Anthropic Calls for Global Pause in AI Development

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0:32Anthropic urges a global pause in AI development. Plus, the U.S. sanctions Cuba's president as Washington further tightens the screws on Havana. And Taiwan's opposition leader tours America, promoting peace with Beijing. Her visit will have some impact potentially on U.S.-China relations. Basically, how her close ties with Xi is going to play out in the U.S. And how she performs during this visit could have implications for that relations. It's Friday, June 5th. I'm Luke Vargas for The Wall Street Journal. And here is the AM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories moving your world today.

1:16We begin with breaking news in Washington. After a 19-hour session, the Senate has passed a$70 billion immigration enforcement bill to fund Border Patrol and ICE through the end of President Trump's second term, without reining in a controversial anti-weaponization fund. On this vote, the yeas are 52, the nays are 47. This bill, as amended, is passed. Lawmakers from both parties had initially objected to the fund over concerns that taxpayer money could be used to compensate Trump's allies and reward those who assaulted police officers on January 6th. But Republican senators eventually stopped short of using their political leverage to kill the fund, with only Alaska's Lisa Murkowski joining Democrats to vote against the bill.

2:00The House is expected to take up the immigration enforcement measure next week. Anthropic is calling on top AI labs to consider slowing down their development, saying that AI systems are advancing so rapidly they may soon be able to improve themselves without humans. Our tech reporter Sam Schechner has more. What they're concerned about is that we may not be far from recursive self-improvement. That's a step where AI is able to effectively improve itself without human intervention. And that's a waypoint on the way to what some in Silicon Valley describe as the singularity, the moment when machines become more capable than humans.

2:39Sam said that warning, which was written by the head of Anthropics Internal Research Institute. and was accompanied by a proposal for a global agreement on how to slow AI development, comes as the company pursues an IPO, and recently concluded a fundraising round that valued it at nearly a trillion dollars. Anthropic has long been a company that's emphasized safety. I mean, that's sort of why it was founded, that they're concerned about the risks that AI could pose. And so that duality of we're pushing forward and we're concerned is kind of baked into what the company does in its messaging. There's some people who oppose that.

3:14They call it an agenda of regulatory capture to basically say, let's bring in the regulators and protect our technological lead. Others say that warnings like Anthropics are effectively a marketing ploy. Look at the godlike power of our tools, fear them and buy them. Anthropic would say that they take safety seriously. And what they're doing is they're trying to start discussion now when there's a little bit of time left. But they're worried that it's getting close to too late. Meanwhile, we are reporting that senior U.S. officials have discussed having the federal government take stakes in major AI companies after OpenAI CEO Sam Altman pitched the idea last year.

3:55Such a move could allow the government to share in the potential economic upside of the fast-evolving technology and give AI companies a stamp of approval from regulators. The discussions come as some in Silicon Valley have floated a variety of proposals for how society could adapt to the new economic realities of the AI era. Ideas include the creation of shared income or a sovereign wealth fund. The White House didn't respond to a request for comment. We are exclusively reporting that the FDA has launched a safety study of the abortion pill Mifepristone, potentially paving the way for the Trump administration to restrict its distribution and use.

4:35That comes after some in the anti-abortion movement had accused the administration of dragging its feet on the review to avoid political controversy before the midterm elections, an allegation that the White House and FDA have denied. Reporter Liz Esley-White has more. This is a study that Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and former FDA Commissioner Marty McHerry had promised to Republican lawmakers. But sources inside the administration had been saying that it hadn't really gotten started. Now we know that it's been kicked into high gear. In addition to having its own study done with its own drug safety monitoring systems, we know that the administration is considering hiring a contractor to look at additional data on the safety of the abortion pill and the way it is currently used.

5:21While it's unlikely the FDA would try to remove mifepristone from the market entirely, anti-abortion advocates have set their sights on changing rules allowing the drug to be sent through the mail, saying that telehealth distribution leads to misuse and harmful health outcomes. Abortion rights groups, meanwhile, say the pills are safe and that concern about telehealth distribution is a veiled attempt at rolling back access. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has launched an investigation into Celsius Holdings, probing whether it knowingly marketed energy drinks to children and teenagers. The investigation focuses on the Elani Nu line of drinks sold by a subsidiary of Celsius, which Paxton's office said is marketed with youth-oriented branding strategies.

6:06A Celsius spokesperson said it plans to cooperate with Paxton's office, but disagreed with its allegations, saying it discloses the caffeine content of its drinks and that it avoids marketing to those under 18.

6:21It's Jobs Friday, with the U.S. labor market report for May due out at 8.30 a.m. Eastern. Economists are expecting to see that employers added 80 ,000 jobs last month. And while that would be down from 115 ,000 new jobs in April, journal reporter Harriet Torrey says that recent reports have largely failed to register trends like layoffs driven by AI. We have reported that tech firms are leading layoff plans, and there have been some high-profile announcements of companies that are either cutting jobs or automating jobs. We haven't seen this reflected in the payrolls data much so far. I mean, we did see last month the information sector lost 13 ,000 jobs, but it is a bit early to say exactly how AI is affecting these numbers, because other companies have been saying that AI is making their employees more productive.

