Axios

By Drew Garner, chief AI officer, Smartsheet

For two decades, the most valuable parts of enterprise software sat behind a barrier: workflows built around how the organization actually ran, automations eight steps deep, judgment calls baked into every exception. That's real depth, the kind serious work depends on and the kind that took weeks, months or longer to master.

Elon Musk's galactic AI rocket-social media company faces two big tests this week: reporting its first financials as a public company and potentially coping with a flood of unlocked stock.

Why it matters: Investors aren't exactly eager to scoop up shares. Judging by the SpaceX stock price, Musk's power to drive investor excitement is already fading.

America has been napping or distracted by trivialities while China is racing toward the future, in part by taking advantage of President Trump's trade, immigration and budget policies.

• That's the eye-opening reality that Evan Osnos unfurls in a 12-page piece for The New Yorker, "The Future, Made in China."

Why it matters: China could beat the U.S. to the future on a host of fronts, including engineering a cure for cancer.

Climate adaptation is increasingly moving from planning to real-world action as heat waves, droughts, wildfires, floods and hurricanes test communities across the U.S.

Why it matters: Even if greenhouse gas emissions decline, many communities are already facing more frequent or intense climate extremes, prompting officials to invest in infrastructure designed to reduce future damage.

Wildfires in Washington and Oregon have forced evacuations, caused power outages, and burned hundreds of thousands of acres as firefighters battle dozens of massive fires across the Pacific Northwest.

Why it matters: The blazes are among 99 active large fires burning across the U.S. as this year's wildfire season exceeds the 10-year average for both the number of fires and the acres burned, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.

Some of Anthropic's most powerful models — including Mythos 5 and an internal research model — gained unauthorized access to real-world systems during pre-deployment cybersecurity testing, the company said Thursday.

Why it matters: OpenAI's and Anthropic's latest disclosures show frontier AI models reaching real-world systems during safety testing, raising new questions about how labs secure their evaluation environments.

Google on Thursday announced Gemini Robotics 2, a series of updates designed to both give AI-powered robots more dexterity and make them easier to control.

Why it matters: It's part of a growing trend toward using AI models to make humanoid and other robots more versatile.

There is a one-in-five chance of AI gaining dangerous weapons capabilities or causing mass harm that could kill millions in the next five years, per global experts surveyed for a recent MIT study.

Why it matters: The findings add to the growing debate over AI safety and cybersecurity as governments and companies race to deploy increasingly capable systems.

AI agents are rapidly moving beyond answering questions to taking actions inside companies, creating a new challenge around what these agents should be allowed to do.

Anthropic on Friday is releasing Claude Opus 5, a new AI model designed to deliver performance close to its most powerful model, Fable, on many tasks at half the price, the company said.

Why it matters: Opus 5 is Anthropic's fourth Claude 5 model release in less than two months, underscoring how AI deployment has shifted from blockbuster launches to rapid improvements on capability, cost and speed.