The Week Of Apple Updates (Corrected)

0:00This episode is brought to you by Focus Features. On March 27th, Focus Features invite you to be a part of the most explosive movie of this year's Sundance and South by Southwest Film Festival. The AI doc or how I became an apocalypticist is being called supremely entertaining and the most urgent movie of our time. The AI doc or how I became an apocalypticist rated PG-13 only in theaters March 27th. Welcome to the tech we write home for Monday March 2nd, 2026. I'm Brian McCulloch today. Apparently it's going to be a week of Apple updates and it kicks off with the iPhone 17 E and an M4 iPad Air. A WS service is struggling in the Middle East. An important ruling in terms of AI copyright, Anthropic makes it easy to switch to Claude. And what exactly went on with that whole Pentagon Anthropic dispute? Here's what you miss today in the world of tech.

1:01Apple this morning unveiled the iPhone 17 E offering a 6.1 inch display, a 3 nanometer 819 chip, a C1 X modem, a 48 megapixel fusion camera, and more for starting at $599 and shipping from March 11th. Going to the verge. Apple has taken the wraps off the iPhone 17 E its latest entry-level smartphone. The iPhone 17 E starts at $599 with a higher 256 gigabytes of storage and is available in black, white, and pink. The company revealed the new device as part of a series of announcements that kicked off this week. Similar to the iPhone 16 E, the iPhone 17 E comes with a 6.1 inch display but with a tougher ceramic shield too. For better scratch resistance and reduce glare, it also offers more storage for the same starting price as its predecessor which costs $599 for 128 gigabytes when it launched last year. The iPhone 17 E adds an upgraded A19 processor and mag safe charging with Qi 2 support allowing for wireless charging at up to 15 watts.

2:08It also has a C1 X chip, the next gen version of Apple's in-house modem which the company says is twice as fast. The iPhone 17 E offers a 48 megapixel fusion camera as well enabling an optical quality 2 X telephoto. There's support for Apple's advanced portraits feature which automatically recognizes people dogs and cats and saves depth information giving you the ability to add background blur after capture. The iPhone 17 E will be available to pre-order on March 4th with availability starting March 11th along with the 256 gigabyte model priced at $599. Apple is also selling a 512 gigabyte option for $799. But wait because there's more quoting TechCrunch Apple on Monday also unveiled a new iPad Air that's powered by the M4 chip. The company says the device is designed to be faster thanks to an updated neural engine and more memory making it better for AI uses. This Air is said to be 30% faster than the M3 iPad Air and 2.3 times faster than the M1 version. However, the new device still retails for the same price of $599 for the 11 inch model and $799 for the 13 inch model.

3:15The iPad Air now has an 8 core CPU and a 9 core GPU which makes it a decent choice for gaming or image and photo editing. Meanwhile, the device's unified memory has increased by 50% to 12 gigabytes and the memory bandwidth is now up to 120 gigabytes per second which Apple says will help users run AI models faster than on older devices. The 16 core neural engine is also supposed to be three times faster than the one in the M1 which helps with running on device AI models. The devices are still the same sizes before. We get a front 12 megapixel center stage camera and a 12 megapixel wide camera on the back as always you can use Apple accessories with the device like the Magic Keyboard, Apple Pencil or Apple Pencil Pro. The updated iPad Air will be available for pre-order on Wednesday, March 4th, 4 finishes are available blue, purple, starlight and space gray. Storage options are 128 gigabytes, 256 gigabytes, 512 and 1 terabyte end quote. AWS says its facilities in the Middle East are facing power and connectivity issues after unidentified objects struck its data center in the UAE quoting Raiders. The United Arab Emirates is reeling from Iran's retaliatory missile and drone strikes following US and Israeli attacks on Iran.

4:35The Iranian strikes hit airports, ports and residential areas across the country and the wider Gulf. When Raiders asked AWS whether the incident at the data center was connected to the strikes the company did not confirm or deny. AWS said at around 4.30 a.m. PST one of our availability zones was impacted by objects that struck the data center creating sparks and fire. According to the company's website an availability zone is made up of one or more connected physical data centers. These zones are separate isolated locations within each AWS region. The fire department cut power to the facility while crews work to extinguish the fire. AWS said it will take several hours to restore connectivity in the affected zone. The data center operator said adding that other zones in the UAE are operating normally end quote. The Supreme Court of the United States declined to hear a dispute over copyrights for AI generated material in a case where a computer scientist was denied a copyright for AI generated art.

