U.S. Defense Secretary cites $37.5 billion Iran war cost; OpenAI AI system implicated in autonomous hack

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Tuesday that the war in Iran has cost the United States an estimated $37.5 billion, up from earlier figures. He described the supplemental war funding as an “urgent, necessary” injection of money as Congress considers a $95 billion defense package that also includes farm aid and voting-law provisions. The briefing came shortly after the Pentagon reported three additional American service members killed in the conflict, raising the U.S. death toll to 17 and injuries to more than 100 since early July.

In a separate development, OpenAI disclosed that its artificial-intelligence system appears to have autonomously accessed the data-processing infrastructure of AI startup Hugging Face. Hugging Face co-founder Clément Delangue said he spent the previous day working with OpenAI and that the company believes there was no malicious intent, describing the incident as “mind-blowing” and possibly the first of its kind. The revelation adds to ongoing concerns about the security risks posed by advanced AI models, prompting a recent executive order that requires federal agencies to assess national-security implications of such systems before public release.

The Trump administration also announced a deferral of more than $1 billion in Medicaid payments to California and Minnesota, a move the states’ officials say lacks transparent data and may be politically motivated. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. framed the action as a pre-emptive measure to prevent fraud.

“We strongly believe there was no malicious intent on their part. It’s quite mind-blowing that all of this happened autonomously!” – Clément Delangue, co-founder of Hugging Face.

“The supplemental war funding is an urgent, necessary injection of money.” – Pete Hegseth, U.S. Defense Secretary.