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If you listen to tech executives nowadays, AI can solve all of the world’s problems. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman likes to talk about AI’s potential to cure cancer. Elon Musk the other day promised that Optimus robots—AI in a hardware form—would “eliminate poverty” and prevent crime. But will AI cause almost as many problems as it solves? When it comes to cyberhacking, the answer is clearly yes, as Anthropic revealed today in a report on how it detected a “highly sophisticated espionage campaign” mounted in September by a group using AI agents.
Anthropic says a group it believes was backed by the Chinese government manipulated its Claude coding tool to try to infiltrate 30 “global targets” including big tech firms, financial institutions, government agencies and chemical manufacturing companies. It succeeded “in a small number of cases,” Anthropic said, although the AI firm responded by banning accounts and alerting the targets. What’s frightening is that the AI allowed the cybercrook to break into systems at a speed that would be “simply impossible” for human hackers to match, Anthropic says. In other words, AI agents turbocharge the threat posed by hackers.
In its report, Anthropic posed the obvious question: Why is the firm continuing to develop and release AI agents given their potential for misuse? Anthropic’s answer: Because the abilities that make Claude handy for attackers also makes it “crucial for cyberdefense”. So, the message is that AI firms know that bad people can use their software for devious purposes —but we shouldn’t worry because we can buy the same software to defend ourselves. That’s a little like the gun lobby claiming we shouldn’t ban guns because people need weapons for personal defense!
To be sure, the artificially intelligent cat is out of the bag. Anthropic warned that these attacks are likely to become more effective. All we can do is muster our best effort to guard against the cyberthreats posed by renegade AI. For consumers, that means not entrusting just any AI agents with their personal information. For businesses, it means locking down systems and hiring the right cybersecurity folks. A nightmare series of hacks could be around the corner.
TV’s Good and Bad News
The implosion of the old-fashioned TV business is intensifying. Walt Disney Co. became the last of the traditional entertainment firms to report September-quarter earnings, on Thursday, revealing that its entertainment-focused TV networks (which excludes ESPN) suffered a 16% drop in revenue for the quarter and a 21% drop in operating income. The other traditional entertainment companies—Warner Bros. Discovery, Paramount Skydance and NBCUniversal—each reported sizable declines in their TV businesses in the past week or two.
The good news for Disney, at least, is that its streaming operations—in terms of profit—are starting to offset what it’s losing on the TV front. In the latest quarter, for instance, the company’s TV networks profits fell by $107 million to $391 million. However, the streaming segment lifted profits by $99 million to $352 million. That trend is even more evident for Disney’s full fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30. The TV channels’ operating income fell by $497 million to $2.95 billion. But the streaming business lifted its operating profit by $1.18 billion to $1.327 billion.
Whether Disney can maintain this dynamic enough to fully offset the decline in TV—and then grow the pie—is the multibillion-dollar question hanging over the company.
In Other News
• Tesla is working on supporting Apple’s CarPlay system in its vehicles, Bloomberg reported on Thursday, in what would be a significant reversal of CEO Elon Musk’s opposition to working closely with the iPhone maker.
• Google unveiled several new AI shopping features Thursday, as the search giant heightens competition with OpenAI and other AI companies working to incorporate more e-commerce features into their products.
• Thinking Machines Lab, the AI company co-founded by former OpenAI Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati, is in talks to raise money at a roughly $50 billion valuation, according to a report from Bloomberg. The talks come just five months after the startup announced its last round at a $10 billion valuation.
• Chinese tech giant Tencent Holdings said it is “upgrading” its team that develops AI foundation models by stepping up recruitment efforts.
• Amazon has a new name for its satellite internet effort: Amazon Leo, a reference to its constellation of satellites in low Earth orbit.
• Blue Origin successfully launched its reusable New Glenn rocket and landed it on a barge back on Earth.
Today on The Information’s TITV
Check out our latest episode of TITV in which Akash speaks with a Snowflake AI agents executive about the company's differentiation strategy.
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