5:39According Reuters, plaintiff Stephen Thaler had appealed to the justices after lower courts upheld a US copyright office decision that the AI crafted visual art at issue in the case was ineligible for copyright protection because it did not have a human creator. Thaler of St. Charles Missouri applied for a federal copyright registration in 2018 covering a recent entrance to paradise a visual art he said his AI technology Dabbas created the image shows train tracks entering a portal surrounded by what appears to be green and purple plant imagery. The copyright office rejected his application in 2022 finding that creative works must have human authors to be eligible to receive a copyright. US President Donald Trump's administration had urged the Supreme Court not to hear Thaler's appeal. The copyright office has separately rejected bids for artists for copyright on images generated by the AI system mid-journey. Those artists argued that they were entitled to copyrights for images they created with AI assistants unlike Thaler who said his system created a recent entrance to paradise.

6:39A federal judge in Washington upheld the office's decision in Thaler's case in 2023 writing that human authorship is a bedrock requirement of copyright the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit affirmed the ruling in 2025. Thaler's lawyers told the Supreme Court in a filing that his case was of paramount importance considering the rapid rise of generative AI with a refusal by the Court to hear the appeal Thaler's lawyers said even if it later overturns the copyright office's test in another case it will be too late. The copyright office will have irreversibly and negatively impacted AI development and use in the creative industry during critically important years. Although the copyright act does not define the term author multiple provisions of the act make clear that the term refers to a human rather than a machine the administration said. The Supreme Court previously rejected Thaler's request to hear his argument in a separate case involving prototypes for a beverage holder and a light beacon concerning whether AI generated inventions should be eligible for US patent protection as well. His patent applications were rejected by the US patent and trademark office on similar grounds.

7:43And Therapick has launched a tool to bring a user's preferences and context from other AI platforms to Claude with one copy paste command available on all paid plans. Again, it's so weird how the AI wars so often mirror the browser wars of the 1990s. This is like being able to import your favorites and your bookmarks from one browser to another kind of quoting in gadget. And Therapick has made switching to its Claude AI chatbot easier than ever the company announced a new memory import tool that can extract all of the competing AI chatbots memories and context of you into a text prompt that can be fed into Claude with Anthropics prompt you can then copy and paste the output into Claude's memories and the AI chatbot will pick up where you left off with another AI chatbot whether it's Chatchy BT Gemini or co-pilot. And Therapick said it'll take about 24 hours for Claude to assimilate the new context, but you'll be able to see the change by clicking on the see what Claude learned about you button.

8:48Claude users can even tweak what the AI chatbot remembers in the manage memory section in the apps settings. Anthropic pointed out that Claude is meant to focus on work related topics to enhance its effectiveness as a collaborator adding that it might not remember personal details that are unrelated to work. Anthropics timing doesn't seem to be just a coincidence Claude recently jumped to the number one spot in the app stores free apps chart. Dethroning chat GPT in the process the rise in popularity likely stems from its recent dispute with the defense department where Anthropic refused to budge on AI guardrails related to mass domestic surveillance and fully autonomous weapons. On the other hand, open AI will be taking Anthropics vacated role with the department of defense leading to a trend of users boycotting chat GPT and canceling their subscriptions and quote. Yes, more on that in one second.

9:55Cap table management who needs it? Well, you probably do, but that doesn't mean it should drain your time or derail your budget. Pulley knows there's a better way that's why they help take the complexity and surprises out of equity management. Pulley's intuitive workflows built in compliance tools and decision ready reporting are designed to work for you not against you. Pulley helps you issue track and manage equity stay compliant with up to date 409a valuations complete stock based compensation reporting and more. Learn more and get started at pulley dot com slash brew that's pulley dot com slash brew.

10:56This episode is brought to you by white cloth surge. Nice choice hitting up this podcast. No surprises. You're all about diving and it tastes everyone in the room can enjoy just like white cloth surge. It's for celebrating those moments when connections have been made and the nights just begun with bold flavors and 8% alcohol by volume unleashed the night. Unleashed white cloth surge please drink responsibly hard shelter with flavors 8% alcohol by volume white cloth shelter works Chicago Illinois. It's not just something you made it's the privilege that you get to work with your hands. It's building something that serves a purpose proof that you have the grit to keep going at template. We understand you take your craft seriously and we do too which is why our products are built to the highest quality. We put in the work so you can perfect yours with purpose in every detail and crafted with intention. Simplened built on craft visit symbol in dot com to shop. Okay, yeah, so a lot of stuff has come out about that whole anthropic dispute with the Pentagon and traffic is out in terms of being a vendor for the Pentagon and open AI is in more on that in a second.

12:09But according to the Atlantic the talks with anthropic failed because apparently all the way through to the end of the talks the Pentagon wanted to use anthropics AI to analyze bulk data collected about Americans. According to a source familiar with the negotiations on Friday morning anthropic received word that secretary defense Pete exists team would make a major concession the Pentagon had kept trying to leave itself little escape hatches in the agreements that it proposed to anthropic. It would pledge not to use anthropics AI for mass domestic surveillance or for fully autonomous killing machines but then qualify those pledges with loop holy phrases like as appropriate. Suggesting that the terms were subject to change based on the administration's interpretation of a given situation. Anthropics team was relieved to hear that the government would be willing to remove those words but one big problem remained on Friday afternoon and topic learned that the Pentagon still wanted to use the company's AI to analyze bulk data collected from Americans. That would include information such as the questions you ask your favorite chatbot your Google search history your GPS tracked movements and your credit card transactions all of which could be cross referenced with other details about your life.

