Main by morning: court overturns ban on Anthropic, UAE ready to go to Strait of Hormuz

A court in the U.S. has blocked an attempt by U.S. authorities to restrict Anthropic's work. The UAE is promoting an international naval coalition to protect shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, where Iranian attacks have almost halted traffic, increasing risks to global oil supplies and supply chains. On these and other topics - in our review of key events for the morning of March 27.

A federal judge in San Francisco granted Anthropic's request for a preliminary injunction and partially halted the U.S. administration from enforcing a directive to stop using its AI and limiting the Pentagon's attempts to recognize the company as a threat to national security, CNBC reports. The court cited a possible violation of free speech.

Anthropic is challenging the inclusion on a list of "supply chain risks" previously applied to foreign businesses. The conflict stems from disagreements with the US Department of Defense over the terms of use of AI, including a refusal to allow the technology to be used for autonomous weapons and mass surveillance. At the same time, the final decision may take months, the TV channel points out.

The UAE has told allies it is ready to participate in an international maritime mission to ensure passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz and is lobbying for a broad coalition with a possible UN Security Council mandate, the Financial Times reports. Abu Dhabi is considering sending its fleet, hardening its stance on Iran amid attacks that have virtually halted traffic along a key route for global oil and gas supplies.

This initiative was supported only by Bahrain, while other countries of the region and US allies did not come to a unified position. Analysts believe that it is impossible to restore navigation without military escort as long as Iran uses the strait as an instrument of pressure, the newspaper said.

OpenAI's ChatGPT advertising pilot has surpassed $100 million in annual revenue in less than two months after launching in the U.S., CNBC reports. The company has begun testing ads among free users and Go subscribers, has already partnered with more than 600 advertisers and claims no negative impact on trust and privacy.

Ads are placed below responses, do not affect them, and are excluded for minors and sensitive topics. While about 85% of users can see the ads, less than 20% are shown daily. OpenAI is intentionally rolling out the project slowly to refine the format before scaling.

Anthropic is considering going public as early as October and is in preliminary talks with major Wall Street banks, Bloomberg writes. The potential valuation of the offering may exceed $60 bln, with no decisions made yet.

The company, previously valued at $380 billion and backed by Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Nvidia, has been aggressively growing its business and infrastructure, including investments in data centers.

- Japan's broad Topix index was up 0.3 percent, while the Nikkei 225 was down 0.1 percent.

- Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index was up 0.6 percent, while mainland China's CSI 300 Index was up 0.4 percent.

- In South Korea, the Kospi index was down 0.4%, while the Kosdaq was up 0.14%.

- Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was down 0.1 percent.

- S&P 500 futures, Nasdaq Composite futures and Dow Jones Industrial Average exchange-traded contracts rose 0.5 percent.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor