Polemical essay-thread by Ahmad Osman (@TheAhmadOsman) on X, *"Anthropic's War on Opensource AI"* (1.7M views). Core thesis: Anthropic systematically converts "safety" into a **control mechanism** (permission regime, regulatory capture, anti-competitive access restrictions, behavioral opacity) to keep builders, startups, and open source communities **downstream** of a handful of frontier labs. Central anchor point: the **Fable incident** (silent degradation of competing AI dev requests). Advocacy for open source / local AI as the only viable "political economy of intelligence." Domain: AI policy, open source vs. closed labs, sovereignty, governance.
Video interview recorded at **VivaTech** (**Scaleway** booth), broadcast by the media outlet **République**, bringing together **Damien Lucas** (CEO of Scaleway) and **Franck Le Moal** (Global Technical Officer of the **LVMH** group). **Central thesis**: the emergence of a **"tech geopolitics"** is forcing multinationals to abandon the single global solution in favor of an **information system regionalized into three blocs** (United States, Europe, China). LVMH (€80bn in revenue, 75 maisons, 100+ countries) formalizes a **cloud partnership with Scaleway** to build an **autonomous European building block**, alongside Google Cloud (data, since 2021), SAP, Salesforce on the Western side and Alibaba Cloud / Huawei / Tencent on the Chinese side. The group describes itself as **"hybrid"** and **autonomous** rather than **"sovereign"** (a word it rejects, deemed ambiguous). Scaleway positions itself as a **European cloud provider** immune to extraterritorial laws and protected against a **kill switch** ("not science fiction," given the weekend's news). Damien Lucas's economic argument: **€1 spent with Scaleway = 68 cents that stay in the European economy** (vs < 20 cents with a US hyperscaler, even when hosted in France). Timeline: PoCs completed, rollout starting at **Sephora and Louis Vuitton**, significant footprint targeted within **12-18 months**. Scaleway's stated mission: focus on **IaaS/PaaS** (no verticalization such as office productivity software), relying on a partner ecosystem (sovereign applications, European chipsets and servers). Scaleway's **Nvidia GPU / AI** offering is **not planned in the short term** but remains open (open source models for autonomy + economic performance).
**Bertrand** — journaliste / présentateur du média **République** (partenaire de VivaTech) · conduit l'entretien. **Damien Lucas** — CEO de **Scaleway**. **Franck Le Moal** — Global Technical Officer du groupe **LVMH**.
First social encyclical of **Pope Léon XIV** (Robert Francis Prevost), dated **15 May 2026** (Rome, near St. Peter's, 2nd year of the Pontificate), published for the **135th anniversary of *Rerum Novarum*** (Léon XIII, 15 May 1891) and explicitly presented as a **continuation of the Church's Social Doctrine into the AI era**. Canonical subtitle: *"on the protection of the human person in the age of artificial intelligence"*. **245 paragraphs**, structured as **Introduction + 5 chapters + Conclusion**. **Pivotal thesis** organized around two **biblical icons**: the **Tower of Babel** (Gen 11) — technological uniformity without God, *"absolutization of the human"* — versus **Nehemiah's reconstruction of the walls of Jerusalem** (Neh 2-6) — shared responsibility stone by stone, listening, coordination among families. *"The first choice is not between a 'yes' or a 'no' to technology, but between building Babel or rebuilding Jerusalem"* (n. 9). **Canonical concepts**: (1) **AI "cultivated" rather than "constructed"** — *"developers do not directly design every detail, but create an architecture on which the AI develops"* (n. 98), a remarkable theological formulation that echoes recent ML-research vocabulary; (2) ***"Disarming AI"*** (n. 110) — *"removing it from the logic of armed competition, which today is no longer only military but also economic and cognitive"*, making AI *"habitable, by restoring it to the plurality of human cultures"*; (3) **Radical critique of "alignment"** — *"We cannot content ourselves with invoking the moralization of the machine, what is called the 'alignment' of AI with human values, without having the courage to add a further condition: the possibility of debating the ethical code to be used"* (n. 107). ***"A more moral AI is useless if that morality is decided by a handful of people."