Benjamin Guggenheim is a Washington-based journalist at the Washington Post who authors the AI & Tech Brief for WP Intelligence, the Post's subscription service for professionals covering AI policy, innovation, and geopolitics. WP Intelligence describes the newsletter as a daily analysis of "how the power dynamics in Silicon Valley and Washington are shaping AI" (Source: wpintelligence.washingtonpost.com). He joined WP Intelligence in February 2026 from Politico's Congress team (Source: talkingbiznews.com).
| Role | Journalist and newsletter author |
| Affiliation | WP Intelligence, Washington Post (from February 2026) |
| Previous roles | Congress and tax policy reporter, Politico; Congress reporter, Tax Notes; coordinator on the New York Times COVID-19 tracking team |
| Contact | Benjamin.Guggenheim@washpost.com; Signal: ben_guggenheim.88 |
Background
Guggenheim covered Congress at Politico, breaking news on health, tax and tech policy with a focus on investigations into lobbying and influence behind legislation. He also reported on tax policy at Politico and at the trade publication Tax Notes, where he covered the U.S. Tax Court. Earlier he worked on the New York Times coronavirus project, which won a Pulitzer Prize. He received the National Press Foundation's Everett McKinley Dirksen Award for Distinguished Reporting of Congress in 2024 for an investigation into the lobbying forces that shaped the 401(k) retirement system, and was a finalist for the 2025 Livingston Award for journalists under 35. He holds a degree in international relations from Brown University (Source: wpintelligence.washingtonpost.com; talkingbiznews.com).
Work
Guggenheim writes the AI & Tech Brief newsletter for WP Intelligence, which covers AI regulation, industry lobbying, and national security. The newsletter is a primary source for developments at the intersection of AI regulation, industry lobbying, and national security. WP Intelligence describes his coverage as spanning the geopolitics of compute, AI infrastructure, capital flows, labor displacement and business deployment of AI. The newsletter states that WP Intelligence operates independently of the Washington Post newsroom (Source: wpintelligence.washingtonpost.com; washingtonpost.com).
"The Power of Mythos"
"The Power of Mythos" (April 8, 2026) addressed the cybersecurity implications of Mythos, attacker-defender asymmetry, and the tension between Anthropic and the Department of War (called the Defense Department in the edition). The edition argued that Anthropic's decision to restrict its Mythos model to a small group of companies under Project Glasswing, including Amazon Web Services, Nvidia and Palo Alto Networks, marked a shift in which private companies, rather than governments, set the norms for the most capable models. It quoted Dmitri Alperovitch of Silverado Policy Accelerator, who said Mythos showed why the U.S. must stay ahead of China and predicted a 12- to 18-month window of easily found vulnerabilities, and Caleb Withers of the Center for a New American Security, who said the restricted release model "will be here to stay". Withers also said Anthropic's designation as a supply-chain risk could affect intelligence agencies' and CISA's ability to evaluate the model (see Anthropic v. United States (Pentagon ban challenge)). On attacker-defender balance, the edition wrote that the advantage appeared to have shifted to attackers and cited Bruce Schneier's doubt that AI will patch vulnerabilities as easily as it finds them. It also covered a WP Intelligence health report on physicians' reliance on AI eroding diagnostic skills (Source: washingtonpost.com). See Claude Mythos Preview.
"Radical Activists and AI Safety"
"Radical Activists and AI Safety" (April 13, 2026) covered violence against AI figures, the xAI Colorado lawsuit, OpenAI's Illinois lobbying, the AI First Amendment debate, and Ballard Partners. It reported on two attacks in three days on the San Francisco home of Sam Altman and a shooting at an Indianapolis councilman's home where a "No Data Centers" note was left, and on industry and safety advocates blaming one another. It quoted Tyler Johnston of the Midas Project on PauseAI activists' beliefs. It described state-level fights: xAI's First Amendment suit against Colorado's AI law (xAI LLC v. Weiser (challenging the Colorado AI Act); Colorado AI Act (SB 24-205)), and OpenAI's support for Illinois legislation shielding frontier labs from liability for "critical harms" of at least $1 billion in damages or 100 or more deaths or serious injuries (Illinois SB 3444 — Artificial Intelligence Safety Act). It also reported Ballard Partners' registration to lobby for Anthropic, the American Innovators Network's growth to more than 30 partner companies under new executive director Jeremy Kudon, and competing positions on whether AI model outputs are protected speech, citing David Sacks and Brad Carson of Public First (Source: washingtonpost.com). See AI and the First Amendment.
Relationships
- related: Claude Mythos Preview, Project Glasswing: Securing Critical Software for the AI Era — subject of the April 8, 2026 edition
- related: xAI LLC v. Weiser (challenging the Colorado AI Act), Illinois SB 3444 — Artificial Intelligence Safety Act, AI and the First Amendment, American Innovators Network (AIN) — subjects of the April 13, 2026 edition
- related: Center for a New American Security (CNAS), Anthropic v. United States (Pentagon ban challenge)