Friday, August 8, 2025

Polaris of Enlightenment

Tech giants’ executives become US military officers – gain power over future warfare

The future of AI

Published 26 June 2025
– By Editorial Staff
Data from platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp could soon be linked to the Swedish military's surveillance systems, according to TBOT (the Swedish Armed Forces' Cyber Defense Unit).
3 minute read

Four senior executives from tech giants Meta, Palantir, and OpenAI have recently been sworn into the US Army Reserve with the rank of lieutenant colonel – an officer rank that normally requires over 20 years of active military service.

The group is part of a new initiative called Detachment 201, aimed at transforming the American military by integrating advanced technologies such as drones, robotics, augmented reality (AR), and AI support.

The new recruits are:

Shyam Sankar, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Palantir

Andrew Bosworth, Chief Technology Officer of Meta

Kevin Weil, Chief Product Officer (CPO) of OpenAI

Bob McGrew, former Research Director at OpenAI

According to the technology platform Take Back Our Tech (TBOT), which monitors these developments, these are not symbolic appointments.

“These aren’t random picks. They’re intentional and bring representation and collaboration from the highest level of these companies”, writes founder Hakeem Anwar.

Meta and Palantir on the battlefield

Although the newly appointed officers must formally undergo physical training and weapons instruction, they are expected to participate primarily in digital defense. Their mission is to help the army adapt to a new form of warfare where technology takes center stage.

“The battlefield is truly transforming and so is the government”, notes Anwar.

According to Anwar, the recruitment of Palantir’s CTO could mean the military will start using the company’s Gotham platform as standard. Gotham is a digital interface that collects intelligence and monitors targets through satellite imagery and video feeds.

Meta’s CTO is expected to contribute to integrating data from platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, which according to TBOT could be connected to military surveillance systems. These platforms are used by billions of people worldwide and contain vast amounts of movement, communication, and behavioral data.

“The activities, movements, and communications from these apps could be integrated into this surveillance network”, writes Anwar, adding:

“It’s no wonder why countries opposed to the US like China have been banning Meta products”.

Leaked project reveals AI initiative for entire government apparatus

Regarding OpenAI’s role, Anwar suggests that Kevin Weil and Bob McGrew might design an AI interface for the army, where soldiers would have access to AI chatbots to support strategy and field tactics.

As Detachment 201 becomes public, a separate AI initiative within the US government has leaked. The website ai.gov, still under development, reveals a plan to equip the entire federal administration with AI tools – from code assistants to AI chatbots for internal use.

TBOT notes that the initiative relies on AI models from OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic. The project is led by the General Services Administration, under former Tesla engineer Thomas Shedd, who has also been involved in the cryptocurrency project DOGE.

“The irony? The website itself was leaked during development, demonstrating that AI isn’t foolproof and can’t replace human expertise”, comments Anwar.

According to the tech site’s founder, several federal employees are critical of the initiative, concerned about insufficient safeguards.

“Without proper safeguards, diving head first into AI could create new security vulnerabilities, disrupt operations, and further erode privacy”, he writes.

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OpenAI launches GPT-5 – Here are the new features in the latest ChatGPT model

The future of AI

Published today 15:39
– By Editorial Staff
"GPT-5 is the first time that it really feels like talking to an expert in any topic, like a PhD-level expert", claims CEO Sam Altman during the company's presentation of the new model.
2 minute read

OpenAI released its new flagship model GPT-5 on Thursday, which is now available free of charge to all users of the ChatGPT chatbot service. The American AI giant claims that the new model is “the best in the world” and takes a significant step toward developing artificial intelligence that can perform better than humans in most economically valuable work tasks.

GPT-5 differs from previous versions by combining fast responses with advanced problem-solving capabilities. While previous AI chatbots could primarily provide smart answers to questions, GPT-5 can perform complex tasks for users – such as creating software applications, navigating calendars, or compiling research reports, writes TechCrunch.

