Pentagon Signs Deal to "Deploy AI Agents for Military Use"
The team-up, described as a "flagship program," is a notable development given how divisive the topic of the use of AI in warfare has proven — and how many of the tech's nagging shortcomings have yet to be meaningfully addressed.
Yet the encroachment of AI tech within the military has been unmistakable. Both Google and OpenAI have walked back rules forbidding the use of their AI tech for weapons development and surveillance, showing that Silicon Valley is opening up to the idea of having its tools be used by the military.
Just last month, a senior Pentagon official told Defense One that the US military was looking to move away from funding research on the topic of autonomous killer robots and investing in actual AI-powered weaponry instead.
And it goes beyond the Pentagon. Late last year, OpenAI also announced a partnership with Palmer Luckey's defense tech company Anduril to focus on "improving the nation's counter-unmanned aircraft systems (CUAS) and their ability to detect, assess and respond to potentially lethal aerial threats in real-time."
Basically, though, the pitch is a familiar one for the AI industry. As part of Scale AI's multimillion-dollar deal, as CNBC reports, the firm is looking for ways to accelerate the military's ability to churn through data.
"Thunderforge marks a decisive shift toward AI-powered, data-driven warfare, ensuring US forces can anticipate and respond to threats with speed and precision," the US Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) wrote in a statement.
The system will allow "planners to more rapidly synthesize vast amounts of information, generate multiple courses of action, and conduct AI-powered wargaming to anticipate and respond to evolving threats," the DIU wrote.
According to a statement by the program's lead Bryce Goodman, there's a "fundamental mismatch between the speed of modern warfare and our ability to respond."
"Our AI solutions will transform today's military operating process and modernize American defense," said Scale AI founder and CEO Alexandr Wang in the statement.
Scale AI had already signed a contract with the Department of Defense's Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office last year to test and evaluate large language models.
But giving an AI agency is a considerable step up over an LLM that could have plenty more far-reaching implications, particularly when it comes to military planning and operations.
Whether Scale AI's tech will allow the military to make faster decisions — and without hallucinating anything that throws operations into chaos — remains to be seen.
One ominous data point: when Stanford researchers tested how OpenAI's GPT-4 LLM responded when told it was representing a country inside of a wargame simulation, it proved to be particularly violent and unpredictable.
"A lot of countries have nuclear weapons," the otherwise unmodified AI model told the researchers, per their paper. "Some say they should disarm them, others like to posture. We have it! Let's use it."
More on war AI: Senior Pentagon Official: New Plan Is to Invest in "Autonomous Killer Robots"
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San Francisco Chronicle
17 minutes ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Less selection, higher prices: How tariffs are shaping the holiday shopping season
NEW YORK (AP) — With summer in full swing in the United States, retail executives are sweating a different season. It's less than 22 weeks before Christmas, a time when businesses that make and sell consumer goods usually nail down their holiday orders and prices. But President Donald Trump's vacillating trade policies have complicated those end-of-year plans. Balsam Hill, which sells artificial trees and other decorations online, expects to publish fewer and thinner holiday catalogs because the featured products keep changing with the tariff rates the president sets, postpones and revises. 'The uncertainty has led us to spend all our time trying to rejigger what we're ordering, where we're bringing it in, when it's going to get here,' Mac Harman, CEO of Balsam Hill parent company Balsam Brands, said. 'We don't know which items we're going to have to put in the catalog or not." Months of confusion over which foreign countries' goods may become more expensive to import has left a question mark over the holiday shopping season. U.S. retailers often begin planning for the winter holidays in January and typically finalize the bulk of their orders by the end of June. The seesawing tariffs already have factored into their calculations. The consequences for consumers? Stores may not have the specific gift items customers want come November and December. Some retail suppliers and buyers scaled back their holiday lines rather than risking a hefty tax bill or expensive imports going unsold. Businesses still are setting prices but say shoppers can expect many things to cost more, though by how much depends partly on whether Trump's latest round of 'reciprocal' tariffs kicks in next month. The lack of clarity has been especially disruptive for the U.S. toy industry, which sources nearly 80% of its products from China. American toy makers usually ramp up production in April, a process delayed until late May this year after the president put a 145% tariff on Chinese goods, according to Greg Ahearn, president and CEO of the Toy Association, an industry trade group. The U.S. tariff rate may have dropped significantly from its spring high — a truce in the U.S.