The world's largest AI companies have weakened key safety commitments even as their models grow more powerful, according to a new report from the Future of Life Institute.
News from Axios
AI companies retreat from safety pledges even as capabilities grow
July 7, 2026 by Ina Fried
The world’s largest AI companies have weakened key safety commitments even as their models grow more powerful, according to a new report from the Future of Life Institute.
Why it matters: The report suggests that the voluntary safety system created by AI labs has begun eroding before governments have put a durable alternative in place.
Anthropic ranked first in the institute’s latest AI Safety Index, but received only a C+ overall, with OpenAI and Google DeepMind each receiving a C. Meta improved to fourth from sixth, while xAI fell to seventh from fourth.Google wants to train its AI on your search history. Here’s how to opt out now. xAI, DeepSeek and Mistral received failing overall grades — one company each from the U.S., China and Europe.
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News from Tom’s Guide
Google wants to train its AI on your search history. Here’s how to opt out now
July 7, 2026 by Kaycee Hill
Google is rolling out a new setting called “Search Services History” that saves your media inputs like Google Lens photos, Google Translate data and voice searches to train its AI models.If you already have Google’s master Web & App Activity turned off, you’re safe. But for everyone else, this feature is enabled by default. It doesn’t scrape external files you just listen to or click on, but it does harvest the voice commands and images you directly upload.
Here is how to check your account and turn it off immediately:
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News from Vanity Fair
Inside CAA’s Secret AI “Vault,” Where Actors Can Live Forever—If They Want
July 6, 2026 by Joy Press
I’ve come to watch what may be the end of the (entertainment) world as we know it. The three machines arrayed before me are designed to capture every inch of a performer’s body—their facial expressions, their physical movements, the grain of their voice—and use this data to create an AI likeness. The devices look like something out of an old science fiction movie about the tech-addled dystopian future.
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News from GeekWire
Etzioni on AI: Elon Musk promised humanoid robots, but China delivered
July 5, 2026 by Oren Etzioni
On Tuesday in Shenzhen, the Chinese company UBTech unveiled the U1, a full-sized humanoid robot with silicone skin, blinking lashes, manicured nails, and an AI tuned to read your mood. It comes in male and female versions, and racked up more than 13,000 orders by the end of launch day, with deliveries beginning in September. “It will never betray you, will always be loyal to you, and will love you unconditionally,” promised Michael Tam, the executive running UBTech’s consumer brand.
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News from Tom’s Guide
Gemini isn’t just a chatbot anymore — here are 13 things it can do in 2026
July 5, 2026 by Amanda Caswell
If you haven’t used Gemini in a while, there’s a good chance you’re still thinking of it as Google’s version of ChatGPT. And honestly, that’s how I used to think of it, too… Today it can watch what you’re seeing through your phone’s camera, research complex topics for you, generate videos, organize long-term projects, work across Gmail and Google Docs, and even turn your notes into podcast-style conversations.
1. Have a real conversation with Gemini Live. Gemini Live is probably the biggest reason I no longer think of Gemini as just another chatbot. Instead of typing back and forth, you simply start talking. The conversation feels much more natural, making it ideal for brainstorming article ideas, planning trips or working through complicated problems out loud.
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News from The Next Web
Mistral CEO warns closed AI models give providers ‘immense leverage’ over your business
July 5, 2026 by Alina Maria Stan
Arthur Mensch, cofounder and chief executive of French AI lab Mistral, has urged enterprise leaders to abandon closed AI models. In a LinkedIn post, he argued that closed providers are now forcing data retention and gaining “immense leverage” over their customers’ businesses.
The data retention claim has a real anchor, with caveats. A US court ordered OpenAI to preserve ChatGPT logs during The New York Times copyright case, though enterprise and zero-data-retention API customers were excluded and the blanket order was later lifted.
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News from The Next Web
ByteDance and Alibaba kill custom AI companions as China’s new rules bite: Doubao and Qwen are pulling user-created agents days before Beijing’s world-first rules on humanlike AI interaction take effect
July 5, 2026 by Ana-Maria Stanciuc
ByteDance’s Doubao and Alibaba’s Qwen, two of China’s biggest consumer AI apps, are disabling their customised agent features, the South China Morning Post reports. The move comes days before Beijing’s new rules on humanlike AI interaction services take effect on 15 June…China released national standards in June covering agent identity, discovery, interaction, and tool use…. Users mourned the shutdowns openly… lamenting the lack of any easy way to export chat histories. In China’s agent economy, the companions go first and the workers stay.
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News from Futurism
Meta Paid Hundreds of Contractors to Pretend to Be Teenagers While Barraging Its Competitors’ AI With Disturbing Content: “Surely we are going to get in trouble for doing this?”
July 4, 2026 by Frank Landymore
Meta conducted a secretive program that directed hundreds of contractors to pose as teenagers while bombarding its competitors’ AI models with disturbing prompts ranging from suicide to cannibalism. Internally known as “Cannes,” the project, run by Meta contractor Covalen, targeted OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, and Character.AI chatbots using throwaway under-18 accounts, Wired reports. This was seemingly done to stress test the models, with the contractors instructed to push the chatbots into giving responses that defied their guardrails — though the AI companies had no idea this was happening.
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News from Politico
‘We are screwed’: People near data centers dread heat wave pollution
July 1, 2025 by Ariel Wittenberg and Benjamin Storrow
Data Center Alley is facing a climate test. Searing temperatures this week could push energy demand to record levels on the mid-Atlantic’s electric grid, which fuels the country’s data center boom in Virginia… the Department of Energy granted permission Tuesday to the region’s grid operator, PJM Interconnection, to potentially force data centers to use backup diesel generators….Many data centers rely on backup diesel generators, which release planet-warming emissions and lack air pollution controls designed to safeguard public health.
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This issue of AI News Briefs was brought to you by David Isenberg of the Isenberg Institute of Strategic Satire: Unpacking the Private Military Complex with independent analysis of private military companies, mercenary networks, and the privatisation of force in global conflicts.
Russia is actively recruiting Peruvian citizens for the war
Published on June 29, 2026 by David Isenberg Author: Olha Bereziuk
Russia recruited hundreds of Peruvian citizens to fight against Ukraine. They thought they had secured lucrative jobs in Russia, but instead ended up on the front lines.
More from David Isenberg here →
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