— Having something like GPT-5 would be pretty much unimaginable at any previous time in history, said OpenAI CEO Sam Altman during a press conference.

Better than competitors

According to OpenAI, GPT-5 performs somewhat better than competing AI models from companies like Anthropic, Google DeepMind, and Elon Musk’s xAI on several important tests. In programming, the model achieves 74.9 percent on real coding tasks, which marginally beats Anthropic’s latest model Claude Opus 4.1, which reached 74.5 percent.

A particularly important improvement is that GPT-5 “hallucinates” – that is, makes up incorrect information – significantly less than previous models. When tested on health-related questions, the model gives incorrect answers only 1.6 percent of the time, compared to over 12 percent for OpenAI’s previous models.

This is particularly relevant since millions of people use AI chatbots to get health advice, despite them not replacing professional doctors.

New features and pricing models

The company has also simplified the user experience. Instead of users having to choose the right settings, GPT-5 has an automatic router that determines how it should best respond – either quickly or by “thinking through” the answer more thoroughly.

ChatGPT also gets four new personalities that users can choose between: Cynic, Robot, Listener, and Nerd. These customize how the model responds without users needing to specify it in each request.

For developers, GPT-5 is launched in three sizes via OpenAI’s programming interface, with the base model priced at €1.15 per million input words and €9.20 per million generated words.

The launch comes after an intense week for OpenAI, which also released an open AI model that developers can download for free. ChatGPT has grown to become one of the world’s most popular consumer products with over 700 million users every week – nearly 10 percent of the world’s population.

OpenAI opens data center in Norway

The future of AI

Published 3 August 2025
– By Editorial Staff
In Norway, OpenAI is planning to establish one of Europe's largest AI data centers as part of the global Stargate project.
2 minute read

In Norway, OpenAI plans to establish one of Europe’s largest AI data centers as part of the global Stargate project. The facility will be built in the northern parts of the country and operated entirely on renewable energy.

Stargate was launched earlier this year as a comprehensive AI initiative with the goal of strengthening the US dominance in artificial intelligence. The project is a collaboration between American OpenAI and Oracle, along with Japanese SoftBank, with the ambition to build a global AI infrastructure at a cost of up to $500 billion over the next four years. This makes Stargate one of the largest technology investments in history.

First in Europe

On Thursday, OpenAI announced that the company plans to open a Stargate-branded data center in Norway. It will be the company’s first European facility of this kind.

The data center will be located in Kvandal, outside Narvik in northern Norway, and built in collaboration with British company Nscale and Norwegian Aker. OpenAI will function as a so-called “off-taker”, meaning the company will purchase capacity from the facility to power its AI services.

Part of the purpose of this project is to partner with OpenAI and leverage European sovereign compute to release additional services and features to the European continent, says Josh Payne, CEO of Nscale, in an interview with CNBC.

Powered by hydroelectric energy

The data center, planned to be completed in 2026, will house up to 100,000 NVIDIA GPUs and have a capacity of 230 megawatts – making it one of the largest AI facilities in Europe. The facility will be operated entirely on so-called “green energy”, made possible by the region’s access to hydroelectric power.

The first phase of the project involves an investment of approximately $2 billion. Nscale and Aker have committed to contributing $1 billion each. The initial capacity is estimated at 20 megawatts, with ambitions to expand significantly in the coming years.

Zuckerberg: Skipping AI glasses puts you at a “cognitive disadvantage”

The future of AI

Published 1 August 2025
– By Editorial Staff
"The ideal form factor for AI, because you can let an AI see what you see throughout the day, hear what you hear, and talk to you", believes the Meta CEO.
2 minute read

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg warns that people without AI glasses will find themselves at a significant mental “disadvantage” in the future. During the company’s quarterly report, he shared his vision of glasses as the primary way to interact with artificial intelligence.

On Thursday, Meta released its quarterly report. In a call directed at investors, CEO Mark Zuckerberg spoke about the company’s investment in smart glasses and warned about the consequences of staying outside this development, reports TechCrunch.

