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AI firm Anthropic seeks weapons expert to stop users from 'misuse'

BBC News

AI firm Anthropic seeks weapons expert to stop users from'misuse' The US artificial intelligence (AI) firm Anthropic is looking to hire a chemical weapons and high-yield explosives expert to try to prevent catastrophic misuse of its software. In other words, it fears that its AI tools might tell someone how to make chemical or radioactive weapons, and wants an expert to ensure its guardrails are sufficiently robust. In the LinkedIn recruitment post, the firm says applicants should have a minimum of five years experience in chemical weapons and/or explosives defence as well as knowledge of radiological dispersal devices - also known as dirty bombs. The firm told the BBC the role was similar to jobs in other sensitive areas that it has already created. Anthropic is not the only AI firm adopting this strategy.


The Download: glass chips and "AI-free" logos

MIT Technology Review

Plus: Elizabeth Warren wants answers on xAI's access to military data. Human-made glass is thousands of years old. But it's now poised to find its way into the AI chips used in the world's newest and largest data centers. This year, a South Korean company called Absolics will start producing special glass panels that make next-generation computing hardware more powerful and efficient. Other companies, including Intel, are also pushing forward in this area. If all goes well, the technology could reduce the energy demands of chips in AI data centers--and even consumer laptops and mobile devices.


What we've been getting wrong about AI's truth crisis

MIT Technology Review

What we've been getting wrong about AI's truth crisis Even when content is revealed to be manipulated, it still shapes our beliefs. The defenders of truth are hopelessly behind. What would it take to convince you that the era of truth decay we were long warned about--where AI content dupes us, shapes our beliefs even when we catch the lie, and erodes societal trust in the process--is now here? A story I published last week pushed me over the edge. It also made me realize that the tools we were sold as a cure for this crisis are failing miserably. On Thursday, I reported the first confirmation that the US Department of Homeland Security, which houses immigration agencies, is using AI video generators from Google and Adobe to make content that it shares with the public.


US Hackers Reportedly Caused a Blackout in Venezuela

WIRED

Plus: AI reportedly caused ICE to send agents into the field without training, Palantir's app for targeting immigrants gets exposed, and more. As Immigration and Customs Enforcement continues its "Operation Metro Surge" infiltration of Minnesota, more than 2,000 ICE operatives and about 1,000 other federal agents have made more than 2,400 arrests since the operation began in late 2025, and tear gassed protesters. Last week, an ICE agent shot and killed local resident Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old US citizen. In response, the state of Minnesota and the Twin Cities' local governments sued the US government and several officials this week to stop the operation . WIRED reported on a contract justification published in a federal register on Tuesday that says 31 ICE vehicles currently operating in Minnesota "lack the necessary emergency lights and sirens" to be "compliant" with regulations.


US approves sale of Nvidia's advanced AI chips to China

BBC News

US approves sale of Nvidia's advanced AI chips to China The US government has given chip giant Nvidia the green light to sell its advanced artificial intelligence (AI) processors in China, the Department of Commerce said on Tuesday. The H200, Nvidia's second-most-advanced semiconductor, had been restricted by Washington over concerns that it would give China's technology industry and military an edge over the US. The Commerce Department said the chips can be shipped to China granted that there is sufficient supply of the processors in the US. President Donald Trump said last month that he would allow the chip sales to approved customers in China and collect a 25% fee. Nvidia's spokesperson told the BBC that the company welcomed the move, saying it will benefit manufacturing and jobs in the US.


Americans Are Increasingly Convinced That Aliens Have Visited Earth

WIRED

Polling shows that nearly half of Americans now believe aliens have visited this planet--and that the number who aren't sure has dropped by two-thirds. The reasons why, experts say, are complicated. Americans are becoming more open to the idea that aliens have visited Earth, according to a series of polls that show belief in alien visitation has been steadily on the rise since 2012. Almost half--47 percent--of Americans say they think aliens have definitely or probably visited Earth at some point in time, according to a new poll from YouGov conducted in November 2025 that involved 1,114 adult participants. That percentage is up from roughly a third (36 percent) of Americans polled in 2012 by Kelton Research, with the exact same sample size.


The Download: why 2025 has been the year of AI hype correction, and fighting GPS jamming

MIT Technology Review

When OpenAI released a free web app called ChatGPT in late 2022, it changed the course of an entire industry--and several world economies. Millions of people started talking to their computers, and their computers started talking back. We were enchanted, and we expected more. Well, 2025 has been a year of reckoning. For a start, the heads of the top AI companies made promises they couldn't keep. At the same time, updates to the core technology are no longer the step changes they once were.


There Is Only One AI Company. Welcome to the Blob

WIRED

There Is Only One AI Company. As Nvidia, OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft forge partnerships and deals, the AI industry is looking more like one interconnected machine. What does that mean for all of us? It all began, as many things do, with Elon Musk . In the early 2010s he realized that AI was on a track to become perhaps the most powerful technology of all time.


Alex Karp Goes to War

WIRED

Palantir's CEO is good with ICE and says he defends human rights. But will Israel and Trump ever go too far for him? Alex Karp and I would not seem to have much in common. I work for WIRED, which does tough reporting on Trumpworld; Karp is the CEO of Palantir, a $450 billion firm that has contracts with agencies like the CIA and ICE and worked for the Israeli military during its campaign in Gaza. I live in the East Village of New York City, and the home Karp spends the most time in is a 500-acre compound in rural New Hampshire. I was a plain old English major, and he's got a law degree and a PhD in philosophy, studying under the legendary Jürgen Habermas. I consider myself a progressive; Karp regards that stuff as "pagan religion." But we can bond over one shared status: Both of us are alumni of Central High School, a Philadelphia magnet school. I have some years on the 58-year-old executive.)


How the US overtook China as Africa's biggest foreign investor

BBC News

You probably don't give much thought to the device that you're reading this article on, as long as it looks good and keeps working. But the elements that power and run it are the subject of an escalating struggle between the world's two biggest economies - the US and China - with African countries in the eye of the storm. The African continent is rich in critical minerals and metals - like lithium, rare earths, cobalt and tungsten - which are vital to making and running our personal tech. Such materials are also essential for everything from electric vehicles, to AI data centres, and weapon systems. China has long been the biggest player in the global market for critical minerals and metals.