|
Two stories about the Claude maker Anthropic broke on Tuesday that, when combined, arguably paint a chilling picture. First, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is reportedly pressuring Anthropic to yield its AI safeguards and give the military unrestrained access to its Claude AI chatbot. The company then chose the same day that the Hegseth news broke to drop its centerpiece safety pledge.
On Tuesday, Anthropic said it was modifying its Responsible Scaling Policy (RSP) to lower safety guardrails. Up until now, the company's core pledge has been to stop training new AI models unless specific safety guidelines can be guaranteed in advance. This policy, which set hard tripwires to halt development, was a big part of Anthropic's pitch to businesses and consumers.
"Two and a half years later, our honest assessment is that some parts of this theory of change have played out as we hoped, but others have not," Anthropic wrote. Now, its updated policy approaches safety relatively, rather than with strict red lines.
Anthropic's quotes in an
|
|
Samsung today announced its newest flagship smartphones, the Galaxy S26, S26 , and S26 Ultra. Samsung's latest devices are focused on AI, and Samsung says they have the most "intuitive, proactive, and adaptive Galaxy AI features" to date.
|
|
California-based accessory maker Sandmarc has launched a new Tetraprism 72mm Lens for iPhone that adds 3x optical magnification on top of the iPhone 17 Pro's built-in tetraprism telephoto camera.
|
|
Tecno just unveiled a rather intriguing modular smartphone concept design at MWC 2026. The standout feature here is likely the size. Most modular smartphone concepts start bulky and only get bulkier once attaching accessories. Tecno's base smartphone is just 4.9mm thin, which is significantly thinner than a pencil and the iPhone Air.
Of course, the size increases with each attached module. However, snapping on the power bank module makes the thickness comparable to a standard modern smartphone. Another key feature here is how these various modular components stick together. Tecno has developed new interconnection technology that uses both magnets and pin connectors. This should make it easy to both attach and remove components.
The company says this phone has been designed to grow with the user through hardware expansion. To that end, Tecno has developed 10 modules. There are various camera lenses and something that looks like a dedicated gaming controller.
Tecno
While the magnets are for attaching, the pin connectors assist with power delivery. Data transmission between the phone and the modules is handled wirelessly, with the ability to switch between Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and mmWave depending on
|
|
Samsung's high-end phone gets a subtle makeover, as well as some improvements to the camera, battery and display. Plus, lots of AI.
|
|
The iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max will have a smaller Dynamic Island, according to Bloomberg. Over the past year, there have been mixed rumors about whether the ?iPhone 18? Pro models will continue to feature a ?Dynamic Island? or have a hole punch camera with under screen Face ID and no ?Dynamic Island?, but the latest information suggests we're not getting rid of the ?Dynamic Island? just yet.
|
|
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth will reportedly give Anthropic until Friday to drop certain guardrails for military use, as reported by Axios. The outlet also reported that CEO Dario Amodei met with Hegseth yesterday as the Pentagon ratcheted up pressure on the AI company to give in to its demands.
The makers of Claude have reportedly been offered an ultimatum: Either yield to the government's demands to remove limits for certain military applications, or potentially be forced to tailor its AI model to the government's needs under the Defense Production Act.
Anthropic, for its part, has said that while it was willing to adopt certain policies for the Pentagon, it would not allow its model to be used for mass surveillance of Americans or for the development of autonomous weapons.
Claude is currently the only AI model employed in some of the government's most sensitive work. "The only reason we're still talking to these people is we need them and we need them now. The problem for these guys is they are that good," a defense official told Axios.
The Pentagon is reportedly ramping up conversations with OpenAI and Google about using their models for classified work. ChatGPT and Gemini are already approved for unclassified government use.
|
|