I continue to think that glasses are basically going to be the ideal form factor for AI, because you can let an AI see what you see throughout the day, hear what you hear, and talk to you, Zuckerberg said during the investor call.

By adding screens, even more value can be unlocked, he argued, whether it involves holographic fields of vision or smaller displays in everyday AI glasses.

I think in the future, if you don’t have glasses that have AI – or some way to interact with AI – I think you’re … probably going to be at a pretty significant cognitive disadvantage compared to other people, he added.

Unexpected success

Meta has focused on “smart” glasses like the Ray-Ban Meta and Oakley Meta models. The glasses allow users to listen to music, take photos and ask questions to Meta AI. The products have become a surprising success – revenue from Ray-Ban Meta glasses more than tripled compared to the previous year.

However, the Reality Labs division has been costly. Meta reported $4,53 billion in operating losses for the second quarter, and since 2020, the unit has lost nearly $70 billion.

Competition is growing. OpenAI acquired Jony Ive’s startup company this spring for $6.5 billion to develop AI devices, while other companies are exploring AI brooches and pendants.

However, Zuckerberg is convinced about the future of glasses and connects them to the Metaverse vision.

The other thing that’s awesome about glasses is they are going to be the ideal way to blend the physical and digital worlds together, he concluded.

Meta has previously been known for contributing to the increasing surveillance society and has also ignored health aspects regarding radiation from wireless technology.

Samsung and Tesla sign billion-dollar deal for AI chip manufacturing

The future of AI

Published 31 July 2025
– By Editorial Staff
Image of the construction of Samsung's large chip factory in Taylor, located in Texas, USA.
2 minute read

South Korean tech giant Samsung has entered into a comprehensive agreement with Tesla to manufacture next-generation AI chips. The contract, which extends until 2033, is worth $16.5 billion and means Samsung will dedicate its new Texas-based factory to producing Tesla’s AI6 chips.

Samsung receives a significant boost for its semiconductor manufacturing through the new partnership with Tesla. The electric vehicle manufacturer has chosen to place production of its advanced AI6 chips at Samsung’s facility in Texas, in a move that could change competitive dynamics within the semiconductor industry, writes TechCrunch.

The strategic importance of this is hard to overstate, wrote Tesla founder Elon Musk on X when the deal was announced.

The agreement represents an important milestone for Samsung, which has previously struggled to attract and retain major customers for its chip manufacturing. According to Musk, Tesla may end up spending significantly more than the original $16.5 billion on Samsung chips.

Actual output is likely to be several times higher, he explained in a later post.

Tesla’s chip strategy takes shape

The AI6 chips form the core of Tesla’s ambition to evolve from car manufacturer to an AI and robotics company. The new generation chip is designed as an all-around solution that can be used both for the company’s Full Self-Driving system and for the humanoid robots of the Optimus model that Tesla is developing, as well as for high-performance AI training in data centers.

Tesla is working in parallel with Taiwanese chip manufacturer TSMC for production of AI5 chips, whose design was recently completed. These will initially be manufactured at TSMC’s facility in Taiwan and later also in Arizona. Samsung already produces Tesla’s AI4 chips.

Since 2019, Tesla has developed its own custom chips after leaving Nvidia’s Drive platform. The first self-developed chipset, known as FSD Computer or Hardware 3, was launched the same year and installed in all of the company’s electric vehicles.

Musk promises personal involvement

In an unusual turn, Samsung has agreed to let Tesla assist in maximizing manufacturing efficiency at the Texas factory. Musk has promised personal presence to accelerate progress.

This is a critical point, as I will walk the line personally to accelerate the pace of progress. And the fab is conveniently located not far from my house, he wrote.

The strategic partnership could give Samsung the stable customer volume the company needs to compete with industry leader TSMC, while Tesla secures access to advanced chip manufacturing for its growing AI ambitions.

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