Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Here's your morning D&B Tech Minute for Wednesday, February 25th. I'm Julie Chang for The Wall Street Journal. Anthropic is softening its core AI safety policy to stay competitive with other AI labs. The company known for its devotion to safety previously paused development work on its model if it could be classified as dangerous.
It said it would now end that practice if a comparable or superior model was released by a competitor. Anthropic is also locked in a battle with the Defense Department after it told the Pentagon its clawed tools couldn't be used for domestic surveillance or autonomous lethal activities.
Anthropic said the safety policy change is an update based on the lack of federal AI regulations, and a company spokeswoman said the change is unrelated to the Pentagon negotiations. The safety change was earlier reported by Time.
Chapter 2: What changes is Anthropic making to its AI safety policies?
DoorDash will exit Qatar, Singapore, Japan, and Uzbekistan, winding down Deliveroo and Wolt operations there. The delivery giant said the decision follows a market review and reflects its strategy to invest in areas with a clear path to sustainable scale and market leadership.
The largest US food delivery app is also making operational changes in some locations, including investing in UK engineering roles. DoorDash said these actions won't materially impact its financial outlook and guidance. The retreat comes as food delivery platforms face intense competition as they seek to scale profitability.
And Spain's antitrust officials said Apple and Amazon had failed to quickly comply with an order to change contract clauses related to Amazon's role as an Apple reseller.
The country's National Markets and Competition Commission in 2023 fined the companies over $228 million, saying that some clauses on Amazon's terms and conditions stifled competition by effectively restricting the number of resellers of Apple products on Amazon's Spanish website. It issued a cease and desist order for the companies to amend their contracts.
The CNMC noted today that the companies did not remove the clauses until May 2025, and officials are now requesting proceedings be opened against them. An Apple representative said it disagreed with the decision and that it always complied with the authority's order. An Amazon spokesperson also said it disagrees. That's your TNB Tech Minute. Join us again this afternoon for more.
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