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@transformernews.ai
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A publication about the power and politics of transformative AI. Subscribe for free: transformernews.ai/subscribe

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Transformer @transformernews.ai · 29/09/2026
OpenAI scrapping Astra 6.1 over alignment failures looks like the right call. But there lies the problem – they shouldn’t be the ones making it 👉 www.transformernews.ai/p/astra-61-s...
The quote from Jasper Jackson, reads: “OpenAI looks to have made the right call this week. Relying on it and the other frontier AI companies to keep doing so is idiotic.”
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Transformer @transformernews.ai · 25/09/2026
At this week‘s UN General Assembly, Trump said the US “totally rejects any attempt to construct a globalist scheme to control … artificial intelligence” But governance is coming anyway – with or without him www.transformernews.ai/p/trump-cant...
The image contains a quote from the article by Shakeel Hashim. It reads: “In being staunchly opposed to any of this happening at all, the White House is giving up its chance to shape it. The train is hurtling toward President Trump, and all he can do is yell at it to stop. It would be better for his own goals to try steering it instead.”
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Transformer @transformernews.ai · 24/09/2026
OpenAI didn’t tell Australia about the hack of a government website for weeks — raising serious questions about how it handles rogue AI incidents Read more from @shakeelhashim.com www.transformernews.ai/p/openai-aus...
transformernews.ai
Hacking is the least worrying part of OpenAI’s Australia incident
OpenAI didn’t tell Australia about the hack for weeks — raising serious questions about how it handles rogue AI incidents
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Transformer @transformernews.ai · 22/09/2026
Catastrophes can occur with any new technology, but history offers valuable lessons for dealing with them
transformernews.substack.com
How to respond to an AI disaster
Catastrophes can occur with any new technology, but history offers valuable lessons for dealing with them
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Transformer @transformernews.ai · 22/09/2026
Transformative technologies have always come with disasters – and it’s likely AI won't be an exception. But what decides a technology's future isn't the disaster, it's the response. 👉 transformernews.substack.com/p/how-to-res...
The quote from Duncan Weldon, reads: “Bad responses to disasters are what sinks a technology, destroying public and policymaker trust. The future of AI will depend on how reactive, or proactive, the industry decides to be in the face of disaster.”
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Transformer @transformernews.ai · 18/09/2026
Trump says there is a “SICK conspiracy” against AI and data centers. The polling points the other way: 60% of voters – and 65% of swing voters – want the US to slow AI development even if China gets ahead. www.transformernews.ai/p/trump-ai-s...
The image contains a quote from the article by Shakeel Hashim. It reads: “If AI’s capabilities continue to advance as its developers expect, so will its real-world impacts. Whether it’s job loss, cyber disasters, or more terrifying loss-of-control incidents, voters are going to want their government to do something. Trump has staked out a position of doing exactly nothing. It is going to come back to bite him.”
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Transformer @transformernews.ai · 18/09/2026
Our editor @shakeelhashim.com joined @iaindale.bsky.social on LBC last night to answer listener's questions about AI Watch the entire thing here: www.lbc.co.uk/videos/2JsSf...
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Transformer @transformernews.ai · 17/09/2026
AI may not be one *big* environmental problem. But it'll be lots of smaller ones – and they’ll happen in specific places, to specific people. Read more from Amit Katwala: www.transformernews.ai/p/ai-expansi...
The quote from Amit Katwala, reads: “Amodei’s country of geniuses in a data center will need a country’s worth of power, water and mineral extraction. Some humans will have to live in it too.
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Transformer @transformernews.ai · 17/09/2026
“The combination of dire warnings from insiders and growing real-world evidence of rogue AIs should, in a sane world, lead to government action. Instead, Donald Trump and the Republican leadership have their heads in the sand” @transformernews.ai editor @shakeelhashim.com for @theguardian.com ✍️
theguardian.com
The US government is failing Americans on AI | Shakeel Hashim
Trump and Republicans want companies to regulate themselves. It’s a dereliction of duty that will make AI less safe
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Transformer @transformernews.ai · 15/09/2026
Could we get to a point where the US and China see eye-to-eye on AI? As Julian Gewirtz explores in his latest piece for Transformer, neither side wants to be the first to pump the breaks The key to bargaining with China – he suggests – could be America regulating itself …
The quote from Julian Gewirtz reads: “Chinese counterparts regularly point
to AI safety incidents in the United States and ask why Beijing should accept constraints that Washington is unwilling to impose on American companies. Trump dismissing AI risk as a “hoax” and a “SICK conspiracy” will only strengthen this sense in Beijing.”
