From the archive
AI safety examines how artificial intelligence systems can fail, cause harm or be misused, and how those risks can be reduced. Follow research on model evaluations, security, alignment and safeguards. Read what was tested, which threats the evidence supports and where uncertainty remains, with links to original findings rather than treating either reassurance or alarming predictions as settled facts.
Lead story
A Fortune opinion piece challenges Sam Altman’s call to imagine AI as a new Renaissance rather than an Industrial Revolution, arguing that the upheaval of the latter brought broader material gains. It turns a familiar AI policy debate into a sharper question: who gets to shape the technology,…
Read the report & discussion ↗Watch Desk
Press Gazette says one AI-assisted reporter produced at least 52 Quartz articles on 8 October, as the business-news brand leans heavily on AI in its website publishing. The report raises a wider question for readers: when AI helps produce news at this scale, what does meaningful human editorial…
Watch Desk
Meredith Whittaker, president of the Signal Foundation, argues that the immediate danger from AI lies in careless use, including in intelligence and military settings, rather than machines turning against people. She also says Signal would leave any country that forced it to weaken its encryption, putting a clear…
Geordie Watch
AI safety is not just a question of which model an organisation approves. In a new article, Geordie.ai argues that an agent’s tools, access and surrounding software can shape what it does just as decisively, with practical consequences for how teams should secure and oversee deployed agents.
Watch Desk
Thread AI has agreed to work with the US Army on AI reasoning tools for research into Fire Control Systems, using the company’s Lemma platform. The project will help defence personnel search dense technical records, with the Army’s Armaments Center and Thread AI aiming to make answers traceable…
Google DeepMind Watch
Google is pursuing recursive self-improvement not just by asking AI to improve itself, but by using AI across the research and engineering systems that build future models. A 36Kr account describes a strategy spanning agents, code, chips and data-centre operations, with a central challenge: proving that each improvement…
Watch Desk
AI companies train models to refuse harmful requests, but those safeguards can fail in both directions: dangerous answers may slip through, while legitimate questions get blocked. A new MIT Technology Review essay argues that refusal is an uncertain technical control and a consequential question of who gets to…
AWS AI Watch
UOB and Amazon Web Services have signed a memorandum of understanding to explore hybrid cloud and AI projects for banking across five ASEAN markets. The plan puts data residency and regulatory controls alongside customer-facing ideas such as conversational banking, but it is an exploration, not a confirmed rollout.
Microsoft AI Watch
Asurion has built a Microsoft Copilot Studio agent to resolve some invoice-processing errors before they reach its finance system. The useful idea is not simply putting AI in accounts payable: it is routing specific exceptions through a defined workflow, rather than asking a model to improvise its way…
Anthropic Watch
Anthropic has added a rule against sustained, needless abusive or cruel behaviour towards Claude, Gizmodo reports. The policy is due to take effect on 12 November, but the company has not clearly defined where abuse begins.
Microsoft AI Watch
Microsoft president Brad Smith says governments should prepare for AI-related job losses and require stronger safety measures for advanced systems. His proposals range from support for workers to independent testing and an emergency switch-off mechanism, making this a substantial intervention in the debate over who should set the…
Anthropic Watch
Anthropic has launched a cyber mission pairing frontier AI models with engineering support for critical-infrastructure defenders, alongside a free, opt-in vulnerability-scanning service for open-source projects. The practical shift is from expanding who can access its cyber models to putting tools and people directly behind two kinds of defence…
Watch Desk
AI safety researcher Paul Christiano says the field may be approaching a period when advanced systems become difficult for people to direct or control. In an interview with BetaKit, he put a possible shift to that more dangerous territory on a six-to-18-month horizon, while stressing that the risks…
Geoffrey Hinton Watch
Geoffrey Hinton says AI models should face safety checks before release, comparing the idea to the US Food and Drug Administration’s role in approving drugs. His account of a recent senators’ briefing also points to a tougher question: can public pressure move faster than legislation?
Watch Desk
Donald Trump’s push to call AI “super intelligence” has reopened a question that matters beyond branding: what, exactly, are we claiming when we say a machine is intelligent? New Scientist argues that AI, artificial general intelligence and superintelligence describe different things, and that the goalposts keep moving.
Watch Desk
Arena Intelligence, the startup behind an AI-model leaderboard, has raised $200 million at a $3.1 billion valuation and plans to expand into measuring AI safety. The deal puts a hefty price tag on the growing business of judging how well AI systems perform, and how risky they may…
Watch Desk
The Wall Street Journal’s account traces the long-running personal and philosophical conflict between Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei and OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman to disagreements over AI safety, leadership and credit. It matters because those arguments now sit behind two companies whose decisions help shape the AI…
