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Vincent Schmalbach: Anthropic is Preparing for IPO and We Should Be Worried (May 19, 2026)
Anthropic is tightening access and monetizing Claude, splitting CLI and agent usage into separate billing, cutting third-party subscription use, and keeping models closed. -
NY Times: Meta Reassigns 7,000 Employees to Focus on A.I. (May 18, 2026)
Meta is reassigning 7,000 employees into four AI-focused groups, ahead of planned layoffs of about 8,000 workers. The shift reflects a heavy bet on AI, cuts to the metaverse, and growing worker concern. -
WSJ: Google and Blackstone to Create New AI Cloud Company (May 18, 2026)
Google and Blackstone will launch an AI cloud company with $5 billion in equity, selling Google’s TPUs, software, and services. Blackstone will be majority owner, backing larger compute investments and targeting 500 megawatts of capacity by 2027. -
NY Times: ‘The Future of Truth’ Contains Quotes Made Up by A.I. (May 19, 2026)
Isn’t it ironic, don’t you think: Steven Rosenbaum, author of The Future of Truth, acknowledged that his book contains more than half a dozen fabricated or misattributed quotes generated by A.I. -
Vatican News: Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical Magnifica humanitas to be published May 25 (May 18, 2026)
Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical, Magnifica humanitas, on protecting the human person amid AI, will be released May 25, 2026. -
WSJ: Your Work Team Is Now a ‘Pod’ and Your Co-Workers Are AI Agents (May 18, 2026)
Companies are adopting small, cross-functional ‘pods’—teams of one to eight humans plus AI agents—to move faster, cut meetings, and build products with fewer people. -
METR: Frontier Risk Report (February to March 2026) (May 19, 2026)
In Feb–Mar 2026, METR ran a pilot with Anthropic, Google, Meta, and OpenAI to assess internal AI agent misalignment. A means, motive, and opportunity analysis judged agents could plausibly start small rogue deployments, but not make them highly robust. -
WSJ: The Art of War, Elon Musk Edition: How to Lose a Lawsuit and Still Claim Victory (May 19, 2026)
A jury dismissed Elon Musk’s suit against Sam Altman and OpenAI on statute-of-limitations grounds, ending the case in court. Musk, however, won a PR victory by using social media, legal discovery, and headlines to tarnish Altman, and plans to appeal. -
NY Times: Iran War Exposes Shortcomings in U.S. Military Industrial Base (May 19, 2026)
The Iran war exposed flaws in the U.S. military base, with slow, costly weapons production that can’t match cheap, mass-produced threats. Defense leaders propose a $1.5 trillion budget, supplier diversification, and faster acquisition.