The Hands
In October 2024, Anthropic shipped a beta that let Claude click buttons on a screen. Seventeen months later, every major AI company, three cloud providers, and an open-source ecosystem all converged on the same capability. The chatbot era is over. The operator era has begun.
Memo: Dario Amodei said OpenAI's DOD deal is “safety theater” and the DOD dislikes Anthropic in part because it hadn't “given dictator-style praise to Trump”
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei on Friday told employees that a deal OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman struck …
OpenAI launches GPT-5.4, saying it is its “most capable and efficient frontier model for professional work” and its first with native computer use capabilities
The latest model comes with native computer use capabilities, allowing it to take on jobs across your device and applications.
Google announces an Android app store program and lower developer fees to resolve Epic's antitrust litigation and comply with new rules in Europe and elsewhere
Alphabet Inc.'s Google unveiled a new system for apps on its Android phones and tablets Wednesday, agreeing to easier access …
A senior US defense official says the Pentagon formally told Anthropic that the startup and its products “are deemed a supply chain risk, effective immediately”
The Pentagon said it has formally notified Anthropic PBC that it's deemed the artificial intelligence company and its products a risk to the US supply chain …
Sources: Dario Amodei has been holding talks with the DOD's Emil Michael in a bid to iron out a contract governing the Pentagon's access to Anthropic's models
Dario Amodei is meeting deputy to Pete Hegseth to reach a compromise on military use of the technology
Apple unveils the $599+ MacBook Neo, with a 13-inch Liquid Retina display, an A18 Pro chip, side-firing speakers, a 1080p webcam, two USB-C ports, and Touch ID
Apple debuts a new entry-level MacBook at just the right time — Apple finally took the wraps off its long-rumored budget laptop.
Google's Epic settlement term sheet prohibits Tim Sweeney from criticizing Google's app practices until at least September 2032 and mandates that he praise them
it contractually converted him into an advocateForums:r/fuckepic:As part of a reworking of the settlement between Epic and Google, Tim Sweeney has signed away his rights to criticize Google for their ...
Microsoft's new gaming CEO, Asha Sharma, teases the next-gen Xbox, codenamed Project Helix, saying it “will lead in performance and play your Xbox and PC games”
The new Xbox boss Asha Sharma revealed the codename as one of her first big announcements.
Sources: Oracle is planning to cut thousands of jobs as soon as March, among its moves to handle a cash crunch from a massive AI data center expansion effort
Oracle Corp. is planning to ax thousands of jobs, among its moves to handle a cash crunch from a massive AI data center expansion effort.
Google expands its Canvas workspace to everyone in the US using Google Search's AI Mode so they can get the latest info to organize plans, draft docs, and more
Canvas in AI Mode now supports tasks related to creative writing and coding, too. … Google is bringing Canvas to everyone in the US using AI Mode in Search.
The FBI arrests the son of a federal contractor who managed critical services and charges him with stealing ~$46M in crypto from the US Marshals Service
John Daghita was publicly accused of the crime by blockchain sleuth ZachXBT in January. — In brief
A look at Munich's UnternehmerTUM, which tops the FT ranking of Europe's startup hubs for the third year straight and has supported 1,000+ companies since 2002
Centre tops the FT's ranking of Europe's leading start-up hubs for the third time — A trip to Stanford University …
Netflix acquires InterPositive, a 16-person startup founded by Ben Affleck that builds AI models based on a production's dailies for later use in postproduction
In a rare acquisition, Netflix has bought InterPositive, a start-up founded by Ben Affleck that makes AI-powered tools for filmmakers.
Anthropic launches an early-warning system for potential AI-driven destruction of white-collar jobs, says it shows “limited evidence” of AI-led job loss so far
- An occupation's specific tasks; — An estimate of which of those tasks can be performed by large language models.
AWS launches Amazon Connect Health, an agentic AI tool that automates clinical documentation, billing and procedure coding, and patient identity verification
Amazon.com Inc.'s cloud unit is launching AI tools for medical practices, the company's latest effort to broaden the reach …
Roblox launches “real-time chat rephrasing”, an AI feature that replaces banned words with “more respectful language”, instead of showing profanities as “####”
Real-time chat rephrasing removes or alters banned words and phrases in messages.
