Axios

The Trump administration has asked OpenAI to limit the release of its next model, GPT-5.6, to only a small set of government-approved partners before any wider release, citing security concerns, according to a source familiar with the matter.

Why it matters: This marks the first time the U.S. government has preemptively asked an American AI company to restrict the launch of a model before release.

CANNES, France — For years, media companies feared AI would make their content worthless. It turns out AI leads all others in needing that content, media and commerce leaders said at Axios House Cannes this week.

Why it matters: Publishers and creators spent years building content brands based on trust, which is exactly what AI companies require — and are willing to pay for.

• As search traffic remains key to advertising and affiliate revenue, some publishers want to block AI crawlers to protect their content, though.
• However, Neil Vogel, CEO of People Inc, pointed out, "we can't actually block Google," because it uses the same crawler for search and AI, which he called an "abuse of market power."

Axios' Sara Fischer and Kerry Flynn moderated discussions with Vogel; Clea Shearer, co-founder of The Home Edit; and Raina Penchansky, co-founder and CEO of Digital Brand Architects and co-head of United Talent Agency Creators. The June 23 event was sponsored by Mastercard.

Zoom out: Vogel described the two types of AI licensing deals in menu terms, saying People Inc. has "all-you-can-eat" deals with OpenAI and Meta, and an "à la carte" arrangement with Microsoft. Vogel expects each to renew.

• "Scarcity is key. AI needs three things: a model, power and inputs. We are the inputs," said Vogel.

Yes, but: Letting AI in the door cuts both ways. Shearer said The Home Edit uses AI for data and research but refuses to let it touch its content because "it doesn't replace personality [and] human connection."

• "I want to believe things are real… and I think that's what AI lacks in terms of actual content creation," Shearer said.

Between the lines: Vogel said the shift from digital to branded is the real story. People Inc.'s editors-in-chief no longer just pick stories, they define what a brand stands for across every platform.

• "In a world where things are increasingly fake and no one knows what's real, the value of the brand is going to increase," Vogel said. "That's what's happening."

What's next: Shearer bought The Home Edit back from private equity specifically to protect creative control, and said the lesson for any brand is the same.

• "It doesn't matter who owns it — I need the autonomy to operate the brand as I see fit," Shearer said.
• "When you're building the next brand, you want to be talking to someone who sees and understands cultural relevance and how to build from that place," Penchansky said.

Content from the sponsor's segment:

In a View from the Top conversation, Mastercard chief marketing and communications officer Jill Kramer said trust is the foundation of commerce, and AI is raising the stakes.

• "There's an accountability now for the level of knowledge you should have before you start marketing," Kramer said. "AI can be your best friend — but the real onus is on us to ask the next question."

CANNES, France — Creators are turning down brand partnerships and limiting AI to preserve audience trust, said Dhar Mann, founder of his eponymous studio, at a June 24 Axios event.

Why it matters: Sponsorship dollars and AI can help creators scale, but they can also erode the fan relationship.

Axios' Kerry Flynn moderated the conversation with Mann, which was sponsored by Adobe.

What they're saying: Creators "really care about authenticity in their community," Mann said. "They don't just chase the dollars, they actually chase connection."

• Dhar Mann Studios tried to "create AI-generated content, put it in our videos, no one's going to be able to tell the difference," he said. "Man, was I wrong."
• The response in the U.S. and China was so negative that "we now avoid creating AI-generated content."

Yes, but: AI has "helped us tremendously" in other ways, Mann said. "Everybody is able to come up with creative ideas and move at a much faster speed."

• The company uses AI to focus on audience insights, like identifying what viewers want and which scenes affect retention.

Stunning stat: Dhar Mann Studios reaches "an audience of about 1.5 billion people every single month," Mann said.

What's next: Its new partnership with Fox promises 40 films in the next year.