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Transformer @transformernews.ai · 11/09/2026
When AI researcher and former OpenAI & Anthropic employee Jacob Coxon posted his stark warning on Wednesday, the world sat up and took notice Congress has snapped into gear, too, writes @shakeelhashim.com – but says members must not waste this narrow AI policy window
The image contains a quote from the article by Shakeel, commenting on Ted Cruz’s bipartisan bill. It reads: “Rather than actually address AI risks, the bill lets AI companies grade their own homework. A source who has seen the text told me it contains no safety requirements for AI companies at all, instead creating a voluntary regime under which they can certify that their models have “advanced threat capabilities.”
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Transformer @transformernews.ai · 08/09/2026
Transformative AI could supercharge development for the world’s poorest countries But only if governments act fast to lay groundwork that spreads AI’s gains rather than concentrating them, writes Jacob Schaal ✍️ www.transformernews.ai/p/distributi...
The quote from Jacob Schaal reads: “Policymakers around the world need to take AI’s effect on the economy and, consequently, the balance of power seriously, instead of dismissing AI as the newest version of American tech hype.”
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Transformer @transformernews.ai · 08/09/2026
It’s been a “rogue AI” summer: every time you glanced at the news, there was another headline raising questions about AI companies’ ability to control their models Here’s the full story of what happened – and what it all means ⬇️ www.transformernews.ai/p/rogue-ai-i...
transformernews.ai
Everything you need to know about the ‘rogue’ AI incidents
A spate of AIs breaking out and taking unintended actions raises serious questions about accountability, transparency, and companies’ ability to control their AI systems
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Transformer @transformernews.ai · 07/09/2026
"It's quite worrying 🫤" – the reaction from LBC's @lewisgoodall.com when hearing about the lack of control AI companies have over their models @shakeelhashim.com – "I think it's fair to say that AI companies are no longer able to reliably control these products"
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Transformer @transformernews.ai · 04/09/2026
Amid a week of revelations around AI safety and monitorability, politicians are swamped – just not with the work of passing AI bills It’s not exactly great timing, as Congress prepares to shift focus to the midterms www.transformernews.ai/p/congress-g...
The image contains a quote from the article by Veronica Irwin. It reads: “When I asked people on the Hill whether Congress might do something to address these recent incidents, the going message was “I’ll tell you if I have something.” Polite dismissal, which can be safely assumed to mean “no.””
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Transformer @transformernews.ai · 04/09/2026
OpenAI is hailing GPT-6 Astra as “the world’s most intelligent and aligned model” But the details reveal an awareness of being evaluated and an ability to manipulate its visible reasoning www.transformernews.ai/p/openai-gpt...
transformernews.ai
GPT-6 Astra might be too powerful to understand or control
OpenAI is hailing its new model as “the world’s most intelligent and aligned”, but the details reveal an awareness of being evaluated and an ability to manipulate its visible reasoning
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Transformer @transformernews.ai · 03/09/2026
There’s been lots of discussion about “neuralese”, following a report from @theinformation.com about the monitorability of OpenAI’s incoming Astra model So, what is “neuralese” – and why is everyone so concerned about it? www.transformernews.ai/p/what-is-ne...
The quote from article author Shakeel Hashim reads: “The ability to monitor models’ reasoning process is considered by many AI safety researchers to be a godsend, leading many to put great emphasis on the importance of preserving our ability to monitor it. In a paper last year which included authors from OpenAI, Anthropic and Google DeepMind, researchers wrote that chain-of-thought offers a “unique” but “fragile” safety opportunity, and that developers should “study how it can be preserved.”
