Good morning. It's Wednesday, July 8, and we’re covering why U.S. companies are turning to Chinese AI models, Illinois' landmark AI safety law, and Alibaba's ban on Anthropic.

Plus: yesterday' poll results on AI oversight, and a guest post on why mixed coding agents create a new challenge for engineering teams.

Alibaba orders employees to stop using Anthropic’s AI tools, citing security risks after being accused of conducting a large-scale AI distillation attack. The company places Claude Code on a high-risk software list and requires staff to switch to its own Qoder assistant by July 10. The move follows Anthropic’s June letter to U.S. senators alleging illicit model extraction and comes as Anthropic tightens access restrictions for Chinese users.

DeepSeek is quietly developing its own AI inference chip, signaling that China's leading AI startup aims to reduce reliance on NVIDIA hardware despite being best known for its software. The effort has been underway for about a year as the company recruits chip engineers and works with design, foundry, and memory partners. U.S. export controls have limited access to advanced NVIDIA chips, while Huawei, Alibaba, and Baidu are also expanding China's domestic AI chip ecosystem.

Meta's new Muse Image model goes beyond text-to-image generation by reasoning through prompts, blending multiple photos, and supporting in-image editing across its apps. The first image model from Meta Superintelligence Labs launches in Meta AI with features including readable text generation, sketch-based edits, Instagram account references, and room redesigns using real products. Muse Image is available now in Meta AI and Instagram, with Facebook, Messenger, and WhatsApp expansion coming soon.

China is considering restricting overseas access to its most advanced AI models, signaling that frontier AI is increasingly being treated as a national security asset. Officials have held discussions with Alibaba, ByteDance, and Z.ai on limiting future models, strengthening penalties for AI theft, and tightening startup funding rules. The talks follow U.S. export restrictions on advanced AI models and China's rapid rise with low-cost systems such as DeepSeek and Qwen.

Learn how model routing cuts AI coding costs by pairing premium models for planning with lower-cost models for execution.

The past year saw an explosion of coding agents, like Claude Code, Codex, Gemini, and Warp Agent, highly capable tools increasingly taking on the work of a junior engineer. Developers have spent the year testing and trialing them, and individuals have gravitated toward one or another, not necessarily because it performs better or is more capable, but because of personal preference.

As a result, software engineering teams are growing fleets of mixed agents: some people using one, some using another. → Read the full article here.

U.S. companies are increasingly adopting AI models from Chinese developers such as DeepSeek and Z.ai as rising costs from leading U.S. providers, including OpenAI and Anthropic, push businesses to seek more affordable alternatives. Data from OpenRouter shows Chinese models have accounted for more than 30% of weekly token usage by U.S. companies since February 8, 2026, with some platforms reporting rapid adoption driven by prices that are 60% to 90% lower than comparable U.S. models.

Companies including Lindy say switching to Chinese models has reduced AI expenses dramatically while maintaining or even improving performance for many workloads. As Chinese models continue to narrow the capability gap with leading American systems, businesses are increasingly choosing models based on cost-effectiveness rather than brand, reshaping competition in the AI market amid growing U.S. regulatory scrutiny. → Read the full article here.

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker signed the Artificial Intelligence Safety Measures Act on July 7, 2026, establishing new transparency, reporting, and audit requirements for the largest AI model developers. The law applies to models generating more than $500 million in annual revenue and requires companies to assess catastrophic risks, report serious AI-related incidents within 72 hours—or 24 hours if an imminent threat exists—and undergo annual independent audits.

Modeled on AI safety laws passed in California and New York, the legislation is intended to create consistent guardrails for advanced AI systems while Congress has yet to adopt a federal framework. The law passed with broad bipartisan support, was backed by OpenAI and Anthropic, and will take effect on January 1, 2028. → Read the full article here.

Advances in AI are accelerating the development of autonomous robots capable of performing increasingly complex tasks in warehouses, factories, and other real-world environments, though experts say truly general-purpose robots remain years away. Companies including Boston Dynamics, Agility Robotics, and Physical Intelligence are combining reinforcement learning, foundation models, and larger training datasets to improve robots' ability to navigate unpredictable settings and complete multi-step tasks with minimal human supervision.

Humanoid robots are already handling logistics and manufacturing work, while developers continue to prioritize safety through new standards, controlled deployments, and AI-assisted decision-making before expanding into human-centric environments. Researchers expect workplace adoption to grow steadily, but caution that reliable robots for homes and fully autonomous surgical systems will require significant technological and safety advances before becoming mainstream. → Read the full article here.

AI Actor Tilly Norwood Debuts: Particle6 cast its AI-generated performer in feature film Misaligned, reviving debate over AI's role in filmmaking.

Claude Cowork Goes Mobile: Anthropic brought Claude Cowork to web and mobile for Max users, enabling AI tasks to run across devices.

Microsoft Expands In-House AI: Microsoft is replacing some OpenAI and Anthropic models in Excel and Outlook with MAI to cut AI costs.

Samsung Slides Despite Profit Surge: Samsung shares fell after a 19-fold profit jump as investors took AI chip profits, dragging memory stocks lower.

Study Warns on AI Finance Advice: Researchers found leading AI chatbots gave inconsistent, inaccurate or biased personal finance recommendations.

Amazon AI Bond Demand Cools: Amazon's $25 billion bond sale drew weaker demand as investors grew more selective amid rising AI-related debt.

Here’s how you voted: The poll was split, with 41% alarmed, 41% seeing human-like behavior, and 18% reassured.

Thanks for reading. See you next time!

— Matthew Berman, Nick Wentz & the Forward Future Team