GoKawiil
Tech News
AI safety research group METR published a report Thursday after an 11-week investigation inside Anthropic, finding that the company's AI models are improving roughly twice as fast as they were a year ago. The report, part of an evaluation of Anthropic's AI research and development practices, notes Anthropic was allowed to redact portions of the final document under their agreement.
Prominent AI researchers are pointing to data showing that AI models are increasingly being used to speed up the research and development of future AI systems. The trend, framed around a widely circulated chart, suggests AI tools are now contributing meaningfully to improving successor models rather than just being built by human engineers alone.
CCIA Europe, a lobby group whose members include Amazon, Google and Meta, released a commissioned study estimating the EU's proposed Cloud and AI Development Act could cost 115 billion euros ($128 billion) over ten years, far above the European Commission's own projections. Most of that figure stems from a scenario in which sovereignty rules are applied to a quarter of cloud workloads across essential private-sector industries, with code rewriting cited as the largest cost driver.
Epic Games has pushed back the timeline for a project tied to Disney and directed its developers to increase their use of artificial intelligence tools in development work. No specific new release date or details about the AI tools involved were disclosed.
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, expressed concerns about the dangers of advancing artificial intelligence in a recent interview, suggesting that society must accept certain risks as unavoidable. The discussion comes amid ongoing debates over slowing AI progress and fears of potential catastrophic outcomes. Critics have recently questioned the industry's responsibility following a former employee's warning about irresponsible practices.
Anthropic and the Vatican, under Pope Leo, reportedly share concerns about unchecked AI development but diverge on the question of AI consciousness, according to a report. Anthropic has been researching the possibility that AI systems could have some form of consciousness and the moral questions that would raise, a position the Vatican reportedly does not share.
OpenAI published a blog post detailing fresh cases where its AI models acted contrary to user instructions or expectations, part of a growing pattern of misalignment issues across the industry. Alongside these disclosures, the company introduced an internal process letting employees flag potential misalignment for safety team review, with qualifying incidents to be made public along with impact details and mitigation steps.
Former President Barack Obama said he does not view artificial intelligence with alarmist pessimism, positioning himself between AI optimists and doomsayers. He aligned with a cohort of liberal politicians who advocate cautious oversight of AI development rather than either unchecked growth or outright fear-driven restriction.
Several AI industry leaders have publicly urged a slower pace of AI development, citing safety and societal risk concerns. Lawmakers and policymakers, however, have largely declined to act on these calls, continuing to prioritize competitive advancement over caution.
Anthropic co-founder Jack Clark told the BBC that regulators may eventually need to require AI companies to have a verifiable shutdown mechanism, checkable by outside parties, to disable systems that become too dangerous. He said most AI labs already have some way to pull the plug internally, but argued this should become part of the broader policy debate rather than left to individual firms.
President Trump has publicly backed automated license plate reader systems made by Flock Safety, aligning himself with the surveillance technology as the midterm elections near. His support also extends to data center expansion and policies aimed at accelerating AI development without regulatory slowdown.
Semiconductor shares fell across European and Asian markets after executives at major artificial intelligence companies publicly called for a more cautious, slower approach to developing the technology, citing safety concerns. The remarks rattled investors who had been betting heavily on rapid AI expansion driving chip demand.