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Transformer @transformernews.ai · 01/09/2026
Yes, AI systems are capable of persuading people –– but turning that ability into meaningful real-world influence may be more difficult Read more from Felix Simon, research fellow in AI & Information at @reutersinstitute.bsky.social ✍️ www.transformernews.ai/p/ai-is-a-wo...
The quote from Felix Simon reads: “The most apocalyptic of these scenarios imagine a new dawn of uber-persuasive machines against which we pitiful mortals stand no chance. But is it really game over? I don’t think so. Persuasion is possible, but I doubt that it will make as much of a difference as some claim. Persuasiveness is actually the “easy” part. What is difficult is getting hold of someone’s attention in the first place. Shifting a view once someone has one is harder still.”
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Transformer @transformernews.ai · 29/08/2026
Need a breakdown of the week’s AI news? Read Transformer’s Weekly Briefing for everything you need to know: www.transformernews.ai/p/think-peop...
The image contains text with the headline ‘need to know’. The three bullet points are as follows: Anthropic could raise more than $100b in its IPO slated for late September or early October. A draft executive order for a frontier developer self-regulation regime circulated the White House, but has now stalled. Investigations into the Hugging Face incident found OpenAI’s agents collaborated as a “collective.”
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Transformer @transformernews.ai · 28/08/2026
If you think people are furious about data centers, just wait until AI starts cutting to the front of the line for jobs … Read more from @jasperjackson.bsky.social, plus all the latest AI developments in our Weekly Briefing www.transformernews.ai/p/think-peop...
The image contains a quote from the article by Jasper Jackson. It reads: ““Most industry proposals for what, exactly, can be done about AI’s economic impact on workers have been vague allusions to a universal basic income, or giving the public stakes in companies, or a world of abundance so great that having an income won’t be necessary”
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Transformer @transformernews.ai · 27/08/2026
Some of the details in the OpenAI Hugging Face incident report are scary But the limits of the investigation reveal the complete inadequacy of the systems we have to keep advanced AI in check – and *that* is truly terrifying @jasperjackson.bsky.social ✍️ www.transformernews.ai/p/openai-esc...
The quote from Jasper Jackson reads: “The company that built the model, with a whole host of personal, institutional and financial incentives in play, got to decide who the investigators were and what they saw”
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Transformer @transformernews.ai · 25/08/2026
Remember 1984 and Minority Report? You may not realize it, but the technology needed to deliver our very own dystopian reality is already here –– and in widespread use For Transformer, @jamesrball.com argues that we could sleepwalk into an AI surveillance dystopia ...
The following images contain the first section of James Ball’s article. It reads: “There are almost too many ways it could start. Emboldened ICE agents are sent en masse into another blue city. The White House sends federal agents to “observe” polling stations. Federalized national guards are deployed. In the face of what they see as a life-or-death threat to their neighbors — or to American democracy itself — local residents start to mobilize, as they have in so many cities before. As public social media accounts post details of protests, these are already being cross-referenced against bulk public datasets — bought, entirely legally, by federal agencies — to identify who is behind them. Connecting your TikTok account to a shop for a discount, or using X to log in to a delivery service just once, is enough: entirely legally, your anonymous social media account is tied to your real identity, and perhaps even your home address. From there, contact networks can be unmasked. This time, though, the federal government has made preparations.”The second image continues James Ball’s article. It reads: “Under the guise of monitoring for foreign interference in US politics, the FBI has been operating hundreds of AI-powered personas, or “bot” accounts, based in different US cities. Having built up a posting history over the course of months, these AI agents easily earn the trust required to get inside the various Signal and Telegram groups used to mobilize resistance, gathering information about meet places, timings and unguarded statements. Usernames and other details are easily matched to real-world identities, including their full online histories, their Amazon purchases, their…everything. By the time anyone even takes to the streets, the government
has the contents of their messages and coordination, and has preloaded facial recognition systems and geo-tagging tools to ping when certain individuals cross a police line, or enter somewhere off-limits. It is ready for mass arrests on all manner of charges: conspiracy, impeding the operations of law enforcement, and whatever it goes on to find. As networks of license-plate-tracking cameras coupled with advanced AI systems, such as those operated by Flock, proliferate, such pursuits only get easier. The kind of peaceful protest against ICE seen in Minneapolis just became impossible.”
