Shopify CEO AI Memo, Llama 4 Drama, and Fake Job Seekers

Hello!

When Shopify’s leaked AI memo hit X, its CEO chose to simply make it public, showing just how confident the company is in its new AI strategy. This comes right after the release of Llama 4, which sparked controversy. And if that wasn’t enough, a new prediction says that by 2028, 1 in 4 job candidates could be fake, a new reality we need to prepare for.

But that’s not all we’ve got this week. The State of Vue 2025 and the University of Stanford’s 2025 AI Index Report are worth having a look at, and if you’re looking for more information on self-hosting Next.js apps, check the article written by Pagepro’s CTO.

So, sit back, grab your coffee, and enjoy Frictionless!

In the Queue

• YouTube’s MySQL and Vitess Strategy

• Bring Your Own Cloud (BYOC) Is the Future

• What’s New in Sanity

• Teaching AI to Think Like Senior Dev

• Bill Gates Releases Microsoft’s Original Code After 50 Years

Reduce Friction

Fake Job Seekers Are Flooding U.S. Companies That Are Hiring For Remote Positions, Tech CEOs Say

Hiring has never been easy, but now there’s a new challenge to overcome: fake candidates using AI to get through remote interviews. By 2028, 1 in 4 job seekers globally could be fake, and we need the tools to prepare for that.

How YouTube Supports Billions of Users with MySQL and Vitess

As users came flooding in, YouTube’s infrastructure started to feel the strain. Instead of moving away from MySQL, they built Vitess, a smart layer on top that made horizontal scaling possible. It came with its share of challenges, but it’s a big part of why YouTube still runs so reliably today.

Protectd: Evolving Vercel’s Always-On Denial-Of-Service Mitigations

Hackers and their tools keep evolving, but so does the defense. Vercel just rolled out Protectd, a system that spots and responds to new DoS threats in real time 10x faster than before.

First Principles Problems, Secondhand Solutions

First-principles thinking has its place, but most problems aren’t as unique as we like to believe. The author makes a case for a more practical balance: understand the problem deeply, then borrow the proven fix.

Deepen Your Expertise

What's New in Sanity – April 2025

A great summary of what’s new in the Sanity community. If you missed last month’s updates, like the launch of the Live Content API, or want to explore new tools and resources, it’s all here.

State of Vue.js Report 2025

This year’s State of Vue report shows how much the framework has grown. It includes an interview with Evan You and insights from community members. Well worth a read, even if Vue isn’t part of your current stack.

Self-Hosting Next.js Apps

Vercel’s a great solution for hosting Next.js apps, but sometimes you need more control. Our CTO, Jakub Dakowicz, shares when it makes sense to self-host your Next.js app, what trade-offs to expect, and how to do it using AWS, SST, and OpenNext.

Saas Is Broken: Why Bring Your Own Cloud (BYOC) Is the Future

Continuing the self-hosting theme, traditional SaaS often locks you into someone else’s infrastructure. The Bring Your Own Cloud (BYOC) approach challenges it by letting you run SaaS apps in your cloud with more control over cost, security, and compliance.

AI Corner

Reflexive AI Usage Is Now a Baseline Expectation at Shopify

Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke released the leaked internal memo in which he set some new standards for the company. Using AI effectively is now expected at every level, from early prototyping to performance reviews.

Meta Exec Denies The Company Artificially Boosted Llama 4’s Benchmark Scores

Llama 4's benchmark scores left its competitors in the dust, stirring some accusations. Meta’s VP of GenAI denied claims of test set training, calling the rumors off-base and pointing to ongoing work on model consistency.

The Day I Taught AI to Think Like a Senior Developer

At 2 AM, Namanyay Goel had a eureka moment that helped him get AI to finally understand code. His method, Prismatic Ranked Recursive Summarization (PRRS), gets AI thinking more like a senior dev, factoring in structure, security, and design.

Stanford University The 2025 AI Index Report

Stanford’s AI Index Report reveals emerging global trends we all should keep an eye on. The U.S. remains the leader in AI, but China is quickly catching up. Meanwhile, private investment in AI hit a record $150B last year, reflecting the growing influence of AI across industries.

Just Cool

Celebrate 50 Years of Microsoft with the Company's Original Source Code

Back in 1975, Bill Gates and Paul Allen wrote the Altair BASIC interpreter, Microsoft’s first product. To celebrate the company’s 50th anniversary, Bill Gates shared the original 157-page source code, what he calls “the coolest code I’ve ever written”.

Let’s Stay in Touch! 📨 

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