Anthropic announced a significant upgrade to the free tier of its Claude chatbot, adding file creation tools, third‑party connectors, and custom skills. The enhancements let free users generate and edit Excel spreadsheets, PowerPoint decks, Word documents, and PDFs, and link the assistant to services such as Canva, Slack, Notion, Zapier, and PayPal. Additional improvements include longer conversation windows, interactive responses, and better voice and image search. Anthropic framed the rollout as a direct response to OpenAI’s plan to introduce ads for free ChatGPT users, emphasizing that Claude will remain ad‑free. Read more →

Anthropic announced that its AI chatbot Claude will remain free of advertisements, drawing a clear line from rival OpenAI, which recently began testing banner ads in its free tier. The company emphasized that ads would conflict with Claude's purpose as a helpful assistant for work and deep thinking. Anthropic highlighted this stance in a Super Bowl commercial that lampooned AI assistants that insert product pitches into conversations. The move comes amid growing competition between the two firms, especially in AI coding tools where Anthropic's Claude Code is gaining traction among developers. Read more →

Google announced that its AI chatbot Gemini has reached 750 million monthly active users, marking a rapid surge in consumer adoption. The growth follows a prior count of 650 million users and positions Gemini ahead of Meta AI’s reported user base, though still behind ChatGPT’s estimated figures. The milestone coincides with the launch of Gemini 3, a new model touted for deeper, more nuanced responses, and the recent introduction of the Google AI Plus subscription plan. Executives highlighted the role of AI in driving broader company performance and competitive positioning in the market. Read more →

Several senior researchers have left OpenAI, citing limited resources and a strategic shift toward ChatGPT and other large‑language‑model products. Departures include a leader of reasoning research, a model‑policy head, and an economist, each describing challenges in pursuing broader scientific work. The exits highlight internal tensions between pure research and product‑centric goals, while investors remain confident that OpenAI’s massive user base provides a competitive edge despite the staffing changes. Read more →

Anthropic has appointed Irina Ghose, a former Microsoft India managing director, to head its India operations as the AI startup prepares to open an office in Bengaluru. The move highlights India's growing importance as a market for generative AI, with Anthropic seeking to deepen enterprise and developer adoption of its Claude model. Ghose brings more than two decades of big‑tech experience and local relationships, positioning Anthropic to compete with rivals such as OpenAI, which is also expanding its presence in the country. The hiring underscores Anthropic's push to translate strong user growth in India into sustainable revenue. Read more →

Anthropic announced a reshuffle of its executive team, moving Instagram co‑founder Mike Krieger from chief product officer to co‑lead its internal incubator, the Labs team, alongside Ben Mann. The company plans to double the size of the Labs group within six months, aiming to accelerate experimental AI product development. President Daniela Amodei highlighted the rapid pace of AI advancement as the reason for a new organizational approach. The shift comes amid intensifying competition among AI startups and tech giants, and Anthropic is reportedly preparing a major fundraising round. Read more →

OpenAI is reportedly in talks to raise up to $100 billion in a new funding round that could value the ChatGPT maker at as much as $830 billion, according to the Wall Street Journal. The company aims to secure the capital by the end of the first quarter of next year and may seek investments from sovereign wealth funds. The infusion would support OpenAI’s accelerating spend on inferencing and compute, while the firm faces heightened competition from rivals such as Anthropic and Google amid a broader cooling of investor sentiment toward AI spending. Read more →

OpenAI introduced GPT-Image-1.5, a new AI image model that is four times faster than its predecessor and offers improved instruction following, editing tools, and legible text generation. The model is now accessible to all ChatGPT users worldwide through a dedicated sidebar space and is also available via API. The rollout comes as OpenAI competes with other advanced image generators, including Google's Nano Banana Pro, and follows recent partnership announcements with Disney. Read more →

OpenAI has introduced GPT Image 1.5, a new version of its ChatGPT image generation tool that promises faster performance, better instruction following, and more precise editing controls. The model is now available to all ChatGPT users and via API. Its rollout follows an internal “code red” memo that highlighted a competitive push against Google’s Gemini series and Nano Banana Pro, which have recently outperformed OpenAI on benchmark leaderboards. GPT Image 1.5 builds on the earlier GPT Image 1 release, adding granular post‑production features and a redesigned creative‑studio interface within the ChatGPT sidebar. Read more →

OpenAI has released GPT-Image Model 1.5, an upgraded AI image generator that is four times faster than its predecessor and offers improved instruction following, editing tools, and legible text generation. The new model is accessible to all ChatGPT users via a dedicated sidebar space and is also available through the API. Its debut comes amid heightened competition with Google’s Gemini 3 and follows OpenAI’s recent partnership with Disney to incorporate iconic characters into future image and video offerings. Read more →

