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Chapter 1: What is Anthropic's call for a global pause in AI development about?
Anthropic urges a global pause in AI development, plus the US sanctions Cuba's president as Washington further tightens the screws on Havana, and Taiwan's opposition leader tours America promoting peace with Beijing.
Her visit will have some impact potentially on U.S.-China relations. Basically, how her close ties with Xi is going to play out in the U.S. and how Xi performs during this visit could have implications for that relations.
It's Friday, June 5th. I'm Luke Vargas for The Wall Street Journal. And here is the AM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories moving your world today. We begin with breaking news in Washington.
After a 19-hour session, the Senate has passed a $70 billion immigration enforcement bill to fund Border Patrol and ICE through the end of President Trump's second term without reining in a controversial anti-weaponization fund.
On this vote, the yeas are 52, the nays are 47. This bill, as amended, is passed.
Lawmakers from both parties had initially objected to the fund over concerns that taxpayer money could be used to compensate Trump's allies and reward those who assaulted police officers on January 6th. But Republican senators eventually stopped short of using their political leverage to kill the fund, with only Alaska's Lisa Murkowski joining Democrats to vote against the bill.
The House is expected to take up the immigration enforcement measure next week. Anthropic is calling on top AI labs to consider slowing down their development, saying that AI systems are advancing so rapidly they may soon be able to improve themselves without humans. Our tech reporter Sam Schechner has more.
What they're concerned about is that we may not be far from recursive self-improvement. That's a step where AI is able to effectively improve itself without human intervention. And that's a waypoint on the way to what some in Silicon Valley describe as the singularity, the moment when machines become more capable than humans.
Sam said that warning, which was written by the head of Anthropics Internal Research Institute and was accompanied by a proposal for a global agreement on how to slow AI development, comes as the company pursues an IPO and recently concluded a fundraising round that valued it at nearly a trillion dollars.
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Chapter 2: What is recursive self-improvement in AI and why is it concerning?
But what's probably going to be quite interesting is her trip stop in Washington, where she is expected to meet some administration officials and she will be meeting some lawmakers as well. So in Washington, all eyes are on how senior these administration officials are going to be. It would be quite unusual or rather unprecedented for President Trump to meet Taiwanese opposition leader.
And at the moment, you know, while she has said that she wants to meet Trump, she has also recognized that that would be difficult. But that's one thing we could keep an eye out on.
Yeah. Tell us more about the timing of all of this. And I detect that's one of the reasons why a potential meeting with Trump is so significant. President Trump recently met with Xi Jinping during his visit to China. Analysts during that visit have been listening very carefully for signs to see if Trump would waiver on his commitments to defend Taiwan.
He said he didn't want a war and he ducked questions on whether Taiwan belonged to China. This has been described as sort of a moment of American ambiguity in its security commitments to Taipei. And I guess a potential meeting here, whether it's with Trump or just another senior administration official, would kind of add to that ambiguity.
Exactly, yeah. Again, it's that geopolitical context and the timing that makes this visit particularly interesting. as you said, met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping last month. And after the visit, he made some notable comments around Taiwan. He said that he spoke with Xi about arms sales to Taiwan. He mentioned how the pending weapons sales package is a very good negotiating chip.
So some of the statements that he's made go against U.S. 's traditional approach to Taiwan or policy to Taiwan. What's probably at stake here is that her visit will have some impact potentially on U.S.-China relations. And that's why we want to keep eyes on it. Basically, how her close ties with Xi is going to play out in the U.S.,
And how she performs during this visit could have implications for that relation. Could she convince the administration folks and lawmakers in the U.S. that she can balance being closer to Xi Jinping while also being able to maintain close and good ties with the U.S.? On her end, that would be a good achievement.
And something, Yoko, that could boost her standing back in Taiwan. There's elections there in two years.
Yes, that's right. So that would allow her to boost her standing in Taiwan.
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Chapter 3: How does Anthropic's warning relate to the company's IPO plans?
And that could potentially help her consolidate her power as she and her party heads into the 2028 elections. At this moment, it's unclear who's going to be running from the KMT. It's not set that it's her. But of course, she is the leader right now. And a solid performance showing that she's able to balance China and the U.S.
when it comes to relationship with Taiwan could help her boost that standing.
Yoko Kubota is a Wall Street Journal national security reporter based in Washington. Yoko, thank you so much for bringing us this story.
Thank you very much.
And that's it for What's News for this Friday morning. Today's show was produced by Hattie Moyer with Deputy Editor Chris Zinsley and additional help from Michael Wright. I'm Luke Vargas for The Wall Street Journal, and we will be back tonight with a new show. Otherwise, have a great weekend and thanks for listening.
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