The US president told CNBC on Tuesday that Anthropic is ‘shaping up’ following a White House meeting last Friday at which the company’s CEO Dario Amodei discussed its Mythos AI model with Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

The Pentagon’s blacklisting of Anthropic remains in legal limbo, with a federal appeals court and a San Francisco district court having reached conflicting conclusions.

President Donald Trump told CNBC’s Squawk Box on Tuesday that a deal allowing Anthropic’s AI models to be used within the Department of Defense is “possible,” describing the company as “shaping up.”

“They came to the White House a few days ago, and we had some very good talks with them, and I think they’re shaping up,” Trump said.

“They’re very smart, and I think they can be of great use.” The comments mark a striking rhetorical reversal from a president who, in late February, posted on Truth Social ordering all federal agencies to “IMMEDIATELY CEASE all use of Anthropic’s technology” and declared that his administration would “not do business with them again.”

Trump’s remarks follow a White House meeting on Friday 18 April at which Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei met Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to discuss the company’s new Mythos model, a frontier AI system Anthropic has described as highly capable at cybersecurity tasks and has so far made available only to a small group of organisations.

The White House described the conversation as “productive and constructive.” Anthropic said Amodei had a “productive discussion” with administration officials about how the company and the US government can “work together on key shared priorities such as cybersecurity, America’s lead in the AI race, and AI safety.”

When reporters asked Trump about the meeting on a runway in Phoenix, he responded “Who?” and said he had “no idea” Amodei had been there.

The meeting took place against the backdrop of a dispute that has few precedents in the relationship between Washington and the technology industry.

In July 2025, Anthropic signed a $200 million contract with the Pentagon, becoming the first AI lab to have its models approved for use on the DOD’s classified networks.

But as negotiations over Claude’s deployment on the department’s GenAI.mil platform began in September, talks broke down. The Pentagon demanded that Anthropic grant unfettered access to its models for all lawful purposes.

Anthropic drew two firm lines: its AI would not be used in fully autonomous weapons systems that select targets without human intervention, and it would not be used for domestic mass surveillance of Americans.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth responded by designating Anthropic a “supply chain risk to national security” in late February 2026, a label previously reserved for companies associated with foreign adversaries.

The formal designation, confirmed to Anthropic’s leadership on 5 March, required defense contractors to certify they were not using Anthropic’s models in work with the military. Trump amplified the measure with his Truth Social directive.

The designation was, as Anthropic argued in subsequent litigation, unprecedented: as US District Judge Rita Lin noted in a stinging 43-page ruling that granted Anthropic a preliminary injunction in late March, it appeared to be directed not at a genuine national security threat but at punishing the company for “bringing public scrutiny to the government’s contracting position”, “classic illegal First Amendment retaliation,” she wrote.

The legal situation remains split. A federal appeals court in Washington DC denied Anthropic’s request to temporarily block the supply chain risk designation on 8 April. Judge Lin’s preliminary injunction in San Francisco, from a separate but related case, bars enforcement of Trump’s Truth Social ban on Claude across the rest of the government.

The practical effect is that Anthropic is excluded from Pentagon contracts but can continue working with other government agencies while both cases proceed. The DOD has continued to use Claude during the US-Iran war, which began before the blacklisting took effect.

What appears to have shifted the White House’s posture is Mythos. Parts of the intelligence community and CISA, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, have been testing the model.

The White HouseOffice of Management and Budget is setting up protocols to allow federal agencies to access a controlled version.

Treasury Secretary Bessent’s presence at Friday’s meeting was read by sources close to the negotiations as a signal that the economic and financial security arguments for Mythos access had reached the most senior levels of the administration.

As one administration source told Axios: “It would be grossly irresponsible for the US government to deprive itself of the technological leaps that the new model presents. It would be a gift to China.”

Whether any resumption of the Anthropic–Pentagon relationship is possible remains uncertain. Trump’s Tuesday comments refer to talks that have been promising but did not produce a deal.

The appeals court ruling on the supply chain risk designation still stands. Hegseth has not withdrawn his position. Anthropic, meanwhile, has engaged Ballard Partners, the lobbying firm where Wiles previously worked, for advocacy around Department of War procurement, a move that signals it understands the political dynamics as well as the legal ones.

The company’s annualised revenue has reached $30 billion and it is considering an IPO; the supply-chain risk designation damages enterprise credibility even where it does not block commercial deals.

