Last week, a 27-year-old Anthropic employee resigned over concerns that AI firms are recklessly racing to develop a technology some of their workers fear could pose a catastrophic threat to humanity. This prompted AI bosses to issue statements publicly questioning whether they should slow down their efforts. In our September edition, Evgeny Morozov argues that socialists, for their part, should be asking a more hopeful question about AI: ‘can knowledge deposited in generative AI be converted to collective capacity rather than vanishing into a proprietary vault?’

Elsewhere, Germany rearms, Somaliland seeks recognition and Donald Trump revives the spectre of communism. To dive into the stories behind the news, read ‘the longer view’ each month. Our entire archive is available online to subscribers.