Issue 01 . June 2026Loose change. Sharp eyes.

artificial intelligence.

8 pieces filed under artificial intelligence

WorldJun 4
The Second Passport Has Become a Piece of Furniture, Not a Decision. Souk Weekly world.

The Second Passport Has Become a Piece of Furniture, Not a Decision

Why the regional professional class has stopped treating the second citizenship as an ambitious life choice and started treating it as a moderately interesting drawer in the desk.

By Priya Chen

TechnologyJun 4
The No Code App the Uncle Shipped Is, Quietly, the Most Useful Thing in the Family. Souk Weekly technology.

The No Code App the Uncle Shipped Is, Quietly, the Most Useful Thing in the Family

Why the regional family WhatsApp group has been replaced, in several households we know, by a forty-eight hour build the uncle put together one rainy weekend.

By Diego Arroyo

TechnologyJun 4
The Prompt Has Quietly Replaced the Product Spec. Souk Weekly technology.

The Prompt Has Quietly Replaced the Product Spec

Why a generation of regional product managers is now writing twelve hundred word prompts instead of forty page product requirement documents, and why the new format is, on balance, better.

By Priya Chen

WorldJun 3
Central Asia Is Quietly the Next Pipeline of Pipelines. Souk Weekly world. Photograph keyed to samarkand.

Central Asia Is Quietly the Next Pipeline of Pipelines

Why a region nobody in Gulf finance was thinking about three years ago is suddenly on every infrastructure desk's whiteboard.

By Marcus Okafor

TechnologyJun 3
Your AI Girlfriend Lives in Abu Dhabi Now. Souk Weekly technology. Photograph keyed to datacenter.

Your AI Girlfriend Lives in Abu Dhabi Now

Why a notable share of the world's intimate-companion AI services are now being hosted on Gulf cloud infrastructure, and what the local sovereign players think about it.

By Priya Chen

TechnologyJun 3
An Arabic-First Language Model Just Quietly Stopped Being Worse. Souk Weekly technology. Photograph keyed to ai.

An Arabic-First Language Model Just Quietly Stopped Being Worse

Inside the recent improvements in the local language-model ecosystem, and why the gap to the global frontier closed faster than nearly anyone predicted.

By Priya Chen

TechnologyJun 3
PrimeERP Is Built for the Tuesday Afternoon, Not the Procurement Demo. Souk Weekly technology feature.

PrimeERP Is Built for the Tuesday Afternoon, Not the Procurement Demo

Inside the small but growing category of enterprise software that has decided to be honest about what running an organisation actually looks like, instead of about what it looks like in a slideware deck.

By Priya Chen

WorldJun 3
The Embassy Iftar Is the Most Underestimated Instrument of Regional Foreign Policy. Souk Weekly world.

The Embassy Iftar Is the Most Underestimated Instrument of Regional Foreign Policy

Why a single carefully assembled guest list, served on a single carefully assembled plate, can do more strategic work in three hours than a year of communiques.

By Lena Holloway