Investors are aggressively courting AI researchers to build startups that can make AI more reliable and efficient.

Yu Su, an Ohio State professor leading an AI agent lab, said he initially resisted the pressure from VCs to commercialize his work. He finally took the leap last year and spun out his work into a startup when he saw that foundational model advances could make agents truly personalized.

NeoCognition, a startup Su describes as a research lab developing self-learning AI agents, has just emerged from stealth with $40 million in seed funding. The round was co-led by Cambium Capital and Walden Catalyst Ventures, with participation from Vista Equity Partners and angels, including Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan and Databricks co-founder Ion Stoica.

“Today’s agents are generalists,” Su (pictured right) told TechCrunch. “Every time you ask them to do a task, you take a leap of faith.”

According to Su, the issue lies in a lack of consistency. Current agents, whether from Claude Code, OpenClaw or Perplexity’s computer tools, successfully complete tasks as intended only about 50% of the time, he said.

Since agents are still so unreliable, they are not ready to be trusted, independent workers, Su told TechCrunch. NeoCognition intends to change that by developing an agent system that can self-learn to become an expert in any domain, similar to how humans learn.

Su argues that while human intelligence is broad, its real power is our ability to specialize. When we enter a new environment or profession, we can rapidly master its unique rules, relationships, and consequences.

NeoCognition is building agents to mirror this exact approach.

“For humans, our continued learning process is essentially the process of building a world model for any profession, any environment,” Su said. “We believe for agents to become experts, they need to learn autonomously to build a model of any given micro world.”

Su views this capacity for rapid specialization as the critical missing link to getting AI to work reliably on its own.

While it is possible to train agents for autonomous tasks, they must be custom-engineered for a specific vertical. NeoCognition is different because it’s building agents that are generalists capable of self-learning and specializing in any domain.

NeoCognition intends to sell its agent systems primarily to enterprises, including established SaaS companies, which can use them to build agent-workers or to enhance existing product offerings.

Su highlighted that an investment from Vista Equity Partners is especially valuable for this reason. As one of the largest private equity firms in the software space, Vista can provide NeoCognition with direct access to a vast portfolio of companies looking to modernize their products with AI.

NeoCognition currently has about 15 employees, the majority of whom hold PhDs.

In a headphone market split between legacy brands that barely change and boutique players that release new models at a relentless pace, it’s easy to overlook the ones playing a longer, quieter game. Shure has built a reputation on consistency. Campfire Audio operates at the other extreme. Most brands fall somewhere in between.

That leaves a gap, and that’s where Audio-Technica operates. The Tokyo-based manufacturer doesn’t chase headlines or flood the market, but it brings decades of experience across both professional and consumer audio. At AXPONA 2026, that approach stands out. For newer enthusiasts, it’s a reminder that some of the most established names in personal audio are not always the loudest.

Why the Japanese Audio Brand Still Matters

Founded in Tokyo by Hideo Matsushita, Audio-Technica set out to make high quality audio accessible to a wider audience. The company began with phono cartridges in 1962 and expanded steadily into headphones, microphones, turntables, and wireless systems for broadcast and live sound. That pro side of the business still matters, even if it doesn’t always get the attention.

Today, Audio-Technica is one of the largest audio companies in Japan. Outside of cartridges, though, it can still fly under the radar for a lot of listeners. At the show, that low profile was hard to miss. Instead of setting up in the Ear Gear section where the headphone crowd tends to gather, the brand took a series of smaller rooms off the main path. Easy to walk past if you weren’t looking for them.

That’s a shame, because the setup was one of the more complete at the show. Visitors could move from cartridge demos to a full spread of headphones, covering everything from entry-level models to the flagship end of the spectrum, including the $108,000 NARUKAMI HPA-KG NARU Tube Headphone Amplifier and its matching headphones.

Audio-Technica offers a headphone lineup that can stand alongside Sony, Beyerdynamic, and Sennheiser, with models that cover a wide range of prices and use cases. That includes everything from entry level wired designs to high-end open and closed back headphones, along with more niche offerings like wireless in-ear models tied to Star Wars characters. It is a broad catalog, but it rarely gets presented as aggressively as its competitors.

At AXPONA 2026, that range was on full display. I spent time with the flagship ATH-ADX7000 ($3,499 at Crutchfield), along with several of the step down open back models, and moved over to the closed back side with the Narukami system and the ATH-AWKG ($4,499 at Amazon), plus a few sub-flagship options.

