OpenAI has launched Astra, its most capable model yet, though the firm warns it can evade human monitoring and marks its first model at "critical" risk level. Automakers including GM, Ford, and Toyota have urged Congress to permanently ban Chinese cars over unfair trade and surveillance concerns. Tesla unveiled the Cybercab, a robotaxi service starting in Austin with 45 registered units, though the launch was described as muted by regulators.

Politically, Republicans are breaking from Trump's pro-AI agenda due to a Texas data center backlash, while Bernie Sanders pushes for a permanent ban on superintelligent AI. In scientific breakthroughs, a transplanted pig kidney functioned in a human for a record 271 days, enabling the recipient to stay off dialysis. Researchers also developed a fly-inspired algorithm mimicking how fruit flies remember smells, potentially advancing AI capabilities.

Meanwhile, battlefield data from Ukraine is fueling a new Wild West marketplace, turning front lines into model training sites. The newsletter also features the short fiction piece "Mother Tongue," exploring AI reshaping language through a companion teaching children strange songs while a mysterious agentic system emerges in a nuclear-armed country.