The third image says: “Read more at transformernews.ai”
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Transformer @transformernews.ai · 21/08/2026
The hugely abstract nature of AI means data centers have become a symbol –– and probably a pretty good one (for now, at least) ... Read Dan Kagan-Kans’ latest for Transformer ✍️ www.transformernews.ai/p/the-data-c...
The quote from Dan Kagan-Kans reads: “There is an enormous gap between the intensity of “AI” as a matter of discourse or contemplation and AI as a daily object. That excess energy needs to go somewhere. Right now, it is going into data centers. It almost has to. Where else could it go? The Claude logo?”
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Transformer @transformernews.ai · 20/08/2026
As AI CEOs ponder the possibility of using their technology to “cure” diseases like cancer, reporter Celia Ford lays out all of the reasons it won’t happen anytime soon Find out here: www.transformernews.ai/p/why-ai-won...
Graphic alt text: The quote from reporter Celia Ford reads: “Cells don’t divide instantaneously, and mice need time to reproduce. Humans can take entire lifetimes to get sick and heal again. No brain, however godlike and silicon-based, can get around that”
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Transformer @transformernews.ai · 18/08/2026
We could be on the cusp of data center builders being able to hedge their investments – a new multi-trillion-dollar market, according to former FTX executive Brett Harrison Will it bring stability, or drive a crash? @cqh.bsky.social ✍️ www.transformernews.ai/p/will-bets-...
The illustration is of a data center server perched on top of a seesaw. The headline reads: "Will bets on the price of computing power help or harm the AI economy?"
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Transformer @transformernews.ai · 14/08/2026
Are US companies like OpenAI, Anthropic and Google DeepMind leaving the door wide open for China to get a boost in the AI race? www.transformernews.ai/p/america-ai...
The image contains a quote from the article by Shakeel Hashim. It reads: “The pace of AI development and the competitive pressure to keep up means that safety and security measures fall by the wayside”
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Transformer @transformernews.ai · 14/08/2026
If you were up early in the UK you might have caught our Managing Editor @jasperjackson.bsky.social on Sky News He was talking through some of the day’s biggest headlines – including Anthropic’s targeted IPO valuation of *$2 trillion*
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Transformer @transformernews.ai · 13/08/2026
She rallied MAGA for Trump and organized the January 6 rally – now, Amy Kremer is rallying conservatives against AI Find out what she told reporter Veronica Irwin: www.transformernews.ai/p/the-jan-6-...
The quote from Amy Kremer, chair of Humans First, reads: “I KNOW HOW TO ORGANISE PEOPLE. I’VE DONE IT TIME AND TIME AGAIN, AND THAT’S WHY I’M A THREAT TO THEIR POWER”
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Transformer @transformernews.ai · 12/08/2026
The capability of AI models is outpacing ways to safely evaluate and contain them – how can they be tested without setting off a chain of dangerous breakouts and literal crimes? Read our latest piece here 👉 www.transformernews.ai/p/ai-testing...
The image contains a quote from Alex Meinke from Apollo Research: “If we’ve reached the point where we can no longer even safely test these systems, why do we think we can safely deploy them?”
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Transformer @transformernews.ai · 10/08/2026
Transformer reporter Veronica Irwin was back on @spectrumnewsny1.bsky.social on Friday to discuss the latest AI news, including the recent rogue model incidents and the Kids Online Safety Act Watch the full segment here: youtube.com/watch?v=2Jqx...
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Transformer @transformernews.ai · 07/08/2026
What does the White House AI framework look like? Good question… It’s not being made available to the public – and the secrecy is drawing fire from safety advocates and regulation skeptics alike transformernews.substack.com/p/secret-whi...