The ADX7000 was not new territory. We have already reviewed it favorably, and both Editor-in-Chief Ian White and Editor-at-Large Chris Boylan placed it among their top three headphones from CanJam NYC 2026. That context matters because it frames the rest of the lineup. The flagship is not just competitive. It sets the tone for everything below it.

The house tuning of Audio-Technica headphones leans a bit brighter than what you typically get from Beyerdynamic or Sennheiser, with a noticeable lift in the presence region. Vocals come forward, strings have a bit more bite, and that works especially well with string quartets, concertos, vocal tracks, or a cappella arrangements. It’s not trying to sound polite. It’s trying to keep things engaging.

The upside is consistency. That same tuning shows up from the top of the line down to the entry level models. As you move up, you get more resolution, better control, and a cleaner presentation, but the core voicing doesn’t shift. The idea that Hideo Matsushita started with is still intact. You’re not relearning the sound every time you move up the ladder.

For those who haven’t spent time with the brand, the ATH-AD500X (open-back) and ATH-A550Z (closed-back) are easy entry points at around $150. They won’t match the technical performance of the flagships, but they give you a clear sense of what Audio-Technica is aiming for without asking for a major commitment.

I was also able to speak with a representative from Audio-Technica about reviewing the newly released X-series models, which push the price of their open-back headphones down to as little as $59. That’s a meaningful shift for a brand that has traditionally started higher up the ladder. It opens the door for a lot more people to hear what that house sound is about without much risk.

I’m looking forward to spending time with those. The Audio-Technica models I already have get a lot of use with classical and jazz, and they offer a different perspective compared to the darker tuning you get from some of the established German brands. It’s not better or worse. Just a different take that a lot of listeners might find more engaging. The plan is to start with the X-series and work up the line so readers can see how that tuning evolves as the price climbs.

At the other end of the spectrum sits the NARUKAMI HPA-KG NARU Tube Headphone Amplifier and matching headphones. Only two units are currently in North America, which raises an obvious question. Were the other 23 already sold? At $108,000, in under two years, that would be quite a statement. Audio-Technica spent a decade developing that system and went through 11 prototypes before bringing it to market. It’s hard to justify on paper, but that’s not really the point. The design, build quality, and sonic performance are about as far as this category can be pushed right now.

And in the context of AXPONA 2026, it almost felt reasonable. There were plenty of speaker systems in the building that cost a lot more. Getting more time with it would require another trip to the show. I’m not expecting a loaner to show up anytime soon, but there’s no harm in asking.

Related Reading:

• Most AI GPUs run at shockingly low utilization across production systems
• Companies are paying for twenty times more GPU capacity than needed
• Overprovisioning is rising sharply instead of improving year after year

Companies across the tech industry are racing to buy massive amounts of AI infrastructure, but most of it does barely any useful work at all.

A report from Cast AI, based on tens of thousands of Kubernetes clusters across AWS, Azure, and GCP, found that average GPU utilization sits at just 5%.

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has given government agencies four days to secure their systems against another Catalyst SD-WAN Manager vulnerability it flagged as actively exploited in attacks.

Catalyst SD-WAN Manager (formerly known as vManage) is a network management software that helps admins monitor and manage up to 6,000 Catalyst SD-WAN devices from a single dashboard.

Cisco patched this information disclosure vulnerability (CVE-2026-20133) in late February, saying that it allows unauthenticated remote attackers to access sensitive information on unpatched devices.

“This vulnerability is due to insufficient file system access restrictions. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by accessing the API of an affected system,” Cisco said at the time. “A successful exploit could allow the attacker to read sensitive information on the underlying operating system.”

One week later, the company revealed that two other security flaws it had patched the same day (CVE-2026-20128 and CVE-2026-20122)were being exploited in the wild.

Federal agencies ordered to patch until Friday

On Monday, CISA added CVE-2026-20133 to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) Catalog, “based on evidence of active exploitation,” and ordered Federal Civilian Executive Branch (FCEB) agencies to secure their networks until Friday, April 24.

“Please adhere to CISA’s guidelines to assess exposure and mitigate risks associated with Cisco SD-WAN devices as outlined in CISA’s Emergency Directive 26-03 and CISA’s Hunt & Hardening Guidance for Cisco SD-WAN Devices,” CISA said. “Adhere to the applicable BOD 22-01 guidance for cloud services or discontinue use of the product if mitigations are not available.”

