Good morning,

AI is scaling, fragmenting, and getting political. From Musk’s interplanetary plans to Gemini security scares and healthcare funding surges, the race is widening across space, safety, and enterprise infrastructure.

Let’s dive in 👇

🚀 Space, Scale & Infrastructure

🌌 xAI maps out interplanetary ambitions

In a public all-hands meeting xAI executives outlined plans that extend beyond chatbots and into supporting humanity as a multi-planetary species. The company framed its models as long-term infrastructure for scientific discovery, space exploration, and large-scale reasoning systems. It is positioning itself less as a consumer AI lab and more as foundational intelligence for ambitious frontier projects.

💰 Modal Labs eyes $2.5B valuation

AI inference startup Modal Labs is reportedly in talks to raise at a $2.5 billion valuation, signaling continued investor appetite for AI infrastructure plays. As model training commoditizes, inference optimization is becoming the new battleground. Companies that can reduce latency and cost while scaling workloads are attracting premium multiples.

🏥 Clinician-led health AI raises $40M

Clinician-led health AI startup Anterior secured $40 million from NEA and Sequoia to streamline prior authorizations and administrative workflows. The company emphasizes medical expertise in product development, aiming to reduce friction between providers and insurers. Healthcare AI remains one of the clearest enterprise use cases with measurable ROI.

⚠️ Safety, Delays & Political Moves

🤖 Google Gemini hit with mass prompt cloning attempt

Google Gemini was targeted in a large-scale effort involving over 100,000 prompts designed to replicate model behavior. The incident highlights how competitive intelligence and model extraction tactics are escalating. Security around prompts and outputs is becoming as critical as protecting model weights.

🍎 Apple’s Siri revamp delayed again

Apple’s long-awaited Siri overhaul has reportedly been pushed back once more, underscoring the difficulty of retrofitting legacy assistants with modern LLM capabilities. While rivals move quickly with generative integrations, Apple appears to be taking a more cautious rollout path. The delay increases pressure as AI becomes central to mobile ecosystems.

📰 AI’s political footprint grows

Lawmakers are scrutinizing AI influence as debates intensify over governance, misinformation, and corporate lobbying in the sector. As AI firms grow in power and funding, regulatory conversations are expanding beyond safety into political alignment and transparency. The policy layer is now inseparable from technical progress.

🛠️ Tools of the Day

→ Gro – AI tool designed to structure and accelerate product development workflows
→ EditWithAva – AI editing assistant for refining long-form content
→ DatoCMS – API-first headless CMS built for composable digital experiences

⚡ Quick Hits

→ Anthropic super PAC sparks debate over AI lobbying
→ AI startup raises $100M for behavior prediction tools
→ OpenAI disbands mission alignment team internally
→ Uber Eats launches grocery AI assistant
→ AI companions diverge culturally in US and China

🧠 TLDR

AI is expanding across extremes, from interplanetary ambitions to enterprise healthcare automation. Infrastructure startups continue raising at strong valuations, while security and governance risks escalate in parallel. Consumer assistants face execution challenges, and political influence is becoming part of the competitive landscape. The race is no longer just about models, it is about power, scale, and control.

Cheers,
David