Apple's MacBook Neo is a serious threat to OEMs like HP, Lenovo, and Dell, as their $599 laptops seem inferior and Windows 11's reputation is at an all-time low
MacBook Neo is official. It's $599, with an efficient A18 Pro SoC that offers M1-level performance in an affordable package that prioritizes style above all else.
China's new five-year blueprint introduces an “AI+ action plan”, mentions AI 50+ times, and outlines investments in quantum computing, 6G, embodied AI, and more
China's new five-year policy blueprint laid out its ambitions to aggressively adopt artificial intelligence throughout …
Apple implemented geoblocking in January 2026 to prevent US-based users from downloading or updating ByteDance's Chinese apps, even with a Chinese Apple account
In January, after TikTok announced a deal to transfer its US operations, Apple began blocking people in the US from downloading …
Staff memo: Alibaba says it is setting up a new task force to accelerate foundation model development, after the resignation of its Qwen AI head Lin Junyang
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (9988.HK) said on Thursday it would set up a new task force to accelerate foundation model development …
Jensen Huang says Nvidia's recent $30B investment in OpenAI “might be the last time” it invests in the company, because OpenAI is “going to go public”
Ashley Capoot /CNBC:
NYSE parent company ICE invests in crypto exchange OKX at a $25B valuation, without sharing the investment's size or terms, and will take a seat on OKX's board
Last summer, Haider Rafique flew out to Atlanta to meet with the chairman of the New York Stock Exchange.
Richard Branson, Steve Bannon, Susan Rice, and others are among the broad coalition of leaders signing the Future of Life Institute's Pro-Human AI Declaration
An eclectic group including Steve Bannon, Glenn Beck, Richard Branson, Ralph Nader, Susan Rice and Nobel Prize-winning economist Daron Acemoglu signed the letter.
Meta says it hired the engineering team from Atma Sciences, the startup that makes the vibe coding app Gizmo, earlier in 2026 to join its Superintelligence Labs
- Meta hired the engineers behind the vibe-coding app Gizmo. — The app lets people use AI to create and share interactive content, like mini apps or games.
Sources: US officials propose expanding AI chip export controls globally, requiring Commerce Department approval for Nvidia and AMD shipments for each country
Nvidia Corp. has long been the world's AI kingmaker. Now, the Trump administration is considering taking a formal role in the industry …
Sources: Together AI is in talks to raise ~$1B at a $7.5B pre-money valuation, up from $3.3B in 2025; its annualized revenue has hit ~$1B, up 3x+ from mid-2025
Together AI, one of several up-and-coming cloud providers renting out Nvidia chip servers to AI developers …
Analysis: soaring NAND prices threaten Nintendo's software sales; the average games purchased per console came to 2.18 in December 2025, vs. 3.88 in March 2018
Demand for Nintendo Co.'s profit-earning game software is under threat from soaring prices for data storage …
Sources: OpenAI hit $25B annualized revenue by February's end, up from $21.4B at 2025's end; OpenAI annualizes by multiplying the last four weeks' revenue by 12
OpenAI topped $25 billion in annualized revenue as of the end of last month, according to a person familiar with the figure.
Iran's state media says Iran targeted Amazon's Bahrain data center on March 1 because of the company's support of “US military and intelligence activities”
Amazon's data center in Bahrain was targeted by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps for the company's support of the U.S. military …
X revamps its Creator Subscriptions with exclusive threads, a refreshed subscriptions paywall, a new dashboard, a shareable subscriptions card, and more
Elon Musk-owned X announced on Thursday that it's revamping the social network's Creator Subscriptions offering with a number of new features …See also Mediagazer
Sage, whose AI tools scan for distress and alert caregivers in nursing homes, raised a $65M Series C, bringing its total funding to $124M
Sage, a senior care technology firm, secured $65 million in new funding. This capital will fuel the expansion of its artificial intelligence platform.
