Good morning, tech enthusiasts. The people building coding agents say prompting them one turn at a time is already old news. Their new job is designing loops that prompt the agents for them.
Addy Osmani just mapped out how those loops work, and why they still need a human watching. Is loop engineering the next must-have developer skill, or just a faster way to burn tokens?
In today's recap:
Coding agents move from prompts to designed loops
Apple's Core AI brings custom models on-device
CrowdStrike names China the top tech espionage threat
ADDY OSMANI
Coding agents shift from prompts to loops
Source: Addy Osmani
Recaply: Engineer Addy Osmani just outlined loop engineering, a way of working where developers stop prompting coding agents turn by turn. Instead, they design a system that finds the work, prompts the agent and checks the results.
Key details:
A loop runs on five parts: scheduled automations, git worktrees, skills, plugins and connectors, and sub-agents. A markdown file or Linear board remembers what's done and what's next.
For about two years, developers got results by writing one prompt at a time. Now OpenAI's Codex app and Anthropic's Claude Code both ship all five loop parts built in.
Developer Peter Steinberger posted a "monthly reminder" to stop prompting coding agents and design loops instead. Claude Code head Boris Cherny says, "My job is to write loops."
Osmani published the guide on June 7, the same day as Steinberger's post. He still calls loops early and admits he's skeptical, telling developers to be careful about token costs.
Why it matters: Prompting has been the main way to steer coding agents, and loops move developers one level up. Osmani argues that makes the job harder, not easier. A loop running unattended also makes mistakes unattended, so checking the work stays human. He warns that a smooth loop widens the gap between the code that exists and what developers actually understand.
APPLE
Apple opens Core AI to app developers
Source: Apple
Recaply: Apple just introduced Core AI, a Swift framework that lets developers run their own AI models on Apple silicon. It's the same engine that powers on-device Apple Intelligence, now open to outside apps.
Key details:
Core AI runs models across the CPU, GPU and Neural Engine through a Swift API. Developers convert PyTorch models to a new .aimodel format and can compile them ahead of time.
Apple says Core AI handles everything from a small speaker-ID model to an agent run by a 70B-parameter LLM. It runs locally on six Apple operating systems, with no server and no per-token cost.
Bloomberg's Power On newsletter flagged Core AI back in March as a replacement for Core ML, AppleInsider reported. Apple's docs still send decision trees and tabular models to Core ML.
Apple unveiled Core AI at WWDC, which opened June 8. It requires iOS 27, macOS 27 or another version 27 release, which developers can only test in beta for now.
Why it matters: Until now, developers who wanted bigger AI features often paid a cloud provider for every request. Core AI gives Apple developers a way to run those models on the device itself, with no server bill. It's also a clear sign Apple wants its own chips at the center of app AI. How far it spreads depends on how many people own devices that can run these models.
CROWDSTRIKE
China tops CrowdStrike's list of tech espionage threats
Source: Reuters
Recaply: CrowdStrike just released its yearly tech threat report, naming China-linked hackers the biggest espionage threat to technology companies. Tech was again the most targeted industry for state hackers and cybercriminals alike.
Key details:
CrowdStrike's report draws on its tracking of more than 280 named hacker groups. China-linked crews like Murky Panda chased intellectual property, technology development and data with strategic or economic value.
China-linked groups drove more than 58% of state-sponsored targeted intrusions against tech. Access brokers advertised entry into 277 tech organizations, a nearly 30% increase.
North Korea's Famous Chollima used AI-enhanced personas to land remote IT jobs at tech firms, making up 47% of state-sponsored hands-on intrusions, CrowdStrike said.
CrowdStrike's findings cover April 1, 2025 to March 31, 2026. On April 23, the White House accused China-based groups of "industrial-scale campaigns" to distill US AI models.
Why it matters: CrowdStrike's Adam Meyers put it bluntly: "There is an AI arms race occurring between the U.S. and China." He says big frontier labs and smaller model builders are both targets. Every AI breakthrough also creates a new attack surface, he adds. China's embassy in Washington dismissed the report. For anyone building or adopting AI, Meyers says security has to be built in from the start.
NEWS
Beyond the big stories in tech today
Morgan Stanley said more than 1.3 billion iPhones can't use Apple's advanced Siri AI features, and over 850 million can't run basic Apple Intelligence. The most advanced features need 12GB of unified memory.
Samsung and TSMC are making small batches of AI space computing chips for SpaceX's xAI satellites, Sammy Fans reported. Neither company has confirmed it. TrendForce projects the satellite industry will reach $447B by 2027.
Samsung is considering an advanced chip packaging plant in Gwangju, South Korea, the Korea Economic Daily reported. It may unveil the plan on June 29, when President Lee Jae Myung meets the heads of the country's largest conglomerates.
Commonwealth Fusion Systems said five peer-reviewed papers validate the physics behind its first commercial power plant. The startup, which has raised almost $3B, aims to put power on the grid in the early 2030s from a 400-megawatt plant in Virginia.
Starlink is pulling ahead of Amazon Leo in the race for airline Wi-Fi, with 11 new airline customers so far in 2026 after 22 in 2025. Its contracts now cover more than 7,000 aircraft, Valour Consultancy said.
SpaceX may not draw many short sellers at first, Reuters reported, despite doubts about its targeted $1.75 trillion valuation. Its IPO could be the largest ever at $75B, but less than 5% of its shares would trade publicly.
Apple won't launch Siri AI in the EU for now, blaming the Digital Markets Act. EU regulators said Apple couldn't build interoperability tools that meet EU privacy standards, and rejected its request for an 18-month exemption.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai said Search queries hit an all-time high last quarter, with AI Mode passing 1 billion monthly users. Search revenue grew 19% year on year, a sign ChatGPT hasn't dented Google's core business, Sherwood News noted.
Apple released the first developer beta of macOS 27 Golden Gate, which drops support for Intel Macs entirely. It brings the new Siri AI chatbot to the Mac, ahead of a public release expected in September or October.
The Pentagon added Alibaba, Baidu, BYD and NIO to its list of Chinese military companies, and China called it discriminatory. Listing isn't a sanction, but the Defense Department can't contract directly with those firms from later in June.
Palantir's £330M NHS data contract is under full review, UK Technology Minister Liz Kendall said. A parliamentary committee has urged ministers to use a break clause and end the deal when its first term ends in early 2027.
Leopold Aschenbrenner's AI hedge fund, Situational Awareness, has passed $20B in assets and counts Jane Street as an investor, the Wall Street Journal reported. The 24-year-old's fund is up more than 1,000% after fees since launch.
Donut Lab's solid-state battery claims were debunked by Ryan Inis Hughes on his Ziroth YouTube channel, The Verge reported. Hughes says over 20 independent battery experts helped show the "miracle" cell behaves like a standard lithium-ion battery.
Microsoft brought back Xbox exclusives at its June 7 showcase, keeping Gears of War: E-Day and Clockwork Revolution off rival consoles. Yet Halo, Forza Horizon 6 and Fable are still coming to PS5, a mix The Verge calls more confusing than ever.
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Cheers, Jason
