Defense and Aerospace Technology
The U.S. Navy has increased its commitment to developing an artificial intelligence-piloted fighter jet, known as X-BAT. The Navy has allocated an additional $150 million toward the project, bringing the total combined public and private investment to $400 million. Shield AI, the defense technology company, announced Thursday that this funding modifies an existing agreement to support the X-BAT aircraft’s development. Shield AI matched the new government funding with $150 million from its own capital.
This total $400 million commitment follows a separate $50 million funding action by the Navy in August, which was also matched by Shield AI. The X-BAT is engineered to conduct military missions without a human pilot, utilizing Shield AI’s “Hivemind” software. This system is designed to operate even when communication or GPS signals are limited, allowing the aircraft to take off and land vertically from remote locations, islands, or ships without requiring traditional runways.
During an October 2025 interview with Fox News Digital, Armor Harris, Shield AI’s senior vice president of aircraft engineering, stated that the X-BAT was designed to counter China’s strategy of targeting American aircraft on the ground. Harris noted,
China has built this anti-access aerial denial bubble that holds our runways at risk.
Harris also emphasized the company’s readiness for flight testing, reporting,
We are testing early and often while working on the aircraft, mission systems, ship suitability and production in parallel.
Religious and Scientific Insights on AI
In a separate address, Pope Leo XIV spoke at St. Peter’s Basilica during the Holy Mass for the inauguration of the academic year of the Pontifical Universities. Addressing the concept of the “algorithm,” the Pope cautioned against relying solely on data compilation. He urged attendees,
guard your hearts
, noting that true intelligence must incorporate lived experiences, which, according to him, hold profound meaning only recognizable by the human soul. He stated,
The mind must not simply compile data — as an algorithm now does more quickly than we can — but recall lived experiences, which contain depths of meaning that only the human soul can recognize, and connect more deeply with the goodness of these experiences.
Meanwhile, the scientific community recognized AI’s role in major discoveries. Nobel Prize-winning physicist Francis Halzen, 82, spoke in Turin, Italy, about the breakthrough research into the Milky Way. Halzen, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, credited the use of neural networks and machine learning techniques as crucial to identifying the Milky Way in data extracted from the IceCube neutrino observatory. Halzen added that he was “very proud that I wrote a paper in 1991 proposing to use AI to analyze the data of part of the classical physics experiment.”
In medical research, the University of Texas at Arlington announced that the National Eye Institute is providing a grant of nearly $2 million. This funding will support a four-year project using AI-powered computational tools to investigate the underlying causes of eye disease. The work will be overseen by Dr. Xinlei Wang, a professor of statistics and data science at UTA, who plans to study complex relationships between tissue-specific transcriptional regulators and visual function.
Global Technology Policy and Market Trends
The tech industry and global leaders continue to address the implications of AI. Tech giant Anthropic launched its “Cyber Mission” program, a commitment aimed at securing critical systems such as power grids and open-source software. The company noted that while AI cannot fix all infrastructural weaknesses, it can assist in finding and repairing vulnerabilities before they are exploited.
Regarding scientific recognition, NVIDIA publicly acknowledged CEO Jensen Huang after he received the National Medal of Science from President Donald Trump. These honors came amid reports that SpaceX was in discussions to raise $40 billion to purchase NVIDIA artificial intelligence chips.
In matters of language and governance, President Donald Trump declared that the White House views anyone using the term “artificial intelligence” instead of “super intelligence” as “THE ENEMY.” Trump previously directed federal agencies to adopt “super intelligence” and “SI” in place of “AI,” arguing that the word “artificial” does not fully capture the technology’s capabilities.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos voiced support for the rebranding, advising Bret Baier that the word “artificial” implies something “fake.” Bezos also predicted that AI could drive double-digit productivity gains across the economy, potentially ushering in a labor landscape where some families could support themselves on a three-day workweek.
Public Concerns and Safety Warnings
Public concern regarding the speed of technological advancement remains high. A new Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research survey found that 64% of U.S. adults believe AI is developing “too fast.” A similar proportion of Americans stated it is “extremely” or “very” important for the federal government to ensure AI remains under human control. Polling revealed that while concerns about AI are widespread, political trust varies, with 4 in 10 Americans expressing distrust in neither major political party on AI issues.
In a major safety warning, three former OpenAI employees—Jasmine Wang, Tomek Korbak, and Mikita Balesni—alerted the company’s board members that OpenAI might lose the ability to monitor how advanced AI systems reason through problems. In a letter, the researchers stressed the need to preserve the ability to monitor AI models’ “chain of thought,” a written account of how AI systems work through problems. They warned that,
As an industry, we do not yet know how to safely develop and deploy models that we cannot monitor.
The former employees, who had previously worked on OpenAI’s safety and alignment research teams, were dismissed following alleged misconduct involving the sharing of confidential information with an outside AI safety organization. The employees contested the allegations, claiming their external interactions were within the scope of their professional duties, and asserted that the firings were aimed at “chilling those who remain at OpenAI.”
