mAIn Street #188: Meta planning sweeping layoffs as AI costs mount​; New study raises concerns about AI chatbots fueling delusional thinking


MARCH 17, 2026

  • PromptCraft: PROMPTS for Your Messy Notes, Startup Ideas, and to Improve Your Prompts
  • THE HEADLINES: ​​​​Meta planning sweeping layoffs as AI costs mount​; ​Claude now creates interactive charts, diagrams, and visualizations​; ​Google scraps AI search feature that crowdsourced amateur medical advice​; ​New study raises concerns about AI chatbots fueling delusional thinking​
  • Tool Spotlight: Lindy Handles Inbox, Other Tasks Without Being Prompted

Well, I lied to you guys, and I'm sorry.

On Monday, I stumbled upon some scoring problems with the new pipeline that made me decide to push it back a few days, or a week at the most. In Chat's words, the pipeline is working, but my scoring logic was "removing stories like a bouncer with poor judgment 😂.

Anyhow, rather than make you guys suffer through a cleaner-yet-error-prone layout, I'll give it a little bit longer to make sure the new logic is working as it should be.

In the meantime, this edition has 3 great new prompts, the weekend's/Monday's news, and an AI assistant that does certain tasks without the constant need for you to be there holding its hand.

Enjoy!

PROMPTS for Your Messy Notes, Startup Ideas, and to Improve Your Prompts

  • Second Brain Builder for Messy Notes: A two-pass prompt that turns raw notes into clusters, Projects / Areas / Resources / Archive zones, synthesis lines, metadata tags, retrieval questions, and a weekly review loop. Useful for anyone drowning in scraps, bookmarks, and half-finished ideas who needs a maintainable personal knowledge system.
  • Startup Idea Prompt for Fast Validation: This founder-focused evaluator checks painkiller vs. vitamin demand, market reality, alternatives, customer acquisition cost, hidden assumptions, and kill criteria before you build. Strong for early-stage idea triage because it forces a plain verdict instead of vague encouragement.
  • Meta Prompt Coach for Prompt Reviews: A reusable meta-prompt that scores a prompt on clarity, completeness, specificity, and misinterpretation risk, then suggests concrete fixes and an optimized rewrite. Worth saving when a prompt feels close but keeps producing generic, off-target, or inconsistent output.

HIGHLIGHTS: ​​​​Meta planning sweeping layoffs as AI costs mount​; ​Claude now creates interactive charts, diagrams, and visualizations​; ​Google scraps AI search feature that crowdsourced amateur medical advice​; ​New study raises concerns about AI chatbots fueling delusional thinking​

  1. Claude now creates interactive charts, diagrams, and visualizations
  2. ‘100 Video Calls Per Day’: Models Are Applying to Be the Face of AI Scams
  3. Scientists discover AI can make humans more creative
  4. Trump accuses Iran of using AI to spread disinformation
  5. Google scraps AI search feature that crowdsourced amateur medical advice
  6. Nebius signs AI infrastructure deals with Meta worth up to $27 billion over 5 years
  7. How to use AI to make your March Madness bracket
  8. 1M context is now generally available for Opus 4.6 and Sonnet 4.6
  9. OpenAI’s adult mode will reportedly be smutty, not pornographic
  10. Early look at upcoming vibe design tool from Google
  11. US Job Market Visualizer
  12. ByteDance suspends launch of video AI model after copyright disputes, The Information reports
  13. Uber co-founder Kalanick launches Atoms in specialized robotics push
  14. BlackRock CEO Fink predicts AI ‘bankruptcies’
  15. LinkedIn is becoming a top source for AI chatbots
  16. Upwork’s CEO on the AI agents that try to hire human workers
  17. Adobe’s longtime CEO to exit role amid AI disruption, shares fall
  18. Telus Digital confirms breach after hacker claims 1 petabyte data theft
  19. AI Czar David Sacks wants Trump to ‘get out’ of Iran
  20. Subcontractors See Intimate Meta AI Visual Queries From Smart Glasses
  21. Reverse-engineering Claude’s generative UI - then building it for the terminal
  22. Institutional AI vs Individual AI
  23. Anthropic invests $100 million into the Claude Partner Network
  24. Getting the most out of Nano-Banana 2: tips & prompt guide
  25. Groundsource: Turning news reports into data with Gemini
  26. NEW: The Alliance for Secure AI Launches Six-Figure JobLoss.AI Awareness Campaign to Track AI-Related Job Losses
  27. AI money is already influencing the midterms. And more is coming.
  28. AI Used to Promote Non-Existent Evacuation Flights From the Middle East
  29. Tennessee grandmother jailed after AI facial recognition error links her to fraud
  30. S&P Global Enhances Capital IQ Pro with Expanded Fixed Income, Biopharma, and Private Markets Data Content and AI Capabilities
  31. AI toys for young children must be more tightly regulated, say researchers
  32. Adobe sued for trademark infringement over ‘Foundry’ AI tool
  33. Can AI help predict which heart-failure patients will worsen within a year?
  34. Musk ousts more xAI founders as AI coding effort falters, FT reports
  35. Allen Institute for AI CEO Ali Farhadi steps down as nonprofit navigates shifting AI landscape
  36. AI may be giving teens bad nutrition advice
  37. ‘RAMmageddon’ hits labs: AI-driven memory shortage is impacting science
  38. Grammarly removes AI Expert Review feature mimicking writers after backlash
  39. US Commerce Department withdraws planned rule on AI chip exports
  40. Meta planning sweeping layoffs as AI costs mount
  41. Google’s AI Search Results Love to Refer You Back to Google
  42. New study raises concerns about AI chatbots fueling delusional thinking
  43. Musk says Tesla’s mega AI chip fab project to launch in a few days
  44. Relying on AI at work reduces self-efficacy, ownership, and meaning, while active collaboration mitigates the effects
  45. Hacked data shines light on homeland security’s AI surveillance ambitions
  46. AI companies want to use improv actors to train AI on human emotion
  47. Lawyer behind AI psychosis cases warns of mass casualty risks
  48. Google app starts rolling out quick access to AI Mode history

Lindy Handles Inbox, Other Tasks Without Being Prompted

Lindy Assistant aims to feel like a real assistant, not a chat window: it triages your inbox, drafts replies in your voice, manages scheduling, preps you before meetings, captures notes, and helps with follow-ups.

A standout detail is how “close” it is to your day.

Lindy emphasizes that you can simply text it (including via iMessage) to get things moving, and it becomes more helpful as it learns your preferences and priorities. If your workday is a constant loop of email + calendar overhead, Lindy is designed to buy back time by proactively handling the admin layer.

Learn More: Lindy Assistant


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