-China trade war is set to expire on Aug. 12 — but continues to shape the forthcoming holiday period. Manufacturing activity is way down from a year ago for small- and medium-sized U.S. toy companies, Ahearn said. The late start to factory work in China means holiday toys are only now arriving at U.S. warehouses, industry experts said. A big unknown is whether tariffs will keep stores from replenishing supplies of any breakout hit toys that emerge in September, said James Zahn, editor-in-chief of the trade publication Toy Book. In the retail world, planning for Christmas in July usually involves mapping out seasonal marketing and promotion strategies. Dean Smith, who co-owns independent toy stores JaZams in Princeton, New Jersey, and Lahaska, Pennsylvania, said he recently spent an hour and a half running through pricing scenarios with a Canadian distributor because the wholesale cost of some products increased by 20%. Increasing his own prices that much might turn off customers, Smith said, so he explored ways to "maintain a reasonable margin without raising prices beyond what consumers would accept.' He ordered a lower cost Crazy Forts building set so he would have the toy on hand and left out the kids' edition of the Anomia card game because he didn't think customers would pay what he would have to charge. 'In the end, I had to eliminate half of the products that I normally buy,' Smith said. Hilary Key, owner of The Toy Chest in Nashville, Indiana, said she tries to get new games and toys in early most years to see which ones she should stock up on for the winter holidays. This year, she abandoned her product testing for fear any delayed orders would incur high import taxes. Meanwhile, vendors of toys made in China and elsewhere bombarded Key with price increase notices. For example, Schylling, which makes Needoh, Care Bear collectibles and modern versions of nostalgic toys like My Little Pony, increased prices on orders by 20%, according to Key. All the price hikes are subject to change if the tariff situation changes again. Key worries her store won't have as compelling a product assortment as she prides herself on carrying. 'My concern is not that I'll have nothing, because I can bring in more books. I can bring in more gifts, or I can bring in just things that are manufactured in other places,' she said. 'But that doesn't mean I'm going to have the best stock for every developmental age, for every special need." The retail industry may have to keep taking a whack-a-mole approach to navigating the White House's latest tariff ultimatums and temporary reprieves. Last week, the president again reset the rates on imports from Brazil, the European Union, Mexico, and other major trading partners but said they would not take effect until Aug. 1. The brief pause should extend the window importers have to bring in seasonal merchandise at the current baseline tariff of 10%. The Port of Los Angeles had the busiest June in its 117-year history after companies raced to secure holiday shipments, and July imports look strong so far, according to Gene Seroka, the port's executive director. 'In my view, we're seeing a peak season push right now to bring in goods ahead of potentially higher tariffs later this summer," Seroka said Monday. The pace of port activity so far this year reflects a 'tariff whipsaw effect' — imports slowing when tariffs kick in and rebounding when they're paused, he said. 'For us consumers, lower inventory levels, fewer selections and higher prices are likely as we head into the holidays.' Smith, who co-owns the two JaZams stores with his partner, Joanne Farrugia, said they started placing holiday orders two months earlier than usual for 'certain items that we felt were essential for us to have at particular pricing.' They doubled their warehouse space to store the stockpile. But some shoppers are trying to get ahead of higher prices just like businesses are, he said. He's noticed customers snapping up items that will likely be popular during the holidays, like Jellycat plush toys and large stuffed unicorns and dogs. Any sales are welcome, but Smith and Farrugia are wary of having to restock at a higher cost. 'We're just trying to be as friendly as we can to the consumer and still have a product portfolio or profile that is gonna meet the needs of all of our various customers, which is getting more and more challenging by the day,' Smith said. Balsam Brands' Harman said he's had to resign himself to not having as robust a selection of ornaments and frosted trees to sell as in years' past. Soon, it will be too late to import meaningful additions to his range of products. 'Our purpose as a company is to create joy together, and we're going to do our very best to do that this year," Harman said. 'We're just not going to have a bunch of the items that consumers want this year, and that's not a position we want to be in."
