Conservative podcaster Katie Miller has used her social media megaphone to denounce the AI chatbots ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini. She hasn't told her followers about her large stake in a rival firm, xAI.
Executive summary China-based artificial intelligence (AI) companies are conducting systematic extraction of proprietary functionalities and capabilities of U.S. AI companies’ models through industrial-scale knowledge distillation campaigns that form the core—not merely a supplement—of their AI development strategy. While “distillation” is recognized as a legitimate and useful technique in AI research, China-based AI companies are engaging in aggressive, malicious, and targeted distillation activities at an industrial scale that extract restricted proprietary functionalities and capabilities of U.S. frontier AI models. The National Security Agency (NSA), Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and Federal Bureau…
America's two largest school districts both imposed sweeping AI bans this past week, hitting the brakes on a technology that's rapidly making its way into classrooms around the country. Why it matters: Research on AI's educational value is mixed. Some studies have found personalized AI tutors can improve learning, while other research has linked AI-assisted essay writing to weaker critical thinking. Driving the news: New York City's public school district blocked AI use for roughly 600,000 students in Pre-K through 8th grade, restricting it to specific uses for high school students. - Hours later, Los Angeles Unified imposed a districtwide moratorium on AI use on school devices for the 2026-27 school year, following a separate…
OpenAI's ChatGPT , Anthropic's Claude, and xAI's Grok are all down Thursday morning, according to the outage company Downdetector. Why it matters: Outages are common, but it's unusual for all three to go down at once, especially as the world increasingly relies on AI models. - There have also been reported issues with Google's Gemini, but the company has not issued a confirmed outage notice. Editor's note: This is a breaking news story and will be updated.
The War Department increased its artificial intelligence offerings by launching versions of Grok and ChatGPT to GenAI.mil to go alongside Google's Gemini.
Apple and OpenAI are escalating their legal fight over allegations that the ChatGPT maker used Apple employees to obtain closely guarded hardware secrets. Why it matters: If the case makes it to the discovery process, two of the most secretive companies in tech could be forced to reveal sensitive information about how they recruit talent, develop hardware and protect confidential information. Driving the news: On Monday, OpenAI responded to Apple's preliminary injunction request that asked a judge to block OpenAI from using any potential confidential information or trade secrets while the lawsuit remains in motion. - In its response, OpenAI said: "This dispute is a mess of Apple's own making, and it is trying to blame everyone else." -…
Google enabled A.I. features for K-12 schools that have allowed student access to Gemini. Until this week, Google automatically enabled Gemini in Classroom only for students 18 or older.
Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg have muscled their way back into AI's elite ranks, defying early obituaries to close the gap on a new generation of Silicon Valley startups. Why it matters: Recent gains by tech giants SpaceX and Meta — long stuck in AI's second tier — are putting new pressure on a hierarchy dominated by OpenAI and Anthropic. State of play: Both companies released models this week featuring a combination of performance and price that would have been hard to imagine from either lab a year ago. - SpaceX's Grok 4.6 scored essentially even with OpenAI's GPT-5.6 Sol Max on the closely watched Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index , and just behind Anthropic's Fable 5 Max. - Promising "something special," Musk said Grok…
AI:Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg have aggressively re-entered the elite AI arms race by leveraging the massive scale of their respective empires to challenge the dominance of OpenAI and Anthropic. Musk has integrated xAI into SpaceX in a $60 billion move, utilizing proprietary data and immense computing power to push Grok 4.6 to performance levels rivaling GPT-5.6, with even more advanced iterations expected imminently. Meanwhile, Zuckerberg is pivoting Meta toward "superintelligence for everyone" by focusing on high-performance, low-cost models like Muse Glimmer that can run locally, a strategy backed by a $14.3 billion investment in Scale AI. As the battle shifts from raw intelligence to cost-effectiveness and resource deployment, these…Open
This will be the first election cycle where AI is both a dominant policy debate — and a widely deployed political weapon. Why it matters: AI allows both candidates and bad actors to persuade and perplex with unprecedented speed, scale and precision in our elections. Watch what works, as those same techniques will likely be used against YOU. What to watch: - Persuasion bots. Campaigns are training text bots to hold back-and-forth conversations in their candidate's voice. Some voters engage for HOURS, granting precise knowledge of what ideas and language move them most. Yale researchers found a bot that admits it's a bot is just as persuasive to people as one posing as a human. - Simulated voters. Political operatives are running AI…
Poor morale among employees is contributing to delayed model releases from Google's DeepMind AI lab , according to conversations with half a dozen current and former Google DeepMind employees. Why it matters: As the company's cash flow just turned negative, investors and competitors are questioning Google's standing in the AI race. State of play: Google's Gemini 3.5 Pro, its most powerful model in the works, is months behind, per Bloomberg , but the company did just release a series of smaller , more efficient models, garnering mixed reactions. - Top executives from competing AI labs were quick to shade the releases, with Meta's Alexander Wang saying "Gemini who?" on X , and others asking top Google leadership when more powerful models…