News and Updates:

• Anthropic launched a $20 million super PAC to support AI regulation, countering OpenAI-backed groups in a political battle over the future of industry safety guardrails.
• Microsoft AI lead Mustafa Suleyman confirmed plans to develop in-house frontier models by 2026, signaling a major strategic shift away from total reliance on OpenAI.
• The Pentagon threatened to cancel Anthropic’s $200 million contract after the startup blocked its AI from being used for autonomous weaponry and mass domestic surveillance.
• Meta patented "grief tech" AI capable of simulating deceased users' activity, though the company claims it has no immediate plans to roll out the feature.

News and Updates:

• YouTube argued in a landmark addiction trial that it is an entertainment platform, not social media, comparing its algorithm to a helpful librarian rather than addictive gambling.
• Instagram head Adam Mosseri testified that 16-hour daily scrolling is "problematic" but not a clinical addiction, despite lawsuits linking excessive use to mental health issues.
• YouTube's 2025 revenue hit $60 billion, surpassing Netflix. Growth was driven by 325 million paid subscribers, NFL Sunday Ticket, and record-breaking fourth-quarter advertising sales.

Alphabet plans to double AI capital expenditures to $185 billion in 2026. Meanwhile, YouTube secured exclusive Oscar rights starting in 2029 to expand entertainment dominance.

News and Updates:

• Research shows AI boosts creativity only for employees with strong metacognition—the ability to plan and refine thinking—allowing them to strategically expand knowledge and capacity.
• Discord will implement global age verification in March, defaulting all users to "teen-appropriate" settings unless they prove adulthood via ID, facial estimation, or behavioral metadata.
• Ring’s "Search Party" feature uses AI neighborhood camera scans to find lost dogs, sparking privacy fears that the infrastructure could eventually be used for human surveillance.
• Goldman Sachs is embedding Anthropic engineers to build autonomous AI agents for high-volume back-office roles, specifically targeting complex trade accounting and regulatory compliance tasks.
• OpenAI’s Sam Altman lashed out at Anthropic’s "dishonest" Super Bowl ads, which mocked ChatGPT’s upcoming ad tier by depicting intrusive, context-twisting product placements in conversations.