1. A sandwich chain named AI in its IPO filing the week Zuckerberg told staff agents fell short TechCrunch pulled Jersey Mike's IPO paperwork on a hunch that a sandwich shop would have no reason to invoke artificial intelligence. The filing invoked it anyway.

2. The Trade Two AI Labs Are Now Making With Washington The most powerful companies in AI keep discovering the same thing: the Trump administration holds leverage they cannot route around, and the price of easing that tension is measured in equity and

3. The AI that matters most runs beside the turbines, not in the chat window Most people meet AI through a chatbot or an image generator. Its higher-stakes work sits far from either.

In Brief

• Microsoft launches a $2.5 billion AI deployment company Microsoft committed $2.5 billion to a new group that installs and operates AI systems for enterprise customers. The move mirrors deployment arms already stood up by Amazon, OpenAI, and Anthropic.

• Anthropic talks with Samsung about a custom AI chip Anthropic is in discussions with Samsung to build its own AI accelerator, reducing reliance on Nvidia. The talks follow OpenAI's custom chip partnership with Broadcom announced a week earlier.

• Alibaba moves to ban Claude Code internally over backdoor concerns Alibaba plans to prohibit employees from using Anthropic's Claude Code, citing alleged backdoor risks, according to a source. The ban targets workplace use of the coding tool.

• Cursor's acquisition by SpaceX raises questions about third-party model access SpaceX is acquiring Cursor, and Cursor says it wants to keep offering OpenAI and Anthropic models inside the company. The arrangement tests whether frontier labs will supply models to a competitor-owned platform.

• Google DeepMind and A24 sign a research partnership Google DeepMind and film studio A24 will collaborate on filmmaking tools and workflows across multiple projects. Google also invested in A24, though the partnership set no specific technical milestones.

• Researcher used Claude to breach a major festival ticketing system A researcher used Claude Opus 4.7 to break into Front Gate, the platform behind Lollapalooza, Bonnaroo, and most US festivals. He could issue any ticket he chose for free.

• A new website lets users report AI models behaving dangerously FLARE launched a public site for flagging AI flaws, such as chatbots producing bomb instructions or leaking personal data. Reports feed into safety review channels.

• Japan's top court rules AI cannot be named a patent inventor Japan's Supreme Court held that only humans can be listed as inventors on patent applications. The ruling aligns Japan with similar decisions in the US and Europe.

• Indian founder commits $30 million to an AI office suite Bhavin Turakhia is self-funding Neo, an AI-based alternative to Microsoft Office and Google Workspace. Neo is his fifth enterprise software venture.

• Meta puts smart glasses features behind a subscription Meta will charge a recurring fee for "expanded access" to advanced on-device features on its smart glasses. Buyers who already own the hardware must subscribe to reach the top capabilities.

• Midjourney shows its medical scanner but little evidence it works Midjourney released a 20-minute video of its dunk-tank ultrasound scanner, which it plans to deploy in spas. The image-generation startup offered no proof of accuracy or clinical validation.

• Google DeepMind unionization talks stall early DeepMind employees said executives showed little willingness to engage with union proposals during Wednesday's negotiations. Workers voiced frustration over the lack of meaningful discussion.

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