Good morning. It's Tuesday, February 24, and we're covering Anthropic’s policy push, OpenAI’s Stargate rethink, tensions over alleged Claude data extraction, and more.
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🗞 YOUR DAILY ROLLUP
Top Stories of the Day
🏴☠️ Anthropic Accuses Chinese Labs of Claude Mining
Anthropic alleges DeepSeek, Moonshot AI, and MiniMax created 24,000+ fake accounts to extract Claude data via “distillation,” generating over 16 million exchanges. The claims land as Washington debates AI chip exports to China. Anthropic says such activity requires advanced chips and calls for tighter controls, warning copied models may lack safety safeguards.
🚘 BMW Reportedly Drops Level 3 Autonomous Driving
BMW is reportedly discontinuing its “Personal Pilot L3” system in the 7 Series and reverting to Level 2 driver assistance, mirroring Mercedes-Benz’s pullback. Limited real-world use and low adoption made Level 3 systems uneconomical. BMW will continue offering its Level 2+ “Autobahn Assistant,” which enables hands-off highway driving up to 130 km/h under supervision.
🎞️ Replit Launches AI Animation Tool Powered By Gemini
Replit unveiled “Replit Animation,” a feature that lets users generate animated videos by prompting inside its app, powered by Gemini 3.1 Pro. The company says users can “vibecode” viral-style videos in minutes, with its demo video made entirely using the tool. The feature is accessible via the App tab by selecting “Animation” or prompting for an animated video.
🦞 Google Cuts Antigravity Access for OpenClaw
Google restricted Antigravity access for users connecting via OpenClaw, citing a surge in “malicious usage” that degraded service. Some developers lost access, prompting backlash from OpenClaw creator Peter Steinberger, who plans to drop Google support. Google says legitimate users may regain access if they comply with its terms.
📽 VIDEO
Google Just Dropped Gemini 3.1...
Gemini 3.1 Pro launches with stronger benchmarks, better SVG generation, advanced reasoning, and new apps.
🗣 INTERVIEW
📣 REGULATION
Anthropic-Backed Group Launches $300K New Jersey Ad Blitz for AI Regulation
The Recap: A New Jersey ad campaign funded by Public First Action — an advocacy group backed by AI start-up Anthropic — began urging voters to pressure Rep. Josh Gottheimer to oppose a bill that would block states from passing AI consumer protections. The $300,000 effort marks an escalation in a broader political fight between rival AI companies and their allied super PACs over how aggressively to regulate artificial intelligence ahead of the November 2026 midterm elections. The clash pits Anthropic’s pro-regulation stance against lighter-touch approaches favored by competitors such as OpenAI and industry groups aligned with them.
Highlights:
Public First Action launched a $300,000 New Jersey ad campaign on February 23, 2026, urging voters to pressure Rep. Josh Gottheimer to oppose federal legislation that would block states from enacting AI consumer protections.
Anthropic has committed $20 million to the advocacy effort, positioning itself in favor of stricter AI safeguards ahead of the November 2026 midterms.
Rival industry group Leading the Future has raised more than $100 million, while Meta plans to spend $65 million backing AI-friendly state politicians, underscoring the scale of spending in the policy fight.
Anthropic’s stance has strained relations with the Trump administration, with an Axios report saying the Pentagon was “close” to labeling the company a “supply chain risk” after disputes over military uses of its AI systems.
Forward Future Takeaways:
The fight over AI regulation has moved from policy panels to prime-time television, with tens of millions of dollars shaping the narrative before voters rank AI among their top concerns. Anthropic’s unusually public push for guardrails — even at the risk of friction with federal officials — signals that regulatory positioning is becoming a competitive strategy, not just a compliance issue. The open question: will voters reward companies advocating stricter oversight, or side with arguments that regulation could slow U.S. innovation? → Read the full article here. (Paywall)
🏗️ INFRASTRUCTURE
OpenAI’s $500B “Stargate” Shift Signals Hard Lessons for Anthropic’s Compute
The Recap: Reporter Anissa Gardizy details how OpenAI’s once-touted $500 billion “Stargate” initiative has evolved from a headline-grabbing supercomputer plan into a loose umbrella for compute partnerships, with no dedicated staff or clear operational role. Originally framed in 2024 as a $100 billion Microsoft-backed supercomputer project, Stargate later expanded to a 10-gigawatt vision with Oracle and SoftBank—before financial and infrastructure realities reshaped it. The project’s recalibration offers cautionary lessons for rivals like Anthropic as they pursue their own multigigawatt data center buildouts.
Highlights:
Stargate was publicly announced as a $500 billion, 10-gigawatt infrastructure push, but it now functions mainly as a branding umbrella for OpenAI’s compute deals, reflecting financing and execution challenges.
OpenAI leaned heavily on Oracle’s investment-grade balance sheet to secure better borrowing terms, underscoring the need for AI labs to pair big visions with financially strong partners.
In an unusual arrangement, OpenAI agreed to share construction cost overruns and savings with Oracle on a 4.5-gigawatt data center build-out—exposing it to volatility rarely borne by cloud customers.
Anthropic, which has privately discussed securing roughly 10 gigawatts of capacity, appears to be pursuing long-term direct leases as a middle ground—gaining more control without immediately owning and operating facilities outright.
Forward Future Takeaways:
The AI race is increasingly constrained not by model design but by capital intensity and power infrastructure. OpenAI’s experience shows that bold infrastructure announcements can generate momentum—but financing structure, risk allocation, and balance sheet strength ultimately determine viability. For Anthropic and others, the lesson is clear: compute strategy is now as much about financial engineering as machine learning. → Read the full article here. (Paywall)
🗺️ GEOPOLITICS
White House Launches Peace Corps–Backed Tech Corps To Export U.S. AI
The White House on February 21, 2026, unveiled a new “Tech Corps” within the Peace Corps to promote U.S. artificial intelligence systems abroad, as competition with China intensifies. Modeled on the Peace Corps, the program will deploy engineers and STEM graduates to help partner countries implement American AI tools in agriculture, education, health, and economic development.
Volunteers will support nations participating in the American AI Exports Program, created under a July 2025 executive order aimed at maintaining U.S. leadership in advanced technologies. The initiative was announced at the India AI Impact Summit 2026 in New Delhi, underscoring India’s expected role in the program. → Read the full article here.
🛰 NEWS
What Else is Happening
🦿 AI Robots May Outnumber Workers: A former Citi executive says humanoids could surpass humans within decades, citing sub-10-week payback; McKinsey sees parity in 18 months.
🤔 Altman Dismisses AI Water Fears: Sam Altman rejected reports that ChatGPT uses “17 gallons of water per query,” likened AI training energy to raising humans, and urged nuclear and renewables data centers.
💰 Amazon Plans $12B Louisiana Data Centers: Amazon will invest $12B in Louisiana data centers, create 540 jobs, and launch a $400M water fund amid a $200B AI capex surge.
💸 Big Tech’s $650B AI Bet: Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, and Microsoft plan $650 billion in 2026 AI infrastructure spending, up from $410 billion, raising bubble risks but boosting U.S. GDP.
📟 PROMPT OF THE WEEK
The "Corporate-to-Human" Translator
Act as a professional translator. I’m going to give you a frustrated, slightly aggressive sentence about a work situation. Please translate it into two versions:
1. 'Professional Polish': How I should actually say it in an email to sound like a team player.
2. 'Victorian Gossip': How I would say it if I were a 19th-century aristocrat writing a scandalous letter."🧰 TOOLBOX
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Matthew Berman & The Forward Future Team
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