The real danger isn’t that machines will act without oversight; it’s that human overseers have no idea what the machines are actually “thinking.” Thankfully, science may offer a way forward.
Read the full op-ed on the urgent need for new safeguards around AI warfare.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 Despite blacklisting Anthropic, the White House wants its new model
Trump officials are negotiating access to Mythos. (Axios)
+ Anthropic said it was too dangerous for a public release. (Bloomberg $)
+ Finance ministers are alarmed about the security risks. (BBC)
+ Anthropic just rolled out a model that’s less risky than Mythos. (CNBC)
+ The Pentagon has pursued a culture war against the company. (MIT Technology Review)
2 Sam Altman’s side hustles have raised conflict-of-interest concerns
His opaque investments could influence decisions at OpenAI. (WSJ $)
+ A jury will soon decide if OpenAI abandoned its founding mission. (Wired $)
+ The company is making a big play for science. (MIT Technology Review)
3 A Starlink outage during drone tests exposed the Pentagon’s SpaceX reliance
It was one of several Navy test disruptions linked to Starlink. (Reuters $)
+ The DoD is also tapping Ford and GM for military innovations.(NYT $)
4 Data center delays threaten to choke AI expansion
40% of this year’s projects are at risk of falling behind schedule. (FT $)
+ Partly because no one wants a data center in their backyard. (MIT Technology Review)
5 Alibaba just released its own version of a world model
Happy Oyster is the latest attempt to extend AI’s ability to comprehend physical reality. (SCMP)
+ But they still need to understand cause and effect. (FT $)
6 Google’s Gemini is now generating AI images tailored to personal data
By analyzing users’ Google services and data. (Quartz)
+ Google says it will cut the need for detailed prompts. (TechCrunch)
7 OpenAI is beefing up its agentic coding and development system
Its Codex update is a direct shot at Claude Code. (The Verge)
+ But not everyone is convinced about AI coding. (MIT Technology Review)
8 Europe’s online age verification app is here
It’s available for free to any company that wants it. (Wired $)
9 Smartglasses are giving Korean theaters hope of a K-Pop moment
Their AI-powered translations are taking the shows to the world. (NYT $)
10 Global voice actors are fighting Hollywood’s AI push
Their voices are training the models that are replacing them. (Rest of World)
Quote of the day
“There’s this dark period between now and some time in the future where the advantage is very much offensive AI.”
—Rob Joyce, former director of cybersecurity at the National Security Agency, tells Bloomberg how AI is creating new hacking threats.
One More Thing
Discussion about this post