Content from the sponsor's segment:

"While AI is really, really great at creating content, I think there's still a gap in terms of making that content on brand," said Varun Parmar, Adobe senior vice president and GenStudio and Firefly Enterprises general manager. "You need to make sure that the agents have the same context that humans have."

GLM-5.2 — the latest Chinese open-source model capturing Silicon Valley's attention — is raising fresh concerns among security researchers that advanced AI hacking capabilities are becoming dramatically cheaper and more accessible.

Why it matters: The barrier to entry for malicious hackers eager to automate and personalize their attacks is getting lower and lower.

Meta Superintelligence Labs is hiring three founders and other team members behind AI security startup Virtue AI, Axios has learned.

Why it matters: Amid a swell of AI safety concerns following the release and pullback of Anthropic's latest models, Meta is looking to beef up its security efforts around AI agents.

Apple increased prices on MacBook and iPad devices Thursday, saying that AI data center investments have triggered a chain reaction that forced its hand.

Why it matters: CEO Tim Cook recently said that price increases were unavoidable.

CANNES, France — For the first time, bots outnumber people on the internet — and in five years, they could exceed humans by 1,000 to 1, executives said at an Axios Live event.

Why it matters: AI tools are reading the internet's content without paying for it, and content providers are feeling the financial effects, Cloudflare co-founder and CEO Matthew Prince said.

• "Humans are trusting AI more and more, and they're not clicking on the footnotes," Prince said. "The way people are going to find information is through AI, and that cuts publishers out of the equation."

Axios' Sara Fischer and Kerry Flynn moderated conversations with Prince and Spotify co-CEO Gustav Söderström at the June 23 event, which was sponsored by Index Exchange.

What they're saying: AI can compare thousands of products with no brand loyalty or emotional attachment, making it nearly impossible for lesser-known companies to compete, Prince pointed out.

• "I think AI is going to destroy small businesses," he said. "If we don't solve that in a way that new entrants can survive and thrive, we're going to have massive consolidation, and that's bad for us all."

Between the lines: Spotify has already built the model the rest of the internet needs, according to Söderström — AI that gives users more control and pays creators when their work is used.

• Spotify's "large taste model," trained on trillions of listening sequences, lets users steer their own recommendations.
• "Giving people control over the algorithm is very new," Söderström said. "It's a counter to the idea that AI always leads to more addictive feeds."
• Spotify is also building the first legally licensed AI music model, allowing artists to opt in to have their songs remixed and collect royalties when those remixes get played.

Zoom in: Google presents a particularly difficult obstacle, Prince said.

• Getting people to click through from Google to a website is already 10 times harder than it was four years ago, Prince said. The numbers shoot up for AI: from OpenAI, it's 1,500 times harder and Anthropic, 70,000 times.
• A U.K. ruling now requires Google to allow publishers to opt out of AI summaries while staying in search. Cloudflare said it can apply that rule globally for any publisher.
• "If we can make Google play by the same rules as everyone else, then all of a sudden everyone's like, if they have to pay, we're willing to pay too," Prince said.

Content from the sponsor's segment:

In a View from the Top conversation, Index Exchange president and CEO Andrew Casale said the open internet is on a decade-long losing streak, and the ad industry needs to stop pretending otherwise.

• "The open internet right now is about $50 billion. Facebook pulled about $250 billion," Casale said. "We don't need the $250 billion. Let's just get $50 [billion] out of there. … That's so much economic value that can completely reset the internet."

Editor's note: This piece was corrected to show a U.K. ruling requires Google to allow publishers to opt out of AI summaries (not AI training). It was also updated to remove a reference to Google using the same crawler for AI and for search.

CANNES, France — Brands have spent billions trying to reach audiences and those winning have tapped into their audiences more directly, several panelists said at Axios event.

Why it matters: In an AI-focused world, consumers and audiences are seeking a more authentic interaction with brands and creators.

• Case in point: Dove asked Reddit users for real feedback on a new product — good or bad — then ran the top 100 comments, including criticism. It's up for an award this year, said Reddit co-founder and CEO Steve Huffman.
• "By showing the criticism, it validated the promoters," Huffman said. "Being willing to acknowledge that not everybody loves this landed the message in a much more powerful and authentic way."

