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The AI Hype Index: AI goes to war

MIT Technology Review’s highly subjective take on the latest buzz about AI

Person slurping spaghetti with a pigeon on his shoulder. Will Smith looks from behind, mouth pursed to ooh at his technique while more pigeons and a polar bear chill out on an ice floe.
Stephanie Arnett/MIT Technology Review | Getty Images (Smith), Adobe Stock
March 25, 2026

AI is at war. Anthropic and the Pentagon feuded over how to weaponize Anthropic’s AI model Claude; then OpenAI swept the Pentagon off its feet with an “opportunistic and sloppy” deal. Users quit ChatGPT in droves. People marched through London in the biggest protest against AI to date. If you’re keeping score, Anthropic—the company founded to be ethical—is now turbocharging US strikes on Iran. 

On the lighter side, AI agents are now going viral online. OpenAI hired the creator of OpenClaw, a popular AI agent. Meta snapped up Moltbook, where AI agents seem to ponder their own existence and invent new religions like Crustafarianism. And on RentAHuman, bots are hiring people to deliver CBD gummies. The future isn’t AI taking your job. It’s AI becoming your boss and finding God.

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