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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Monday that Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence chatbot Grok will join Google’s generative AI engine in operating inside the Pentagon network, as part of a broader push to feed as much of the military’s data as possible into the developing technology.“Very soon we will have the world’s leading AI models on every unclassified and classified network throughout our department,” Hegseth said in a speech at Musk’s space flight company, SpaceX, in South Texas.The announcement comes just days after Grok which is embedded into X, the social media network owned by Musk drew global outcry and scrutiny for generating highly sexualized deepfake images of people without their consent.Malaysia and Indonesia have blocked Grok, while the U.K.’s independent online safety watchdog announced an investigation Monday. Grok has limited image generation and editing to paying users.Hegseth said Grok will go live inside the Defense Department later this month and announced that he would “make all appropriate data” from the military’s IT systems available for “AI exploitation.” He also said data from intelligence databases would be fed into AI systems.Hegseth’s aggressive push to embrace the still-developing technology stands in contrast to the Biden administration, which, while pushing federal agencies to come up with policies and uses for AI, was also wary of misuse. Officials said rules were needed to ensure that the technology, which could be harnessed for mass surveillance, cyberattacks or even lethal autonomous devices, was being used responsibly.The Biden administration enacted a framework in late 2024 that directed national security agencies to expand their use of the most advanced AI systems but prohibited certain uses, such as applications that would violate constitutionally protected civil rights or any system that would automate the deployment of nuclear weapons. It is unclear if those prohibitions are still in place under the Trump administration.During his speech, Hegseth spoke of the need to streamline and speed up technological innovations within the military, saying, “We need innovation to come from anywhere and evolve with speed and purpose.”He noted that the Pentagon possesses “combat-proven operational data from two decades of military and intelligence operations.”“AI is only as good as the data that it receives, and we’re going to make sure that it’s there,” Hegseth said.The defense secretary said he wants AI systems within the Pentagon to be responsible, though he went on to say he was shrugging off any AI models “that won’t allow you to fight wars.”Hegseth said his vision for military AI systems means that they operate “without ideological constraints that limit lawful military applications,” before adding that the Pentagon’s “AI will not be woke.”Musk developed and pitched Grok as an alternative to what he called “woke AI” interactions from rival chatbots like Google’s Gemini or OpenAI’s ChatGPT. In July, Grok also caused controversy after it appeared to make antisemitic comments that praised Adolf Hitler and shared several antisemitic posts.The Pentagon did not immediately respond to questions about the issues with Grok. Konstantin Toropin and David Klepper, Associated Press
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E-Commerce
2025 saw several successful public offerings, especially from companies operating in the AI, cryptocurrency, and fintech spaces. What many on Wall Street are anxious to know is whether the IPO marketand its returnswill accelerate in 2026, or if investors will take a more cautious approach to newly public companies as inflationary pressures, the potential for a weakening economy, and a possible AI bubble weigh heavily on peoples minds. The first real test of investor IPO appetite may come later this month, when cryptocurrency custody firm BitGo Holdings, Inc. is expected to go public. Heres what you need to know about BitGos IPO. What is BitGo? BitGo Holdings is a cryptocurrency infrastructure company. One of its main functions is providing cryptocurrency custodial services. Crypto custody companies provide storage and security for digital assets. Such companies are often used by large institutional investors to help manage risk and also meet regulatory guidelines. In contrast, many individual cryptocurrency investors still rely on personalized digital wallets to hold their tokens. BitGo was founded in 2013 and is headquartered in Palo Alto, California. According to the companys S-1 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, BitGo had 566 full-time employees as of September 30. Over the past 12 months, ending September 30, the company says it generated total revenue of $11.1 billion. Its platform currently supports more than 1,550 assets with a total value of $104 billion. When is BitGos IPO? BitGo hasnt set a date for its initial public offering yet. In its amended Form S-1 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) yesterday, the company merely mentioned its intention to go public. However, the amended filing suggests that the public offering will likely happen soon. IPOscoop.com lists BitGos expected IPO date as Thursday, January 22, but BitGo has yet to publicly confirm that date. What is BitGos stock ticker? BitGos shares will trade under the stock ticker BTGO. What market will BitGos shares trade on? BitGo shares will trade on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). What is the IPO share price of BTGO? BitGo hasnt decided on an exact IPO price yet. However, in the companys amended SEC filing, the firm said it expects its shares to be priced at between $15 and $17. How many BTGO shares are available in its IPO? In total, 11,821,595 shares of BTGO Class A common stock will be made available in its IPO. Of those shares, BitGo itself is offering 11 million directly. The remaining shares will be offered by the companys existing shareholders. How much will BitGo raise in its IPO? BitGo will not receive any proceeds from the roughly 821,000 shares its existing shareholders will sell. The company will only benefit from the funds raised from its 11 million share offering. With an expected IPO price of between $15 and $17 per share, BitGo is thus expected to raise between $165 million and $187 million. When you add in the shares being sold by exiting shareholders, BitGos IPO could raise as much as $200 million in total. How much is BitGo worth? BitGos ultimate valuation depends on how much its shares finally list forand how they perform on the stock market. However, if BTGO shares do indeed IPO at the high-end range of $17 each, BitGo will have a valuation of around $1.96 billion, according to Reuters. BitGo is hoping to repeat 2025s crypto IPO successes If BitGo does IPO this month as expected, it will likely be closely watched as it is not just one of the first tech IPOs of the year, but one of the first operating in the hot (and volatile) cryptocurrency space. Its IPOs success or failure could signal whether investors have a robust appetite for public offerings in 2026, particularly those tied to crypto. In 2025, several companies operating in the cryptocurrency space made successful IPO debuts. These include Circle Internet Groups (NYSE: CRCL) initial public offering in June and Bullishs (NYSE: BLSH) IPO in August.
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E-Commerce
Thousands of New York City nurses were set to return to the picket lines Tuesday as their strike targeting some of the city’s leading hospital systems entered its second day.The walkout, which comes during a severe flu season, involved roughly 15,000 nurses spread out across multiple private hospitals, including NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia, Montefiore Medical Center and Mount Sinai hospital.The affected hospitals have hired droves of temporary nurses to try to fill the labor gap. Both nurses and hospital administrators have urged patients not to avoid getting care during the strike.The labor action comes three years after a similar strike forced medical facilities to transfer some patients and divert ambulances.As with the 2023 labor action, nurses have pointed to staffing issues as a major flashpoint, accusing the big-budget medical centers of refusing to commit to provisions for manageable, safe workloads.The private, nonprofit hospitals involved in the current negotiations say they’ve made strides in staffing in recent years, and have cast the union’s demands as prohibitively expensive.On Monday, the city’s new mayor, Zohran Mamdani, stood beside nurses on a picket line outside NewYork-Presbyterian, praising the union’s members for seeking “dignity, respect and the fair pay and treatment that they deserve.” Associated Press
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E-Commerce
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