*** (4) **Epistemic asymmetry** and **new AI monopolies** (n. 109) — *"in a world where a few actors concentrate data, computing resources and regulatory power"*; (5) **Invisible labor** of data labelers/moderators/rare-earth extractors (n. 109, 173) — *"bodies marked, mutilated, used so that the flow of computation never stops"*; (6) **Data colonialism** (n. 178) — *"it dominates not only bodies, but appropriates data"*, *"new rare earths of power"*; (7) **AI and war** (n. 197-200) — *"No algorithm capable of making war morally acceptable"* (n. 198), three criteria: traceable personal responsibility, refusal to shorten the time for moral judgment, protection of civilians; (8) **Critique of transhumanism/posthumanism** (n. 115-117) as *"an archipelago of conceptual islands linked by the same ocean of assumptions: the centrality of technique and the dream of surpassing the limits of the human condition"*; (9) **Work in the transition** (n. 150-156) — *"contrary to the advertised benefits of AI, current approaches to technology can paradoxically deskill workers, subject them to automated surveillance"*, access to work as a public priority, anticipation of the transformation, setting social criteria for innovation; (10) **Canonical question drawn from John Paul II** (Redemptor hominis 1979): ***"does AI make human life on earth 'more human' in every respect? Does it make it more 'worthy of man'?"*** (n. 129); (11) **Authentic "more than human"**: not transhumanism, but grace — *"we manage to be fully human when we are more than human, when we allow God to lead us beyond ourselves"* (n. 128, citing Francis, *Evangelii gaudium*); (12) **Disarming words** (n. 214) — *"Let us disarm words and we will help disarm the Earth"*. **Addressees**: *"To all Catholic faithful, to all Christians, to all men and women of good will"* (n. 16) — a **universal** register in line with *Pacem in terris* (John XXIII 1963), *Laudato si'* (Francis 2015) and *Fratelli tutti* (Francis 2020). **Special appeal to AI developers** (n. 111): *"every design choice expresses a vision of humanity"*. Key **magisterial source** cited: *Antiqua et nova* (Dicasteries for the Doctrine of the Faith + Culture and Education, 14 January 2025) + *Quo vadis, humanitas ?* (International Theological Commission, 9 February 2026). A major document of the **2026 social Magisterium**, at the junction of Social Doctrine ↔ AI ethics ↔ big-tech geopolitics ↔ critique of microworker labor/rare-earth extraction. Implicit convergence with **Mensch / Mistral** (AI energy sovereignty), **Sun / NYT Permanent Underclass** (cf. labor→capital shift), **Wallace-Wells / NYT AI Populism** (cf. critique of tech oligarchs), **Mollick × roon** (cf. ASI and internal politics). First encyclical by a Pope to explicitly take AI as a **central, structuring subject** rather than one theme among others.
#Léon XIV#Robert Francis Prevost#social encyclical
**Léon XIV** (de naissance Robert Francis Prevost) · 267e Pape de l'Église catholique · élu le **8 mai 2025** · premier pape américain de l'histoire (né à Chicago, USA, 1955 ; double nationalité américano-péruvienne). Augustinien (ancien Prieur général de l'Ordre de Saint-Augustin 2001-2013) · ancien évêque de Chiclayo (Pérou) puis Préfet du Dicastère pour les Évêques (2023-2025). *Magnifica Humanitas* est sa **première encyclique sociale** · signée *« Donné à Rome · près de Saint-Pierre · le 15 mai de l'année 2026 · la deuxième de mon Pontificat »* — date choisie pour **coïncider avec le 135e anniversaire de *Rerum Novarum*** (15 mai 1891) de Léon XIII · dont il a explicitement repris le nom de pontificat en référence à la tradition sociale lancée par son prédécesseur du XIXe siècle. La référence augustinienne est centrale dans le document (citations massives des *Confessions*, du *De civitate Dei* — *« deux amours ont fait deux cités »*, des *Enarrationes in Psalmos*, des *Sermones*). Trace de paternité collective : multiples références à *Antiqua et nova* (note conjointe DDF + DCE, 14 janvier 2025) et *Quo vadis · humanitas ?* (CTI, 9 février 2026) · suggérant un travail conjoint entre la Secrétairerie d'État · le Dicastère pour la Doctrine de la Foi · le Dicastère pour la Culture et l'Éducation · et le Dicastère pour le Service du Développement humain intégral.
