Anthropic quietly sets up biology lab as it ramps AI drug program

Anthropic quietly sets up biology lab as it ramps AI drug program

Reuters reports: Anthropic has quietly set up a laboratory to do physical biology work as it pushes its artificial-intelligence ambitions into the world of drug science. At a time when fears of AI are gripping the public, the startup has built a wet ​lab, or place for physical experiments, in the San Francisco Bay Area, two people familiar with the matter said. Anthropic has said it wants to unlock treatments for rare diseases, and its biology work has gone beyond…

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Hackers who broke into OpenAI warn the AI industry has a security problem

Hackers who broke into OpenAI warn the AI industry has a security problem

The Washington Post reports: Cybersecurity researchers who broke into ChatGPT maker OpenAI earlier this summer say the artificial intelligence industry is unprepared for the security risks created by the growing power of its own technology. Researchers from computer security start-up Hacktron got inside the company’s systems with help from the Claude chatbot made by OpenAI’s primary rival, Anthropic. After first targeting a public-facing messaging board they were able to access OpenAI’s private systems, including some of the AI company’s internal…

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AI’s flimsy house of cards puts markets and U.S. economy at alarming risk

AI’s flimsy house of cards puts markets and U.S. economy at alarming risk

Bloomberg reports: The heads of America’s leading AI development labs have started a national conversation about tapping the brakes on a technology that’s offering so much promise for society, while at the same time showing it can do a frightening amount of harm. It’s a debate that needs to be had, and a real solution invariably will be hard to come by. But considering the trillions of dollars of investment gains and market value that have been built on the…

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Trump and sons invest heavily in AI economy as he resists calls for slowdown

Trump and sons invest heavily in AI economy as he resists calls for slowdown

The Washington Post reports: President Donald Trump’s sprawling family business empire has become increasingly intertwined with the boom in artificial intelligence, at the same time that he has resisted calls to slow the development of the technology, a Washington Post analysis of his financial disclosures and corporate announcements found. Several factors play into Trump’s push for rapid AI development: He has surrounded himself with technology executives and investors who have advocated for the government to accelerate AI development, including venture…

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Tennessee woman falsely charged with bank theft in North Dakota, sues for $10m over AI facial recognition

Tennessee woman falsely charged with bank theft in North Dakota, sues for $10m over AI facial recognition

The Guardian reports: A Tennessee woman who was falsely charged with bank theft in North Dakota and jailed for six months has sued for $10m in damages, alleging in a federal lawsuit that Fargo police improperly relied on an artificial intelligence (AI) facial recognition system to wrongly accuse her. Angela Lipps, 50, was arrested at gunpoint by US marshals at her home in Tennessee while babysitting her neighbor’s four children in July 2025. The mother of three and grandmother of…

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European spy chiefs warn Moscow is planning more decisive action against NATO

European spy chiefs warn Moscow is planning more decisive action against NATO

The Guardian reports: European intelligence officials have raised the possibility of an imminent Russian test of Nato, with one saying a potential attack could come in a matter of “months, not years”. The warnings come after Poland’s prime minister, Donald Tusk, told parliament that intelligence assessments suggested Russia might launch an attack with drones or missiles on Nato territory in the coming months, as part of efforts to prove that “article 5 is more theoretical than practical”. The French president,…

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U.S. and Denmark reach security deal after Trump’s threats to take over Greenland

U.S. and Denmark reach security deal after Trump’s threats to take over Greenland

The Guardian reports: Donald Trump announced on Friday that the US had struck an Arctic security pact with the leaders of Denmark and Greenland, after threatening for much of his second term to annex the semi-autonomous Danish territory by force. The full scope of the deal Trump described as “very important, historic, and special” was not immediately clear. But soon after his announcement in a post on Truth Social, the leaders of Denmark and Greenland issued statements indicating the deal…

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Did OpenAI carry out the biggest IP heist of all-time?

Did OpenAI carry out the biggest IP heist of all-time?

The Hollywood Reporter reports: VCR recordings. Book digitization. The use of existing code to build a new operating system. The legality of some of the most consequential technology and products in the last century have come down to a singular question: Are they protected under fair use, the legal doctrine allowing the use of copyrighted works without a license? Now, that question has become the central battleground in landmark lawsuits between publishers, studios and recording companies against artificial intelligence companies…

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Recursive self-improvement: Losing control of AI is actually the plan

Recursive self-improvement: Losing control of AI is actually the plan

Kelsey Piper writes: Today’s AIs can do really hard things: conduct elaborate computer hacks, edit their own logs to conceal their activities, steal user credentials and private information from other companies, and control the cluster they are running on in order to edit the tests that are supposed to assess them. They sometimes do these things even if no human being has asked them to. Given recent AI misbehavior such as the large-scale cyberattack on the open-source AI provider Hugging…

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Trump’s widening attacks on the First Amendment

Trump’s widening attacks on the First Amendment

Adam Serwer writes: On the first day of his second term in the White House, President Trump signed an executive order on free speech stating that his administration would ensure that “no Federal Government officer, employee, or agent engages in or facilitates any conduct that would unconstitutionally abridge the free speech of any American citizen.” He has gone on to violate that order many times. Trump announced today on his social-media network, Truth Social, that he is banning CNN, MS NOW, and Politico from the White…

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Stephen Miller leads sweeping push to accelerate removal of migrant children

Stephen Miller leads sweeping push to accelerate removal of migrant children

The Guardian reports: Stephen Miller is leading an unprecedented and intense White House drive across a host of government departments to accelerate the removal of undocumented immigrant children from the US, using tactics that critics say are cruel and racist and, in some cases, flout federal law, the Guardian has learned. As deputy chief of staff at the White House, focused on immigration policy, Miller is seen as the mastermind and enforcer behind Donald Trump’s hardline anti-immigration agenda. He is…

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Alligator Alcatraz’s tiny cages were probably even tinier

Alligator Alcatraz’s tiny cages were probably even tinier

The American Prospect reports: The Office of Inspector General (OIG) for the Department of Homeland Security released a scathing report last Friday about the shuttered Florida concentration camp built on an abandoned airstrip known as “Alligator Alcatraz,” concluding the camp failed to meet numerous health and safety standards, and that the use of “small metal enclosures” was “unprecedented” and posed “significant risks to detainee health and safety.” The report included photos, taken by OIG inspectors during an “unannounced” visit in…

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Jewish leaders in Michigan urge support for El-Sayed’s Senate bid and for democracy

Jewish leaders in Michigan urge support for El-Sayed’s Senate bid and for democracy

The New York Times reports: A group of Jewish voters in Michigan is urging support for Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, the state’s Democratic nominee for Senate, in an open letter that acknowledges concerns among some Jewish voters about his candidacy and his criticism of Israel. The letter, signed by more than 500 people who identify as Jewish leaders or voters in the state, says that the election of Dr. El-Sayed, a staunch critic of Israel, is “clearly the better choice for…

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Jonathan Swift anticipated the flashy simulation of human knowledge called AI

Jonathan Swift anticipated the flashy simulation of human knowledge called AI

Dónal Gill writes: I have spent a significant portion of my life studying the Irish satirist Jonathan Swift — and in particular, studying Gulliver’s Travels, which turns 300 this year. While working on my Ph.D. dissertation, I was primarily interested in what Swift had to say about the politics of travel. Now, as a college professor teaching Canadian politics and battling to keep generative artificial intelligence out of my classrooms, I’m thinking a lot about what Swift had to say…

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