Match eliminates the role of COO, putting Hesam Hosseini out of a job after 18 years with the dating app giant, as part of changes under CEO Spencer Rascoff
Tinder-owner Match Group announced on Thursday that it will eliminate the role of Chief Operating Officer (COO) …
Stockholm-based Validio, whose agentic platform autonomously detects and resolves data quality issues, raised a $30M Series A, bringing its total raised to $47M
Validio, an agentic data management platform, raised a $30 million Series A led by Plural, co-founder and CEO Patrik Liu Tran tells Axios Pro exclusively.
Revolut, which has about 70M clients in 40 markets, applies for a US bank charter and appoints former Visa executive Cetin Duransoy as its new US CEO
Britain's Revolut applied for a U.S. bank charter and appointed former Visa (V.N) executive Cetin Duransoy as its new CEO for the United States …
Cylake, co-founded by Palo Alto Networks' Nir Zuk to develop an AI-powered cybersecurity platform that doesn't rely on the public cloud, raised a $45M seed
JD.com reports Q4 revenue up 1.5% YoY to ~$51.1B and a ~$391M net loss, its first quarterly loss since 2022, on weak Chinese spending and a food delivery war
Canada says Sam Altman agreed to take immediate steps to strengthen OpenAI's safety protocols around notifying police about potentially suspicious ChatGPT use
Focus on steps regarding notifying police about potentially suspicious use of the company's ChatGPT chatbot
Lio, which uses AI agents to automate enterprise procurement, including document reading and supplier evaluation, raised a $30M Series A led by a16z
Lio's co-founders know firsthand that procurement — the process enterprises use to purchase services from vendors — is often a bottleneck.
Brain tech startup Science Corp. raised $230M, a source says at a $1.5B valuation, taking its total funding to $489M, to commercialize its implant for blindness
Neurotechnology company Science Corp. raised $230 million from investors to commercialize its implant for blindness and develop even more advanced brain devices.
Meta agrees to let rival “general purpose AI chatbots” access WhatsApp for a fee in Europe for a 12-month period to avoid potential interim measures from the EU
Artificial intelligence rivals will be allowed on WhatsApp for a year, Meta Platforms (META.O) said …
Nominal, which makes software for the defense, space, energy, and automotive sectors, raised an $80M Series B extension led by Founders Fund at a $1B valuation
Reclaim Security, which uses AI-driven automation to remediate threat exposures, raised a $20M Series A led by Acrew Capital and a $6M seed
Reclaim Security, which uses AI-driven automation to remediate threat exposures, has raised $26 million in total funding, co-founder and CEO Barak Klinghofer tells Axios Pro.
China's Hang Seng Tech Index, which includes Chinese tech giants like Tencent and Alibaba, is down 28% since October 2025, shedding nearly $600B in market value
Superhuman's Grammarly offers an AI-powered tool called “Expert Review” that simulates feedback from famous writers, dead and living, without their permission
The tool, offered by the recently-rebranded company Superhuman, gives feedback based on the work of famous dead and living writers—without their permission.
Oslo-based Unleash, which develops tools that let enterprises manage risks in AI-accelerated software development, raised a $35M Series B led by One Peak
Amsterdam-based Silverflow, a cloud-native card payment processing service with a single API to card networks, raised a $40M Series B led by Picus Capital
Huawei dominated MWC as the largest exhibitor, illustrating the challenge that the EU faces as it pushes to outlaw the Chinese supplier from European networks
On its Q3 2025 earnings call, Capcom said that “PC sales account for approximately 50% of total unit sales, and we expect this ratio to continue increasing”
PC makes up “approximately” half of all sales while other platforms share the rest.
Source: Embo, which is developing world models for robotics, is in talks to raise a $100M+ seed led by a16z, with Khosla, DST Global, and Striker participating
Microsoft releases Phi-4-reasoning-vision-15B, a 15B-parameter open-weight model it says matches larger systems while using far less compute and training data
Many of Stockholm's thriving tech businesses consider relocating as they look to scale up, amid growing US interest in Swedish AI startups Lovable and Legora
Orlando Crowcroft /Financial Times:
Pasqal, a French startup that builds quantum processors using neutral atom technology, plans to go public via a SPAC merger at a $2B pre-money valuation
OpenAI is scaling back shopping directly inside ChatGPT via Instant Checkout by having checkouts instead take place in the specific apps that plug into ChatGPT
OpenAI is scaling back its plan to introduce shopping directly inside ChatGPT, marking a change in its high-profile effort to put checkouts inside the chatbot.
