If you follow the ongoing debate over AI's growing economic impact, you may have seen the graphic below floating around this month. It comes from an Anthropic report on the labor market impacts of AI and is meant to compare the current "observed exposure" of occupations to LLMs (in red) to the "theoretical capability" of those same LLMs (in blue) across 22 job categories.

While the current "observed exposure" area is interesting in its own right, it's the blue "theoretical capability" that jumps out. At a glance, the graph implies that LLM-based systems could perform at least 80 percent of the individual "job tasks" across a shockingly wide range of human occupations, at least theoretically. It looks like Anthropic is predicting that LLMs will eventually be able to do the vast majority of jobs in broad categories ranging from "Arts & Media" and "Office & Admin" to "Legal, Business & Finance," and even "Management."

That "theoretical AI coverage" area seems like it's destined to eat a huge swath of the US job market! Credit: Anthropic

Digging into the basis for those "theoretical capability" numbers, though, provides a much less chilling image of AI's future occupational impacts. When you drill down into the specifics, that blue field represents some outdated and heavily speculative educated guesses about where AI is likely to improve human productivity and not necessarily where it will take over for humans altogether.

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As missile sirens wailed over Israel earlier this month, thousands of Israelis received texts claiming to be from their military, encouraging them to download a fake shelter app, which could have stolen reams of personal data.

Others received a mass text saying: “Netanyahu is dead. Death is approaching you and soon the gates of hell will open before you. Before the fire of Iranian missiles destroys you, leave Palestine.”

The messages, cyber security experts say, are the most visible end of a vast war being waged in the far reaches of the Internet between Iran, Israel and the US, and their online sympathisers.

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After getting a little overoptimistic about the speed and nature of electric vehicle adoption here in the US, automakers are now scaling back their production plans. The imposition of tariffs and the abolishment of federal EV incentives are mostly to blame, although the domestic OEMs' attempt to easily transition their full-size truck customers into all-electric versions has stumbled thanks to a mix of range and towing anxiety.

General Motors has been well represented in the large electric vehicle segment by Cadillac, Chevrolet, and GMC with a mix of pickup trucks and SUVs. But the plant that assembles them—Factory Zero in Hamtramck, Michigan—was idled two weeks ago. Thirteen hundred workers have been temporarily laid off until it restarts on April 13, resuming production of the Escalade IQ , Chevrolet Silverado EV, GMC Sierra EV , and the GMC Hummer EVs .

In late October last year , GM permanently laid off 1,700 workers in Michigan and Tennessee at EV and battery plants, including Factory Zero. Then, it also idled the production line for the big EVs for about a month before restarting with just a single shift. At least production will restart at all. In December Ford canceled its F-150 Lightning pickup truck, and Ram never even got a battery EV truck into production.

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Residents of Birmingham, Alabama, were abruptly informed earlier this month that their water utility had decided to stop adding fluoride to city water. Then, days later, they learned that the utility had actually stopped adding fluoride years ago.

On March 20, Central Alabama Water (CAW) made an announcement that it had discontinued water fluoridation. The announcement cited "aging equipment" and "increasing maintenance and component replacement" as justifications for the removal of fluoride, which it indicated had already occurred. But the water utility also highlighted unsubstantiated health concerns and noted that people can buy toothpaste and mouthwash that contain fluoride to protect their teeth.

Emphasizing that there are "questions about the long‑term health effects," CAW said, "ending drinking water fluoridation allows customers and their health care providers to make more individualized decisions about fluoride use."

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Although the Trump administration approved Nexstar Media Group’s $6.2 billion purchase of Tegna, a US judge has ordered the two companies to stop integrating their assets and operations. US District Judge Troy Nunley, an Obama appointee, issued a temporary restraining order on Friday prohibiting integration of the companies until further rulings by the court.

"Defendants must immediately cease all ongoing actions relating to integration and consolidation of Nexstar and Tegna," wrote Nunley, the chief judge in US District Court for the Eastern District of California.

