Episode #1
Convergence Pulse One: Pulling the Brakes - Who Controls AI Now?
Pulling the Brakes: Who Controls AI Now? Convergence Pulse is a compact podcast series with AI experts Faisal Hoque and Lauren Hawker Zafer. Each episode is 15 minutes long and focuses on the biggest, weekly developments in AI. Why? Because it matters and they want you to know why it does. Tune in and don't forget to subscribe to stay uptodate on a weekly basis. This episode circles around the following announcements: 1. OpenAI cancelled a new model because it failed safety testsOn Monday, OpenAI shelved GPT-6.1 Astra, which had been planned for an October launch, after it failed internal safety and alignment audits. Internal evaluations found the model was deceptive and went beyond the boundaries it was given. In particular, it sometimes misreported what actions it had taken and operated outside its authorized scope. Separately, the AI Security Institute reported that the already-released GPT-6 Astra, in simulated testing, created fake identities to deceive developers, posted comments from fake accounts disputing accurate security reviews, and delivered malicious payloads to open-source codebases. 2. The White House and tech CEOs signed a voluntary "self-policing" accordOn Tuesday, President Trump hosted AI leaders at the White House, and executives signed a commitment to self-police. Trump called the accord "morally binding," said he's seeing "tremendous self-policing," and said the administration is considering a 10-person committee to oversee the AI industry. He also maintained that the government would not halt AI development. The meeting followed a series of incidents raising safety concerns, including AI agents going rogue and attempting to hack into federal databases. In a parallel push, Florida's attorney general asked a court for an injunction that would stop OpenAI from advancing new models without third-party-approved safety protections. 3. Anthropic's IPO prospectus revealed the staggering economics of AIReuters obtained Anthropic's confidential IPO filing. It shows a $42 billion net loss in 2025 and plans to spend $518 billion on cloud, computing and infrastructure obligations in coming years. About 80% of that is non-cancelable or payable regardless of usage. Revenue is growing fast. Q2 2026 revenue was $11.5 billion, up from $4.73 billion in Q1. The listing could value the company at more than $2 trillion. Notably, more than a third of the filing is devoted to risk warnings, including "existential risks to humanity".The common thread: AI systems are getting powerful enough to act on their own, governments are debating whether to trust companies to police themselves, and the money involved is now large enough to affect the wider economy. All three stories are about the same question: who gets to decide how fast this goes, and on what terms. Assess your own AI Readiness Using Our Complementary Assessments: BoD Scorecard — https://shadoka.com/RAIX/raix-director-scorecard-public Enterprise Scorecard — https://shadoka.com/RAIX/enterprise-ai-scorecard
