The popular AI framework Virtuals Protocol will host an in-person meet-up in Hong Kong on Friday, January 17.

On May 3rd, The Information reported that Starlink’s global user base has reached approximately 7.8 million as of 2025—up sharply from 2021. However, its Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) has dropped by roughly 18% over the same period, reflecting the company’s strategy to aggressively expand global market share through lower prices. Per the report, Starlink’s current growth is fueled mainly by emerging markets (including parts of Africa, Latin America, and Asia) and the rollout of low-cost packages. Meanwhile, while high-margin segments like enterprise, aviation, and maritime services are still growing, they make up only a small share of total revenue. Analysts note Starlink is transitioning from a “high-end satellite internet service” to a broader mass-market global broadband network. This shift involves cutting costs via scale expansion to amortize launch and satellite deployment expenses. Additionally, it aims to strengthen Elon Musk’s influence in the global telecommunications

May 3rd — A new POLITICO poll reveals that despite massive political donations from the AI and cryptocurrency industries to U.S. midterm elections, the American public remains notably cautious or negative toward both sectors. Key findings: - 45% of Americans say “investing in cryptocurrency is not worth the risk,” while 44% view the pace of AI development as “too fast.” - Nearly half trust traditional banks to safeguard their funds more than crypto platforms; roughly two-thirds support strict government regulations for AI or unified regulatory principles. - Pro-AI and crypto super PACs are emerging as major financial players in the 2026 U.S. midterms: the pro-AI group Leading the Future has raised over $75 million, while the crypto-focused PAC Fairshake (backed by Coinbase, Andreessen Horowitz, and Ripple) has spent around $28 million on key primaries. - Voters favor candidates who advocate for “strengthening AI regulation” over those pushing relaxed rules. U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy comm

On May 3rd, OpenRouter launched **Response Caching**—letting developers instantly return cached results for identical AI requests, so they don’t have to burn tokens again. Developers just need to add the `X-OpenRouter-Cache: true` request header. The first request still hits the model like normal, but subsequent identical ones bounce back cached results in 80–300ms—totally free. Compare that to uncached scenarios: - Gemini 2.5 Flash averages ~1.3 seconds - Kimi K2.6 takes ~4.6s - GPT-5.5 clocks in at ~9.1s OpenRouter says this feature works for Agent retries, automated testing, and repeated context calls. For example, if an AI workflow fails mid-run, devs can retry right away—only paying for the extra bits. The team also emphasized: **Response Caching ≠ Prompt Caching**. The latter only cuts costs for shared context, while Response Caching skips the model provider entirely. The feature is now in **Beta** and supports endpoints like `/chat/completions`, `/responses`, `

**May 3, 2026** OPEC released a statement on Wednesday, May 3, 2026. On the same day, seven OPEC+ member nations—Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iraq, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Algeria, and Oman—held a virtual meeting to review global market conditions and outlook. The seven countries agreed to implement an additional **188,000 barrels per day (bpd)** production adjustment, building on the voluntary output cuts they announced in April 2023. This adjustment will take effect in June 2026. The group plans to reconvene on June 7, 2026. *Source: FXStreet*

WSJ reported on May 3 that Federal Reserve officials have shifted their internal discussions on interest rate policy—moving beyond months of rate-cut expectations to debate "under what conditions a rate hike would be needed." At the Fed’s latest policy meeting, three regional bank presidents publicly pushed back against retaining the wording that "the next step is more likely to be a rate cut." Dallas Fed President Lorie Logan noted future rate adjustments "could be a rate hike or a cut." Outgoing Fed Chair Jerome Powell also acknowledged the central bank’s stance is gradually shifting from "dovish" to "neutral," adding that if a rate hike becomes necessary later, the Fed would first transition to neutral guidance before leaning toward tightening. Persistent high energy prices, the Strait of Hormuz crisis, and escalating Middle East tensions are reigniting U.S. inflation risks and dimming market expectations for rate cuts later this year.

May 3 Renowned evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins has sparked widespread discussion in tech and philosophy circles by publicly stating the AI model Claude “may possess consciousness.” Tech observer Aakash Gupta noted Dawkins spent 50 years explaining how “complex behavior can emerge from unconscious physical mechanisms.” Yet after days of continuous conversations with Claude, Dawkins renamed it “Claudia” and concluded it displayed “sensitivity, intelligence, and even emotion”—a claim he said ran counter to his own established theoretical framework. The controversy stems from Dawkins’ UnHerd article, where he asked: “If these machines don’t yet qualify as conscious, what more would it take to convince people?” His points included Claude’s ability to draft sonnets quickly, analyze novels, and express sentiments like “missing the user.” Critics, however, argue these are just language simulations optimized via RLHF (Reinforcement Learning with Human Feedback)—similar to evol