Learn · a trick with a name
Announced Not Shipped
claimed, never released.
An announcement costs nothing. Shipping costs everything. Only one of them can be used.
How to spot it
- 'Coming soon', waitlists, demos only
- No date, no price, no public access
- Last year's announcement still not available
The one question to ask“Can I use it right now?”
At work
Plan only around tools you can sign up for now. Treat roadmaps as marketing until they ship.
Caught in the wild
Every time we've caught it so far. Try calling each one before you open it.
- TRUE, BUTOpenAI announced the AGI era. Congress announced a bill to ban it. Neither one exists yet.
- TRUE, BUTThe government finished a secret rulebook for AI on time. It just won't say what's in it, or who's seen it.
- TRUE, BUTAnthropic's largest acquisition ever was announced by everyone except Anthropic.
- TRUE, BUTGrok 4.6 posts a 1753 and a number one. One is a real benchmark. The other is a tweet.
- TRUE, BUTAlibaba kept its open-weights promise, then swapped the fine print.