Tech is reshaping the world — and not always for the better. Whether it’s the rules for Apple’s App Store or Facebook’s plan for fighting misinformation, tech platform policies can have enormous ripple effects on the rest of society. They’re so powerful that, increasingly, companies aren’t setting them alone but sharing the fight with government regulators, civil society groups, and internal standards bodies like Meta’s Oversight Board. The result is an ongoing political struggle over harassment, free speech, copyright, and dozens of other issues, all mediated through some of the largest and most chaotic electronic spaces the world has ever seen.
During an interview with Bloomberg, Emil Michael, the under secretary of defense for research and engineering, says Anthropic’s move to sue the Pentagon was an “expected reaction” to its designation as a supply-chain risk.
“I don’t think there’s a scenario where this gets resolved in that way,” Michael says, Bloomberg reports.
An empty tome listing nearly 10,000 authors — including Kazuo Ishiguro — calls out “theft” by AI companies as the UK government weighs sweeping changes to copyright law. It follows last year’s “silent album” stunt.
Organizers are handing out copies at today’s London Book Fair. Just don’t let Anthropic shred them.
We have no reason to believe that Live Nation is about to bankroll a Broadway spectacular based on the First Lady just because it managed to settle with the DoJ. We’re just saying, it feels like there’s a precedent.
Bebopper:
In unrelated news. “Melania: The Musical” will start a nationwide tour in April. The BBC reports that Ticketmaster has invested $100 million in the venture, with shows scheduled at some of the nation’s biggest venues.
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Bloomberg reports Apple manufactured 55 million iPhones in India in 2025, up from 36 million a year before, following a concerted effort to move production after Trump’s tariffs. Its aim is reportedly to build the 60 million annual US iPhone sales to India by the end of this year.
The FAA just announced its picks for the Advanced Air Mobility and Electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing (eVTOL) Integration Pilot Program (eIPP). Out of over 30 applicants, eight projects were selected to serve as the blueprint for how these aircraft will eventually fit into daily lives. The key focus areas are: urban air taxis; regional connectivity; medical and cargo; and autonomous flight. But the clock is ticking. Under the program’s guidelines, we can expect to see the first test flights beginning as early as summer 2026.
The events giant is reportedly close to settling its federal antitrust lawsuit without having to sell Ticketmaster, though some state attorneys general may decide to push ahead with the case regardless. The settlement plan would require the Ticketmaster subsidiary to make concessions around exclusive venue contracts and amphitheater usage.
Cookie’s Bustle is an extremely weird PC game released in 1999. And for reasons no one understands, a person by the name Brandon White, through their company Graceware, has been trying to erase all trace of it through non-stop copyright claims. But the VGHF got its lawyers involved and has finally put an end to Graceware’s shenanigans.
We are happy to report that after bringing these facts to Ukie’s attention, Ukie has suspended takedowns for Cookie’s Bustle on behalf of Graceware, SL. This is a big victory for the gaming community, hopefully bringing an end to a rights-squatting campaign that has dragged on for years.
[Video Game History Foundation]
Elon Musk’s short-lived agency rolled into the NEH with the mandate to cancel grants that it deemed contrary to Donald Trump’s anti-DEI agenda. According to the New York Times, decisions about which grants to cancel weren’t made after careful analysis and deliberation. Instead, they were made with a ChatGPT prompt.
… instead of looking closely at funded projects, they pulled short summaries off the internet and fed them into the A.I. chatbot.
The prompt was simple: “Does the following relate at all to D.E.I.? Respond factually in less than 120 characters. Begin with ‘Yes’ or ‘No.’” The results were sweeping, and sometimes bizarre.
[New York Times]
Caitlin Kalinowski posted on X that she resigned from OpenAI, saying the company’s contract didn’t do enough to protect Americans from warrantless surveillance and that granting AI “lethal autonomy without human authorization” was a line that “deserved more deliberation.”
The Financial Times reports Palmer Luckey’s ModRetro is in talks to raise funds at a $1 billion valuation, which sounds like a lot for a retro gaming company.
The report also claims that Anduril, his other business selling drones and autonomous weapons to the military, happens to be at the same time in talks with investors for a new funding round valuing it at $60 billion. Interesting.
Fresh off another round of controversial bets, accusations of insider trading, and general profiting off human suffering, the two biggest prediction markets are seeking fresh funds. According to the Wall Street Journal, both companies are trying to lure investors at a valuation of $20 billion, nearly twice last year’s.
[The Wall Street Journal]
As drone strikes hit the city, social media videos shared by influencers follow a script: nonchalance at the danger, followed by flattering videos and photos of UAE leaders. “I know who protects us,” the videos go.
TikTok trend or a coordinated influence campaign?
The designation from the US Department of War — that’s busy disrupting actual supply chains and human life in several countries — is having the inverse effect of driving up demand for Claude, which has been breaking daily signup records since early last week in every country where Claude is available.
AppFigures data also shows it topping App Store charts for free and AI apps in dozens of countries, including the US, Canada, and much of Europe.
While Epic v. Google isn’t quite finished in the US, we no longer have to wait and see if the highest court will hear the case. Rule 46.1 reads that if all parties file in writing that a case be dismissed, “the Clerk, without further reference to the Court, will enter an order of dismissal.” That agreement has now happened.
In a blog post, CEO Dario Amodei confirmed reports that the Defense Department had sent them a letter formally designating them a supply-chain risk, and said Anthropic planned to challenge them in court. He also clarified how it would currently impact Claude users:
The language used by the Department of War in the letter (even supposing it was legally sound) matches our statement on Friday that the vast majority of our customers are unaffected by a supply chain risk designation. With respect to our customers, it plainly applies only to the use of Claude by customers as a direct part of contracts with the Department of War, not all use of Claude by customers who have such contracts.
While end-to-end encryption can keep an account’s data private and hidden even from a service provider, the name of who paid for the account and other metadata is harder to hide.
After overseeing many months of brutal immigration crackdowns, sending ICE to occupy Minneapolis, and fending off backroom attempts to get President Donald Trump to fire her, the controversial Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (and dog anti-enthusiast) has been shuffled out of DHS.
So what will her replacement, Republican Oklahoma Senator Markwayne Mullin, be like as DHS secretary? Well, he once challenged the head of the Teamsters Union to a fistfight in the middle of a Senate hearing, so, there’s that.
Kalshi and Polymarket are cosplaying as the news, even as gambling on Iran, Venezuela, and nuclear war runs rampant.
The move is an effort to appease antitrust regulators from the European Commission, Reuters reports. Previously, competitors’ chatbots were being blocked on WhatsApp, but now Meta says that “for a fee” it will “support general purpose AI chatbots using the WhatsApp Business API in Europe” for the next 12 months.
Carr says the FCC will hold a vote this month on reforms to encourage companies to bring call centers to the US. The agency will also look into a proposal that would “require call takers to be proficient in American Standard English.”
In a scathing 1,600 word memo to employees sent on Friday, CEO Dario Amodei suggested Anthropic’s relationship with the government soured because, unlike OpenAI or its executives, “we haven’t donated to Trump” and “we haven’t given dictator-style praise to Trump.”
The leaked remarks could complicate Amodei’s last-ditch efforts to salvage the company’s relationship with the US military and prevent it from being iced out of defense work.
I’ve been updating it for hours with bits from court documents, blog posts, email fact-checks, even a quick interview with Google Android boss Sameer Samat and Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney. I’m about done, but I still need to parse the new Games Level Up Program and Apps Experience Program...