Testimony of **Arthur Mensch** (co-founder and CEO of **Mistral AI**) accompanied by **Audry Herblin-Stoupe** (director of public affairs) before the **commission d'enquête sur les vulnérabilités numériques** of the National Assembly (chaired by Philippe Latombe, absent — session chaired by the rapporteur). Testimony under oath, ~1h15, May 2026. Mensch's pivot thesis: ***"cloud is artificial intelligence"*** — no distinction between digital services and AI, AI is the atomic unit of the cloud value chain, from semiconductors (ASML) to enterprise deployment. **Mistral in 2026**: 1,000 employees, €12 billion valuation, target of **€1 billion in revenue by end of 2026**, €1 billion invested in R&D over the year, 30% of revenue in France / 70% outside France / ~75% in Europe, clients: DINUM, Caisse des dépôts, France Travail, MACGM, Stellantis, TotalEnergies, BNP Paribas, ministère des Armées, Luxembourg (central administration). **Mensch's conceptual framework**: AI is a **natural resource** — *"we transform electricity into intelligence, into token generation."* Economics: 1 GW of datacenter = **$50 billion in investment over 5 years**, generates **$20 billion in tokens/year** ≈ 50% gross margin. Along the electron→token chain, **~10% of the value is in the electron**, 90% elsewhere (chips, software, services). **Alarmist macro thesis**: if Europe imports 10% of its payroll in non-European AI, that amounts to **an additional €1 trillion trade deficit**; €20 trillion in infrastructure investment is needed to serve Europe (40 GW France / 400 GW Europe). **Sovereignty strategy**: ***"don't think of sovereignty as isolationism but as leverage."*** **Time pressure**: *"we don't have time"* — a **2-year** window before European energy resources are monopolized by American hyperscalers deploying **$1 trillion/year**. **Five operational diagnoses**: (1) Regulatory burden = 5 compliance staff at Mistral, 27 unsynchronized regulations, entrepreneurs leaving for the US; (2) Fragmented market = ~60 European telcos vs. 3 in the US; (3) Public procurement underused as strategic leverage (50% of EU GDP); (4) Energy: 9 GW of French surplus at risk of being monopolized by US players within 2 years; (5) Distillation = a cost-reduction technique, **not** technological catch-up. **Defense doctrine**: Mistral works with the ministère des Armées, explicitly refusing "oversight" of final use ("we don't have democratic legitimacy"), a positioning *anti-Anthropic-Mythos*. **Cybersecurity**: acknowledges the offensive capabilities of models ("it's rising in a linear, predictable way, for everyone at the same time"), opposes the *fear marketing* of an American competitor (implicitly Anthropic). **Campus IA**: very minority stake, potential supplier (Mistral + hyperscalers), €35 billion MGX/Abu Dhabi + Nvidia, 100 hectares at Saint-Arnoult, 1.4–1.6 GW (= Flamanville), French nuclear power = reduced carbon footprint. **Annotation**: teams of PhD candidates (no more microworkers), Madagascar for robotics with wage guarantees. **Business model**: no bubble on the demand side, **supply bottleneck** (chips, memory, helium, electrons). **Warning conclusion**: *"if we don't do it fast enough, we will become a vassal state."*
#Arthur Mensch#Mistral AI#Audry Herblin-Stoupe
**Arthur Mensch** (cofondateur et directeur général de **Mistral AI**) accompagné d'**Audry Herblin-Stoupe** (directrice des affaires publiques et de la communication, Mistral AI). Mensch a cofondé Mistral AI le 28 avril 2023 avec **Guillaume Lample** et **Timothée Lacroix** — tous les trois précédemment dans les *« gros acteurs américains »* (Google DeepMind / Meta FAIR). Audition tenue devant la **commission d'enquête de l'Assemblée nationale sur les vulnérabilités numériques** · présidée par **Philippe Latombe** (député MoDem, Vendée — absent ce jour). Séance présidée par la **rapporteur** (non nommée dans le transcript) · avec interventions du président lui-même (revenu en cours) · du député **Arnaud Saint-Martin** (LFI/Saint-Arnoult — sa circonscription accueille Campus IA) · et de la rapporteur sur les questions économiques.
