The US government wants to get hold of a quantum computer good enough to contribute to scientific breakthroughs in just two years. It will use it to try to accelerate the research and development of new materials, pharmaceuticals and molecules useful in agriculture and manufacturing. Once a dream of theoretical physicists, quantum computers are now undoubtedly real, but have yet to prove unambiguously useful or to have broad commercial value. Their computational power depends on their size - how many components called qubits they comprise - and how reliable they are. Existing devices are still too small and too error-prone.

OpenAI Has New AI Models. The White House asked OpenAI to delay the rollout of its GPT-5.6 AI models, two weeks after Anthropic had to take its most advanced AI models offline. OpenAI is delaying the public release of its next generation of AI models, GPT-5.6, at the request of Trump's White House, the company confirmed on Friday. OpenAI said it would first share the models with a small set of customers, which will be preapproved by the US government. It will then work with the administration to slowly expand access.

Anthropic still can't distribute Claude Mythos or Fable 5 after running afoul of the Trump administration. But no one can say exactly what the company did wrong. It's been nearly a week since the Trump administration sent an export control directive to Anthropic, forcing one of the world's leading AI labs to pull its most advanced models offline. After days of negotiations between Anthropic and the White House, the two still remain at odds about how to bring Claude Mythos and Fable 5 back. Well, it depends whom you ask.

The commercial was submitted by the Freedom of the Press Foundation to run during Donald Trump's UFC event. It criticized the $111 billion merger as a threat to the First Amendment. Viewers who tuned into the Paramount+ livestream of UFC Freedom 250 on Sunday night, held to mark President Trump' s 80th birthday as well as the nation's semiquincentennial, were treated to the surreal spectacle of mixed martial artists beating each other bloody in a massive cage installed on the White House lawn. But there was one bruising blow they missed: an advertisement blasting the $111 billion merger agreement between Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery . That's because Paramount refused to air the ad, according to Freedom of the Press Foundation, the nonprofit advocacy group that submitted it to run during the event.

The federal government is planning to let a rule regulating federal data center operations sunset in September with no replacement. The US government is quietly planning to allow a rule outlining the standards for federal data center usage and operations, known as the Federal Data Center Enhancement Act (FDCEA), to expire, according to sources who spoke to WIRED. Neither Congress nor the Trump administration appears to be making significant moves to protect or extend the rule, or put alternate plans in place. Data centers have become a hot-button issue in recent months, as the tech industry goes all in on artificial intelligence and the infrastructure needed to power it. According to a Gallup poll from May, more than 70 percent of Americans oppose the construction of data centers, the energy-and water-intensive buildings that power the AI boom, in their communities.

Trump Risks Key Surveillance Authority Over'Unqualified' Spy-Chief Pick US lawmakers are alarmed that Bill Pulte, a housing official with no intelligence experience, is poised to take charge of one of the government's most powerful surveillance tools. A sweeping warrantless surveillance authority remains on track to expire Friday, with no clear path to a deal, after President Donald Trump refused this week to abandon his pick of housing official Bill Pulte to temporarily lead the US intelligence community--even tasking Pulte with gutting the Office of the Director of National Intelligence in a DOGE-style "downsizing" before a permanent director is named. In a Truth Social post after his second White House meeting in two days with House speaker Mike Johnson, Trump called Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act "very important to our military, and keeping the American people safe" and asked Congress for a short-term extension to give him time to find a permanent director of national intelligence. Section 702 lets the government collect the communications of foreign targets abroad without a warrant, sweeping in an unknown volume of Americans' messages that the FBI can later search. It faces a first-ever lapse in its legal authorization if Congress does not act by the end of Friday, June 12.

Donald Trump's new AI order is a lot of nothing. For months now, the White House has hinted that it may try to rein in the AI industry. Just two weeks ago, the nation's top tech executives--including Sam Altman and Dario Amodei--were invited to attend a ceremony for the signing of a long-anticipated executive order on AI. But just hours before the ceremony, Donald Trump scrapped it. America is leading the world in the AI race, the president told reporters at the time, "and I don't want to do anything that's going to get in the way of that lead."

Pope Leo XIV attends the presentation of his first Encyclical Letter Magnifica Humanitas in The Vatican on May 25, 2026. Pope Leo XIV attends the presentation of his first Encyclical Letter Magnifica Humanitas in The Vatican on May 25, 2026. Over the past year, Pope Leo XIV and President Donald Trump have clashed several times in the press, including on the Iran War, nuclear weapons, and immigration. On Monday, Leo potentially opened a new front: AI. Leo's new encyclical --a 42,300-word open letter to the world's 1.4 billion Catholics about preserving dignity in a tech age--never mentions Trump at all.

An email reminds workers they can report behavior that predates Donald Trump's second inauguration. One employee tells WIRED it felt like a "reminder to narc on your coworkers." Late last week, employees at the Department of Labor received a long email strongly urging them to file whistleblower complaints and report instances of " diversity, equity, and inclusion "-related discrimination or retaliation. In short, employees were told to alert the government of DEI compliance in any way. The email, sent on Friday and viewed by WIRED, felt like it was a "reminder to narc on your coworkers for doing DEI," says a DOL employee who requested anonymity for fear of retaliation.

David Sacks and Mark Zuckerberg attend a dinner with tech leaders at the White House in Washington DC on 4 September 2025. David Sacks and Mark Zuckerberg attend a dinner with tech leaders at the White House in Washington DC on 4 September 2025. How big tech got its way on Trump's AI executive order The US president's reversal on calling for a safety review of new AI models is a green light for tech's unchecked power Only hours before Donald Trump was set to sign a long-awaited executive order on Thursday that would have called for a government safety review of new artificial intelligence models before their release, the president abruptly backed out . Despite growing public backlash to the technology and experts warning new models will pose critical security risks, Trump vowed the US government would not slow down the AI race. During a meeting with reporters on Thursday, Trump cited both American dominance and competition with China and as his reasoning behind the reversal.