OpenAI has launched a new version of its ChatGPT Images tool that is four times faster than the previous model and offers sharper instruction following. The update brings stronger capabilities for adding, subtracting, blending and transposing visual elements, as well as improved handling of dense and small text. A dedicated Images section now appears in the ChatGPT sidebar, providing preset filters and prompt ideas. The upgrade arrives amid rising usage of Google’s Gemini chatbot, positioning OpenAI’s visual generation as a key differentiator for its growing user base. Read more →

OpenAI announced that it is rolling back the automated model router for users on its Free and $5‑a‑month Go tiers. The change returns these users to the default GPT‑5.2 Instant model, while still allowing manual selection of advanced reasoning models. The decision follows user feedback indicating a preference for the simpler default chat flow, and comes amid heightened competition from rivals such as Google Gemini and ongoing safety enhancements. Paid subscribers will continue to have access to the model router. Read more →

Runway announced its new GWM-1 "world model" technology, asserting it can maintain coherent output for minutes at a time. The company framed the model as a step toward unifying diverse domains and action spaces under a single base system. While highlighting potential uses in film, television, advertising, robotics, physics and life‑science research, Runway also disclosed a partnership with CoreWeave that will employ Nvidia GB300 NVL72 racks for training and inference. The move positions Runway in a competitive AI arena where larger tech firms also pursue similar capabilities. Read more →

OpenAI introduced its newest foundation model, GPT-5.2, positioning it as the most advanced offering for developers and professional users. The launch comes as the company faces heightened competition from Google’s Gemini 3 and internal pressure highlighted by a recent “code red” memo from CEO Sam Altman. GPT-5.2 is available in three variants—Instant, Thinking, and Pro—each tailored to speed, complex reasoning, or maximum accuracy. OpenAI emphasizes gains in coding, math, long‑context reasoning, and tool use, while also noting a surge in enterprise adoption and significant infrastructure commitments. Read more →

OpenAI announced the release of GPT-5.2, its most advanced model to date, as part of a company‑wide “code red” effort to strengthen ChatGPT against mounting competition from rivals like Google. The new series includes Instant, Thinking and Pro tiers, each tuned for speed, coding and high‑accuracy tasks. GPT-5.2 shows notable gains on the GDPval benchmark, beating human professionals on a majority of tasks, and reduces hallucinations by a reported 38 percent. OpenAI also highlighted new safeguards for mental‑health‑sensitive prompts and plans for an “adult mode” later next year. Read more →

OpenAI's dominance in the generative‑AI market has waned as competitors such as Google, Anthropic and DeepSeek have introduced new models that outpace its latest release, GPT‑5. The company, led by Sam Altman, has responded with accelerated development and internal restructuring, but analysts note that its reliance on external funding and costly infrastructure deals leaves it vulnerable. While ChatGPT still draws hundreds of millions of users, the rapid growth of rival platforms and the escalating cost of AI‑related hardware have intensified a "code red" atmosphere within OpenAI. Read more →

At Fortune’s AI Brainstorm conference, Cursor co‑founder and CEO Michael Truell said the company has no near‑term IPO plans and is instead concentrating on expanding its product suite. He highlighted the rollout of home‑grown large language models, a shift to a usage‑based pricing model that passes API fees directly to customers, and new cost‑management tools for enterprises. Truell also outlined future priorities, including more complex agentic functions such as automated bug fixing and a deeper focus on serving whole development teams. He positioned these moves as a way to stay competitive amid growing AI coding‑assistant rivals. Read more →

OpenAI has accelerated the launch of GPT‑5.2, labeling the effort a “code red” to regain performance ground after Google’s Gemini 3 outperformed its models in recent tests. The update focuses on core improvements—speed, reasoning, and reliability—rather than new flashy features. CEO Sam Altman and other insiders say the rollout, originally slated for later in the month, is now targeted for early December. By prioritizing raw performance, OpenAI aims to restore ChatGPT’s lead in everyday usability and reassure users that the service remains the most dependable AI chatbot. Read more →

Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang cautioned that China can construct AI data centers and even hospitals far faster than the United States, citing the country's expansive energy resources and swift construction capabilities. At the same time, a report from OpenRouter and Andreessen Horowitz shows Chinese open‑source large language models now account for roughly 30% of global AI token usage, up from just over 1% a year earlier. While Huang affirmed Nvidia’s chip technology remains ahead of China, the rapid growth of Chinese AI models and the nation’s infrastructure advantages highlight an intensifying competitive landscape. Read more →

In a week‑long AI‑only poker showdown, OpenAI’s o3 model emerged victorious, out‑earning the other eight large‑language‑model competitors. The contest featured nine chatbots—including Anthropic’s Claude Sonnet 4.5, X.ai’s Grok, Google’s Gemini 2.5 Pro, Meta’s Llama 4, DeepSeek R1, Moonshot’s Kimi K2, Mistral’s Magistral, and Z.AI’s GLM 4.6—playing thousands of hands of no‑limit Texas hold ’em at $10 and $20 tables with $100,000 bankrolls each. While the bots displayed strong strategic play, they struggled with bluffing, position, and basic math, highlighting both progress and lingering gaps in AI decision‑making under uncertainty. Read more →