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AI just keeps outperforming expectations. A whirlwind afternoon of major AI industry developments made headlines yesterday showing how blazingly fast the technology is improving—in ways that are upending the world.

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The biggest: OpenAI announced that one of its regular AI models solved a math puzzle that had puzzled experts for 80 years.

• The problem, created by famous mathematician Paul Erdős in 1946, asked a simple-sounding question: If you place dots on a flat surface, what’s the most number of pairs of dots you can have that are exactly the same distance apart (like exactly 1 inch)?
• Mathematicians have long thought the best answer was something close to a straight-line growth—basically using a grid pattern. But in an over-100-page proof drawing on sophisticated algebraic number theory, the AI found a much smarter way that enabled far more matching pairs than anyone expected.
• Top mathematicians were dumbfounded by its ingenuity and originality. Fields medalist Tim Gowers (the Fields Medal is the Nobel Prize for math) said the paper “demonstrates that current AI models go beyond just helpers to human mathematicians—they are capable of having original ingenious ideas and then carrying them out to fruition.”

The implications are profound. High-level mathematical research is something long considered a pinnacle of human intellect, and suddenly AI is joining the club.

• This could dramatically accelerate discovery in physics, biology and other sciences. It also raises urgent questions about whether it’s possible to harness such runaway capabilities.

Meanwhile, more headlines within just two hours yesterday showed how exploding AI demand is enriching these monster companies—as it redefines and decimates existing industries:

• Anthropic said it’s making billions in revenue and expects to turn a profit two years sooner than expected.
• SpaceX filed for its ipo, and the paperwork revealed the company’s evolution into a major AI infrastructure player. Anthropic committed $1.25 billion a month through 2029 for access to SpaceX’s Colossus supercomputing cluster.
• nvidia, the company making the chips that power most AI hardware, reported a jaw-dropping $81.6 billion in sales for the quarter.
• President Trump brought Elon Musk, Sam Altman, Dario Amodei and other top AI leaders to Washington for his signing of an executive order today establishing a framework for how the government will work with these powerful new AI systems.

AI is creating new science, consuming and generating embarrassing sums of money for a privileged minority, using unfathomable computing power, and consuming the attention of world leaders.

And most Americans—about 70 percent—fear it’s all moving too fast. Little wonder:

• Companies are folding. Jobs are being lost—hitting white-collar and blue-collar roles alike. Whole industries face extinction and are having to reinvent themselves on the fly to survive.
• Beyond economics, many express deeper unease about AI eroding human creativity, meaningful relationships and critical thinking. Then there are concerns over privacy, misinformation, deadly military applications and more.

Nobody knows where this path leads. But we’re sprinting down it, we know we’re going faster than we can handle, and apparently nothing can stop it.

Herbert W. Armstrong wrote about the staggering advancement in the 20th century of technological capability. But in Mystery of the Ages, he spoke of its paradoxical counterpart:

… alarming escalation of appalling evils, crime and violence and the crucible of nuclear war develop to threaten the very extinction of the human race within the present living generation. These conditions and facts are indeed mysteries that have remained unsolved and now need to be explained.

AI is bringing incredible advances. But because we have failed to address our most fundamental issues—our relationship with God and fellow man—these advances are destined to bring with them great evil.

History shows every advance has brought colossal evil, greater divisions and greater dangers—even to the point of threatening human existence.

Iran War Update

• Iran is rapidly rebuilding its drone program, cnn reported today. According to “sources familiar with U.S. intelligence assessments,” Iran could fully replenish its drone stockpiles to prewar levels in half a year. The cnn report claimed Iran is rebuilding its missile capabilities faster than the United States was expecting.
• The world could have a food price shock within 12 months due to Iran blocking the Strait of Hormuz, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization reported yesterday. The blockage stops not only oil and gas shipments but also one third of the world’s fertilizer trade.

U.S. Indicts Raúl Castro for Murder

A U.S. court indicted former Cuban President Raúl Castro yesterday for his alleged role in the 1996 downing of two civilian planes belonging to Brothers to the Rescue, a Miami-based group of Cuban exiles.

• In the indictment from a Florida grand jury, announced in Miami by acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche, Castro faces one count of conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals, one count of destruction of aircraft, and four counts of murder.

Castro was Cuba’s defense minister in 1996 when Cuban military jets shot down two civilian planes flying over the Florida Straits on February 24.

