Chronicles
From the MyRSF.net archives of the Email Chronicles
AI Explosion, Mea Culpa, and CA Propositions
Author: Phil Trubey
Date: October 11, 2026
Hello, Phil Trubey here, sending an occasional email about RSF.
AI Capability Explosion
AI capabilities are accelerating so fast, I can barely keep up, and I'm bird dogging it 24/7.
The latest is Grok Bot. Most of you are familiar with chatbots like ChatGPT and Claude. Grok Bot is different. It is an always-on 24x7 assistant that does things for you.
First, a competence example. My CPA finally delivered my 2025 draft income tax return last week. I asked Grok Bot to look at my tax folder on my desktop computer and check its accuracy along with all the supporting info in that folder. My return is 196 pages long, so this wasn't an easy task.
It found a subdirectory, read the PDF invoices there, understood them to be for a home battery storage system, and realized that the resulting $8K tax savings wasn't in the tax return (since I had forgotten to tell the CPA about it!).
It then discovered issues with Canadian property tax deductions, including Canadian dollars that hadn't been converted to US$, very technical passive loss limitation issues that it traced all the way back to my 2022 return when I switched CPAs, etc. We needed 4 revisions for the CPA to get it all correct, and he said of the bot: "Yes, it actually brought up several excellent points. Quite impressive."
The bot also works on tasks 24/7. Due to spam calls, I now forward all calls into voicemail if they aren't from my contact list. And the bot listens to my voice mails and emails/messages me anything that isn't spam (like from a doctor).
The bot also checks my emails and X direct messages to keep track of a project I'm working on - every day, it generates a status spreadsheet of about 50 items, and reminds me if I need to get back to someone or initiate something.
And when I have to navigate really complex websites, like government ones, or legal databases, I just have the bot do it, it has far more patience than I do.
For those who like the Meta/Facebook ecosystem, Meta Muse is a similar agentic bot and also has good reviews.
Anyway, my point isn't to make an ad, but just to point out how fast AI is evolving. AI intelligence costs are rapidly declining while the capabilities are rapidly increasing.
Speaking of Advanced AI
I'm working with a frightfully intelligent startup founder who has core fundamental new AI technology that will revolutionize AI. Yes, big bold claims and I don't say this lightly.
He's based in Zurich and while he has soft-circled about $15M in local Swiss funding, he's looking for a Silicon Valley VC firm to lead a ~$50M round. My aforementioned project is to help him get in front of such.
So if any of you have large early stage VC contacts, or are LPs in such funds, and/or you just want to learn about what's coming down the pipe, hit me up for a coffee meeting. My treat.
Mea Culpa San Diego County
When I was on the fiber broadband committee, I lamented the "annoying and stupid" San Diego County for forcing us to bury our fiber lines 3 feet down rather than use a less costly micro trench construction method. It almost doubled our costs.
Well, I must apologize to the County given what happened recently when a contractor tore up fiber lines servicing major US airports. 150 flights were diverted from airports around New York and elsewhere due to communication disruptions.
As you can see, these Verizon fiber lines did not have 3 feet of cover.
We're about 7 years into the operation of our fiber network and not a single incident like this has happened to us. My own fiber connection has been rock solid for all those 7 years. Thank you San Diego County for being a pain 😅
CA Propositions
Here are my suggestions for the non-partisan California ballot propositions. There are some VERY substantial ones in there, so it's important that we all vote.
I'll keep it simple. Yes to 39, 41, 42, 43, 45, no to everything else (same as Nick's Picks if you also get that email).
In general, I say no to all bonds (props 1, 3, 37, 38). Bonds carve out perpetual money to special interests or special parts of the budget leaving the legislature less and less ability to change anything or have accountability. If any of these projects are important, then they can come from the general fund.
NO to Prop 2 increases a slush fund, the existing one is bad enough.
NO to Prop 4 allows our tax money to directly fund partisan election campaigns. This will be abused so badly by incumbents if passed.
NO to Prop 5 as it defangs recall elections.
YES to Prop 39 enshrines voter ID. When voting in person, must show a government issued ID. When voting by mail, must supply last four digits of your choice of government issued ID on outside envelope. Creates new state voter ID card available at no cost to voters.
NO to Prop 40 billionaire tax. Anyone with assets over $1B would immediately have to remit a cool $50M to California (5%), which would be a huge tax given that even billionaires generally don't have enough income to require paying even a fraction of that every year. Already a bunch of billionaires and their substantial tax base have fled since this tax is retroactive to January 1 of this year. California will get addicted to this tax, more billionaires will leave, the bar will get lowered, etc.
YES to Prop 41 prohibits new taxes that exclude their revenues from the state spending limit voters approved in 1971. Would void other taxes this ballot approves if this proposition receives more votes. Increases audit protections.
YES to Prop 42 prohibits new personal property taxes.
YES to Prop 43 voter approved new municipal taxes would require 66% vote.
NO to Prop 44 would force community health clinics to spend 90% of revenues on program services. No need to tell businesses how to operate.
YES to Prop 45 makes CEQA less burdensome.
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