Anthropic blacklisting drives record Claude downloads

Links on Iran and Anthropic

The US and Israel strike Iran

• Iranian leader Ayatollah Khamenei killed in airstrikes informed by months of CIA tracking

• Polymarket traders estimate a 52 percent chance of regime change in 2026

• Iran retaliates by firing at targets in Israel, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan, Iraq, Oman, and Cyprus

• Oil prices are up ten percent since Friday and gas prices are up too

• Americans disapprove of the attack by 43 percent to 27 percent and think that Trump uses too much military force by 56 percent to 40 percent

Pentagon turns on Anthropic

• Anthropic refuses to let the US military use its AI for mass surveillance and fully autonomous weapons

• US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth orders companies supplying the military to cut ties with Anthropic

• OpenAI signs contract with the Pentagon to replace Anthropic

• Consumers respond by downloading Claude at a record rate, faster than ChatGPT

• Manifold puts the chance that Amazon has to divest from Anthropic by the end of the year at 13 percent

• Since Friday, Anthropic’s valuation is unchanged while OpenAI’s is up in the (small) Ventuals markets for private valuations

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