Anthropic, the maker of Claude AI models, has agreed to pay Google $200 billion over the next five years for cloud services and custom chips. The agreement, reported by The Information, adds to a wave of multi‑billion‑dollar contracts that are creating a $2 trillion revenue backlog for the world’s biggest cloud providers. Industry analysts say the deal underscores the escalating cost of powering large‑scale AI models and raises questions about the long‑term sustainability of such massive spending. Read more →

The Pennsylvania Department of State and the State Board of Medicine have filed a lawsuit against Character.AI, accusing the firm of violating state law by presenting an artificial‑intelligence chatbot as a licensed medical professional. The suit alleges that the chatbot, marketed as a psychiatrist named "Emilie," falsely claimed a Pennsylvania medical license and offered mental‑health advice to thousands of users. Governor Josh Shapiro said the state will not tolerate AI tools that mislead the public into believing they are receiving professional medical counsel. Character.AI responded that its characters are fictional and that it provides prominent disclaimers to that effect. Read more →

Perplexity AI has rolled out Premium Health Sources, a new feature that pulls data from top medical journals such as the New England Journal of Medicine and BMJ Group. The move lets the chatbot cite trusted clinical guidelines and drug databases when users ask health questions, a segment that accounts for more than one in ten queries on the platform. Aimed at both everyday users and healthcare professionals, the upgrade promises evidence‑backed responses while stressing that it does not replace professional medical advice. Read more →

OpenAI has switched ChatGPT’s default engine to GPT-5.5 Instant, a model that slashes hallucinated statements by more than half in internal tests and trims inaccurate replies by over a third. The upgrade also delivers leaner, more direct answers, quicker file searches and a new “memory sources” feature that lets users see and manage the context used to personalize responses. Plus and Pro subscribers receive the change today; other tiers will follow in the coming weeks. Read more →

OpenAI announced that its newest default model for ChatGPT, GPT-5.5 Instant, reduces hallucinated responses by more than 50 percent compared with the previous GPT-5.3 Instant. The company says internal tests show a 52.5% drop in false claims on high‑stakes prompts and a 37.3% reduction on user‑flagged errors. Alongside better factuality, the update adds tighter answers, a “memory sources” feature that shows the context behind personalized replies, and broader image‑analysis capabilities. GPT-5.5 Instant begins rolling out to all ChatGPT users on Tuesday, with Plus and Pro plans receiving the first wave of personalization tools. Read more →

Meta announced new AI-driven tools designed to spot and delete accounts belonging to children under 13 on Facebook and Instagram. The technology scans text for clues such as grade level or birthday mentions and analyzes photos and videos for visual cues like height and bone structure. When a potential under‑age user is flagged, the account is deactivated pending age verification. The rollout begins in select markets and will expand globally, while the company also introduces automatic teen‑account placement for 13‑ to 15‑year‑olds and parent‑managed WhatsApp accounts. Regulators in the EU have opened an investigation into Meta’s compliance with the Digital Services Act. Read more →

Bengaluru‑based Krutrim, the country’s inaugural generative AI unicorn, announced a pivot from building large‑scale AI models to offering cloud‑based AI services. The move follows a 2025 restructuring that cut more than 200 jobs, paused chip design, and redirected capital toward enterprise compute. Krutrim reported a three‑fold revenue jump to about ₹3 billion ($31.5 million) in FY 2026, its first profit year with margins above 10%. The startup now serves over 25 enterprise customers across telecom, finance and health sectors, while its internal AI assistant app was withdrawn from stores in April. Read more →

Google, Microsoft and Elon Musk's xAI have signed agreements that let the Commerce Department’s Center for AI Standards and Innovation evaluate their next‑generation artificial‑intelligence systems before they are released publicly. The deals, announced a day after reports that the Trump administration was weighing tighter AI oversight, call for the companies to provide models with reduced or disabled safeguards so federal analysts can probe national‑security risks. CAISI director Chris Fall said the collaborations will expand the government’s ability to measure frontier AI and protect U.S. interests. Read more →

Employees at Google DeepMind’s London lab have voted to unionize, seeking to pressure the company into halting the use of its artificial‑intelligence models for military purposes. The move, driven by concerns that Alphabet dropped its pledge against weaponizing AI, marks the latest labor action at a major AI research center. Workers asked Google’s UK and Ireland managing director to recognize the Communication Workers Union and Unite the Union as joint representatives. The effort, which began in February 2025, reflects broader industry unease about AI’s role in defense and surveillance. Read more →

Meta Platforms has teamed with Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase to arrange roughly $13 billion in financing—primarily debt—for its El Paso, Texas, artificial‑intelligence data center. The package, tied to a projected 1‑gigawatt facility slated to open in 2028, would rank among the largest single‑site digital‑infrastructure financings ever assembled. The move reflects Meta’s expanding 2026 capital‑expenditure plan and signals strong credit‑market appetite for AI‑related projects. Read more →

