DoD freezes out Anthropic, Musk's emails sink his case, Meta drops 9.4%

Sources

Pentagon strikes classified AI deals with OpenAI, Google, and Nvidia — but not Anthropic theverge.com

The Pentagon has struck deals with OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Nvidia, Elon Musk’s xAI, and the startup Reflection, allowing the agency to use their AI tools in classified settings, according to an announcement on Friday. At the same time, the Defense Department has left out Anthropic - which it previously used for classified information - […]

Pentagon inks deals with Nvidia, Microsoft, and AWS to deploy AI on classified networks techcrunch.com

The deals come as the DOD has doubled down on diversifying its exposure to AI vendors in the wake of its controversial dispute with Anthropic over usage terms of its AI models.

Musk v. Altman week 1: Elon Musk says he was duped, warns AI could kill us all, and admits that xAI distills OpenAI’s models technologyreview.com

In the first week of the landmark trial between Elon Musk and OpenAI, Musk took the stand in a crisp black suit and tie and argued that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and president Greg Brockman had deceived him into bankrolling the company. Along the way, he warned that AI could destroy us all and sat through…

Did you know you can’t steal a charity? Don’t worry. Elon Musk will remind you. techcrunch.com

Elon Musk spent the better part of three days on the witness stand this week in his lawsuit against OpenAI, and it’s already getting messy. Emails, texts, and his own tweets are surfacing in court, and there are plenty more witnesses to come. Musk’s argument against OpenAI? By converting the company to a for-profit model, Sam Altman betrayed the “nonprofit for the […]

Musk v. Altman is just getting started techcrunch.com

Elon Musk spent the better part of three days on the witness stand this week in his lawsuit against OpenAI, and it’s already getting messy. Emails, texts, and his own tweets are surfacing in court, and there are plenty more witnesses to come. Musk’s argument against OpenAI? By converting the company to a for-profit model, Sam Altman betrayed the “nonprofit for the […]

All the evidence revealed so far in Musk v. Altman theverge.com

The Musk v. Altman trial is underway, and that means exhibits, or the evidence to be presented in court, are being revealed piece by piece. So far, email exchanges, photos, and corporate documents are circulating from the earliest days of OpenAI - and from before the AI lab even had a name. Some high-level takeaways: […]

Elon Musk had a bad week in court theverge.com

Elon Musk is the one who wanted this trial. He has spent months claiming OpenAI “stole a nonprofit,” and saying he was the actual driving force behind one of the most important companies currently in tech. All indications are that he won’t win his case against the company, but he’s fighting it anyway. So you’d […]

Meta buys robotics startup to bolster its humanoid AI ambitions techcrunch.com

Meta bought humanoid startup Assured Robot Intelligence to beef up its AI models for robots, the company said.

Replit’s Amjad Masad on the Cursor deal, fighting Apple, and why he’d rather not sell techcrunch.com

Replit CEO Amjad Masad fielded acquisition questions at TechCrunch’s StrictlyVC event after reports that rival Cursor is in talks to be bought by SpaceX for $60 billion. Masad signaled he’d rather keep Replit independent and discussed the company’s posture toward Apple and Anthropic.

Minnesota passes ban on fake AI nudes; app makers risk $500K fines arstechnica.com

Minnesota becomes the first US state to ban nudification apps, with developers facing fines up to $500,000. The law arrives alongside fresh evidence of CSAM generated via xAI’s Grok, intensifying pressure on platforms hosting image-generation tools.

Microsoft wants lawyers to trust its new AI agent in Word documents theverge.com

Microsoft’s new Legal Agent inside Word targets contract review and negotiation history for legal teams, following structured workflows modeled on legal practice rather than relying on general-purpose LLM prompting to interpret commands.

A new US phone network for Christians aims to block porn and gender-related content technologyreview.com

A T-Mobile-based MVNO marketed to Christians launches next week with network-level blocking of pornography that account holders cannot disable, plus filters for gender-related content. Security experts say it’s the first US carrier to enforce such blocks at the network layer.

Christian content creators are outsourcing AI slop to gig workers on Fiverr theverge.com

Fiverr freelancers are advertising rapid-turnaround AI-generated Bible videos for Christian YouTube and TikTok creators, turning the gig platform once known for specialized creative labor into a pipeline for outsourced generative-AI religious content.

Meta cuts contractors who reported seeing Ray-Ban Meta users have sex arstechnica.com

Meta terminated a Kenya-based contractor team that reviewed Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses footage after workers reported seeing wearers having sex and other intimate moments. Meta said the contractors did not meet its standards, sidestepping the underlying privacy questions about always-on camera review.

Cyber-Insecurity in the AI Era technologyreview.com

MIT Technology Review published session writeups from its EmTech AI conference covering cybersecurity rebuilt around AI-era attack surfaces and the operational challenges of scaling AI deployments while preserving data sovereignty, framing both as failures of layering AI onto legacy stacks.