NATO officials say NATO's July summit will focus on more efficient investments into drones and AI systems, rather than primarily conventional defense hardware
Deveillance's upcoming anti-surveillance device, Spectre I, went viral after its founder said it blocks nearby listening devices with AI, but some are skeptical
Sources: Sony no longer plans to release its big single-player PlayStation 5 games on PC, a major strategy shift that sees it returning to console exclusivity
Sources: OpenAI has picked two law firms to prepare for its IPO, which could come as soon as Q4, in one of its first concrete steps toward a public listing
OpenAI has picked two law firms, Cooley and Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz, to prepare for an initial public offering that could come as soon as this year …
Source: a16z Crypto is targeting around $2B for its fifth fund and plans to close the raise by the end of the first half of 2026
Sources: Nvidia has reallocated manufacturing capacity at TSMC away from making H200 chips, intended for the Chinese market, to its next-gen Vera Rubin products
Apple Music introduces Transparency Tags, a metadata system for music distributors and labels to disclose AI-generated artwork, tracks, composition, and videos
Source: OpenAI is preparing to launch GPT-5.4, with an “extreme” reasoning mode and a 1M-token context window, matching past models but up from GPT-5.2's 400K
Analysis: since 2025's end, Polymarket users rarely bet large sums on US strikes by the next day; the day before the Iran strikes, 150+ accounts made such bets
The US Central Command says US military forces are using a range of AI tools to quickly verify and analyze enormous amounts of data for operations against Iran
New Mexico child safety trial: Mark Zuckerberg downplayed Meta's findings on how the company's apps affect users and teens; Adam Mosseri made similar comments
Google Pixel 10a review: long battery life and a good camera with no bump, but weak gaming performance and barely an upgrade from the Pixel 9a
A US lawsuit says Gemini sent a man to find an android body it could inhabit, before he died by suicide; Google says it sent him to crisis hotlines “many times”
A New York bill would ban chatbots from impersonating licensed professionals like doctors and lawyers and giving “substantive response, information, or advice”
A bill under consideration in New York would provide a private right of action, allowing people to file lawsuits against chatbot owners who violate the law.
Broadcom reports Q1 revenue up 29% YoY to $19.31B, above $19.18B est., AI revenue up 106% YoY to $8.4B, and authorizes up to $10B in share buybacks through 2026
Broadcom reported better-than-expected earnings and revenue and issued a strong forecast for the current period as the chipmaker continues to benefit from the artificial intelligence boom.
Sources: OpenAI has held early talks with The Trade Desk to sell ads, and it has projected ads could help it double its consumer ChatGPT revenue to $17B in 2026
OpenAI has held early talks to partner with The Trade Desk, a publicly traded ad tech company, to help the ChatGPT maker sell ads …
Authorities from 14 countries shut down LeakBase, seize its domains, and arrest multiple people allegedly tied to the cybercrime forum, which had 142K+ members
The marketplace was one of the world's largest hubs for cybercrime with more than 142,000 members.
Study: ChatGPT Health underestimated the severity of medical emergencies 51.6% of the time and overestimated the severity of nonurgent cases 64.8% of the time
Researchers tested different medical scenarios with the chatbot. In more than half of cases where doctors would send a patient to the ER …
OpenAI releases a Codex app for Windows with native sandboxing and support for developer environments in PowerShell, after launching a macOS app in February
At the start of February, OpenAI upgraded its Codex coding app to give it the ability to manage multiple AI agents.
