Hi, welcome to your Weekend.

For the past five weeks, The Information’s crypto reporter Aidan Ryan has been taking one for the team, rising long before dawn to commute to the U.S. courthouse in Lower Manhattan. Once there, he’d grab a place in line and wait on the sidewalk for hours, huddling in the dark and sometimes the pouring rain, until the court opened and the crypto trial of the century began.

As he writes in this week’s cover story, Aidan wanted to bear witness to the trial of Sam Bankman-Fried because it was a historic moment for the industry he covers. He knew that he couldn’t just rely on press reports and court transcripts to capture the proceedings.

He wanted to hear how remorseful Bankman-Fried sounded for his mistakes (not very), how closely the jurors were listening to prosecutors’ arguments and what the body language of the defendant’s lawyers, ex-colleagues, parents and even his biographer Michael Lewis gave away.

The crypto world has met the trial with a “nothing to see here” attitude, hoping to wipe away the taint of fraud and conspiracy, and to keep on building. But Aidan suspected that there was actually a lot to see there. The saga, he wrote, was “a tale of mass deception, yes, but also one of mass delusion.”  

SBF might have been the one facing prison time, but the whole industry he represented was on trial. And in neck-breaking speed—from deliberation to conviction in just 4 hours—both were judged guilty.

Now onto this weekend’s stories...

the big read

A Front-Row Seat at the Sam Bankman-Fried Circus

Wonder what it was like covering crypto’s trial of the century? Our own Aidan was at the courthouse day after day, sometimes arriving at 1:30 a.m. to get a seat. He takes us behind the scenes to explain how Bankman-Fried’s last stand reverberated throughout the crypto world.

the 1:1

‘It’s Like I Created a Baby’: An AI Matriarch Appraises Her Offspring

Adam Lashinsky talks to the pioneering AI researcher Fei-Fei Li about her affecting new memoir, and about bridging the divide between two warring tribes of AI: the doomers and the techno-optimists.

THE NIGHTSTAND 

A New Novel By ‘Silicon Valley’s Favorite Fixer’ Is Coming for Everybody

Venture capitalist and political strategist Bradley Tusk is not naming names in his debut novel—but you can probably take some educated guesses. Julia chats with Tusk about the book, his colorful career and the dangers of mixing lobbying and investing.

Noticing: The newspaper-hedge fund crossover 
Most journalists I know have crafted a backup plan in case their chosen profession doesn’t work out. (Personally, I could see a second act as a private detective.) This week, the Financial Times reported that a group of financial reporters from publications like the Wall Street Journal, BBC and Barron’s have come up with a novel application for their skill set: “a trading firm that is designed to trade on market-moving news unearthed by its own investigative reporting.” The start-up, called Hunterbrook, has reportedly raised $10 million in seed funding, targeting a $100 million fund at launch. Apparently the firm plans to skirt insider trading concerns by only trading on information that is “publicly available.” You’ve got to imagine the SEC will be keeping a close eye on this one. —Julia

Buying: Tchotchkes on TikTok
Until this month, my scrolling habits on TikTok cost me little more than my attention span. But now, TikTok has found a way to also cost me cold, hard cash. If I’m being vulnerable with you, I didn’t need to read Amanda Mull’s report in The Atlantic about TikTok’s much-awaited push into e-commerce. I was already a victim, accidentally swiping to the “Shop” tab earlier this week, and losing myself in a sea of dollar-store pastel brushes and herbal pills. Within 20 minutes, I had spent $30 on two purses, a sweater, a Skims-dupe dress, two cat toys and an ice cube mold. In her piece, Mull doubts that TikTok Shop will be a success, pointing out the deluge of fake product listings. I’m not so sure about that. There’s nothing fake about the ease with which I slipped from consuming videos to purchasing stuff. —Margaux 

Reading: The creators running for Congress
The path to elected office used to run through law school and maybe a stint in local government. But Gen-Z is taking a different route, with a number of young influencers launching political campaigns. NPR’s Elena Moore highlighted a handful of TikTokers-turned-candidates in a recent story, including Cheyenne Hunt, a 26-year-old running for a Congress in California’s 45th district, 25-year-old Isaiah Martin, who’s gunning for Texas’s 18th district seat and Averie Bishop, a 27-year-old former Miss Texas campaigning for the Texas House. Bishop has 830,000 followers and posts typical TikTok creator fare—outfit videos, memes—but her “day in the life” montages include trips to Washington for meetings with donors and campaign events. Using TikTok fame as a springboard is an obvious strategy to turn out young voters, but also a contentious one, given the platform’s ties to China. For now, said Hunt, “If it’s a tool in our tool belt, then I’m absolutely going to use it.” —Annie

Makes You Think

Halloween in Silicon Valley: chilling.

Until next Weekend, thanks for reading.

—Jon