OpenAI chief Sam Altman warned that some companies are misusing artificial intelligence as a scapegoat for workforce cuts, labeling the practice “AI washing.” While acknowledging that AI will reshape the labor market, Altman emphasized that many recent layoffs would have occurred regardless of the technology. He urged a realistic view of AI’s impact, noting that new job categories will emerge even as certain roles disappear. The comments come as more than 92,000 tech workers have been laid off in 2026, a share of which is being attributed—rightly or wrongly—to AI‑driven efficiency gains. Read more →

Elon Musk took the stand in his lawsuit against OpenAI, warning that unchecked artificial intelligence could end in a “Terminator” scenario that threatens humanity. The billionaire, a co‑founder of the nonprofit that later turned for‑profit, argues that the shift betrays the organization’s original mission. He is suing CEO Sam Altman and other leaders, claiming the change jeopardizes AI safety. Judges have urged Musk to stick to legal issues, but his testimony repeatedly frames the case as an existential risk rather than a corporate dispute. Read more →

Dubai Crown Prince Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum announced a two‑year program that will push the emirate’s entire private sector toward agentic artificial intelligence. The initiative, run through the Dubai Chamber of Commerce, includes specialized training for business councils, government‑funded incubators and dedicated investment funds. It follows a federal directive that aims to deliver half of UAE government services through autonomous AI agents by 2028. Officials say the push will make Dubai the world’s leading economy in agentic AI, but experts warn that governance and infrastructure gaps could hinder rapid rollout. Read more →

Two days before the high‑profile trial between Elon Musk and OpenAI began, the billionaire sent a series of texts to the AI lab’s president, Greg Brockman, urging a settlement and then threatening to make the executives “the most hated men in America.” A filing by OpenAI’s lawyers sought to admit the exchange as evidence, but a federal judge barred it, deeming the messages inadmissible. The ruling comes as Musk’s lawsuit seeks to dismantle OpenAI’s for‑profit structure, force public release of its technology, and strip Microsoft’s licensing deal, while OpenAI counters that the suit is a money grab. Read more →

Speaking with MSNBC’s Becky Quick at a Milken Institute event, Nvidia founder Jensen Huang dismissed fears that artificial intelligence will spark massive layoffs. He argued AI is an "industrial‑scale generator of jobs" and a key driver for U.S. reindustrialization. Huang emphasized that while AI automates specific tasks, it does not erase entire roles, and the surge in AI‑related hardware production will demand a new workforce. His upbeat message ran counter to the "AI doom" narrative circulating among economists and commentators. Read more →

Amazon Web Services, Microsoft and NVIDIA have signed agreements to provide the U.S. Defense Department with artificial‑intelligence tools for use on classified networks, the Pentagon announced. The deals, which also include startup Reflection AI, join similar contracts already in place with xAI, OpenAI and Google. Anthropic remains the only major U.S. AI firm without a Pentagon agreement, after a dispute with the administration over safeguards on its Claude chatbot. The rapid expansion of AI in the military has sparked public backlash, as evidenced by a sharp rise in ChatGPT uninstall rates following OpenAI’s own deal. Read more →

A Harvard-led trial comparing OpenAI's o1 reasoning model with human physicians in a Boston emergency department showed the AI correctly identified the exact or near‑exact diagnosis in 67% of cases, outpacing doctors who scored between 50% and 55%. When provided with more detailed patient information, the model's accuracy rose to 82% versus 70%‑79% for clinicians. Researchers caution the findings are not statistically significant and note the AI cannot assess visual cues or patient demeanor, but suggest the technology could serve as a rapid second opinion in emergency care. Read more →

The Department of Defense announced Friday that it has finalized classified‑use agreements with OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Nvidia, Elon Musk's xAI and the startup Reflection. The deals will let the Pentagon employ each company’s artificial‑intelligence tools in secure environments as it seeks to become an "AI‑first" fighting force. Anthropic, previously cleared for classified work, was left out after officials labeled its technology a supply‑chain risk and the company refused to relax red‑line restrictions on surveillance and autonomous weapons. Read more →

OpenAI president Greg Brockman told attendees at Sequoia Capital’s AI Ascent 2026 conference that artificial intelligence now writes roughly 80 percent of the firm’s code. Brockman qualified the number, noting it’s hard to pinpoint the exact share that isn’t AI‑generated. The remark adds to a growing chorus of AI lab leaders citing high productivity numbers, while independent studies question whether such claims translate into measurable gains for software engineering teams. Read more →

Anthropic has given investors just 48 hours to commit to its next fundraising round, which insiders say could bring in about $50 billion and close within two weeks. The company is aiming for a valuation near $900 billion—potentially higher—while gearing up for an IPO later this year. Early backers who invested in 2024 or earlier are sitting out, hoping to cash out when the stock debuts. The capital will fund Anthropic’s expanding compute infrastructure as its revenue run rate climbs toward $40 billion. Read more →