This was the worst week I have had in quite a while, maybe ever.

The situation between Anthropic and the Department of War (DoW) spun completely out of control. Trump tried to de-escalate by putting out a Truth merely banning Anthropic from direct use by the Federal Government with a six month wind down. Then Secretary of War Hegseth went rogue and declared Anthropic a supply chain risk, with wording indicating an intent to outright murder Anthropic as a company.

Then that evening OpenAI signed a contact with DoW,

I’ve been trying to figure out the situation and help as best I can. I’ve been in a lot of phone calls, often off the record. Conduct is highly unbecoming and often illegal, arbitrary and capricious. The house is on fire, the Republic in peril. I have people lying to me and being lied to by others. There is fog of war. One gets it from all sides. It's terrifying to think about what might happen with one wrong move.

Also the Middle East is kind of literally on fire, which I’m not covering.

Last week, I had previously covered the situation in Anthropic and [...]

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Outline:

(04:17) A Well Deserved Break

(05:53) Huh, Upgrades

(07:40) On Your Marks

(07:59) Choose Your Fighter

(08:55) Deepfaketown and Botpocalypse Soon

(10:07) A Young Ladys Illustrated Primer

(11:48) You Drive Me Crazy

(12:34) They Took Our Jobs

“AI #158: The Department of War” by Zvi