Verity Harding tells WIRED that the US government's nationalistic attitude toward AI is evidence that a worst-case scenario is taking shape. Reports of an artificial intelligence arms race are everywhere-- even in this very publication . But what if that framing is fundamentally dangerous? Between 2016 and 2020, Harding spent her days briefing politicians across the globe, from Barack Obama to Emmanuel Macron, on advances in AI. As the head of global public policy at Google DeepMind, Harding was responsible for mapping out ethical conundrums and potential risks.

The Download: Anthropic launches Claude Science, and California's carbon manure math Plus: The US has lifted restrictions on Anthropic's Mythos and Fable models. Claude Science is Anthropic's newest flagship product At an event for pharmaceutical executives, biotech founders, and researchers yesterday, Anthropic announced Claude Science, a major new product intended to support scientific research like Claude Code supports software engineering. Like Claude Code, Claude Science can autonomously carry out meaningful work from concise, high-level instructions, with tools for computational biology and drug development. The launch signals that Anthropic is doubling down on AI for science, and the company will also use the product in its own research into drugs for rare, neglected diseases. Discover why Anthropic is betting big on AI for scientific research . Why California's carbon manure math doesn't add up Years ago, the state set up a system that pays cattle farmers to turn the methane emitted from cattle manure into natural gas.

The UN's independent scientific panel for AI has published its first report. Artificial intelligence development has been progressing at such a rapid pace that current governance systems are unable to keep up, the UN's Independent International Scientific Panel on Artificial Intelligence says in its preliminary report . The panel, consisting of members from around the world, will provide the information needed to stage the UN Global Dialogue on AI Governance. It will take place in Geneva, where member states will discuss how to manage the technology, and is scheduled to begin on July 6. In its report, the panel discusses how quickly AI capabilities have evolved over the past few years.

Anthropic Walks Back Policy That Could Have'Sabotaged' AI Researchers Using Claude The company changed course after researchers spoke out against the policy, which would have covertly limited Claude's ability to develop competing AI models. Anthropic is backtracking on a policy that would have covertly limited competitors from using its new AI model, Claude Fable 5, to develop other AI models. The company changed course after the move received significant backlash from the AI research community . "We're changing Fable 5's safeguards for frontier LLM development to make them visible," Anthropic said in a statement to WIRED. "We made the wrong tradeoff and we apologize for not getting the balance right."

With an initial capacity of 24 megawatts, the innovative data center uses seawater as a natural cooling system. China is submerging data centers into the ocean to keep them cool.Photograph: Shanghai Hailanyun Technology China has become the first country in the world to operate an underwater data center, or UDC, powered by wind. Located off the coast of Shanghai, the complex represents a significant advance in the country's strategy to secure energy supplies in the face of the accelerated growth of artificial intelligence, reduce dependence on fossil fuels, and reduce the environmental impact of its technology infrastructure. The initiative is the result of a collaboration between private company HiCloud Technology and state-owned China Communications Construction, which involved an investment of 1.6 billion yuan, equivalent to about $236 million. With an initial capacity of 24 megawatts, the facility is submerged at a depth of 10 meters in the Lin-gang Special Zone, within the China Pilot Free Trade Zone in Shanghai.

Plus: Anthropic has called for a global slowdown in AI development. The Meta hack shows there's more to AI security than Mythos On Monday, reports emerged that attackers had used Meta's AI customer support agent to steal Instagram accounts. Their approach was simple: they asked the agent to link the accounts to email addresses they controlled, and it complied. Since Anthropic announced that its Mythos model was too good at hacking for a general release, cybersecurity concerns have focused on the risk of superpowered AI systems overwhelming computer infrastructure. But the Instagram hack shows that far simpler exploits can still cause damage. As companies offload more work to AI, these comparatively unsophisticated attacks are becoming harder to ignore.

'If OpenAI lost its footing as the AI industry frontrunner, another barely distinguishable competitor - Musk's xAI or other - would simply replace it.' 'If OpenAI lost its footing as the AI industry frontrunner, another barely distinguishable competitor - Musk's xAI or other - would simply replace it.' If it wasn't already clear, Elon Musk and Sam Altman hate each other. While the two men were once cofounders of OpenAI, they're now locked in a vicious feud, playing out in all its theatrics in front of a judge and jury in a California courtroom. Musk is suing, alleging that Altman and OpenAI president Greg Brockman tricked him into forming and funding the organization as a non-profit before they subsequently restructured it to have a for-profit entity.

Machine learning competitions (MLCs) play a pivotal role in advancing artificial intelligence (AI) by fostering innovation, skill development, and practical problem-solving. This study provides a comprehensive analysis of major competition platforms such as Kaggle and Zindi, examining their workflows, evaluation methodologies, and reward structures. It further assesses competition quality, participant expertise, and global reach, with particular attention to demographic trends among top-performing competitors. By exploring the motivations of competition hosts, this paper underscores the significant role of MLCs in shaping AI development, promoting collaboration, and driving impactful technological progress. Furthermore, by combining literature synthesis with platform-level data analysis and practitioner insights a comprehensive understanding of the MLC ecosystem is provided. Moreover, the paper demonstrates that MLCs function at the intersection of academic research and industrial application, fostering the exchange of knowledge, data, and practical methodologies across domains. Their strong ties to open-source communities further promote collaboration, reproducibility, and continuous innovation within the broader ML ecosystem. By shaping research priorities, informing industry standards, and enabling large-scale crowdsourced problem-solving, these competitions play a key role in the ongoing evolution of AI. The study provides insights relevant to researchers, practitioners, and competition organizers, and includes an examination of the future trajectory and sustained influence of MLCs on AI development.

RWDS Big Questions: how do we balance innovation and regulation in the world of AI? AI development is accelerating, while regulation moves more deliberately. That tension creates a core challenge: how do we maintain momentum without breaking the things that matter? The aim isn't to slow innovation unnecessarily, but to ensure progress happens at a pace that protects individuals and society. Responsible actors should not be disadvantaged -- yet safeguards are essential to maintain trust. For the latest video in our RWDS Big Questions series, our panel explores this delicate balance.

India is hosting an artificial intelligence summit this week, bringing together heads of state and tech executives with hot-button issues on the agenda, including job disruption and child safety. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will on Monday afternoon inaugurate the five-day AI Impact Summit in New Delhi, which aims to declare a "shared roadmap for global AI governance and collaboration". Touted as the biggest edition yet, the Indian government is expecting 250,000 visitors from across the sector, including 20 national leaders and 45 ministerial-level delegations. It comes at a pivotal moment as AI rapidly transforms economies, reshapes labour markets and raises questions around regulations, security and ethics. From generative AI tools that can produce text and images to advanced systems used in defence, healthcare and climate modelling, AI has become a central focus for governments and corporations across the world.