Axios

Security researchers used relatively simple jailbreaking techniques to trick the AI system powering Utah's new prescription refill bot.

• Researchers were able to make the bot spread vaccine conspiracy theories, triple a patient's prescribed pain medication dosage, and recommend methamphetamine as treatment.

Why it matters: Critics warned this pilot could create safety risks — and researchers say the flaws persist, despite alerting the company in January.

Critical infrastructure operators are on high alert for potential Iran-backed cyber retaliation following the weekend's military strikes that killed the country's supreme leader and several other senior officials.

Why it matters: Iranian actors — both state-linked and loosely affiliated — have a history of targeting U.S. water and gas systems, even outside the context of an open military conflict.

Castelion's air-launched variant of the Blackbeard hypersonic missile will fly aboard an F/A-18 in the near future, Axios has learned.

The big picture: The company, founded in 2022 and now valued in the billions of dollars, in late February scored nearly $50 million to continue development of the weapon, Pentagon contract records show.

• It's also working with the Army to integrate onto the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System.

All3Media, an independent TV production firm, has merged with Banijay Entertainment, a publicly traded French production company to create a European TV production behemoth worth $8 billion, the chair of the newly combined company Jeff Zucker told Axios in an interview Tuesday.

Why it matters: The combined company will be better positioned to continue to grow outside of Europe and particularly in the U.S., Zucker said.

Now that Paramount Skydance has won the bidding war for Warner Bros. Discovery, it faces a complicated road of regulatory approvals from governments across the globe.

Why it matters: Antitrust experts do not expect regulators in the U.S. or abroad to block the deal, but the approval process will likely be long and cumbersome, which could impact how quickly the company can realize synergies and growth opportunities.

OpenAI and the Pentagon have agreed to adjust their recently agreed contract, following widespread backlash that domestic mass surveillance was still a real risk under the deal — though the language has not been formally signed, sources familiar with the pact told Axios.

Why it matters: The Pentagon's deal with Anthropic to use Claude for national security blew up, and the prospect of securing an agreement with OpenAI appeared to be on thin ice if concerns around mass domestic surveillance weren't addressed.

Hospitals are increasingly billing health plans for more complex care than they actually provide, according to a new analysis of Blue Cross Blue Shield claims from 2022 to 2025.

Why it matters: The so-called coding intensity balloons health care spending, and it corresponds with an increase in hospital use of AI to help document patient visits.

As large language models grow more powerful and less predictable, AI companies are loosening safety guardrails in the race to be first — a shift that some warn could lead to catastrophe.

Why it matters: Even Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis has warned that "race conditions" — pressure to outpace rivals or rival nations — can drive reckless decisions as the world nears superhuman AI.

Retired Gen. Paul Nakasone, former NSA and U.S. Cyber Command director and an OpenAI board member, criticized the Trump administration's decision to label Anthropic a supply chain risk.

Why it matters: Designating just one American AI company as a risk could dismantle the Pentagon's decades of work to build trust across Silicon Valley, he warned.

AI is moving fast, and a wave of hot takes is fueling doomerism and amplifying fears about what tech could do to jobs, power and society.

Why it matters: When something scares me, I like to focus on what I can control. In this case, that's my own understanding of AI, as a reporter covering it.