Good evening. Here’s the latest at the end of Friday.
Trump said the government will no longer use Anthropic’s A.I.President Trump has ordered all federal agencies to stop using artificial intelligence technology made by Anthropic. He disparaged the A.I. maker this afternoon as a “radical left, woke company” and accused it of trying to “strong-arm” the U.S. military. Soon after, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said he was designating Anthropic a “supply-chain risk to national security.” That would mean that any contractor or supplier that works with the military would be prohibited from doing business with the A.I. company. Anthropic, which spent today negotiating with the Pentagon, is expected to challenge the designation in court. Anthropic is the only A.I. company operating on the military’s classified systems, so banning it could complicate C.I.A. analysis and defense work. For days, Anthropic and the Pentagon have been locked in an escalating battle that, on its surface, is over the terms of the Pentagon’s use of Anthropic’s A.I. model, called Claude. The company said it wanted to embed safeguards in its technology to prevent it from being used to support mass surveillance or fully autonomous weapons. The Pentagon, which indicated it had no plans to use the A.I. for those purposes, said that private contractors did not get to make those kinds of decisions. Underlying this all is a debate about how A.I. should be used, what its risks are and who gets to set limits on the technology. In other military news: A Pentagon laser inadvertently downed a government drone, prompting the F.A.A. to ban flights over a remote part of Texas. In other A.I. news: OpenAI raised another $110 billion, valuing the company at $730 billion.
The president is ‘not happy’ with Iran’s negotiatorsA day after U.S. negotiators held high-stakes nuclear talks with Iran, Trump said that he was unhappy with how it was going. “They cannot have nuclear weapons, and we’re not thrilled with the way they’re negotiating,” he said today. The discussions could determine whether the U.S. goes to war with Iran. Trump said he has not yet decided his next step, but the U.S. military has positioned a large force in the Middle East, offering the president a wide range of options for potential strikes. That includes the Navy’s largest and most advanced aircraft carrier, the U.S.S. Gerald R. Ford. Take a look inside. In related news:
The Ellisons are on the brink of a colossal empireThe corporate battle over Warner Bros. Discovery has ended. Netflix’s decision yesterday to walk away from the bidding war paved the way for the storied Hollywood media giant to end up under the control of Paramount Skydance, which is run by David Ellison and financially backed by his billionaire father, Larry, who founded Oracle. If the deal closes, the Ellisons would oversee an empire that touches nearly every corner of news, entertainment and tech. They would control two major movie studios, as well as all or part of HBO, CBS, Oracle, TikTok and CNN, which now faces an uncertain future. Related: For David Zaslav, the Warner Bros. chief executive, the Paramount takeover was the deal of a lifetime. More top news
Our culture critic on that hockey show“Heated Rivalry,” a romance centered on two male hockey players, was TV’s biggest surprise hit in recent months. For a while, many people couldn’t stop talking about it. Wesley Morris, our culture critic, kept hearing about how amazing the show was but didn’t think it was for him. Then he watched it and understood. “For my heart, too, soared,” Wesley wrote. As a gay man, he wrote that he had been used to settling for shame, secrecy and death onscreen, but one of the marvels of “Heated Rivalry” was its de-emphasis of tragedy. The show, Wesley wrote, “constitutes a revelation that I forgot I needed, a revelation that maybe I had assumed I was too good or maybe too cool for: a work of utter ardor.”
Can a vacation in Hawaii be affordable?Our Frugal Traveler columnist, Elaine Glusac, went there to find out. She shared that the best prices were often in the capital, Honolulu, where local culture and nature are still within reach. Elaine paid around $150 for a decent room near Waikiki Beach, and less than $15 to tour the Pearl Harbor memorial. Her advice for deal seekers? Embrace how easy it is to save on beachcombing, lodging and dining, then splurge on experiences that shouldn’t be missed. Try surfing, for example.
Dinner table topicsEach day in this section, I am sharing a few stories that are ripe for discussion. We removed the paywall so you can read them for free.
Cook: This lemon snacking cake was one of our most popular recipes this week. Watch: The best part of “The Bluff” is Priyanka Chopra Jonas’s portrayal of a feisty pirate. Read: Our March book club pick is “Kin,” by Tayari Jones. Join us. Chat with a stranger: Research suggests you won’t regret it. Test yourself: Take this week’s news quiz. Play: Here are today’s Connections, Wordle and Mini Crossword. Find all our games here. |
