What is Iran's Pickaxe Mountain? Can AI systems make moral decisions in war? Artificial intelligence is reshaping how wars are fought. From autonomous drones to AI-powered command-and-control, machines are paving the way for fewer decision-makers in the war room and boots on the ground. That transformation is already reshaping conflicts by introducing new technologies in Kyiv, Gaza and Tehran.

Follow this section to personalize your feed and get instant alerts. Follow Go to your personalized feed WHY FOLLOW? Smart Alerts: Get notified about major news as it happens. Follow this tag to personalize your feed and get instant alerts. Follow Go to your personalized feed WHY FOLLOW? Smart Alerts: Get notified about major news as it happens. Follow this author to personalize your feed and get instant alerts. Follow Go to your personalized feed WHY FOLLOW?

The Trump administration has not disclosed its cost estimates for the Iran war. President Donald Trump restarted the Iran conflict with days of missile strikes, and US intelligence officials now estimate the total military cost of the war for the Pentagon could exceed $100 billion, according to two people directly familiar with the matter. The officials were tracking the total cost of Operation Epic Fury to be in the $50 to $100 billion range at the end of May, dovetailing with confidential congressional estimates putting the costs to date at around $80 billion. The Trump administration has not disclosed its cost estimates for the Iran war. In June the White House made a request for $88 billion to cover some of the costs of the war, but even that is an undercounting, the people say.

Pentagon officials are weighing whether to disperse U.S. military bases in the Gulf after Iranian missile and drone attacks exposed vulnerabilities at major Middle East installations.

Exposed records from the private group included the personal information of a senior White House intelligence official and an active-duty special operations officer. A data exposure at Dialog, the private events group cofounded by Peter Thiel, exposed personal information of multiple US national security personnel. These include an intelligence official on the National Security Council (NSC) and an active-duty intelligence officer supporting sensitive military operations, WIRED has learned. The Pentagon is now examining the matter. Personal information about intelligence and military personnel is among the data most sought by foreign intelligence services, which use it to identify, surveil, and approach US operatives abroad and at home.

This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by Factset . Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions . Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by LSEG .

Plus: The Pentagon says it used Grok in strikes on Iran. For decades, physicists have hunted for weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs), a leading candidate for dark matter. But their search has run into a new problem: neutrinos. These tiny particles from the sun and other stars can create a "neutrino fog" that drowns out any signal of dark matter. Hitting the neutrino fog does not, however, mean an end to the search. Researchers just have to shift the focus of their hunt.

Anthropic has suspended its powerful new AI model after US authorities raised security concerns just days following its public release. In a statement published on its website, Anthropic said it was ordered to suspend foreign nationals from using Claude Fable 5, a program that the company self-described as too powerful. The net effect of this order is that we must abruptly disable Fable 5 and Mythos 5 for all our customers to ensure compliance, the company wrote. Anthropic and the Trump administration are involved in a separate ongoing lawsuit over an order to stop government agencies using the company's AI tools. The BBC has approached the US Department of Commerce for comment.

Why Real-Life Disclosure Day Will Look Nothing Like Steven Spielberg's New Movie Previous landmark scientific discoveries like the Higgs boson provide a better template for what it will take to confirm whether aliens have made contact with Earth. Steven Spielberg's new film imagines the moment 8 billion humans find out that we are not alone in the universe. The movie, which opens in US theaters on June 12, is a fictional account of the government cover-up and subsequent "disclosure" of evidence that aliens have contacted Earth. The UFO community has been chasing that type of cinematic big reveal for 80 years. But it's more likely that monumental scientific discoveries, like the detection of the Higgs boson in 2012 and the confirmation of gravitational waves in 2016, are a better guideline for how real-world disclosure is likely to play out: through long-running research and with verifiable results.

Follow this section to personalize your feed and get instant alerts. Follow Go to your personalized feed WHY FOLLOW? Smart Alerts: Get notified about major news as it happens. Follow this tag to personalize your feed and get instant alerts. Follow Go to your personalized feed WHY FOLLOW?