Operationalizing AI for Scale and Sovereignty technologyreview.com

Companies are taking control of their own data to tailor AI for their needs. The challenge lies in balancing ownership with the safe, trusted flow of high‑quality data needed to power reliable insights. This conversation from MIT Technology Review’s EmTech AI conference examines how AI factories unlock new levels of scale, sustainability, and governance—positioning data…

(AINews) The Inference Inflection latent.space

a quiet day lets us reflect on the growing implications of the inference age

(AINews) not much happened today latent.space

a quiet day.

References

Military Times militarytimes.com

Anthropic refused the Pentagon’s ‘all lawful use’ contract clause, insisting on contractual prohibitions against using Claude for mass domestic surveillance and fully autonomous lethal weapons — terms Pentagon CTO Emil Michael characterized as an unacceptable ‘private company veto’ over national security decisions.

Ethixbase360 compliance analysis ethixbase360.com

The Pentagon designated Anthropic a ‘supply chain risk to national security’ — the first time such a label, historically reserved for foreign adversaries like Huawei, was applied to an American firm.

Gizmodo — ‘The Rest of Big Tech Piles In to Take the Pentagon Deal That Anthropic Wouldn’t’ gizmodo.com

OpenAI and Microsoft signed the broader ‘lawful use’ terms only after securing separate, non-binding side assurances regarding human oversight — a compromise Anthropic explicitly rejected as safety theater.

SiliconAngle siliconangle.com

Reflection AI — a startup with no publicly released model — was included alongside OpenAI, Google and Nvidia despite shipping no public product, carrying a $20–25 billion valuation and backing from 1789 Capital, the venture firm where Donald Trump Jr. is a partner.

TipRanks — ‘Pentagon Shifts Focus to Mythos AI’ tipranks.com

Dario Amodei met with White House officials in early May to discuss ‘Mythos,’ Anthropic’s cybersecurity model; Pentagon CTO Emil Michael called it a ‘separate national security moment’ that could bypass the broader ban. Internal CFO filings warned exclusion could cost Anthropic ‘multiple billions of dollars’ in 2026 revenue.

Times of India — citing Google employee letter timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Over 600 Google employees signed a protest letter objecting to the classified-network deal, and a ‘QuitGPT’ user movement of roughly 1.5 million accounts emerged in response — signaling internal labor dissent that vendor press releases omit.

The Rundown AI therundown.ai

Anthropic revoked xAI’s access to the Claude API after discovering that xAI engineers were using the models — specifically through the Cursor IDE — to accelerate their internal development

GeekWire — inside the courthouse geekwire.com

the nine-person jury’s verdict will be advisory only; she retains the final authority to decide liability and any potential remedies… the judge instructed attorneys to avoid ‘doomsday talk,’ ruling that the trial is about contract law and fiduciary duties, not the existential safety risks of artificial intelligence

Duke Law / Daily Journal analysis (Prof. Eric Talley) law.duke.edu

using informal texts to establish a tens-of-millions-of-dollars contract is ‘relatively informal’ and ‘stacks the deck’ against Musk… a more likely outcome, should Musk win on liability, is ‘disgorgement’ or restitution of his $44 million investment rather than a structural overhaul

GeekWire — Microsoft/OpenAI partnership amendment geekwire.com

On the opening day of the trial in April 2026, Microsoft and OpenAI announced a significant amendment to their partnership, making Microsoft’s intellectual property license non-exclusive and allowing OpenAI to use other cloud providers like AWS and Google Cloud

SF Chronicle — OpenAI’s released emails sfchronicle.com

a 2018 exchange shows Musk agreeing with Chief Scientist Ilya Sutskever that ‘it’s totally OK to not share the science’ as the technology advances… Musk attempted to gain majority control and CEO status during the restructuring himself

WKZO / AP wire — Musk testimony takeaways wkzo.com

Musk’s total financial contribution was roughly $38 million — significantly lower than the $1 billion figure Musk had previously cited in public narratives

MLQ.ai analyst note mlq.ai

Meta’s stock fell 9.4% over the week of the announcement… the acquisition was paired with a $10 billion hike in 2026 capital expenditure guidance, now projected at $125–$145 billion

LiveMint livemint.com

Meta acquires humanoid robot startup Assured Robot Intelligence weeks after announcing 8,000 layoffs

LetsDataScience letsdatascience.com

Meta’s interest in ARI reflects a strategy to become the ‘Android of humanoids,’ providing the underlying intelligence layer for various third-party hardware manufacturers

Credit and Collection News (on Sen. Warren letter) creditandcollectionnews.com

Senators Warren and Blumenthal urged the FTC and DOJ to investigate ‘reverse acquihires,’ characterizing them as de facto mergers designed to evade standard regulatory reviews

AwesomeAgents (HN/X roundup) awesomeagents.ai

ARI’s flagship technology, e-Flesh, is a low-cost, 3D-printable magnetic tactile sensor that allows robots to handle delicate objects like eggs and plushies with human-like dexterity

humanoid.guide leaderboard humanoid.guide

Figure currently holds a significant lead in commercial validation; its robots are already conducting pilots at BMW’s Spartanburg plant, where Helix 02 recently demonstrated a 4-minute autonomous dishwasher unloading cycle