13:19Anthropics leadership told Hegseth's team that that was a bridge too far and the deal fell apart soon after Hegseth directed the US military's contractors suppliers and partners to stop doing business with anthropic. The list of companies that contract with the military is extensive and includes Amazon. The company that supplies much of anthropics computing infrastructure. My source to I am granting anonymity because they are not authorized to talk about the negotiations also shed further light on the disagreement between anthropic and the Pentagon over autonomous weapons machines that can select and engage targets without a human making the final call. The US military has been developing these systems for years and has budgeted $13.4 billion for them in fiscal year 2026 alone. They run the gamut from individual drones to whole swarms that can be used in the air and at sea. According to my source at one point during the negotiation it was suggested that this impasse over autonomous weapons could be resolved at the Pentagon with simply promise to keep the company's AI in the cloud and out of the weapons themselves.

14:19The argument was that the models could be kept outside so-called edge systems be they drones or other kinds of autonomous weapons. They might synthesize intelligence before an operation but they wouldn't actually be making kill decisions. The AI's hands would be clean of any deadly errors that the drones made. But anthropic wasn't satisfied by the solution. The company reason that in modern military AI architectures the distinction between the cloud and the edge is no longer all that defined. It's less a wall and more of a gradient. Drones on the battlefield can now be orchestrated through mesh networks that include cloud data centers and although they're designed to survive on their own the military's impulse will always be to maintain as much connectivity between them and the most powerful models in the cloud. The better the connection the more intelligent the machine and quote. So as I said after all of that back and forth anthropic dropped out is out an open AI jumped into the breach on terms with the Pentagon that are not entirely clear at the moment. On Friday evening amidst fallout from a standoff between the Department of Defense and anthropic open AI CEO Sam Altman announced that his own company had successfully negotiated new terms with the Pentagon.

15:27The US government had just moved to blacklist anthropic for standing firm on two red lines for military use no mass surveillance of Americans and no lethal autonomous weapons or AI systems with the power to kill targets without human oversight. Altman however implied that he'd found a unique way to keep those same limits in open AI's contract. Two of our most important safety principles are prohibitions on domestic mass surveillance and human responsibility for the use of force including for autonomous weapon systems. Altman wrote. The Department of War agrees with these principles reflects them in law and policy and we put them into our agreement he added using the Trump administration's preferred name for the Department of Defense, the Department of War. Across social media and the AI industry people immediately began to challenge Altman's claim why they asked with the Pentagon suddenly agreed to those red lines when it had said in no uncertain terms they would never do so. The answer sources told the Verge is that the Pentagon didn't budge open AI agreed to follow laws that have allowed for mass surveillance in the past while insisting they still protect its red lines.

16:29One source familiar with the Pentagon's negotiations with AI companies confirmed that open AI's deal is much softer than the one anthropic was pushing for thanks largely to three words any lawful use. In negotiations the person said the Pentagon wouldn't back down on its desire to collect and analyze bulk data on Americans. If you look line by line at the open AI terms the source said every aspect of it boils down to if it's technically legal then the US military can use open AI's technology to carry it out. And over the past decades the US government has stretched the definition of technically legal to cover sweeping mass surveillance programs and more. In a statement to the Verge open AI spokesperson Kate Waters said the Pentagon had not asked for mass surveillance powers and denied that the government allowed for the crossing of certain lines. The system cannot be used to collect or analyze Americans data in a bulk open ended or generalized way water said. AI systems could help the military or other departments conduct widespread surveillance operations with unprecedented levels of detail. AI's best talent is finding patterns and human behavior is nothing if not a set of patterns.

17:30Imagine an AI system layering for any one individual geolocation data web browsing information personal financial data CCTV footage voter registration records and more. Some publicly available some purchase from data brokers using these systems for mass domestic surveillance is incompatible with democratic values. Dario Amadai CEO of Anthropic wrote in a statement powerful AI makes it possible to assemble this scattered individually innocuous data into a comprehensive picture of any person's life automatically and at massive scale and quote. Anthropics Amadai has publicly said that the law had not yet caught up with AI's ability to conduct surveillance on a massive scale. And Sam Altman takes pains in his statement to say that open AI's contract quote reflects its red lines in law and policy meaning that it's simply abiding by existing laws and existing Pentagon policies the latter of which can change at any time. The intelligence law section of this is very persuasive if you don't realize that every bad intelligence scandal in the last 30 years had a legal memo saying it complied with those authorities.

18:35Palisade researchers Dave Kastin wrote of open AI's agreement and quote. Nothing additional for you today talk to you tomorrow.