7:07Having said that, employment in the IT sector, which includes telecommunications and data processing, is down about 11 percent since its most recent peak, which was in November 2022. Coming up, Washington dials up the pressure on Cuba, and Taiwan's opposition leader tours the U.S., sharing Beijing's party line. We'll look at the significance of our visit at a key moment in U.S.-Taiwan relations after the break.

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8:09The U.S. is sanctioning Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel and other actors on the island, accusing them of subversive anti-American activities. The sanctions come as Washington continues to dial up a pressure campaign against Havana after last month indicting Cuba's aging patriarch Raul Castro and warning that it could replicate a strategy seen in Venezuela where it opposed Nicolas Maduro earlier this year. Speaking to reporters yesterday, President Trump said that Cuba had sort of collapsed under a U.S. energy blockade, but that he couldn't turn his full attention to the island until the war in Iran had wrapped up.

8:43I like to do one thing at a time and we'll take care of the Islamic Republic of Iran. And as soon as that's done on our way back, We'll just make a little brief stopover. We'll take care of it. Cuba's top diplomat condemned the latest sanctions as an attempt to spark conflict with the U.S.

9:07Taiwan's opposition leader is wrapping up the first week of a two-week U.S. visit being billed as a peace mission. But as the Journal's Yoko Kubota reports, there's a larger significance to the trip as Zheng Li-Won spreads a message that is straight out of Beijing. And Yoko joins me now with more. Yoko, break down who Zheng Liwen is. Most of the time we talk about American politicians meeting with Taiwanese politicians. We're talking about Taiwan's president. Not so here. That's right. So just a little bit of reminder first about Taiwan status. Taiwan is a self-ruled democracy, while Beijing claims that Taiwan, an island, is a province of the mainland.

9:48And Zhang Liwen is the leader of Taiwan's opposition party, KMT. She took that post late last year. And that's the party that tends to be closer to the Chinese Communist Party based in Beijing. And Xi has emphasized her Chinese identity quite a bit up front in her messaging when she was chosen. So what's notable is that Xi has a pretty close relationship with Beijing, with the Chinese Communist Party, and the Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Xi has already gone to Beijing in April, and Xi's seen to be quite close with the leader. So that's kind of the background and the developments that Xi's going to be bringing with her to the U.S.

10:29It's that geopolitical context that makes this trip quite interesting. Got it. So who is she talking to in the U.S. and what has she been saying so far? She will be making a couple of stops. But what's probably going to be quite interesting is her trip stop in Washington, where she is expected to meet some administration officials and she will be meeting some lawmakers as well. So in Washington, all eyes are on how senior these administration officials are going to be. it would be quite unusual or rather unprecedented for President Trump to meet a Taiwanese opposition leader. And at the moment, you know, while she has said that she wants to meet Trump, she has also recognized that that would be difficult.

11:11But that's one thing we could keep an eye out on. Yeah. Tell us more about the timing of all of this. And I detect that's one of the reasons why a potential meeting with Trump is so significant. President Trump recently met with Xi Jinping during his visit to China. Analysts during that visit have been listening very carefully for signs to see if Trump would waver on his commitments to defend Taiwan. He said he didn't want a war, and he ducked questions on whether Taiwan belonged to China. This has been described as sort of a moment of American ambiguity in its security commitments to Taipei. And I guess a potential meeting here, whether it's with Trump or just another senior administration official, would kind of add to that ambiguity.

11:48Exactly. Yeah. Again, it's that geopolitical context and the timing that makes this visit particularly interesting. You know, Trump, as you said, met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping last month. And after the visit, he made some notable comments around Taiwan. He said that he spoke with Xi about arms sales to Taiwan. He mentioned how the pending weapon sales package is a very good negotiating chip. So some of the statements that he's made go against U.S.'s traditional approach to Taiwan or policy to Taiwan. What's probably at stake here is that her visit will have some impact potentially on U.S.-China relations.

12:28And that's why we want to keep eyes on it. Basically, how her close ties with Xi is going to play out in the U.S. and how Xi performs during this visit could have implications for that relation. Could Xi convince the administration folks and lawmakers in the U.S. that Xi can balance being closer to Xi Jinping, while also being able to maintain close and good ties with the U.S. On her end, that would be a good achievement. And something, Yoko, that could boost her standing back in Taiwan. There's elections there in two years. Yes, that's right. So that would allow her to boost her standing in Taiwan.

13:05And that could potentially help her consolidate her power as she and her party heads into the 2028 elections. At this moment, it's unclear who's going to be running from the KMT. It's not said that it's her, but of course, she is the leader right now. And a solid performance showing that she's able to balance China and the U.S. when it comes to relationship with Taiwan could help her boost that standing. Yoko Kubota is a Wall Street Journal national security reporter based in Washington. Yoko, thank you so much for bringing us this story. Thank you very much. And that's it for What's News for this Friday morning.

13:38Today's show was produced by Hattie Moyer with Deputy Editor Chris Zinsley and additional help from Michael Wright. I'm Luke Vargas for The Wall Street Journal, and we will be back tonight with a new show. Otherwise, have a great weekend, and thanks for listening.

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