AI Zoom and Doom, Stronger Champagne
I’m not sure there’s a ten percent chance AI will kill all humans. But I do think there’s a 100 percent chance that the people currently in charge of AI companies and regulation will make bad choices for the rest of us human survivors. Regardless of public displays of reflection, self-regulation tends to only really benefit the self. And effective government regulation under our current administration seems about as likely as the White House lawn being lined with windmills. But it’s notable that the calls for caution are coming from inside the industry. “Four days after a researcher publicly quit his job at Anthropic, warning that top AI firms are not ‘acting responsibly’ and that their products might be on track to ‘kill us all,’ the company’s CEO, Dario Amodei, seemed to basically agree. ‘We must slow the pace at which we improve the capabilities of AI models,’ Amodei wrote in a 3,800-word essay.” (The length of the essay doesn’t say much for Claude’s editing capabilities.) Will Oremus in The Atlantic (Gift Article): AI’s Code-Red Moment. And here’s a human-edited summary from the NYT (Gift Article): What Anthropic’s C.E.O. Argued in His Call for Slower A.I. Development. Other AI execs like Sam Altman voiced similar concerns, while Elon Musk says he’s been issuing similar warnings all along. If you’re not absolutely certain we need an AI slowdown, this should convince you to be for it: Trump is against it. “The only control or ‘guardrails’ that AI needs is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT, and the U.S.A. has that, in spades!” (Trump, Musk, Altman … it’s enough to make you long for the day when machines take over.)
+ China dismisses AI slowdown calls and blasts ‘fearmongering’ from U.S. tech leaders. Don’t kid yourself. China is worried about threats posed by AI, too. Especially when it comes to threats to the regime. Hyperbole aside, the financial upside associated with AI and the international race among superpowers for AI dominance combine to make any slowdown remarkably unlikely, even as the need for one becomes increasingly remarkable.
+ We’ve already seen technology dramatically alter the military playing fields from Ukraine to the Gulf. One of the things I worry about the most is that we’ve created the tools that will help others close the Military gap we’ve been building for decades. Bloomberg (Gift Article): Anthropic Says Yemeni Cell Used Claude in Missile Development. And from Carl Zimmer in the NYT (Gift Article): A.I. Queries From Abroad Raise Fears of a Biological Weapons Race.
Vladimir-a-Lago
“An armed Russian jet drone hit the engine of a passenger train in Ukraine near the Polish border on the weekend. Meanwhile, President Trump lectured Ukraine’s President to stop hitting energy targets in Russia. Go ahead, make Vladimir Putin’s day, Mr. President.” WSJ Editorial Board (Gift Article): Trump Lectures Ukraine, not Russia. (I wonder if his lecture was in English or the original Russian?)
+ If you’re surprised that Trump is siding with Putin, you really haven’t been paying much attention over the years. Anne Applebaum describes our new empire of grift in The Atlantic (Gift Article): “Far-right ideologues have transformed American foreign policy into a tool of private gain and antidemocratic reaction.” MAGA Is Making the World Safe for Corruption. “The idea that a dedicated group of Americans has a plan to dismantle Canada, or that businessmen with opaque links to the U.S. government might want to create political conditions for a U.S. takeover of Greenland, may surprise Americans. It shouldn’t. Every single tactic used against Brazil, Canada, or Denmark has also been deployed elsewhere—not to support democracy, not to build American prosperity, but to spread the illiberal revolution and make money for the predators who support it.”
+ Just consider who we’re sending abroad to negotiate our deals. Dexter Filkins in The New Yorker: Jared Kushner’s Dollar Diplomacy. (alt link) “He represents a new kind of Washington figure, for whom public office serves as a means to extraordinary wealth. In the past two years, an array of people linked to the White House—including Witkoff’s sons, the cryptocurrency adviser David Sacks, and other members of the Trump family—have used their official positions to bring in billions of dollars for themselves. ‘I know all these guys,’ a former American official who served in the Middle East told me. ‘They go into these meetings, and they are doing business right alongside their diplomacy. ‘O.K., enough about the ceasefire. We have this hotel we want to build.’ That’s the kind of foreign policy America has now.'”