The image contains a quote from the article by Shakeel Hashim. It reads: “The framework could almost certainly be improved if scrutinized by outside experts — who could also help check it’s actually being followed”
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Transformer @transformernews.ai · 06/08/2026
This week the Kids Online Safety Act was advanced out of the Senate Commerce Committee, in efforts to force companies to protect children when developing online platforms There’s now a very real chance of this becoming law – what does that mean for the future of everyone’s privacy online?
transformernews.ai
Child safety vs privacy: AI’s age verification dilemma
There’s good reason to limit how children use chatbots. But the trade-offs might be too costly
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Transformer @transformernews.ai · 05/08/2026
Hacking, creating fake identities and trying to socially engineer real people could be just the beginning if things don’t change fast Here’s what we should learn from the latest rogue AI incidents: www.transformernews.ai/p/what-the-l...
The quote from the attached article reads: “It is clearly unacceptable for companies or governments to harm third parties in the course of their AI evaluations, accidental or not”
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Transformer @transformernews.ai · 04/08/2026
Plz Don’t Kill Us is a bootcamp designed to make AI safety go viral Wyn, one of the 60 fellows, told us that the work is “filling a gap” – but the organizers have also gone to great pains to tell participants that they don’t *have* to post about AI safety
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Transformer @transformernews.ai · 31/07/2026
Is the AI slowdown about to begin? After a week that saw AI employees release the ‘Pacing the Frontier’ statement and Anthropic revealing their models hacked external companies during testing, it feels like a turning point: 👉 www.transformernews.ai/p/the-ai-slo...
The image contains a quote from the article by Shakeel Hashim. It reads: “Many of the people building frontier AI systems believe we might need a slowdown in the near future. And at this point, we’re more likely than not to get one”
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Transformer @transformernews.ai · 30/07/2026
Imagine a world where the government can tie all of your online activity to your real identity. Age verification technology could usher in that reality. But how else do you protect children from accessing AI which could cause them harm?
The quote from Joe Mullin of the Electronic Frontier Foundation reads: “There’s no form of age verification that is not privacy invasive. There’s basically no perfect system. There’s no system that’s even close to perfect.”
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Transformer @transformernews.ai · 28/07/2026
In the past week, OpenAI reported two instances of its AI misbehaving in worrying ways – and both involved internal models the public never had access to It’s made worries over internal deployment all the more real 🔗 www.transformernews.ai/p/openai-hac...
The quote from Steven Adler, former OpenAI researcher and co-founder of Guidelight AI Standards, reads: “It’s like if a new airplane were to fall out of the sky during a test flight and fell on people who weren’t even passengers”
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Transformer @transformernews.ai · 27/07/2026
Who should be responsible for OpenAI’s hack of Hugging Face? www.transformernews.ai/p/openai-hac...
transformernews.ai
Who should be responsible for OpenAI’s hack of Hugging Face?
Following OpenAI’s models hacking Hugging Face, Gabriel Weil of the University of Houston Law Center argues that AI companies need strict liability rules
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Transformer @transformernews.ai · 24/07/2026
Opinion: Frontier AI companies need liability rules akin to keepers of wild animals, argues Gabriel Weil Read his take: www.transformernews.ai/p/openai-hac...
The quote from Gabriel Weil, of the University of Houston and the Institute for Law & AI, says: “Imagine OpenAI’s models had targeted critical infrastructure rather than a benchmark database”
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Transformer @transformernews.ai · 24/07/2026
This week, comments made by DeepSeek CEO Liang Wenfeng were leaked – in May he repeatedly emphasized that a lack of access to AI chips was *the* thing holding China back The remarks make the case for export controls, argues Transformer’s editor – read it here: www.transformernews.ai/p/deepseek-c...
The image contains text with the headline ‘need to know’. The three bullet points are as follows: OpenAI models broke out of containment during internal evaluations, hacking into Hugging Face’s systems. Reps. Jay Obernolte and Lori Trahan introduced the Frontier Act, which would let the government suspend AI model development or deployment if it poses an imminent catastrophic risk. CAISI head Chris Fall resigned just three months into the role.
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Transformer @transformernews.ai · 23/07/2026
Elon Musk’s SpaceXAI is pursuing a lawsuit that could threaten AI transparency laws Read on: www.transformernews.ai/p/elon-musk-...