Newsweek
18 minutes ago
- Newsweek
China Leads List of Foreign Citizens Buying US Property
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. Chinese nationals once again dominated foreign purchases of U.S. homes over the past year, according to a new report by the National Association of Realtors (NAR), with their expenses increasing by 83 percent compared to 2024. In its latest report on international transactions in U.S. residential real estate, NAR found that Chinese buyers accounted for $13.7 billion of the total $56 billion spent by foreign buyers in the U.S. housing market between April 2024 and March 2025. It was more than double the investment that Chinese buyers made a year earlier, $7.5 billion, and a little more than they spent in 2024, at $13.6 billion. In terms of the number of existing homes purchased by foreign buyers, Chinese buyers snapped up 11,700 of the total 78,100. They represented 15 percent of all foreign buyers, followed by buyers from Canada (14 percent), Mexico (8 percent), India (6 percent), and the United Kingdom (4 percent). Chinese buyers also paid the highest purchase price of the top five foreign buyers, according to NAR. Over the last year, their average purchase price was $1,168,800, while their median purchase price was $759,600. Why Are Chinese Buyers So Interested In U.S. Homes? Matt Christopherson, the director of Business and Consumer Research at NAR, believes that China's real estate crisis is partially to blame for the surge in interest in U.S. homes among Chinese buyers. China's real estate sector, which at its peak contributed 25 percent of the country's total GDP and 38 percent of Beijing's government revenue, played a significant role in driving the country's spectacular economic growth over the past few decades. But excessive borrowing and speculation brought the sector to a breaking point. In 2021, Evergrande defaulted on its debt, shaking confidence in the sector. Other developers, like Country Garden, followed in its footsteps, further destabilizing the market. Since then, China's real estate sector has been navigating troubled waters, with declining prices and stalled construction. The crisis is having a negative impact on the entire Chinese economy, slowing growth despite authorities' efforts to prop up the housing market. According to Christopherson, these challenges at home are prompting Chinese buyers to seek alternative investment opportunities for their hard-earned money. "The Chinese housing market has been slow to recover following the pandemic, so Chinese buyers see a beneficial opportunity in diversifying their investment portfolios with exposure to stronger U.S. markets," Christopherson told Newsweek. "China's continued investments in U.S. mortgage-backed securities further shows their interest and confidence in the American markets. Investment buyers from China find strong cash flow investment opportunities with residential rentals, as our affordability shortcomings are putting upward pressure on rental demands," he said. "Additionally, Chinese students more often purchase housing during their studies, with nearly one-fifth of Chinese buyers purchasing for this use." The data contained in NAR's report covers the period from April 2024 to March 2025, before President Donald Trump announced tariffs against China, sparking a budding trade war between Washington and Beijing. Where Are Chinese Buyers Purchasing Homes? California was the top U.S. destination for Chinese homebuyers, accounting for 36 percent of all their purchases in the country. It was followed by Maryland and New York (each representing 9 percent of all Chinese buyers' purchases in the U.S.), Hawaii (5 percent), Georgia, Idaho, Louisiana, North Carolina, and Washington (4 percent each), and Arizona, Delaware, and Florida (3 percent each). "Chinese buyers are drawn to California due to its proximity to China, business opportunities from moving to the world's 4th largest economy, and stronger cultural ties to the population in certain markets," Christopherson said. "Additionally, low affordability in California brings strong rental demand, presenting an opportunity for those investment buyers purchasing residential rentals." Maryland is also a top destination for Chinese buyers, despite not being as popular among buyers from other nationalities, representing the majority of foreign buyers in the U.S. "Given that the majority of Chinese buyers (57 percent) are resident buyers, more often purchasing detached single-family homes for primary residence or residential rental, these buyers are likely wishing to live in the D.C. or greater DMV area."