• According to U.S. leaders, including Florida Rep. Carlos Giménez, the order came directly from Castro. Blanche said the four victims—all Americans—were unarmed civilians trying to help others escape oppression.

Florida leaders welcomed the news. Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said there can be no free Cuba while the Castro family retains power and influence.

• President Donald Trump also praised the indictment, saying Cuban-Americans had waited decades for justice after years of suffering under the Communist regime.

The Trump administration is increasing economic and political pressure on Communist Cuba in an overt effort to push for regime change.

• Giménez said Cuba is approaching its “Berlin Wall moment.”

The late Herbert W. Armstrong said for decades that the Berlin Wall would fall and Germany would reunite, basing this seemingly unlikely forecast on Bible prophecies about a future revived Holy Roman Empire in Europe. Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry has made similar Bible-based forecasts about Cuba.

• In a 2015 article, shortly after the U.S. and Cuba restored diplomatic ties under President Barack Obama, Mr. Flurry noted that Cuba had been Catholic for nearly 500 years and suggested that Roman Catholic influence there endures, even under communism. He suggested the political situation could change quickly in Communist Cuba after the deaths or retirement of Fidel and Raúl Castro.

Fidel Castro died in 2016, and Raúl later stepped down. Analysts say Venezuelan oil has helped keep the Communist Party in power, but that support is now weakening under U.S. pressure. Many believe regime change could be coming.

The Bible reveals what may happen next. A revived Holy Roman Empire is going to economically besiege the United States, and prophecy shows that Cuba is likely to become an important part of that siege.

Fighting Illegal Flotilla, Israel Gives Itself a Black Eye

An Israeli official yesterday posted demeaning videos of international activists in Israeli custody. The videos generated international outcry, another strike against Israel’s already-stained international reputation.

• The videos posted by Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir show the activists—about 430 of them from several countries, part of a Spain-based flotilla to Gaza that Israel’s maritime blockade interdicted—crouching in fetal position with their hands zip-tied while Ben-Gvir jeers at them. One shows a female being forcefully shoved to the ground while Ben-Gvir smiles.

Australia, Canada, France and several other European nations have summoned Israel’s ambassadors and chargés d’affaires over the videos. Italy has asked the European Union to sanction Ben-Gvir over the incident.

• The videos have been controversial even within the Israeli government. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar both condemned Ben-Gvir’s antics.

As ugly as Ben-Gvir’s actions were, the flotilla was literally trying to publicly violate international borders to send supplies to a territory partially controlled by a terror group known for stealing and weaponizing such supplies.

• Spain has repeatedly allowed such flotillas to depart from its ports for this purpose, as a weapon against Israel, with far less international scrutiny or condemnation.
• The activists likely knew they would be intercepted and wanted to create an incident that made Israel look bad. Ben-Gvir foolishly furthered this goal.

The flotilla issue is part of a wider trend of Spain delegitimizing Israel because of Israel’s Palestinian policy. It won’t be the last.

IN OTHER NEWS

Germany ensures control over multinational defense company: The German government plans to buy 40 percent of tank manufacturer knds’s shares when they are publicly listed this summer, a German government source said in a report published Wednesday. That stake will equal France’s and will ensure the German government’s control over ongoing European military development.

Is Belarus preparing to invade Ukraine? Ukraine is reinforcing its northern border against a potential Russian invasion from a third country, Belarus, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy posted to social media yesterday. Though an invasion from Russia-dominated Belarus remains unlikely according to experts, expanding the invasion and involving Belarus will further motivate European militarization.

Downed drone contains high levels of radiation: Increased levels of radiation were found at the wreckage of a Russian drone shot down during an April 7 attack, according to reports from the Security Service of Ukraine published yesterday. According to the Security Service, the levels of low-enriched uranium at the site were significant enough to endanger human health. Ukrainian authorities are pursuing a war crimes investigation. This is an example of Russia’s ruthlessness, which will continue to worsen.

Europe and China launch smile: On Tuesday, the European Space Agency and the Chinese Academy of Sciences launched the Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer (smile) mission from French Guiana. smile analyzes solar and geomagnetic storms to help predict them and protect technology and astronauts from space weather. The U.S. has dominated space exploration in recent decades, but biblical prophecy shows that Europe and China will form an alliance to the detriment of the U.S., which will likely include meeting and surpassing American space capabilities.