Mashadipati: The April Issue: War and AI

Today, Businessweek Daily offers a special edition featuring stories from the April issue of the magazine, available online now. Bloomberg Businessweek Editor Brad Stone is here with a preview. If you like what you see, tell your friends to sign up for the newsletter here. Or tell us what you like. You can also subscribe to get the print edition.

Over the weekend, a significant piece of inside baseball emerged from the Pentagon: It was formalizing Maven Smart System, the military's artificial-intelligence-infused command-and-control platform, and will turn it into a so-called program of record inside the Department of Defense.

That dryly technical designation means that the Palantir-made AI mission control platform will receive the "funding and resourcing necessary" for development and integration and for commanders to fight and win wars, Deputy Defense Secretary Steve Feinberg wrote in a memo, according to my Bloomberg News colleague Katrina Manson. More simply: The age of AI warfare is undeniably here. The system, which is designed to ingest battlefield data like drone and satellite surveillance footage with the help of computer vision and to aid commanders with everything from planning logistics to selecting bombing targets, will soon be coming to every corner of the US military apparatus.

That quickly materializing future of AI war-making is on the cover of April's issue of Bloomberg Businessweek. The story is adapted from Manson's extraordinarily timely book, Project Maven: A Marine Colonel, His Team, and the Dawn of AI Warfare, which also publishes today. The article and the book trace the history of a controversial military undertaking, designed with the help of Silicon Valley, to analyze massive amounts of data and, in the unnerving parlance of the military, to "speed up the kill chain." You can read the story here (free!) or listen to it here.

That's a lot of responsibility for a nascent field whose technology still seems to periodically hallucinate incorrect random facts. Katrina's work shows the development has been anything but smooth, and that's playing out now in the skies over Iran and the waters below. The US hasn't said whether AI may have played a role in its errant and tragic bombing of an Iranian elementary school. But one thing seems clearer: AI that can help hit thousands of targets quickly may also have given the US and Israeli generals overconfidence in planning what is shaping up to be another protracted and costly Middle East war.

Elsewhere in the April issue, we look at the new rules of retirement (the biggest flex may be never retiring at all) and bring together five accomplished Black business leaders for a frank discussion about the rollback in DEI initiatives across the country. Our 45-minute video special on the discussion, led by Bloomberg Television anchor Romaine Bostick, is not to be missed.

Keep reading: 'God, It's Terrifying': How the Pentagon Got Hooked on AI War Machines (🎁)

In This Issue

'They've Stolen the Narrative': Black Business Leaders on the DEI Backlash

Bloomberg Businessweek convened five prominent Black executives to candidly discuss navigating the White House, rollbacks in access and the current American mood.

James Patterson at his home in Palm Beach.

Along Came an Influencer: How America's Bestselling Writer Became MrBeast's Co-Author

After decades atop the thriller game, James Patterson is fending off waning sales by doubling down on collaborations—and dabbling in romantasy too.

How Covid Quietly Rewires the Brain

Researchers keep discovering more about the long-term neurological effects of SARS-CoV-2.

How Eric Trump Became an Ally of One of China's Biggest Crypto Companies

Bitmain has been dogged for years by questions about the security of its mining rigs. But that hasn't stopped it from going into business with a key member of the First Family.

Jeffrey Friedman. Photo illustration: Allison DeBritz; Photographer: Rick Friedman/Getty Images

Why the Epstein Files Fallout Keeps Growing

Business leaders have blamed a range of villains for public anger toward the status quo, but it's past time they take some responsibility.

Peter Attia. Photo Illustration: Allison Debritz; Photos: Alamy; Getty Images; Oura

Peter Attia's Longevity Empire Rocked by Epstein Files

Attia built his brand on trust and credibility. The revelation of a yearslong relationship with Jeffrey Epstein has upended that.

In Context

Iran War Is Good for America's Natural Gas Industry

Apple's Heir Apparent Steps Into the Spotlight

China's Gen Z Day Traders Trust in Chatbots and Move Markets

The Buyers Behind Gold's $5,000 Breakthrough

Small Businesses Are Pushing Back Against Private Equity

Architect Bjarke Ingels Says Modern Buildings Are So Boring

In View

Trump's Tariffs Will Loom Large Over the Midterms, Whatever Happens in Iran

US history shows that duties have a way of boomeranging back on their backers at election time.

AI and Power Looms: Stories About Job-Killing Tech Have a Way of Going Viral

Investors can't resist a good narrative about the futility of human labor.

Curiosity Gap: The Trump Administration Turns a Blind Eye to White-Collar Crime

The failure to prosecute elite wrongdoing is a bipartisan trend that's hastening under Trump.

We're All Just 'Monitoring the Situation'

Vibe-coded dashboards elevate the online news scroll to a different level.

Field Day: The Real March Madness Is the Corporate Race to Ink Viral Stars

In this peculiar corner of the influencer economy, speed is what wins.

B-Schools

Why MBA Tuition Keeps Rising

The Programs That Deliver the Most for Less

Rising Competition Means More Business School Scholarships

How Trump's Immigration Policies Are Remaking US B-Schools

Retirement

The Secrets to Retirement Success

When the Best Retirement Is No Retirement at All

Will I Get My Full Social Security Benefits? Definitely, Maybe

Beware the Retirement Red Zone That Can Derail Your Savings Plan

American Retirees Want to Leave the Country. Italy and Costa Rica Are Happy to Have Them

We Kinda Messed Up Our Retirement

Pursuits

Snyder in front of archive fabrics at the Lyria mill in Tuscany.

There's a Sweet Spot in Menswear Today. Todd Snyder Is Designing for It

As European luxury prices skyrocket and fatigue sets in with the high-fashion set, Snyder's moderate approach and price point feel increasingly prescient. Did you know his clothes are made in Italy too?

A Fish and Chat meetup hosted by Cast a Thought at Mousehole Lakes in Kent, England.

The Doctor Will Send You Fishing Now

As health-care systems around the world come under strain, physicians are turning to a much older form of social medicine.

My $812 Night Out Started and Ended in a Movie Theater

Inside the Metro, where oysters, Negronis and heated recliners turn filmgoing into an exclusive dinner party, for better and worse.

Christies Koch Estate Cellar Palm Beach Photographer: William Jess Laird

A Glut of Old Fine Wines Is Available for the Drinking Now

Skip buying young and cellaring. Aged wine by the bottle and the glass is more accessible than ever.

Feet Pics, Costumes and Creeps: A New Show Explores the OnlyFans Economy

In David E. Kelley's new Apple TV series, Margo's Got Money Troubles, a young mother learns the strange economics of building a following on OnlyFans.