The American Conservative

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met in Mecca on August 7 to sign the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement. Pakistan’s foreign ministry described the pact as treating an attack on one signatory as an attack on all, with the stated goal of collective deterrence. Turkish President Erdogan separately indicated that Egypt could join the arrangement.

Anthropic declined to sign an open letter supporting permissive policies on open-weight AI models, citing public safety and catastrophe risks. Reports indicate multiple AI firms have cut book spines to facilitate training data acquisition, while Elon Musk stated xAI would scan books without destruction. These developments have drawn varied interpretations across political perspectives regarding industry practices and model governance.