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stream paradise on Hulu and Hulu on Disney. Welcome to the Tech Brew Ride home for Friday, March 6, 2026. I'm Brian McCullough. Today, Dario might need some message discipline as Anthropic is officially designated a risk by the US government. GPT 5.4 is here. Oracle is considering laying off a ton of people and Softbank is considering taking on a ton of debt, both for the same reason, an early warning system for AI job destruction and of course the weekend long rate suggestions. And here's what you missed today in the world of Tech. The US DoD says it has officially informed Anthropic leadership the company and its products are deemed a supply chain risk, effective immediately. Dario Amodai says Anthropic plans to fight the DoD's risk designation in court, claiming the DoD's letter to it has a, quote, narrow scope and apologizes for a recent leaked memo. Quoting and Gadget, Amodai explained that the designation has a narrow scope because it only exists to protect the government. That is why the general public and even Defense Department contractors can still use Anthropic's Claude Chatbot and its AI technologies. Microsoft told CNBC that it will continue using Claude after its lawyers had concluded that it can keep on working with Anthropic on non defense related projects. More on that in a second. The CEO has also admitted that his company had productive conversations with the department over the past few days. He said that they were looking at ways to serve the Pentagon that adheres to its two exceptions, namely that its technology not be used for mass surveillance and the development of fully autonomous weapons and looking at ways to, quote, ensure a smooth transition. If that's not possible. That confirms reports that Anthropic is back in talks with the agency in an effort to reach a new deal. In addition, Amodai apologized for a leaked internal memo wherein he reportedly said that OpenAI's messaging about its own deal with the department is just straight up lies, end quote. Actually, he said more than that. Quoting the New York Post, Anthropic CEO Dario Amadai has apologized for bashing the Trump administration in an explosive letter to staffers as he gears up for a court battle over the Pentagon's blacklisting of his AI firm. The exec said he's sorry for the quote, tone of a 1600 word internal missive that accused the Department of War of targeting Anthropic for not giving dictator style praise to Trump. I also want to apologize directly for a post internal to the company that was leaked to the press yesterday, amadi wrote in a note published on his company's website Thursday. Anthropic did not leak this post nor direct anyone else to do so. It is not in our interest to escalate the situation. He went on to note his inflammatory comments came hours after Trump blasted Anthropic staff as left wing nutjobs and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said on X he would designate Anthropic a supply chain risk. It was a difficult day for the company and I apologize for the tone of the post, amadi wrote. It does not reflect my careful or considered views, end quote. In his memo to staffers earlier this week, Amadi said Anthropic was being punished because he didn't quote donate to Trump while quote OpenAI/greg have donated a lot. Referring to OpenAI President Greg Brockman, the Information reported Amo Dai, who donated to Democratic former Vice President Kamala Harris failed presidential campaign, blasted OpenAI and the Pentagon for allegedly smearing his company's name. I want to be very clear on the messaging that is coming from OpenAI and the mendacious nature of it, he wrote in the note. End quote. Indeed. Also in that memo, Amadai said OpenAI's DoD deal is quote, safety theater and the DoD dislikes anthropic in part because it hadn't again given quote dictator style praise to Trump. So that's why he's walking that back. Meanwhile, Microsoft says it will keep Anthropic's AI tools embedded in its client products after its lawyers concluded the DoD's designation is only for defense projects. Quoting CNBC, Microsoft is the first major company to say it will keep working with Anthropic after the Pentagon's actions. Some defense technology companies have told employees to stop using Anthropic's cloud models and migrate to alternatives. Our lawyers have studied the designation and have concluded that Anthropic products, including Claude, can remain available to our customers other than the of war through platforms such as M365, GitHub and Microsoft's AI Foundry, and that we can continue to work with Anthropic on non defense related projects. A Microsoft spokesperson told CNBC in an email. Microsoft supplies its technology to a variety of U.S. government agencies. The Microsoft 365 productivity software is widely used inside the Department of War. In September, Microsoft said it was integrating Anthropic's generative artificial intelligence models into the Microsoft 365 Copilot add on for Microsoft 365 subscriptions alongside models from OpenAI. Many software engineers have adopted Anthropic's Claude models for drafting source code, and they are available in the GitHub Copilot AI software development service along with OpenAI's competing Codex models. In November, Microsoft said Anthropic has committed to spending $30 billion on Microsoft's Azure cloud services, while Microsoft agreed to invest up to $5 billion in anthropic. End Quote. As expected yesterday, OpenAI launched GPT 5.4, saying it is its quote, most capable and efficient frontier model for professional work and its first with native computer use capabilities. Quoting the verge, it's also OpenAI's first model with native computer use capabilities, meaning it can operate a computer on your behalf and complete tasks across different applications. The new model is a step toward the agentic future that AI companies are aiming to build build, where a network of AI powered agents operates in the background to complete complex jobs online and within software. OpenAI introduced ChatGPT agent amid a flurry of other agentic tools that emerged last year, which can take control of your computer to perform tasks such as searching for and buying ingredients for a meal. While OpenAI is bringing GPT 5.4 to its API and its AI powered coding tool Codex, it's rolling out its Reasoning model GPT 5.4 thinking to ChatGPT. OpenAI says GPT 5.4 can write code to operate computers as well as issue keyboard and mouse commands in response to screenshots. GPT 5.4 also shows improvements while using web browsers, as well as its ability to call upon tools and APIs more accurately and efficiently to help it complete tasks. The model is better at fielding questions that require it to gather information from multiple sources too. As OpenAI says the model quote can more persistently search across multiple rounds to identify the most relevant sources, particularly for needle in the haystack questions and synthesize them into a clear well reason to answer. OpenAI claims GPT 5.4 is its most factual model yet, with individual claims 33% less likely to be false compared to GPT 5.2. Inside ChatGPT 5.4 thinking will provide an outline of its work for more complex queries, while also allowing users to tweak or change their request during its response. This makes it easier to guide the model toward the exact outcome you want without starting over or requiring multiple additional turns. OpenAI says this feature is now available in the ChatGPT web app and on Android, but OpenAI says it's coming soon to the iOS app. GPT 5.4 is rolling out now across ChatGPT codecs and the API, with the GPT 5.4 thinking model coming to Plus Team and Pro users. There's also a 5.4 Pro model for maximum performance on complex tasks rolling out in the API, as well as for ChatGPT, Enterprise and EDU users. End quote Foreign. Sources tell Bloomberg that Oracle is planning to cut thousands of jobs as soon as March. Among its moves to handle a cash crunch from a massive AI data center expansion effort that we've been discussing at length. Quote the job reductions will affect divisions across the company and may be implemented as soon as this month, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be named discussing the still private plans. Some of the cuts will be aimed at job categories that the company expects it will need less of due to AI, two of the people said. Wall street projects the expenditures by the cloud unit for data centers to push Oracle's cash flow negative over the coming years before the spending begins to pay off in 2030, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Last month, Oracle said it would raise as much as $50 billion this a combination of debt and equity sales. The reductions being planned are expected to be wider reaching than the company's typical rolling job cuts, according to the people. This week, Oracle announced internally that it would be reviewing many of the open job listings in its cloud division, effectively slowing down or freezing the hiring process, according to people with knowledge of the move. Oracle declined to comment. The company had about 162,000 employees globally as of the end of May 2025. Planning for the workforce reductions is still active and could change, the people said. Orac initial moves as an AI cloud provider drew favor from investors who boosted the stock 61% in 2024 and 20% last year. However, as the costs increased, the market has soured on the company, with the shares falling 54% from their September 2025 high through Wednesday's close. End quote.