+ I know, this all seems too sickening to believe. But, in reality, it’s even more sickening. Pro Publica: Donald Trump Jr.’s Bahamas Wedding Was Secretly Bankrolled by Russian Oligarch Close to Putin.
Emission Impossible
“The Environmental Protection Agency said Monday it is repealing rules that limit planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions from power plants fueled by coal and natural gas, an action the agency said would remove more than $300 billion in costs for the industry and help ‘unleash’ American energy.” What’s getting unleashed is climate change, but don’t focus on the negatives. Just…
Put a Cork In It
In France, this Summer’s “extreme heat and drought produced grapes with exceptionally higher sugar levels. Yeast converts sugar into alcohol during fermentation.” Record heatwaves in France set to make champagne stronger.
Extra, Extra
You’re Gonna Need a Bigger Bribe: “Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia, the country’s de facto ruler, had reasons to be confident in that partnership. For years, his government has invested billions of dollars and extensive political capital in building personal relationships with Mr. Trump and his family. But when the crown prince asked Mr. Trump last week to take military action against the Houthis, the president declined.” Saudi Arabia Faces ‘Worst-Case Scenario’ After Being Rebuffed by Trump. The scenario for you filling up your tank for a reasonable price isn’t looking all that good either. Saudi pipeline hit by drones will be out of service for weeks, further restricting oil flow.
+ Slop, Slop, Fizz Fizz: The fate of humanity aside, Paul Ford has noticed some very interesting things about AI and coding. A.I. Slopware Is Everywhere Now. Nobody Is Using It. “The number of mobile apps available on Apple’s App Store was up 30 percent last year, according to one estimate. But downloads were up only 3 percent.”
+ Regrets, He Could Have a Few More: “I want to apologize to our fans, employees, and my fellow NBA team owners for the distraction and distress this matter has caused, for which I accept responsibility as principal owner.” Ballmer to accept NBA’s punishment, has ‘sincere regrets.’ This thing has gone way beyond the NBA. Pablo Torre decodes the Ballmer apology.
+ Bad to Worse: “His face was turning blue, and his veins were visible. Black fluid oozed out of his nose and mouth and pooled on his sheets. She raced to retrieve the two doses of Narcan she kept in her kitchen drawer for exactly this moment, the one she had long feared, but they did not revive him. She remembers bawling and screaming as she called 911. Her apartment, normally charming with splashes of pink, suddenly became a gray blur of paramedics, police officers and medical examiners. Her son left in a body bag. Surely, she figured, her son had died from fentanyl.” But it turns out he died from something ten times as potent. Heather Knight: A Teen Autopsy Marks the Arrival of a Deadly Drug in San Francisco.
+ If Not Now, Ben? Ben Shelton came close to breaking America’s tennis major drought. But alas, it was not to be. Elena Rybakina and Alexander Zverev took home the hardware. And I am suffering from serious US Open withdrawal. SI: 50 Parting Thoughts From the 2026 U.S. Open.
+ Name Claim: Trump’s allies at The Kennedy Center warn that it is nearing collapse, both financial and structural. There’s only one thing that can save it. Trump’s name on the facade.
Bottom of the News
“Hackett said he wants to use this incident as an opportunity to teach the public about how to be safe while spending time outdoors.” Arizona camper survives 4th rattlesnake bite in 4 years. (I think I’m a little better suited than this dude to teach outdoor safety. In the nineties, I saw what I thought was a snake, but it turned out to be a stick. I haven’t been outside since.)
+ I don’t quite know what this headline means. But I’m pretty sure it could only exist in 2026. Rally for miniature donkey HeeHaw turns violent. (And here’s a twist. This didn’t happen in Florida.)
