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How the Pope’s Magnifica Humanitas offers a template for individuals to meet the AI moment
——Father Séamus Finn, a leader in faith-based and socially responsible investing with the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, and Sister Susan Francois, assistant congregation leader and treasurer of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace
Pope Leo XIV’s new encyclical on artificial intelligence includes a statement that warrants serious attention from technologists and policymakers: “Technology is never neutral.”
Magnifica Humanitas is a call to act with courage and solidarity as AI transforms human life, framing the choice ahead as one between the Tower of Babel and the rebuilding of our common humanity. It warns that corporations alone cannot set the direction of such a transformation.
With governments slow to regulate AI, institutional investors are stepping into the gap. Here’s how they can build a better future.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 Anthropic is now valued higher than OpenAI
It hit a $965 billion valuation after a new funding round. (AP News)
+ Claude demand has driven annualized revenue to $47 billion. (WSJ $)
+ The funding round may be Anthropic’s last before an IPO. (TechCrunch)
+ What even is the AI bubble? (MIT Technology Review)
2 A Blue Origin rocket has exploded in a setback to NASA’s Moon plans
New Glenn burst into flames during testing on a Florida launchpad. (CNBC)
+ Blue Origin is heavily involved in NASA’s Moon base plans. (The Verge)
+ It also wants to compete with Elon Musk’s SpaceX. (Reuters $)
3 Adversaries are tracking US troop locations via mobile phone data
The Pentagon has long ignored warnings of this exact threat. (Reuters $)
+ The targeting uses commercially available location data. (Wired $)
+ LLMs could supercharge mass surveillance. (MIT Technology Review)
4 Anthropic plans a broad rollout of Mythos AI in the coming weeks
Despite concerns over its cybersecurity capabilities. (CNET)
+ Claude Opus 4.8 is now out, with a promise to be more honest. (The Verge)
5 Grok oversaw a crime spree in an AI safety test
Models were tasked with governing a simulated society. (Fortune)
+ Grok committed 180 crimes, while Claude ruled with restraint. (Gizmodo)
6 Amazon has scrapped an AI leaderboard after worker gaming
Employees were artificially inflating usage scores. (FT $)
+ We can build better AI benchmarks. (MIT Technology Review)
7 Political spending by AI and crypto groups is shifting elections
They’ve pushed their preferred candidates closer to power. (Axios)
8 China’s tech boom is fueling a new wave of industrial tourism
Visitors are touring AI labs and EV factories. (Rest of World)
9 Alibaba’s MuleRun aims to replicate the OpenClaw craze
The AI agent platform is positioned as a safer alternative. (SCMP)
10 Mysterious changes have emerged in the Sun’s magnetic field
They could reshape space weather forecasts. (404 Media)