Leading artificial‑intelligence companies including OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Mistral and several cloud and semiconductor firms have partnered with Paris‑based incubator Station F to launch F/ai, a new accelerator for European AI startups. The three‑month program, run twice a year, will support 20 early‑stage companies per cohort with a curriculum focused on rapid commercialization and will provide more than $1 million in credits for access to AI models, compute and other services. The initiative aims to help European founders bring revenue‑generating products to market faster and narrow the gap with U.S. and Chinese competitors. Read more →

Anthropic is in the final stages of raising a $20 billion capital infusion at a valuation of $350 billion, according to Bloomberg. Investor demand has pushed the company to seek twice the amount it originally targeted. The round includes participation from a range of venture firms and strategic partners, notably Nvidia and Microsoft, which are expected to provide the bulk of the funding. Anthropic recently rolled out new AI models for legal and business research and introduced coding agents that have been praised for boosting developer productivity. The fundraising effort comes amid intense competition among frontier AI labs and rising compute costs, with rivals like OpenAI also gearing up for large capital raises and potential IPOs. Read more →

Anthropic announced the release of Claude Opus 4.6, an enhanced version of its most powerful Claude model. The upgrade focuses on faster, more accurate coding and better handling of complex app tasks through a step‑by‑step reasoning approach. Opus 4.6 can self‑check its work and make multiple attempts without user prompts. The new model is available to paying Claude users on Pro, Max, Team and Enterprise plans, with the Pro tier priced at $20 per month (or $17 with annual billing). Smaller models such as Sonnet 4.5 and Haiku 4.5 remain in the lineup. Read more →

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg told investors that the company will begin shipping new AI models and products within months, with a focus on agentic shopping tools that leverage personal context. The rollout follows a 2025 rebuild of Meta's AI program and the recent acquisition of Manus, a general‑purpose agent developer. Meta also revealed a sizable increase in capital spending for 2026 to support its Superintelligence Labs and broader infrastructure, underscoring the firm’s commitment to AI‑driven commerce and personal superintelligence. Read more →

Aliisa Rosenthal, OpenAI’s first sales leader, has moved into venture capital as a general partner at Acrew Capital. Drawing on her experience scaling OpenAI’s enterprise sales organization, she aims to help AI startups build durable competitive advantages. Rosenthal highlights the importance of specialized context layers, affordable model alternatives, and application‑level innovation as key moat factors. She will tap her network of former OpenAI employees and enterprise buyers to identify and support promising companies. Read more →

Apple and Google have announced a multiyear partnership that will see Google's Gemini AI models underpin a more personalized version of Siri, slated for release in 2026. The agreement lets Apple use Gemini and Google Cloud to drive its upcoming frontier models and Apple Intelligence while keeping data on Apple devices and private cloud compute for privacy. Analysts note the deal continues Apple’s tradition of “co‑opetition” with Google, which already pays Apple for default search placement, and could give Google a larger AI footprint on iPhone users. Potential antitrust concerns have been raised, but the specifics of the technology exchange remain unclear. Read more →

Tech leaders are shifting artificial intelligence processing from cloud data centers to users' devices. On‑device AI promises faster response times, stronger privacy protection, and lower ongoing costs by eliminating the need for constant cloud compute. Companies such as Apple, Google, and Qualcomm are deploying specialized models and custom hardware to handle tasks like facial recognition, language summarization, and contextual assistance locally. While current models excel at quick tasks, more complex operations still rely on cloud offloading. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon highlight the trade‑offs and anticipate rapid advances in both hardware and algorithms over the next few years. Read more →

Disney has issued a cease-and-desist letter to Google, accusing the tech giant of massive copyright violations through its AI services. The letter claims Google’s models are free‑riding on Disney’s intellectual property and that the company has refused to adopt available technological safeguards. At the same time, Disney announced a $1 billion licensing agreement with OpenAI that permits the use of more than 200 of its iconic characters in AI‑generated images and videos. The contrasting approaches highlight Disney’s dual strategy of legal enforcement and selective partnership in the evolving AI landscape. Read more →

A side‑by‑side evaluation examined how three leading AI chat models—ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude—interpret complex images. The test used a bustling Times Square scene, Michelangelo’s densely populated "Last Judgment," and a cluttered indoor room to gauge each system’s ability to identify objects, read text, and describe spatial relationships. ChatGPT delivered careful, structured inventories, Gemini produced highly detailed, context‑rich descriptions, and Claude offered more narrative‑style overviews with occasional imaginative leaps. The findings highlight Gemini’s precision, ChatGPT’s reliability, and Claude’s creative flair, offering clear guidance for users seeking specific strengths in visual AI tasks. Read more →

Amazon Web Services announced a new generation of its Nova AI models—Nova 2 Lite, Nova 2 Pro, Nova 2 Sonic and Nova 2 Omni—alongside a Nova Forge service that lets enterprises build customized versions of the models. The launch, revealed at the AWS re:Invent keynote, expands Nova’s capabilities across text, image, video and speech tasks and offers a pathway for companies to train the models on proprietary data for a subscription fee. Read more →

OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman announced an internal “code red,” pausing projects such as ads, shopping, health agents, and the Pulse personal assistant to focus on boosting ChatGPT’s speed, reliability and personalization. The memo calls for daily calls and temporary team transfers to speed development. Meanwhile, Google, which launched its own “code red” after ChatGPT’s debut, sees its AI user base expand with tools like Nano Banana and its new Gemini 3 model, which outperforms rivals on several benchmarks. The parallel moves highlight a pivotal moment in the AI race, with both firms investing heavily to maintain leadership. Read more →

DeepSeek, the Hangzhou‑based artificial‑intelligence firm, announced the release of two new reasoning‑capable models, V3.2 and V3.2‑Speciale. V3.2 is now available through the company’s app and web platform, while V3.2‑Speciale is offered via API access only. The company claims the Speciale version surpasses Google’s Gemini 3.0 Pro and OpenAI’s GPT‑5 High on benchmark tests, positioning DeepSeek as a serious contender in the global AI race. Read more →

Quora's Poe app is adding group chat capabilities, allowing users worldwide to start conversations with up to 200 participants and collaborate with more than 200 AI models—ranging from text generators to image, video and audio tools—within a single thread. The rollout follows OpenAI's recent pilots of group chats for ChatGPT in several markets and is positioned as a step toward richer, collaborative AI experiences for families, friends and teams. Read more →

OpenAI has introduced two updated versions of its flagship model, GPT-5.1 Instant and GPT-5.1 Thinking, now available in ChatGPT. The rollout adds eight preset personality styles—Professional, Friendly, Candid, Quirky, Efficient, Cynical, Nerdy, and Default—and incorporates adaptive reasoning that lets the model allocate extra compute time when needed. OpenAI says the new models outperform previous versions on technical benchmarks such as AIME and Codeforces. The release follows user complaints about earlier model tone and comes amid heightened regulatory scrutiny. Paid subscribers receive access first, with broader availability and API integration planned shortly. Read more →

Creators are increasingly describing generative AI image and video models as having distinct “personalities,” referring to each model’s unique style, strengths, and preferred tasks. This emerging view helps artists select the right tool for specific projects, much like choosing a camera lens. By combining multiple models—such as Google’s Veo 3, Adobe’s Firefly, and Runway—creators achieve greater creative range and precision. The concept of model personalities is fluid, evolving with updates that improve performance and reduce errors. Overall, the shift underscores a growing reliance on AI tools while emphasizing the human creative vision that guides them. Read more →

Apple has agreed to partner with Google to develop a custom Gemini AI model that will power the next generation of its Siri virtual assistant. The deal, valued at about $1 billion per year, will see the model run on Apple’s private cloud for complex tasks while Apple’s own models remain on devices for privacy‑focused functions. Apple considered Anthropic as an alternative but found Google’s offering cheaper. The arrangement reflects Apple’s strategy to accelerate AI capabilities without building a large model in‑house, while maintaining a close financial relationship with Google. Read more →

A revised agreement between Microsoft and OpenAI broadens Microsoft's intellectual property rights through 2032 and ties the duration of those rights to the declaration of artificial general intelligence (AGI) by an expert panel. The deal also allows OpenAI to release open-weight models that meet specific criteria, gives it flexibility to partner with third parties on non‑API products, and removes Microsoft's right of first refusal on cloud services while securing a $250 billion Azure commitment. Revenue sharing will continue until an expert panel confirms AGI, and both companies gain new options for pursuing advanced AI development. Read more →

Anthropic has introduced a web‑based version of its AI coding assistant, Claude Code, extending the tool beyond its terminal interface. The new web app is rolling out to subscribers of Anthropic’s Pro and Max plans, letting users access Claude Code via the Claude website or iOS app. The move aims to let developers spin up AI coding agents wherever they work, positioning Anthropic against rivals such as GitHub Copilot, Cursor, Google and OpenAI. The product, which has seen rapid user growth and now generates significant revenue, continues to rely heavily on Anthropic’s own AI models, with most of its code written by the models themselves. Read more →

Microsoft announced that its AI assistant, 365 Copilot, will now include two Anthropic models—Claude Sonnet 4 and Claude Opus 4.1. The new models will sit alongside OpenAI’s ChatGPT, offering users alternative AI perspectives for specific tasks. They will be available in Copilot’s Researcher agents and Copilot Studio, with access initially limited to customers who opt in through the Frontier Program. Read more →

Reddit is reopening talks with Google to renegotiate its AI data‑sharing agreement. The platform wants higher compensation and a broader role in Google’s AI ecosystem, proposing a dynamic pricing model tied to the usefulness of its content. Executives argue that Reddit’s real‑person, community‑curated posts are especially valuable for training AI systems, citing the site’s frequent citation by tools like Perplexity and Google’s AI Overviews. The negotiations reflect a growing tension between content providers and tech giants over the value and impact of data used to fuel artificial‑intelligence models. Read more →