 million sellers supply goods through Indian ecommerce platforms.

* Astrotalk achieved a $1 billion valuation (unicorn status) following an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) liquidity event and buyback for over 100 employees.

Founded in 2017 by Puneet Gupta and Anmol Jain, Astrotalk is an Indian "spiritual-tech" and online astrology marketplace. The platform connects users directly with verified astrologers, tarot readers, numerologists, and Vastu experts for consultations via chat, audio calls, or video calls.

* Purer, abstract fields like math fall to AI earlier due to their structured and formal nature - "Sociology is just applied Psychology. Psychology is just applied Biology. Biology is just applied Chemistry. Chemistry is just applied Physics." - xkcd