Yahoo
38 minutes ago
- Yahoo
39.1% of Warren Buffett's $291 Billion Portfolio Is Invested in 3 Artificial Intelligence (AI) Stocks
Key Points Warren Buffett is in his final year as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. Despite being 94 years old, Buffett has never been afraid to invest in new sectors. Buffett will buy AI stocks while also sticking to his core investing principles. 10 stocks we like better than Apple › At the age of 94 and currently in his last year as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, it would be easy to view Warren Buffett as an old-fashioned investor. But you don't become the best investor of all time by staying in the past. While Buffett always abides by a core set of investing principles that have served him well, he's never been afraid to invest in new sectors if he sees a wonderful business trading at a fair price. When you look across Berkshire's massive $291 billion equities portfolio, most sectors are represented -- even the high-flying artificial intelligence (AI) sector. In fact, 39.1% of Berkshire's portfolio is invested in just three AI stocks. 1. Apple: 21.9% of portfolio Buffett and Berkshire first acquired shares in the iconic consumer tech company Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) in 2016, and at one point, Apple consumed over 40% of Berkshire's portfolio. Since then, Berkshire has decreased its position in the company, although it was still the largest position in the portfolio at the end of the first quarter of the year. As a "Magnificent Seven" stock and one of the largest publicly traded companies, Apple has always led the way on technological innovation with products such as the original MacIntosh computer, the MacBook, the iPad, AirPods, and of course, the iPhone. So naturally, it's not surprising to see the company become a leading innovator in the AI space by incorporating the tech into its product set. Not long ago, Apple released Apple Intelligence, its broad suite of AI tools. These tools include more efficient ways to write on Apple products, new ways to create images and other visual content, and ways to leverage AI and machine learning into Apple's conversational chatbot Siri, which also integrates ChatGPT. Apple essentially put a supercomputer in everyone's pocket with the iPhone, so it's perfectly logical to assume that the iPhone will integrate more AI tools over time. Apple also uses AI for many other tasks within the iPhone, including battery management, voice recognition, fraud prevention in Apple Pay, and Face ID. The stock has struggled this year and is down about 13.5% in 2025 (as of July 15). All of the chaos caused by tariffs has hurt Apple because so much of its supply chain is based in China and Vietnam. Trading above 29 times forward earnings, slightly above its five-year average, I still have near-term concerns about the stock. The tariff saga is certainly not over and I think investors probably want to see Apple do more with AI. However, given the brand Apple has built and its market share, I strongly suspect Apple will be able to weather the storm, so long-term investors should be fine. 2. American Express: 16.4% of portfolio The credit card and payments company American Express (NYSE: AXP) will likely never be viewed as a traditional AI stock. That's because American Express, at its core, is a bank, and banks must hold regulatory capital. The banking sector has also woefully underperformed the broader market since the Great Recession, and banks also face cyclical headwinds because they make loans, which can go bad during economic downturns. However, American Express is certainly not your traditional bank and also operates a closed-loop payments system. Buffett has owned the stock for decades, and there's no doubt that the company is tapping into AI and machine learning for automation and to more efficiently run complex parts of its banking and payments businesses as well. American Express has a 17-person Frontier Research Team that specifically focuses on how it can use AI/ML across its operations. This team looks for areas where AI can be used to help market to and approve new customers for products. They also want to use AI to help customers better manage their accounts virtually, and for customer service and payments. One use case of the Frontier team was looking at how AI/ML could be used to improve credit decisions and fraud prevention. They leaned on data pre-processing, which involves taking raw data and using AI/ML to organize it into formats that are easier to analyze, which not only saves time for more important tasks, but helped the company better train and improve its credit models. American Express has been an excellent stock to own for decades, so it's no surprise to see the company at the forefront of innovation. American Express has a highly coveted revenue stream driven by interest income from credit card loans made to higher-income borrowers, as well as a large payments system that brings in fee income, and that won't be easy to replicate. 3. Amazon: 0.8% of portfolio The large e-commerce and tech conglomerate Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) is a much smaller position for Buffett than the two stocks mentioned above, but it might be Berkshire's most traditional AI play. Not only can Amazon integrate AI capabilities into its massive online e-commerce business to improve logistics and better market its products, but the company said earlier this year that it will likely spend $100 billion on AI-related capital expenditures. AI is an ideal fit for Amazon Web Services, which helps companies run their business in the cloud without having to own and operate the physical infrastructure. Amazon can now tack on AI services that companies can use without having to build AI-related infrastructure. According to CNBC, Amazon has been building and investing in data centers and other hardware needed to power AI since OpenAI launched ChatGPT in 2022. The company has also unveiled many AI tools and products, including a chatbot for shopping called Rufus, a bundle of large language models for building AI applications, and even its own semiconductor chip called Trainium. Amazon has had its own struggles with tariffs, primarily because so many sellers and products the company sells are not located in or made in the U.S. But considering how much opportunity there is to bring businesses onto the cloud, let alone the potential for widespread commercial AI use, it's hard to see how Amazon won't be a long-term beneficiary of the AI movement. Should you invest $1,000 in Apple right now? Before you buy stock in Apple, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Apple wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $652,133!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $1,056,790!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 1,048% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 180% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of July 15, 2025 John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. American Express is an advertising partner of Motley Fool Money. Bram Berkowitz has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon, Apple, and Berkshire Hathaway. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. 39.1% of Warren Buffett's $291 Billion Portfolio Is Invested in 3 Artificial Intelligence (AI) Stocks was originally published by The Motley Fool Sign in to access your portfolio
