Sections
00:00 What we're covering today
00:29 1. Court lets Pentagon exclude Claude over its use restrictions
01:48 2. Microsoft plans a persistent agent for Copilot
02:37 3. Canada commits up to 162 million Canadian dollars for AI work placements
03:23 4. State attorneys general ask Congress for AI safety rules
04:04 5. Energy advisers propose AI research in biology and fusion
04:42 Visit Hot Tea

Disclosure
Narration uses an AI-generated voice.

Transcript
Welcome to Hot Tea for Saturday, September 26, 2026.

A divided appeals court has let the Pentagon exclude Claude over Anthropic's restrictions on military use. We'll also cover Microsoft's Copilot plans and Canada's proposed work placements. Later, we'll look at a push for federal safety rules and an Energy Department research agenda covering biology, fusion, and domestic magnet production.

This briefing uses an A I generated voice.

Court lets Pentagon exclude Claude over its use restrictions. The D.C. Circuit ruled 2-1 on September 25 that the Pentagon could exclude Claude from its supply chain. Anthropic challenged that decision under the Federal Acquisition Supply Chain Security Act of 2018. The dispute began after Anthropic refused to relax its restrictions on lethal autonomous warfare and domestic surveillance. The majority rejected the company's statutory and constitutional challenges. This ruling applies to one procurement law. SiliconANGLE reports that a California court reached a different result under another law, because the two courts considered different legal requirements. SiliconANGLE also reports that Anthropic is considering further review. That doesn't mean the company has filed an appeal. A filing or a new court order could change the exclusion. The majority found that Anthropic's restrictions could limit the military's use of Claude. The court left it to the President and the Secretary of War to decide how much that risk matters. Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson dissented, disputing whether Anthropic meets the law's definition of a supply-chain risk. The practical result is unusual. The government can reject a supplier because that supplier limits how customers use its software. Here, the Pentagon cares as much about Claude's permitted uses as it does about its capabilities.

Microsoft plans a persistent agent for Copilot. Microsoft announced Home, Code, and Autopilot on September 25. The company says Autopilot can keep working between prompts, using its own identity and workspace. The products won't arrive together. Home and Code begin rolling out through Frontier in the coming weeks. Autopilot enters private preview at month's end, while Work IQ business-data connections enter preview on September 30. Microsoft plans to sell these products, but customers still need evidence that they work as claimed. A private preview can't show whether Autopilot works reliably without supervision. The useful test is whether customers can control its permissions and connect completed work to their charges. Microsoft says Cowork, Code, and Autopilot use usage-based pricing.

Canada commits up to 162 million Canadian dollars for A I work placements. Canada announced up to 162 million Canadian dollars for Mitacs over five years on September 25, starting in 2026-2027. The government says the money would support 10,000 co-funded work placements. Post-secondary students, recent graduates, and post-doctoral fellows would work with Canadian businesses on A I adoption and innovation. For now, the government has announced funding and a placement target. It hasn't shown that all those placements exist or will lead to lasting employment. The next evidence is how many placements employers fill, how much they contribute, and how many participants find lasting work after the subsidy ends.

State attorneys general ask Congress for A I safety rules. A bipartisan coalition of 26 attorneys general urged Congress to regulate A I on September 25. Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield called for federal oversight of safety testing and public investigations of incidents. The letter also asks Congress to preserve state protections and let states enforce federal rules. This is a request to Congress, not a change in the law. The coalition cites earlier incidents, but its release offers no new independent findings about them. The open question is whether Congress will preserve state enforcement powers and name who can investigate incidents.

Energy advisers propose A I research in biology and fusion. The Department of Energy released the Genesis Mission advisory report on September 25. The committee describes possible uses for A I in biology, fusion, and domestic magnet production. It proposes pairing computation with experiments that test materials and biological designs. This is a research program, not proof of a scientific breakthrough. The report doesn't show that A I has produced commercial fusion or the biological advances the committee describes. That case would need funded experiments, published methods, and results that other laboratories can reproduce.

That is the signal before the noise. This briefing was produced from Hot Tea's verified daily edition. For the complete briefing and every source link, visit Hot Tea dot A I.