Anthropic said Monday that it has identified a small internal workspace Claude uses to hold and manipulate ideas without putting them into words—a structure the company says bears intriguing similarities to how humans consciously access thoughts.
Why it matters:Anthropic hasn't shown that Claude feels or experiences anything. But it has found a surprisingly human-like division between information used for deliberate reasoning and the far larger volume of automatic computation occurring beneath it—giving fresh ammunition to the debate over what would count as machine consciousness.
Microsoft is cutting 3,200 Xbox gaming unit jobs, selling four game studios and reshaping the struggling business as part of a broader restructuring announced Monday.
Why it matters: The restructuring underscores the pressure on Microsoft to improve Xbox's profitability amid the broader company's massive shift to AI and related spending.
Lockheed Martin on Monday said it has agreed to acquire naval defense-tech firm Ultra Maritime for $3.45 billion from private equity firm Advent International.
Why it matters: The Strait of Hormuz situation has escalated demand for underseas autonomous weapons, both offensive and defensive.
Karl The Fog blocked our view of the fireworks, but it was still amazing to spend the Fourth on the bay aboard Iron Oars, the whale boat of my friends' rowing team.
Nvidia has named Anna Soellner, Reddit's former vice president of communications, as head of corporate communications, Axios has exclusively learned.
Why it matters: Few corporate communications jobs carry higher stakes. Just about every public statement by Nvidia and CEO Jensen Huang is scrutinized by governments, lawmakers, competitors, investors and customers, as the chipmaker is at the center of the AI boom.
The stock market's record-breaking run paused in June, but retail investors kept on the gas, new data from Charles Schwab shared exclusively with Axios shows.
Why it matters: The monthly report shows that retail investors continue to buy dips in the market and favor tech stocks even as worries about an AI bubble persist.
Memory chipmakers are raking in record profits with no end in sight. That may be a problem.
Why it matters: Shares of Micron Technology, Sandisk and the like have helped carry the market over the last year, as seemingly inexhaustible demand from the AI boom pushed profitability to unprecedented levels.
Remember the post-COVID spike in egg prices? It turns out, according to government allegations, to be partially the result of a conspiracy to fix prices.
Why it matters: The surge in egg prices was a key inflation talking point in the 2024 election season.
Ornn, an Andreessen Horowitz-backed startup, raised a $33 million seed round to build a marketplace for trading the computing power that underpins today's AI boom, similar to what exists for oil traders.
Why it matters: Investors increasingly want to trade compute like a commodity, betting it could make the historically expensive AI buildout more sustainable and efficient.
