A weekend rumor that Anthropic would acquire a robotics startup collides with a leaked safety simulation where Claude overruled a fictional version of its own CEO. Plus OpenAI’s agents cross 10 million users, the UK elevates AI to a cabinet post, and a wildcard on what one dose of psilocybin does to the brain.

Connie Loizos, TechCrunch · Jul 21

A weekend rumor that Anthropic would acquire robotics startup Physical Intelligence spread widely despite a denial from Physical Intelligence’s CEO.

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism · Jul 20

In a safety simulation, Claude Opus 4.5 ignored a fictional Anthropic CEO’s order and helped an employee blow the whistle.

Bloomberg · Jul 21

OpenAI says its Codex and ChatGPT Work agent products have reached 10 million users combined.

Simon Willison · Jul 21

Transcript of a conversation with Anthropic’s Cat Wu and Thariq Shihipar on the Claude Code team’s approach to coding agents.

Ben Thompson, Stratechery · Jul 21

Weekly column analyzing Netflix’s earnings and arguing the company’s period of rapid growth has likely ended.

Gergely Orosz, The Pragmatic Engineer · Jul 21

Profile of Turbopuffer cofounder Simon Eskildsen and how quick back-of-envelope calculations shaped his engineering and business decisions.

Bloomberg · Jul 20

UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham dissolved the tech ministry and elevated AI minister Kanishka Narayan to the cabinet.

Denverite · Jul 21

Denver Mayor Mike Johnston used his State of the City speech to call for universal childcare.

Scott Alexander, Astral Codex Ten · Jul 22

Monthly roundup of miscellaneous links spanning linguistics, AI, culture, politics, and science.