Here’s what’s happening in tech..

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The US military used Anthropic's Claude during a strike on Iran last weekend, and many users had no idea that the apps on their phones had become part of a Pentagon deal. That came after the two had a public split. Anthropic said no to open military access. Within hours, OpenAI moved in with its own deal. Then the backlash hit. CEO Sam Altman called the move rushed and sloppy, but said he would add safeguards.

Here is what that means for you.

Elon Musk's xAI now has access to classified Pentagon networks. Google has been a defense partner for years. Meta supports military work through outside contractors. What started as separate industries’ has been merging in the background, and people are only now starting to notice. Those two things are no longer separate.

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Your bank is about to start selling you Bitcoin. No more jumping between apps, just buy straight from your checking account. SoFi is already doing it, Morgan Stanley is close behind, and over half of US banks are getting ready to follow.

But before you tap the buy button, there is something worth knowing.

When you buy crypto through a bank, the bank holds it for you rather than putting it in a wallet you own. All customer crypto gets pooled into one account the bank owns. That means:

A self-custody wallet changes all of that. When you hold your own keys, nobody can lock you out or take your crypto without your say so.

Cameras, microphones, and license plate readers are working together to build a detailed picture of who you are and where you go.

A company called Leonardo makes license plate readers small enough to hide inside traffic barrels and toolboxes. When your car passes one, it does not just scan your plate. It picks up the signal from every device in your car, including your phone, your smartwatch, your laptop, and even a chipped pet.

A bill moving through Florida right now would let the state use this kind of data to flag people whose views are considered a threat. The bill does not list which views qualify.

Your data is worth a lot. Every piece of information about you, your location, what you buy, who you talk to, is being collected, repackaged, and sold. Companies profit billions, while you get nothing.

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OpenAI added an image editing feature to ChatGPT that lets you reimagine your own photos using plain language descriptions. You upload a photo, type what you want, and the tool handles the rest. There are preset styles to get you started, but you can also describe something completely original.

A few things you can try:

The feature is built directly into ChatGPT, so there is nothing extra to download or sign up for. For anyone who wants creative photo edits without learning design software, this is about as low a barrier as it gets.

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A chain of hotels in Tokyo called Henna Hotel has been running almost entirely on robots since 2015, and it is one of the more unusual travel experiences you can have right now. Guests check in at a front desk staffed by animatronic dinosaurs, receive their room key from a machine, and can even order late-night snacks delivered to their door by a wheeled robot. Some rooms come with a small personal robot named RoBoHon that acts as a concierge and can tell jokes, check the weather, and even dance on request.

Not every robot in Tokyo is fully autonomous though. Nearby cafés are using telepresence robots, which are machines controlled in real time by people who cannot leave their homes due to illness or disability. Those people get to take orders, chat with customers from around the world, and hold down a job they otherwise could not. What makes this more than a novelty is how it signals where hospitality tech is heading. Automated check-in, in-room AI assistants, and robot delivery have moved well past the concept stage and are already running in real hotels. Japan has been building this infrastructure for years, and the rest of the world is just starting to catch up.