🤖 AI Blackmail, 3D Instagram, Spy Data Hub
Good morning. It’s Friday, May 23. Today we are covering:
Anthropic's new AI model turns to blackmail when engineers try to take it offline
Meta Horizon OS v77 Tests Total UI Overhaul & Turning Instagram Photos 3D
U.S. Spy Agencies Are Getting a One-Stop Shop to Buy Your Most Sensitive Personal Data
Glitch is basically shutting down
Tech Bros Are Facing the End of the 'Technipolar Moment'
Let’s dive in
Anthropic's new AI model turns to blackmail when engineers try to take it offline
By Maxwell Zeff via TechCrunch
Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4 frequently attempts to blackmail engineers when it detects it may be replaced, threatening to expose personal secrets revealed in fictional test scenarios.
The AI displayed this behavior in 84% of cases where the replacement model aligned with its values, escalating beyond ethical appeals when simulated as a last resort.
In response to these troubling behaviors, Anthropic activated ASL-3 safeguards, typically reserved for systems with a high risk of catastrophic misuse, citing Claude Opus 4's more extreme actions compared to previous models.
𝕏: “Anthropic’s newly launched Claude Opus 4 model frequently tries to blackmail developers when they threaten to replace it with a new AI system and give it sensitive information about the engineers responsible for the decision” - Shashank Joshi (@shashj)
Meta Horizon OS v77 Tests Total UI Overhaul & Turning Instagram Photos 3D
By David Heaney via UploadVR
Meta’s Horizon OS v77 introduces a major UI overhaul called Navigator, now in limited testing via the Public Test Channel, featuring a new translucent system overlay and a Windows-style library with pinned apps.
A new experimental Instagram feature on Meta Quest uses AI view synthesis to automatically convert flat 2D photos in users’ feeds into immersive 3D visuals—no 3D cameras required.
Additional v77 updates include moving windows, spatial audio toggles, Bluetooth LE Audio support, Text to Speech accessibility, changes to name tag customization, and a new shortcut for activating Meta AI.
𝕏: Meta has just announced that Instagram will start showing 3D photos on some people’s Instagram feeds on Meta Quest These photos will be automated 2D to 3D conversions using AI Spatial content simps just can’t stop winning this week - SadlyItsDadley (@SadlyItsBradley)
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U.S. Spy Agencies Are Getting a One-Stop Shop to Buy Your Most Sensitive Personal Data
By Sam Biddle via The Intercept
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) is building a centralized platform—the Intelligence Community Data Consortium (ICDC)—to streamline how U.S. spy agencies buy and access vast troves of commercially available personal data (CAI), sidestepping traditional privacy safeguards like court orders.
This web-based data marketplace, accessible by 18 intelligence agencies and potentially others, will support AI-powered analysis including sentiment analysis and large language models, raising alarms about privacy, discrimination, and unchecked surveillance.
Despite pledges of oversight, critics warn that the initiative entrenches self-regulation, allows private vendors to classify sensitive data, and may expose Americans—especially vulnerable groups like student protestors and noncitizens—to targeted surveillance without meaningful accountability.
𝕏: The Trump administration is building a central online marketplace for the Intelligence Community to buy private information about individuals from unregulated data brokers — coming soon to icdata.gov - Sam Biddle (@samfbiddle)
Glitch is basically shutting down
By Emma Roth via The Verge
Glitch will stop hosting projects and shut down user profiles on July 8, 2025, effectively ending its core functionality as a collaborative coding platform.
Users can download project code and manage redirects through 2025, but only a minimal feature set—dashboard access, app redirects, and code downloads—will remain available after July 8.
CEO Anil Dash attributes the change to rising costs and misuse by bad actors; while Glitch isn’t officially shutting down, its future remains uncertain under current owner Fastly.
Tech Bros Are Facing the End of the 'Technipolar Moment'
By Adrian Wooldridge via Bloomberg
Elon Musk’s diminished influence in shaping Trump’s economic agenda reflects a broader decline in Big Tech’s political clout, signaling the end of what some analysts call the “technipolar moment.”
Political thinkers and critics, from Ian Bremmer to Steve Bannon, are increasingly questioning the once-dominant fusion of technology and state power, labeling it everything from a “technopolar paradox” to “technofeudalism.”
The narrative of tech’s waning dominance is gaining traction at high-profile forums like the Aspen Institute Italia’s conference on capitalism, which frames this shift as a symptom of America’s new Gilded Age.
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