Fri. 05/23 – Tim Apple’s Very Bad Week

Tariff fun is back and this time there’s only one tech company in the crosshairs: Apple. Anthropic releases flagship new Claude models, and they seem to be impressive, but half the story here is how weird they behave. Like, ratting on users to authorities, blackmailing engineers and maybe creating biological weapons. And, of course, the Weekend Longreads Suggestions.

Links:

• Trump says a 25% tariff ‘must be paid by Apple’ on iPhones not made in the U.S. (CNBC)
• Anthropic’s new Claude 4 AI models can reason over many steps (TechCrunch)
• Exclusive: New Claude Model Triggers Stricter Safeguards at Anthropic (Time)
• Anthropic’s new AI model turns to blackmail when engineers try to take it offline (TechCrunch)
• Anthropic faces backlash to Claude 4 Opus behavior that contacts authorities, press if it thinks you’re doing something ‘egregiously immoral’ (VentureBeat)

Weekend Longreads Suggestions:

• Exclusive look at the creation of High NA, ASML’s new $400 million chipmaking colossus (CNBC)
• Is Mubi Really Worth $1 Billion? Inside Efe Cakarel’s Plan to Make the Global Streamer Cooler Than A24 (Variety)