Nunley said he agrees with plaintiff DirecTV that immediate integration of the merging firms could eliminate competition, result in newsroom layoffs and shutdowns, and make it more difficult to divest Tegna stations if the court ends up requiring a divestiture after reviewing the merger. DirecTV has established that "the Nexstar-TEGNA merger will substantially lessen competition in markets in which it participates," and that there would be irreparable harm if a restraining order isn't issued, Nunley wrote.

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Looks like Meta is hoping the recent Supreme Court ruling that found Internet service providers aren't liable for piracy on their networks will help the social media giant dodge liability claims over its torrenting of AI training data .

Last week, Meta filed a statement in a lawsuit that alleged that Meta should be liable under copyright law for contributory infringement simply because the company knows how torrenting works. By seeding perhaps 80 terabytes of pirated works, the company allegedly knew it was inducing infringement by allowing uploads to help speed up its downloads, the plaintiffs, Entrepreneur Media, argued.

This contributory infringement claim is much easier to prove than a separate claim raised in a class action filed by book authors in Kadrey v. Meta , which alleged that Meta's torrenting meant it was liable for a "distribution" claim of direct copyright infringement. TorrentFreak noted that the authors' claim required evidence that Meta torrented an entire work, whereas the contributory infringement claim only depends on proving that Meta facilitated torrent transfers.

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Following this past weekend's Japanese Grand Prix, Formula 1 goes into a five-week hiatus now that war in the Gulf has made it impossible to hold races in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. The unplanned break is probably welcomed up and down the paddock as teams, drivers, and officials try to get their heads around this new generation of F1 car and the radical new demands it places on them all. Those new challenges were on full display at Suzuka.

On the plus side, the race itself was quite exciting. That's something you could not have said in 2025, a snoozefest with cars driving in procession and few opportunities to overtake. A hefty reduction in aerodynamic downforce for 2026 means that cars can follow each other more closely. But after this visit to one of motorsport's most-loved, most challenging circuits, it's very hard to avoid the conclusion that F1 has painted itself into a corner with its new hybrid systems. The sport itself recognizes this; on April 9, it will hold crisis talks to try to find a solution.

You don't have the energy

The problem, as we have been warned for some time, is the new hybrid power trains, which combine a 1.6 L V6 that generates 400 kW (536 hp) with a 350 kW (469 hp) electric motor. Getting to a near 50:50 split between internal combustion and electric power was key to attracting new auto manufacturers to the sport, and Audi, Ford, Cadillac, and Honda were all enticed by the 2026 rules. The electric motor is fed by a 1.1 kWh (4 MJ) battery pack, but depending on the track, cars are allowed to deploy 8–9 MJ from the electric side, which means recovering that energy while out on track.

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Last year, just before the Fourth of July holiday, the US Space Force officially took ownership of a new operating system for the GPS navigation network, raising hopes that one of the military's most troubled space programs might finally bear fruit.

The GPS Next-Generation Operational Control System, or OCX, is designed for command and control of the military's constellation of more than 30 GPS satellites. It consists of software to handle new signals and jam-resistant capabilities of the latest generation of GPS satellites, GPS III, which started launching in 2018. The ground segment also includes two master control stations and upgrades to ground monitoring stations around the world, among other hardware elements.

RTX Corporation, formerly known as Raytheon, won a Pentagon contract in 2010 to develop and deliver the control system. The program was supposed to be complete in 2016 at a cost of $3.7 billion. Today, the official cost for the ground system for the GPS III satellites stands at $7.6 billion. RTX is developing an OCX augmentation projected to cost more than $400 million to support a new series of GPS IIIF satellites set to begin launching next year, bringing the total effort to $8 billion.

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The Trump administration is turning to the nuclear option on endangered-species protections in the name of national security.

A rarely tapped panel nicknamed the “God Squad” will meet Tuesday to discuss whether overriding Endangered Species Act regulations for all federally regulated fossil fuel operations in the Gulf of Mexico is more important than preventing the extinction of several imperiled species. That includes sea turtles and a whale species down to its last 51 individuals.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum announced the upcoming Endangered Species Committee meeting last week, with no details on specific projects in the Gulf or the basis for what would constitute an extraordinary action. Only twice in the panel’s nearly half-century has it ever lifted restrictions.

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