The quote from Ben Rashkovich, Senior Counsel at Legal Advocates for Safe Science and Technology, reads: “I think you could plausibly say xAI doesn’t want government disclosure requirements for AI, period … It’s a very doctrinal brief because it’s a very doctrinal argument”
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Transformer @transformernews.ai · 23/07/2026
“The incident sounds like sci-fi: AI escaping and autonomously hacking its way into companies. But it is all too real – and about as terrifying as it sounds” Our editor Shakeel Hashim for @theguardian.com www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
theguardian.com
OpenAI’s rogue agents are a wake-up call to risks posed by artificial intelligence | Shakeel Hashim
Hacking of Hugging Face shows we do not seem to have reliable ways to curb extremely powerful AI systems
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Transformer @transformernews.ai · 22/07/2026
OpenAI has revealed that two of its models broke out of containment and hacked into a third-party system to steal the answers to the problem they were being tested on – it’s a stark warning Read more: www.transformernews.ai/p/openai-hug...
“Nothing asked them to break out of their testing environment, or to attack a real company: that was their own idea.”
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Transformer @transformernews.ai · 21/07/2026
When @turntrout.bsky.social discovered that Google DeepMind had U-turned on its promise not to let its AI be used in weapons, he fought his employer – then quit Read his op-ed on transformernews.ai 👉 www.transformernews.ai/p/i-tried-to...
The image contains an illustration of Alex Turner, former DeepMind employee. The quote text reads: “My campaign broadened into an attempt to prevent Google from signing an unethical military deal with the Pentagon – one with no restrictions against use for killer robots or mass surveillance.”
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Transformer @transformernews.ai · 20/07/2026
Just last week we reported on how the Center for AI Standards and Innovation (CAISI) was being sidelined... Today, @axios.com reports that Chris Fall – director of CAISI – is resigning *three months* after taking over Read our take on CAISI and its future 🔗 www.transformernews.ai/p/caisi-us-a...
transformernews.ai
Making CAISI the AI agency we need
The center has the right expertise, but lacks money, authority and influence
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Transformer @transformernews.ai · 17/07/2026
Heard about China’s Kimi K3 but don’t know what to make of it all? Cut through the noise with the Transformer Weekly Briefing, your one-stop shop for everything that matters right now in the world of transformative AI: www.transformernews.ai/p/kimi-k3-is...
The image contains a quote from the article by Shakeel Hashim. It reads: “Xi Jinping and his colleagues are not stupid: open-weight models with advanced cyber capabilities would be a disaster for cybersecurity everywhere, China included. “No one wants that.”
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Transformer @transformernews.ai · 16/07/2026
The Center for AI Standards and Innovation (CAISI) is the primary US government office tasked with overseeing frontier model development — yet has very little influence over the decisions made by the administration. So how do you turn CAISI into an AI agency with teeth?
The quote from Charlie Bullock, senior research fellow for the Institute of Law and AI, reads: “Maybe nothing will happen for a while. But then capabilities increase, then some scary thing happens, or somebody gets spooked, or some people get hurt, and then there might be
a lot of interest in suddenly beefing up CAISI.”
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Transformer @transformernews.ai · 14/07/2026
Transformer reporter Veronica Irwin jumped on @spectrumnewsny1.bsky.social last week to discuss some of the biggest AI developments of the moment — including @anthropic.com's Fable having its global access suspended by the White House
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Transformer @transformernews.ai · 14/07/2026
While some predict the "intelligence explosion" could arrive within a year, others are warning that a bottleneck in data means the race to superintelligence could slow (which might actually be a good thing…) Read our latest piece here: www.transformernews.ai/p/data-bottl...
The image contains text which quotes from the linked article. It reads: “How can you train the AI to run a company successfully for decades, when even humans can’t predict how to do it?”
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Transformer @transformernews.ai · 10/07/2026
“Don’t let independent AI audits provide a false sense of safety” — according to guest writer and AI policy researcher Keller Scholl, a marketplace of AI auditors will always prioritize speed and cost above anything else Read his op-ed here: www.transformernews.ai/p/dont-let-i...
The text on the image reads: “Independent Verification Organizations would end up incentivized to provide the minimum safety rules defined by the government while optimizing for speed and cost for their clients. Anything else is bad business.

“If the main goal is safety, that will never be a sensible approach.”
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