—Monique Kuglitsch, Jesper Dramsch, Franz G. Kuglitsch, & Andrea Toreti

The must-reads

I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.

1 SpaceX is negotiating to sell the Pentagon AI compute
It would provide data center capacity worth billions of dollars. (WSJ $)
+ Deepening ties between Elon Musk’s company and the DoD. (Reuters $)
+ Meanwhile, Anthropic is in talks with Meta to acquire compute. (CNBC)
+ The compute explosion is only just beginning. (MIT Technology Review)

2 Trump Media wants $100,000 a month for early access to Trump’s posts
The premium feed is being pitched to trading firms and banks. (FT $)
+ It aims to monetize Trump’s market-moving social media posts. (Reuters $)
+ Critics described the plan as “brazen corruption.” (Guardian)
 
3 ICE shared Medicaid data it wasn’t supposed to have with Palantir
Court filings show the data reached the contractor before being deleted. (NPR)
+ ICE is using data broker tools to identify “unaccompanied minors.” (Wired $) 
 
4 Apple briefly overtook Nvidia as the world’s most valuable company
The iPhone maker’s earnings durability has impressed investors. (Reuters $)
+ While Nvidia’s rise has stalled amid shifting AI bets. (CNBC)
 
5. Politicians are trying to change what chatbots say about them
A new industry has sprung up to help them edit AI outputs. (NYT $)
+ Chatbots can sway voters better than political ads. (MIT Technology Review)
 
6 Washington is opening the door to armed robots
The Pentagon is accelerating AI weapons development. (WP $)
+ “Humans in the loop” in war is an illusion. (MIT Technology Review)
 
7 China’s Moonshot has paused new subscriptions amid surging uptake
Demand for the headline-grabbing Kimi ​K3 has strained capacity. (SCMP)
+ China’s open-source AI is challenging US models. (MIT Technology Review)

8 Lab-grown teeth could soon replace fillings and implants
Scientists believe regenerative medicine could transform dentistry. (BBC)
+ Humanlike “teeth” have been grown in mini pigs. (MIT Technology Review)
 
9 AI slop on birdwatching forums is putting research at risk
It could contaminate records of species. (Guardian)

10 Heart experts have good news for your coffee habit
Roughly five cups per day is fine—and may even be beneficial. (Gizmodo)

Quote of the day

“The most authoritarian government is producing the most egalitarian models, and what should be the most democratic government is breeding companies that are the most authoritarian.” 

—Rayan Krishnan, CEO of Vals AI, a company that evaluates AI performance, gives the New York Times his take on the competition between Chinese and American models.

One More Thing

RICHARD CHANCE

The curious case of the disappearing Lamborghinis

A new wave of theft is rocking the luxury car industry—mixing high tech with old-school chop-shop techniques to snag vehicles while they’re in transport.