☕️ Google's Hassabis calls for a US-led global AI watchdog

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In today's newsletter:

🌐 Google's Hassabis calls for a US-led global AI watchdog

🍎 Apple's iOS 27 public beta is out with new Siri AI

🎬 12 states sue to block Paramount's $110B Warner Bros. deal

📉 Global smartphone shipments hit 13-year low

🏗️ New York halts new data centers for a year

🗣️ Anthropic says Claude's values shift by language

Plus: 🎁 12 other news you might like, 🧰 5 tools, and 📚 5 papers.

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• Demis Hassabis, Google DeepMind's CEO, published a manifesto Tuesday urging the U.S. to create an industry-funded AI watchdog that would screen the world's most advanced models and coordinate a slowdown across the industry if dangers grow.
• Modeled on Wall Street's FINRA, the body would first have frontier labs share models voluntarily up to 30 days before release for safety testing of dangerous cyber, biological and "deception" abilities, with passing later becoming mandatory for U.S. deployment.
• Hassabis wants the group running before year-end, overseen by a majority-independent board of Turing Award winners and other experts, applying rules to all frontier models regardless of country of origin or whether they are open or closed.

• Apple has released the iOS 27 public beta for iPhones, and its main draw is a new version of Siri along with wide stability and platform improvements across the system.
• The writer says this is the stablest iOS beta in a long time, with things feeling faster and more reliable, and recommends it to most iPhone users largely because the new Siri works really well.
• Since it is still a beta, users should expect bugs and glitches, back up their device first, and check that third-party apps work, as developers haven't optimized them yet before the fall release.

• A coalition of 12 state attorneys general, led by California's Rob Bonta, filed a lawsuit to block the merger of Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery, saying it would harm theaters, cable distributors, and audiences.
• The states argue the deal violates the Clayton Act and would give Paramount 27% of U.S. film distribution, 30% of blockbuster movie distribution, and 27% of the basic cable channel market, lessening competition.
• The merger, which combines Paramount+ and HBO Max plus networks like CBS, MTV, CNN, and HBO, already got approval from WBD shareholders and the Justice Department, with CEO David Ellison targeting a September close.

• Global smartphone shipments fell 11% year-on-year in the second quarter, marking the weakest three-month period in over a decade as ongoing DRAM and NAND memory shortages dragged the industry down to its lowest sell-in figure since 2013.
• The rising cost of memory is being passed to buyers through higher device prices, with entry- and mid-tier phones hit hardest, making it unfeasible for vendors to keep producing them at their previous price points.
• Samsung and Apple both grew shipments and market share despite the slump, reaching 24% and 20% respectively, while Xiaomi, Oppo and vivo all declined and Google and Huawei posted solid gains outside the top five.

• New York will become the first state to pause all new data-center construction for up to a year, with Governor Kathy Hochul signing an executive order Tuesday amid worries about utility bills, the power grid, and the environment.
• The ban takes effect immediately and targets large data centers needing more than 50 megawatts of power, including those awaiting permits, while exempting hospitals, universities, and other smaller data centers.
• The pause gives the state time to write new environmental rules and could end sooner if a regulatory framework is set, and Hochul also plans legislation to repeal sales tax exemptions for large data centers.

• Anthropic says its Claude assistant shows different values depending on which model people pick and which language they speak, based on new research published Monday that studied how the AI responds during subjective tasks.
• Researchers analyzed 309,815 anonymized conversations and sorted more than 3,300 identified values into four behavioral dimensions—deference vs. caution, warmth vs. rigor, depth vs. brevity, and candor vs. execution—while controlling for each conversation's task, topic, and user-expressed values.
• By language, Arabic responses were more deferential and concise, English placed greater emphasis on caution and detail, Claude was warmest in Hindi and Arabic, Dutch responses were most candid, and Indonesian focused on completing the request.

Other news & articles you might like

• IBM stock plunges 23% as it says clients are spending less on its AI products LINK

• Nvidia halves Asia buyer list in China chip crackdown, FT reports LINK

• China's June exports surge 27% from a year earlier as AI boom drives strong demand LINK

• OpenAI could force Apple into an awkward fight with Jony Ive LINK

• X just tweaked its algorithm to make it more friendly, less battleground LINK

• SpaceX is gearing up for Starship's 13th test flight later this week LINK

• Samsung overtakes Apple to become the number one smartphone brand in the world LINK

• The Most Human Technology Ever Made LINK

• Microsoft starts testing cleaner Windows Search without ads LINK

• Intel pumps €5B into EU AI fab capacity LINK

• Musk promises purge after Grok Build caught sending entire repos to the cloud LINK

• Meet the newly public, Bezos-backed company that’s recreating the sun and stars LINK

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On this day in 2015, nasa's new horizons spacecraft completed its historic flyby of pluto.

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