AI #171: False Flag
type: NewsArticle
description: Anthropic released Claude Opus 4.8, an incremental improvement over Opus 4.7, as the Trump administration's Executive Order on AI returned, establishing a prior restraint framework for frontier model releases. OpenAI published a new policy blueprint while simultaneously engaging in controversial political operations. A Utah-based AI system called Doc In a Box successfully recommended medication refills with 97% physician agreement, though it escalated unnecessarily in 31% of cases where human review was required.
date published: 2026-06-04 15:50:59+00:00
date modified: 2026-06-04 16:58:01.984374+00:00
language: en
is accessible for free: true
article body: This was the week of Claude Opus 4.8. I covered the model card, then model welfare concerns, and finally capabilities and reactions. It’s a good model, sir, an incremental but real improvement over Opus 4.7, and it is now my clear daily driver. The Trump Executive Order returned from being seemingly dead, officially putting us in the prior restraint era of frontier model releases, even if they do not call it that. There are some worrisome details, especially around putting too much responsibility on the NSA rather than CAISI and classifying the testing process, and things could go in very bad directions, but I am tentatively happy about this on net. OpenAI offered us a new policy blueprint. It seems remarkably good, and I want to hold off on my full coverage to give it the attention it deserves, likely in its own post. By contrast, their political operations are also engaged in some rather terrible activities, which I do cover here. Doc In a Boxis performing well so far in Utah. They are focusing on avoiding false positives, at the risk of false negatives, since without AI it’s all negatives, and escalation is a small mistake. In the 72% of cases where the AI recommend a refill at least one of two physicians agreed in 97% of cases. In the 28% of Cases Where the AI Escalated to a Physician Without Recommending Renewal When the AI declined to recommend renewal without further information, a human telehealth appointment was arranged. For these patients, 69% of physician reviews agreed that the escalation was appropriate, and more information was needed to authorize a renewal. In the other 31% of cases, the physician determined the escalation was overly cautious. For a new system like this, overcaution is appropriate and welcome. In the long term, reducing overcaution without compromising safety would improve patient access to care, but we aren’t rushing to see that happen. A 97% rate of refills being at least reasonable seems very good. I doubt physicians agree with ea…
publisher: Web Pulse
keywords: artificial-intelligence, ai-policy, ai-safety, ai-products, large-language-models
mentions: Claude Opus 4.8
mentions: Trump
mentions: NSA
mentions: CAISI
mentions: OpenAI
mentions: Doc In a Box
mentions: Utah
citation: CreativeWork