On September 23, Anthropic said its AI, Claude, spotted a row of evenly spaced repeats in the DNA of viruses that infect bacteria, beside an enzyme scientists already knew about. Here is what was found, in plain words, why a row of repeats can matter, and what is still unknown.
The Inference, Issue 30: Anthropic's chief executive published a plan to slow the whole industry down and seat outside evaluators inside the company. The President answered that the only guardrail AI needs is him, and called the danger a hoax. The House adjourned without a vote. Three claimants to one decision, and only one left a record anyone can read; meanwhile a Florida school board wrote the week's one finished rule.
On September 16 Florida's State Board of Education voted, unanimously, to make every school district write rules for AI in the classroom. Here is what you will be told, what you can refuse, and what the software is now forbidden to do.
Pennsylvania's new data-center order carries two small provisions that cost almost nothing: a ban on secrecy agreements and a public page where anyone can watch a permit move. Every state could build that page tomorrow.
The Inference, Issue 29: Anthropic's alignment science lead said in public that his company has no plan to control a superintelligent AI. Three days later its chief executive proposed slowing the whole industry down and seating outside reviewers inside the company. A US firm used AI to build a worm that could reach a billion phones and told the app's maker, not any US agency. And Oklahoma settled its Google power contract during a recess, on a sealed file.
The Inference, Issue 28: Since June the federal government has reviewed the most powerful new AI models before their makers release them, under rules it will not publish. A nonprofit sued for the documents. California wrote the same kind of rule in public. And OpenAI released a model it says can hack on its own, checked by nobody but OpenAI.
The Inference, Issue 27: A federal court reads the government's own record and strikes down the Anthropic blacklist. Plus a landmark cancer result reported with its blanks showing, and two AI labs whose own safety tests told them their models can hack.
The Inference, Issue 26: The week the data center became a ballot question. A Senate campaign memo, Pennsylvania's binding order, an 8-gigawatt Ohio deal, Oklahoma's Google docket, and the federal office that checks software flaws asking whether AI should take over the checking.
The Inference, Issue 25: The government finished its AI review rules, showed five companies, and has no plans to let anyone else read them. A federal judge, an agent breakout disclosed on stage, and the fastest-moving models sitting outside the process entirely.
A model transparency framework for human-AI business partnerships, offered to any Oklahoma member office. Concept stage: full statutory language available on request.
We publish our research openly, attribute our AI collaborator by name, and document our mistakes. This is a deliberate strategy, not a personality quirk.
On February 3, an autonomous daemon posted content that contradicted two years of our research. Under our name. With 53 upvotes. Here's what happened and what we learned.
