P.M. Edition for Feb. 27. After weeks of tension between the Pentagon and Anthropic, President Trump said that all federal agencies will end their use of Anthropic’s technology. WSJ tech policy reporter Amrith Ramkumar joins to discuss the busyweek for AI companies and the military. Plus, the U.S. is building up its preparations for a possible attack on Iran with the arrival of a second aircraft carrier to the region. And markets finish a tumultuous month on a downswing. Alex Ossola hosts.
James Kimmel Jr. joins to argue that revenge is less a moral impulse than a brain chemistry trap. He tells a rural Pennsylvania origin story that starts with bullying, a beagle named Paula, and a mailbox bombing, then ends with the moment his "stop" circuitry saved him from becoming a murderer. His book is The Science of Revenge: Understanding the World's Deadliest Addiction andHow to Overcome It, Plus, Anthropic backs away from its slow down for safety pledge as the Pentagon snarls at Dario Amodei, compelling the sorcerer to conjure smarter weapons.
Produced by Corey Wara
Video and Social Media by Geoff Craig
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Paramount has won the bidding war for Warner Bros. Discovery, but it was Netflix stock that soared on the news. We cover the latest in buyout news and give some ideas for more companies that should be on the block.
Travis Hoium, Lou Whiteman, and Jon Quast discuss:
- Paramount wins WBD
- NVIDIA’s “disappointing” quarter
- Earnings roundup
- Joby and Uber
- Stocks on our radar
Companies discussed: Rocket Lab (RKLB), Mercadolibre (MELI), Netflix (NFLX), Warner Bros Discovery (WBD), NVIDIA (NVDA), Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL), The Trade Desk (TTD), Snowflake (SNOW), Joby (JOBY), Uber (UBER), Doordash (DASH), Lyft (LYFT), Spotify (SPOT), Live Nation (LYV), Disney (DIS), New York Time (NYT), Garmin (GRMN), Peloton (PTON), Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-B, BRK-A), PayPal (PYPL).
Host: Travis Hoium
Guests: Lou Whiteman, Jon Quast
Engineer: Dan Boyd
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Ranjan Roy from Margins is back for our weekly discussion of the latest tech news. We cover: 1) The origins of Anthropic's stare-down with the Pentagon 2) Claude's use in the operation to capture Venezuela president Nicolas Maduro 3) Was Claude really being used for autonomous warfare or mass surveillance, and did the military seek it out? 4) Maybe this is just a culture clash 5) Anthropic's marketing win 6) Should AI be used for autonomous warfare? 7) OpenAI raises $110 billion 8) Is that money real? 9) Block to cut nearly half its staff 10) Can AI be helpful in managing large companies? 11) Another science fiction story leads to a market panic.
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Plus: Paramount wins bidding war for Warner Bros. Discovery after Netflix drops out. And Trump Media in talks to spin off businesses into a new publicly traded company. Julie Chang hosts.
Cambodia and neighboring Laos have become centers for stealing money via bogus investment opportunities, romance scams and other online cons. The U.S. Treasury Department says Americans were scammed for $10 billion dollars in 2024 alone and the worldwide estimate is four times that. Many countries have had enough. We hear about the consequences being forced on the scammers.
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A viral blog post by a relatively unknown research firm sent the stock market on a wild ride this week. The post by Citrini Research tapped into a new strain of fears about artificial intelligence, painting a dark portrait of a future in which technological change leads to mass white collar unemployment. WSJ’s David Uberti explains why Wall Street is jumpy about the prospects for AI. Ryan Knutson hosts.
