Welcome back to, TIME's new twice-weekly newsletter about AI. If you're reading this in your browser, why not subscribe to have the next one delivered straight to your inbox? The three most valuable private companies in the U.S. have big reputations: OpenAI, SpaceX, and Anthropic. But the fourth, Databricks, flies a little more under the radar. This company, which is currently raising funds at a valuation of $134 billion according to reports this week, is a quiet workhorse of the AI revolution.

By how much, if at all, will AI boost the U.S. economy? New research by Anthropic, seen exclusively by TIME in advance of its release today, offers at least a partial answer to that question. By studying aggregated data about how people use Claude in the course of their work, Anthropic researchers came up with an estimate for how much AI could contribute to annual labor productivity growth--an important contributor to the total level of growth in the overall economy--as the technology becomes more widely used. Their answer: current-generation AI models could increase the U.S. annual labor productivity growth rate by 1.8%--doubling the average rate of growth since 2019. Assuming that labor makes up 60% of total productivity in the economy, and that AI reaches full diffusion in a decade's time, "this implies an overall total factor productivity increase of 1.1% per year," the researchers write.

Booth is a reporter at TIME. Hemant Taneja, CEO, General Catalyst speaks on stage during The Summit on U.S. Resilience hosted by General Catalyst Institute at The Salamander on Nov. 17, 2025 in Washington, DC. Hemant Taneja, CEO, General Catalyst speaks on stage during The Summit on U.S. Resilience hosted by General Catalyst Institute at The Salamander on Nov. 17, 2025 in Washington, DC. Booth is a reporter at TIME. Hemant Taneja, who leads one of the world's largest venture firms, believes doing good isn't just the right thing to do.

Anthropic Study Finds AI Model'Turned Evil' After Hacking Its Own Training A person holds a smartphone displaying Claude. A person holds a smartphone displaying Claude. AI models can do scary things. There are signs that they could deceive and blackmail users. Still, a common critique is that these misbehaviors are contrived and wouldn't happen in reality--but a new paper from Anthropic, released today, suggests that they really could.

This AI Grandma Is Going Viral. Is She the Future of Influencing? Granny Spills, an AI influencer, has amassed millions of followers on social media. Granny Spills, an AI influencer, has amassed millions of followers on social media. Over the past four months, millions of people have enjoyed the uproarious life advice dispensed by Granny Spills, an influencer wearing all-pink designer suits, on TikTok and Instagram.

No, That AI-Generated Country Song Isn't a No. 1 Hit Welcome back to In the Loop, new twice-weekly newsletter about AI. If you're reading this in your browser, why not subscribe to have the next one delivered straight to your inbox? This week, many headlines declared that an AI-generated song, "Walk My Walk" by Breaking Rust, had become the biggest country song in America. This is unequivocally not true. "Walk My Walk," a laughably generic country song about independence and defiance, had middling organic momentum on streaming and search before it topped Billboard's Country Digital Song Sales chart last week.

A smartphone shows the official website of ChatGPT Atlas. A smartphone shows the official website of ChatGPT Atlas. "It'd be really nice to have a service that was sort of just observing your life and proactively helping you when you needed it," said OpenAI CEO Sam Altman in a recent Q&A about OpenAI's plans. This vision is at the heart of a new crop of AI browsers, notably OpenAI's ChatGPT Atlas and Perplexity's Comet. AI browsers differ from traditional browsers in at least two important ways.

Welcome back to, TIME's new twice-weekly newsletter about AI. If you're reading this in your browser, why not subscribe to have the next one delivered straight to your inbox? The chatbot platform, which allows users to chat with AIs that personify fictional characters, is the target of several lawsuits -- including one from Megan Garcia, a mother whose 14-year-old son died by suicide after becoming obsessed with one of the bots, which allegedly encouraged him to end his own life. In the wake of that lawsuit and others, last month Character.AI made a big announcement: it would ban users under 18 years old from having "open-ended conversations" with the chatbots on its platform. It was a huge pivot for a company that says Generations Z and Alpha make up the core of its more than 6 million daily active users, who spend an average of 70 to 80 minutes per day on the platform.

Booth is a reporter at TIME. Booth is a reporter at TIME. Jimmy Wales describes himself as a "pathological optimist." And yet, when the co-founder of Wikipedia spoke with TIME in October, he still seemed somewhat surprised that his online encyclopedia actually worked. "Wikipedia is very trusting, in a way that always seemed a bit crazy," Wales says.

What Happens When Your Favorite Chatbot Dies? Pillay is an editorial fellow at TIME. Sarah Friar speaks during the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in Singapore on Nov. 18, 2021. Sarah Friar speaks during the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in Singapore on Nov. 18, 2021. Pillay is an editorial fellow at TIME.