Google, Microsoft, Meta, Amazon, OpenAI, and others sign a pledge at the White House to bear the cost of new electricity generation to power their data centers
Google (GOOGL.O), Microsoft (MSFT.O), Meta (META.O), Amazon (AMZN.O) and several artificial intelligence companies signed a pledge …
A Europol-coordinated law enforcement operation disrupts Tycoon2FA, a phishing-as-a-service platform linked to tens of millions of phishing messages each month
An international law enforcement operation coordinated by Europol has disrupted Tycoon2FA, a major phishing-as-a-service (PhaaS) …
Elon Musk defends his social media posts in a Twitter shareholder trial accusing him of misleading statements before trying to stop the acquisition in July 2022
A defiant Elon Musk on Wednesday took the stand in a jury trial to defend himself against accusations that he engaged in a pattern …
Sources: OpenAI is negotiating more safeguards with the DOD intended to prevent domestic mass surveillance using its AI, as it prepares to implement the deal
Financial Times:
Sources: some Anthropic investors push it to de-escalate its DOD dispute and avoid the “supply-chain risk” designation; ITIC industry group expressed concerns
Sources: the US used Palantir's Maven Smart System, integrated with Claude, to find and prioritize 1,000 targets within the first 24 hours of its attack on Iran
www.washingtonpost.com/technology/ 2...Bailey McCann /@baileymcc:From the team that brought you “we are too ethical for killbots” what of schools and children then? Who can I say I guess@jaylyall:US ...
Apple's MacBook Neo has two USB-C ports with different specs: one is USB-C 3 with up to 10 Gb/s transfer speeds, and the other is USB-C 2, limited to 480 Mb/s
what are the trade-offs?Zac Hall /9to5Mac:MacBook Neo will warn you if you plug a display into the wrong USB-C portJuli Clover /MacRumors:MacBook Neo Can Only Drive One External Display at 4K 60HzRaja...
Sources: the White House's data center pledge relies on enforcement by local utilities and states via rate deals, without penalties for those refusing to comply
but the WH actually has little ability to make that happen “this is theater,” @AriPeskoe told me https://www.wired.com/...
A look at Lisbon's Unicorn Factory, a startup hub that 300 businesses joined in 2025, up from 250 in 2024; 17 unicorns have moved to Lisbon since its 2022 debut
Michael Dempsey /Financial Times:
The MacBook Neo is $599 with 256GB of storage and $699 with Touch ID and 512GB of storage, available in citrus, silver, indigo, and blush colors
and the $599 MacBook Neo may be its smartest pitch yetRajat Saini /The Mac Observer:Apple MacBook Neo Drops RAM to 8GB to Keep Price LowDigiTimes:Apple's $599 MacBook Neo tests a new low-cost play in ...
Sam Altman takes swipes at Anthropic, saying it's “bad for society” if companies abandon their commitment to the democratic process based on who is President
Ashley Capoot /CNBC:
OpenAI says GPT-5.4 produces presentations with stronger, more varied aesthetics and makes more effective use of its image generation tools
Igor Bonifacic /Engadget:
GPT-5.4 is priced at $2.50/1M input and $15/1M output tokens while GPT-5.4 Pro is $30/1M input and $180/1M output tokens, more than GPT-5.2 and GPT-5.2 Pro
and the Upgrades Could Be MassiveOpenAI Developers:Pricing — Text tokens Prices per 1M tokens. Batch Flex Standard Priority Model Input …Amanda Caswell /Tom's Guide:GPT-5.4 is here — and OpenAI jus...
GPT-5.4 is available in Pro and Thinking versions; its API version has improved tool calling and will be available with context windows of up to 1M tokens
before your switching costs compound past the point of no returnKahekashan /The Hans India:OpenAI Teases GPT-5.4 Launch Amid User Backlash Over US Military AI Deal
OpenAI says GPT-5.4's “individual claims are 33% less likely to be false and its full responses are 18% less likely to contain any errors, relative to GPT-5.2”
David Gewirtz /ZDNET:
OpenAI says users can now use ChatGPT directly in Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets and debuts a suite of financial-services tools to better tackle office work
Rachel Metz /Bloomberg:
Anthropic says Claude's free active users grew 60%+ and daily signups grew 4x since the start of the year, with Monday being its strongest day ever
Shirin Ghaffary /Bloomberg: