|
|
|
May 26, 2026
|
|
|
|
|
|
Welcome back! Catholic Pope Leo XIV warns AI could lead to power concentration and labor displacement. The White House nears a deal with Anthropic that allows U.S. spy agencies to use the company’s advanced AI models. Huawei's new roadmap for chip development shows the Chinese firm is making faster progress than expected.
|
|
|
|
Catholic Pope Leo XIV on Monday weighed in on hot-button AI policy debates, publishing a treatise describing the church’s concerns about AI development and its current and potential societal harms. His post, Magnifica Humanitas (“Magnificent Humanity”), which runs more than 42,000 words, offers a blueprint for “safeguarding the human person in the time of artificial intelligence” and lends credence to activists who believe governments should be more involved in the process. Unlike during earlier technology revolutions, the pope said, “the main drivers of development are private, often transnational, parties that are endowed with resources and the capacity to intervene that surpass those of many Governments,” and that “makes it even more challenging to discern, govern and direct such power toward the common good.” He decried the “new forms of slavery” involved in creating AI, including the work of data labelers and content reviewers that look at “disturbing material” and “under demanding conditions for minimal wages.” He also mentioned the often harsh work conditions of people who extract rare earth elements for the devices and microchips that run AI. Anthropic appeared to have some influence on the proceedings. Co-founder Chris Olah, who was invited to an event in Rome for what the pope called an AI “encyclical,” said human labor displacement was a “real possibility” at a “very large scale,” CBC reported. “If that happens, supporting those displaced will be a moral imperative of historic proportions,” Olah said, according to the report. The pope’s treatise said that while it was “certainly desirable for technology to relieve humans of arduous, repetitive or dangerous tasks and to provide intelligent support for human activity…the protection of employment opportunities and the irreplaceable role of the individual must remain the general rule. The pursuit of greater profits cannot justify choices that systematically sacrifice jobs, because the human person is an end, not a means, and the economic order must remain subordinate to human dignity and the common good.” The treatise also echoed some of Anthropic’s concerns about AI being used in the operation of autonomous weapons systems. “The Holy See has recently observed that the growing ease with which autonomous weapons systems can be deployed makes war more ‘feasible’ and less subject to human control. This violates the principle that armed force should be used only as a last resort in cases of legitimate self-defense,” the pope said.
|
|
|
|
The White House is nearing a deal with Anthropic that allows the National Security Agency and other U.S. spy agencies to use the company’s advanced AI models for classified work, according to the New York Times. The deal talks come despite the Defense Department designating the company as a “supply chain risk” earlier this year, after the two entities clashed over whether existing contractual language would allow the Pentagon to use Anthropic technology for mass surveillance of Americans or autonomous weapons operations. The Times report implied that the proposed contract for classified work would satisfy Anthropic’s concerns. Anthropic’s leverage appears to have grown in recent months after it revealed Mythos, an AI model that is particularly adept at spotting software vulnerabilities. U.S. national security and military agencies have long used Anthropic models for their work and have sought to continue using them despite the Defense Department’s supply chain risk designation, which the company is fighting in court. The report also said the White House had approved a $9 billion request from spy agencies to buy Nvidia Blackwell chips to power such AI.
|
|
|
|
Huawei Technologies said on Monday that it is using a new principle for semiconductor development to narrow its gap with the world’s leading chipmakers, despite U.S. export controls that have restricted China’s access to the most advanced equipment. He Tingbo, a Huawei board director and the head of the company’s chip business, presented the new principle, the Tau Scaling Law, during her keynote speech at a tech conference in Shanghai. She said Huawei will begin making chips with transistor density equivalent to a 1.4-nanometer node in 2031—three years behind TSMC, which has said it expects to mass-produce the same generation by 2028. The new roadmap shows Huawei is making faster progress than expected. If Huawei can produce 1.4-nanometer chips at scale, it would validate China’s years-long bet that homegrown innovation can substitute for Western technology its chipmakers can no longer access, dealing a blow to the U.S. strategy of using export controls to maintain its technological edge. The stakes are high for both sides. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said last week in an interview with CNBC that his company has “largely conceded” China’s AI chip market to Huawei, adding that Huawei “had a record year” and would “likely have an exceptional year ahead” as “their local ecosystem of chip manufacturers is thriving.”
|
|
|
|
The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform opened an investigation into insider trading on Polymarket and Kalshi, warning that lawmakers may take action against the prediction markets. James Comer, the Republican chair of the committee, said the “growing pattern of insider trading activity on prediction market platforms indicates that Congressional action may be necessary.” In letters to Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan and Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour, the committee requested documents from Polymarket and Kalshi asking how the companies verify their domestic and foreign account holders, monitor activity and enforce geographic restrictions. Kalshi spokesperson Elisabeth Diana said the company was “proud of our comprehensive protections against insider trading. We look forward to engaging with the Committee and its members about the systems and processes that we have spent years building.” A Polymarket spokesperson said the company “maintains a comprehensive market integrity framework. We look forward to engaging with Chairman Comer and the committee on how our platform is a pioneer in transparency.”
|
|
|
|
SpaceX held the first launch of the new version of its Starship spacecraft on Friday, successfully sending the craft from its Starbase Texas headquarters to space, where it deployed 22 test satellites. While the launch had some hitches, including an engine failure and an uncontrolled landing of its first stage booster, SpaceX touted the launch as a success. The company had previously aimed to launch the rocket, known as Starship V3, on Thursday but called off the launch at the last moment because of a problem with a mechanical arm on the launch tower. SpaceX will still need to hold several more test launches before Starship is ready for commercial service. The success of Starship is critical to most of SpaceX’s ambitions for Starlink, moon missions, orbital data centers and other projects. Delays to Starship’s development are the top risk factor outlined in SpaceX’s initial public offering prospectus, which was made public on Wednesday. SpaceX said in the filing it had spent $15 billion on developing Starship, including $3 billion in 2025.
|
|
|
|
Microsoft consumer chief marketing officer Yusuf Mehdi will leave the company next year, he announced late Thursday. Mehdi is a 34-year veteran of Microsoft but since 2023 he has overseen marketing for Microsoft’s consumer-focused products including its Surface devices and the consumer versions of Windows and Office software. Mehdi is the latest of many senior Microsoft executives to depart or announce plans to leave the company this year. Rajesh Jha, who oversees the Windows and Office product groups, will retire next month; Charlie Bell, who led Microsoft’s 10,000-person security division earlier this year moved into an independent contributor role; and former Xbox CEO Phil Spencer and president Sarah Bond both left the company in February. CEO Satya Nadella also recently overhauled much of the company to reorganize groups building Microsoft’s Copilot AI software. Mehdi said in a memo to colleagues Thursday that he “deci | | | |
