The piece frames Taiwan’s digital sovereignty debate through war and earthquake scenarios. It challenges the assumption that keeping infrastructure on premises automatically means safety. In an era of rising compute demands, the core issue for public agencies is not only where systems are hosted, but whether essential national services can survive physical disruption and continue operating under extreme conditions.
Nathan Lambert argues that 2026 AI progress is becoming higher-stakes, with model capabilities, work patterns, economics, and real-world risks all escalating. He says open models still lack a true Claude Code and Opus 4.5-style agent moment, and Gemini has no clear competitor to Claude Code or Codex yet. The essay also tracks Mythos, American open-model momentum, frontier-lab competition, and mounting intervention from governments and other power structures.
The White House and Congress are alarmed that US intelligence agencies are lagging in deploying classified AI tools due to a severe compute shortage. To address this, a $9 billion funding package has been allocated for the CIA and NSA. This capital aims to secure advanced chips and build the infrastructure needed to run next-generation AI models.