X-Risk Daily

The majority of code at Anthropic is now written by Claude, with some employees ceasing to write code directly and instead focusing on oversight and validation of AI-generated output.

Clark, who heads the Anthropic Institute launched in March 2026, said he returned from paternity leave in February to discover colleagues had fundamentally reoriented their roles around managing AI systems and verifying their outputs rather than producing code themselves. The internal shift has led to an explosion in code volume, prompting greater investment in telemetry and observability infrastructure to monitor what Clark characterised as an emergent ecosystem of autonomous agents. In one experimental deployment focused on automated alignment research, a single human researcher effectively supervised a team of nine synthetic research agents working on AI safety problems.

The transformation has reshaped Anthropic's hiring priorities. Clark noted that the value of junior engineering talent is becoming "a bit more dubious" inside the company, while senior engineers with "really, really well-calibrated intuitions and taste" are increasingly valuable. The company now seeks early-career candidates with deep expertise in large language models and highly experienced professionals capable of conceptualising ambitious projects, rather than mid-level engineers focused on implementation. Clark predicted that AI could account for 99% of the company's coding by year-end "if things speed up really aggressively".

According to external research organisation METR, Claude Opus 4.6 can reliably complete tasks that would take a skilled human approximately 12 hours, representing a dramatic compression of capability timelines from earlier models. Anthropic reports the model "plans more carefully, sustains agentic tasks for longer, can operate more reliably in larger codebases, and has better code review and debugging skills". The system features a one-million-token context window and introduced agent team functionality, allowing multiple Claude instances to coordinate on complex engineering tasks.

Clark framed the internal experiment as Anthropic deliberately stress-testing its own systems ahead of more capable models. In an interview with Axios, he placed the development in a broader trajectory, predicting a 60% or greater probability that an AI model will autonomously train its successor by the end of 2028. He characterised the shift as humans moving to a verification layer atop a vastly expanded virtual organisation of AI systems, with teams expected to shrink in headcount while tackling more ambitious technical objectives. Anthropic's research agenda warned of "AI contributing to speeding up the research and development of AI itself", a dynamic known as recursive self-improvement that has historically been confined to theoretical AI safety literature.

On 26 May, the Office of Personnel Management posted a draft rule to the Federal Register proposing government-wide non-disclosure agreements for all federal employees, both new hires and existing staff. The move marks an unprecedented expansion of secrecy requirements across the roughly 2 million-strong federal workforce, where such agreements have historically been confined to classified or national security positions.

The proposed NDAs would cover information relating to internal agency operations, personnel matters, procurement processes, and any sensitive, pre-decisional or deliberative material not currently publicly available, according to CNN. The administration justified the measure by citing recent leaks about immigration enforcement operations and the secretive January raid on Venezuela that captured former President Nicolás Maduro, which officials claim endangered the lives of federal agents and military personnel. The draft agreement would allow the government to pursue civil and criminal penalties against employees who disclose covered information, and grants the administration rights to royalties received from such disclosures—a provision whose practical application remains unclear. Former employees would require written permission from authorized agency officials to speak publicly about confidential information even after leaving government service, with the agreement remaining effective for five years post-employment.

While the draft explicitly preserves rights to make disclosures authorized by law, including under the Whistleblower Protection Act, civil liberties advocates and federal unions have raised constitutional concerns. Everett Kelley, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees, characterized the proposal as an attempt to purge nonpartisan career employees and replace them with loyalists unwilling to report waste, fraud, and abuse. Ray Limon, who served as a federal government attorney and human resources leader for nearly three decades, told NPR that such broad language could discourage lawful whistleblower disclosures despite the stated protections. Lauren Harper of the Freedom of the Press Foundation described the policy as "dangerously secretive," warning it would undermine transparency mechanisms that have historically exposed government wrongdoing.

The proposal, which enters a 30-day public comment period following its Federal Register publication, would permit individual agencies to decide whether to implement the agreements. A separate draft rule proposed in 2025 suggested that refusal to sign could result in termination or debarment from future federal employment. OPM Director Scott Kupor defended the measure by comparing it to private-sector confidentiality agreements, stating that the federal government should not be held to a lower standard in protecting sensitive information. The initiative forms part of the Trump administration's broader campaign to control information flows from federal agencies, following earlier moves including NDAs imposed at the Pentagon in October 2025 and restrictions on press access to military facilities.

The United States has agreed to unfreeze billions of dollars in Iranian assets as part of a framework peace agreement with Iran's increasingly hardline government, according to reports confirmed by the Financial Times on 23 May. The preliminary deal, announced by President Trump as "largely negotiated" following talks with regional leaders including Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Israel, is expected to be finalised in the coming days.

The agreement has drawn sharp criticism not only from Republican foreign policy hawks, who traditionally support assertive US engagement with Iran, but also from Democrats concerned about the terms. Senator Cory Booker, speaking on CNN, noted that Trump previously criticised President Obama's 2015 nuclear deal for releasing $50 billion to Iran, yet "the president's balance sheet is letting more than $14 billion go through." According to Axios, earlier negotiations discussed unfreezing up to $20 billion in Iranian funds held in foreign banks, though the exact figure remains under negotiation. Euronews reports that Iran holds over $100 billion in frozen assets globally, making their release a central Iranian demand.

The proposed deal, mediated by Pakistan and Qatar, would establish a 60-day ceasefire extension during which the Strait of Hormuz—closed since the conflict erupted on 28 February—would reopen, and Iran would be permitted to sell oil freely. According to Axios, this initial phase would set the stage for broader negotiations on Iran's nuclear programme. However, crucial details remain unresolved, particularly regarding Iran's highly enriched uranium stockpile. NPR reported that a senior Israeli official characterised the emerging agreement as "bad because it signals to the Iranians that they possess a weapon no less effective than a nuclear one, and that is the Strait of Hormuz."

The timing of the potential agreement coincides with Iran's annual Khorramshahr liberation commemorations on 24 May, marking the 1982 victory during the Iran-Iraq War. Some Iranians view the prospect of sanctions relief and unfrozen assets as a historic turning point, particularly given the country's severe economic crisis. Iran's inflation reached 68.1 per cent in February, according to Euronews, the highest since the Second World War. Critics warn, however, that the deal may lack adequate safeguards. Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo argued on social media that the agreement would enable Iran to "build a WMD program and terrorize the world," while Texas Senator Ted Cruz expressed concern about providing billions to a regime "still run by Islamists who chant 'death to America.'"