AI Arms Race: ByteDance reportedly is training a model with up to 10 trillion parameters, putting it near the scale of Anthropic’s Mythos systems—though the report can’t be independently verified. Cybersecurity & AI Safety: OpenAI says it can’t rule out critical cyber capability in its Astra model after fresh internal tests, and it’s pausing some work while safeguards and monitoring catch up. Biotech Breakthrough: Researchers used AI to design and build new, functional viruses; a subset helped overcome bacterial defenses in lab tests, raising hopes for new treatments but also spotlighting biosecurity risks. Defense Batteries: Sila won a conditional up-to-$1.4B Pentagon loan commitment to expand silicon-carbon anode and battery manufacturing for drones and other defense-linked uses. Energy Grid Security: Eaton and the U.S. Air Force are funding a $7M quantum-and-ML effort to improve grid protection against combined physical and cyber threats. Privacy & Surveillance: Connecticut’s governor is pushing a review of safety cameras and automated license plate readers over privacy and data-use concerns. Consumer Tech & Media: Disney+ is testing conversational, AI-powered search and recommendations, while Framework says a breach via its database provider exposed customer data. Policy & Tech Sovereignty: A new push for “technology sovereignty” is driving debates on where data and digital infrastructure should live.