The Amped Journal

Y Combinator-backed Ollama, the platform that lets developers run open AI models locally, closed a $65 million Series B, Y Combinator announced. Founders Jeffrey Morgan and Michael Chiang built what YC calls the easiest way to get started with open models; the company says 8.9 million developers and 85% of Fortune 500 companies now use the platform.

Meta rolled out Muse Image, the company's first standalone AI image generator, according to StarNews. The launch has prompted new guidance on how users can check and adjust settings governing whether their Instagram photos are used to train Meta's AI systems.

A Brown University economics professor gave his first take-home exam in two decades of teaching and watched the midterm average jump to 96%, versus a typical 65% to 80%, according to Morning Brew. He and his graders are now investigating suspected AI-assisted cheating; Inside Higher Ed reports that universities' response to widespread AI cheating has generally been 'meek,' raising questions about how schools handle the problem at scale.

Serial indie hacker Pieter Levels said he can now test the iOS app his Claude Code instance is building - on a Mac Mini in the cloud with no GUI - directly in a browser, using a new web-based iOS simulator called serve-sim, a tip he credited to developer Jordan (@jordandotbuilds). It's the latest piece of his fully remote, AI-driven development setup.

Figma added OpenAI's newly launched GPT-5.6 to Figma Make, its AI design tool, the company said. Early testing shows the model produces stronger results when building on existing designs and uses tokens more efficiently than the version it replaces.

Buc-ee's, the Texas-based travel center chain, is pairing its steady national expansion with an aggressive trademark campaign against competitors' mascots, according to the Wall Street Journal. The chain has gone after rivals using an alligator, a duck, and chickens as branding, arguing they infringe on its beaver mascot.

Former Olympic canoeist David Hearn pleaded not guilty in DC Superior Court to destruction of property, accused of causing more than $1,000 in damage to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. US Attorney Jeanine Pirro alleges he was seen forcefully pulling up the pool's bottom liner on June 19; Hearn says he only touched a piece of peeling coating out of curiosity during a bike ride and was detained for five hours. The pool had just gotten a $14 million renovation, including a new 'American flag blue' coating for July 4th, before the water turned green with algae. He's one of at least four people charged in the case.

Illinois state Rep. Carol Ammons, D-Urbana, and her husband, Champaign County Clerk Aaron Ammons, were indicted July 7 on federal wire fraud, false statement, and obstruction of justice charges. Prosecutors allege Ammons ran a scheme from 2017 to 2025 funneling campaign donations and nonprofit grant money to herself and her daughter, netting more than $100,000. House Speaker Chris Welch stopped short of calling for her resignation but removed her from Democratic caucus meetings, committees, and staff access.

SpaceX moved its Super Heavy booster to the Starbase pad ahead of Starship's 13th flight, with Booster 20 completing a rollout for static fire testing. Launch notices point to a mid-July window, and Ship 41, intended for the following flight, has also begun its own testing.

NASA is marking four years of science from the James Webb Space Telescope on July 12 with a new image cutting through the thick dust at the center of the galaxy Centaurus A, giving the clearest, most detailed view yet of its starry core.