Axios' Sara Fischer and Kerry Flynn moderated discussions with Huffman, "Saturday Night Live" writer and weekend update co-anchor Colin Jost, NBCUniversal chairman of global advertising and partnerships Mark Marshall, and Josh Richards, entrepreneur, multi-Hyphenate creator and cultural architect. The June 23 event was sponsored by Mastercard.

What they're saying: The same playbook applies to creators, Richards said. The brands with longevity serve the community already there, not the next audience they're chasing.

• "A lot of creators end up having a shelf life of two years because they don't serve the community that's already following them," Richards said.
• Jost said brands win for the same reason. "A couple of them were like, we didn't really know about this idea at first, but when we saw it, we were so happy."

Between the lines: At scale, community trust can become a direct commerce engine.

• For instance, NBCUniversal's Performance Insights Hub lets brands measure the real sales impact of its ad schedule for the first time. Marshall said.
• Shoppable content – ads or videos that let views buy a product directly without leaving what they're watching – is the new frontier, Marshall said. It "isn't just a QR code…it's the idea of how do we show the real impact of what their investment was."

Zoom out: Playing a role in the underlying infrastructure is Reddit, which turns 21 this week and is one of the most cited sources in answers generated by major AI platforms, Huffman said.

• "LLMs don't live. They can't experience music, wear clothes or have hobbies," he said. "For that real experience, it has to come from other people."
• Reddit has 126 million daily active users and is targeting a billion by making its product easier to use every time, Huffman said.

The bottom line: The business opportunity isn't in the ad, it's in the community around it. The brands winning right now are the ones humble enough to let the audience lead.

Content from the sponsor's segment:

In a View from the Top conversation, Mastercard Commerce Media EVP Nili Klenoff said the next frontier of commerce is agentic.

• A third of consumers surveyed by Mastercard in April said they would trust an AI agent to buy something on their behalf, for up to $1,000, Klenoff said. "Agentic commerce is starting to happen."

Facebook has "profoundly failed" in the AI race, former Facebook executive and venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya said on "The Axios Show."

The big picture: Palihapitiya, who helped Facebook grow into a global giant, told Axios' Dan Primack that the company "completely fumbled" what he viewed as a huge opportunity to lead in AI.

A flurry of moves by health tech companies to promote more patient data sharing is raising red flags over the way it could expose personal information.

Why it matters: The moment someone pulls data from their doctor's office, it's no longer covered by HIPAA, the landmark privacy law that safeguards personally identifiable health information.

Your couch time is valuable. Here are a few new streaming picks worth checking out this week.

"The Bear" — fifth and final season available today on Hulu.

I've covered Palihapitiya for nearly 15 years, back to when he left Facebook to try his hand at venture capital, and invited him on "The Axios Show" because he's become one of Silicon Valley's most visible and influential tech investors.

Why he matters: His opinions carry weight in The White House and with hundreds of thousands of All-In podcast listeners, at a time when there's fierce debate over whether AI will strengthen humanity or destroy it.

AI is consuming more and more AI-written content to formulate its answers — a feedback loop that could make its answers narrower, blander and easier to manipulate.

Why it matters: Regular search engines expose people to a variety of sources. If AI search comes to rely primarily on AI-generated content, it would shrink the range of information people use to form ideas.

Former Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and former Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb are launching Raise Us, a $500 million effort — with help from Anthropic and OpenAI's Foundation — to help states and employers prepare workers for an AI economy that could reshape jobs far beyond tech.

Why it matters: Competing AI labs are coming together to fund an effort aimed at addressing the labor market hit that their own technology could cause.

AI is moving from chat and web search to delegated work.

Why it matters: The frontier AI labs have spent years promising that effective AI agents will act as our minions in the workplace and at home, and that might soon be a reality.