**David Wallace-Wells** publishes a major political pivot article (~16 min audio read) in the **NYT Magazine** on **May 8, 2026** that formalizes and names the populist backlash against the AI industry: ***"A.I. Populism Is Here. And No One Is Ready."*** Cutting subtitle: *"Silicon Valley oligarchs worried about the risks their technology posed to the world. They forgot about people."* **Pivot thesis**: AI founders (Altman, Amodei, Musk, Zuckerberg, Hassabis) spent a decade obsessed with the **existential** risks of their technology while **neglecting the political risk** of a human backlash — which they thought *"wouldn't materialize in time, would be quickly outmaneuvered by machine intelligence or could be bought off by talk of basic-income payments or thin promises of curing cancer"*. **The backlash struck literally**: April 2026, a **Molotov cocktail** thrown at Altman's San Francisco property, then a few days later a **gun attack** on his house. Wallace-Wells picks up **Jasmine Sun**'s phrase (NYT Opinion 2026-04-30, already on file): ***"A.I. populism's warning shots"*** — an analogy to the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson by Luigi Mangione. **Five labs as the new faces of American oligarchy**: *"a fearsome concentration of economic and social power producing a self-compounding pattern of extreme inequality"* — Sam (Altman), Dario (Amodei), Elon (Musk), Mark (Zuckerberg), Demis (Hassabis), nearly all billionaires, *"several of whom are widely described as sociopaths"*. **Shock statistics**: Pew Research 2025 — **50% of Americans more concerned than excited**, **only 10% more excited**; recent Quinnipiac poll — **only the >$200k income bracket has an optimistic view of AI for daily life**; Heatmap polling — data center support/opposition swing from **+2 points (Sept 2025) to −24 points (Feb 2026)**, a **26-point swing in 4 months**; Northern Virginia 2023-2025 — a **69-point swing against data centers** (+45 → −24). **Loudon County**: data centers will generate **$1.3B of $2.9B** in tax revenue in 2027 (~45%). **Investment-housing asymmetry**: the United States **spent more on AI infrastructure than on single-family homes** in 2025, **10× more data centers than Germany** (#2), **20× more AI investment than China** (#2), amid a **housing shortage of 10 million missing units**. **Central Ted Chiang quote (BuzzFeed 2017)** invoked: *"When Silicon Valley tries to imagine superintelligence, what it comes up with is no-holds-barred capitalism."* **Dario Amodei quote (Anthropic, 2024)**: *"People outside the field are often surprised and alarmed to learn that we do not understand how our own A.I. creations work. They are right to be concerned: this lack of understanding is essentially unprecedented in the history of technology."* **Political pivot flagged**: the **White House** proposes forcing a **federal review of all new proprietary models before release** — a major turn after a pro-industry stance. **Catalyst**: Anthropic's public refusal in **April 2026** to release **Claude Mythos**, a model capable of *"find[ing] and exploit[ing] security vulnerabilities in every tested piece of software, including those used in critical pieces of global I.T. infrastructure"* (already on file via the **AISI UK GPT-5.5 / Mythos** fiche, 2026-04-30). **Dean Ball quote (original architect of Trump AI policy, Palantir Foundation Yale conference)**: *"This giant acid vat which would dissolve the mediating institutions most Americans see as society. It will not be A.I. in government. It's going to be A.I. as governments."* **Jeffrey Ding concept**: *"diffusion marathon"* (vs. winner-take-all race) — AI as a *general-purpose technology* (steam, electricity, internet) where **diffusion** matters more than the **state of the art**. **Pivot conclusion**: *"We still know the names of the robber barons, and live still somewhat in their shadows. But we are not their serfs. Are we sure A.I. will be different?"* Major relevance for the 2026 file: **conceptual formalization of the political backlash** anticipated by Sun (April) and flagged by Ng in The Batch (Altman Molotov cocktail, ~$64B in blocked data centers, Maine 20MW+ moratorium). To be mobilized for AI geopolitics executive committees, regulation debates, strategic presentations on the societal and political risks of AI, and FR/Europe framing of AI's political feedback loop.
#David Wallace-Wells#NYT Magazine#AI Populism Is Here
**David Wallace-Wells** — NYT Magazine staff writer · journaliste américain reconnu pour son travail sur le climat (livre *The Uninhabitable Earth* 2019, ancien deputy editor de *New York Magazine*). Connu pour des essais long-form combinant reportage · prospective et critique politique des technologies. **Article publié dans le NYT Magazine** le **8 mai 2026** (édition online, ~16 minutes audio) · section politique-tech.
GDPR revision via Digital Omnibus: redefinition of sensitive data, broadened legitimate interest, weakened individual rights. Data governance and AI implications. IT for Business, European regulatory investigation.
White House — "America's AI Action Plan": Trump Administration AI strategy, 90+ federal actions, infrastructure, export, national security (whitehouse.gov)
#artificial intelligence#AI#America's AI Action Plan
The White House. Key officials: Michael Kratsios (OSTP Director) · David Sacks (AI and Crypto Czar) · Marco Rubio (Secretary of State & Acting NSA)