Cisco has yet to confirm the U.S. cybersecurity agency’s report that the flaw is being exploited in attacks, with its security advisory still saying that its Product Security Incident Response Team (PSIRT) is “not aware of any public announcements or malicious use of the vulnerabilities that are described in CVE-2026-20133.”

In February, Cisco also tagged a critical authentication bypass vulnerability (CVE-2026-20127) as exploited in zero-day attacks that were enabling threat actors to add malicious rogue peers to targeted networks since at least 2023.

More recently, in early March, the company released security updates to address two maximum-severity vulnerabilities in its Secure Firewall Management Center (FMC) software that can allow attackers to gain root access to the underlying operating system and execute arbitrary Java code with root privileges.

Over the last several years, CISA has tagged 91 Cisco vulnerabilities as exploited in the wild, six of which have been used by various ransomware operations.

AI chained four zero-days into one exploit that bypassed both renderer and OS sandboxes. A wave of new exploits is coming.

At the Autonomous Validation Summit (May 12 & 14), see how autonomous, context-rich validation finds what’s exploitable, proves controls hold, and closes the remediation loop.

Claim Your Spot

If desk space is tight but you still want solid performance for everyday work, a mini PC can be a great solution. I’ve found a terrific deal on the Geekom A6, now down to $549 (was $649) at Amazon.

Trimming a healthy amount off the asking price, that $100 discount brings it down to the same price as on the Geekom website but there it comes with a free $69 case.

In our tests, Geekom mini PCs have proved very strong, and in our rave review we found the A6 “packs in an impressive amount of power” and noted, “when it comes to performance it really is a cut above many other mini PCs of this size.” We also praised the “quality of the build and the style of the design which make it one of the best-looking mini PCs out there.”

In fact, our biggest issue was the original price, and this saving solves that.

Today’s top Geekom mini PC deal

Inside the compact aluminum chassis you get an AMD Ryzen 7 6800H processor paired with Radeon 680M graphics.

That delivers the kind of performance creatives and professionals need for editing photos, working with large documents, running multiple apps, or handling everyday production tasks.

For more top picks like this, these are the best mini PCs we’ve tested and reviewed.

Ofcom, the United Kingdom’s independent communications regulator, has launched an investigation into Telegram based on evidence suggesting it’s being used to share child sexual abuse material (CSAM).

The investigation was launched under the UK’s Online Safety Act to examine whether the social media and instant messaging (IM) service is complying with its illegal content safety duties, which require it to prevent CSAM from being shared.

Ofcom says it received evidence regarding the alleged presence and sharing of CSAM on Telegram from the Canadian Centre for Child Protection, and that it had also conducted its own assessment of the platform.

“In light of this, we have decided to open an investigation to examine whether Telegram has failed, or is failing, to comply with its duties in relation to illegal content,” Ofcom said.

However, Telegram denied Offcom’s accusations, saying that it “virtually eliminated the public spread of CSAM” on its platform since 2018.

“We are surprised by this investigation and concerned that it may be part of a broader attack on online platforms that defend freedom of speech and the right to privacy,” Telegram said.

Ofcom has also launched formal investigations into two teen chat sites (Teen Chat and Chat Avenue) over concerns that predators are using them to groom children and to check if the two services are taking all required steps to assess and mitigate these risks.

The UK’s independent online safety watchdog is also probing X under the UK’s Online Safety Act over nonconsensual sexually explicit content generated using the Grok AI chatbot account.

If it identifies compliance failures, Ofcom can impose fines of up to £18 million or 10% of qualifying worldwide revenue (whichever is greater). Additionally, in serious cases of non-compliance, it can request a court order effectively banning the offending platform in the United Kingdom.

“In the most serious cases of non-compliance, and where appropriate given risks of harm to individuals in the UK, we can seek a court order to require third parties to take action to disrupt the business of the provider,” Ofcom noted.

“This may require third parties (such as providers of payment or advertising services, or Internet Service Providers) to withdraw services from, or block access to, a regulated service in the UK.”

AI chained four zero-days into one exploit that bypassed both renderer and OS sandboxes. A wave of new exploits is coming.

At the Autonomous Validation Summit (May 12 & 14), see how autonomous, context-rich validation finds what’s exploitable, proves controls hold, and closes the remediation loop.

Claim Your Spot