Anthropic has abandoned its earlier pledge to halt training and releasing frontier AI models until it could guarantee safety mitigations. The company now relies on detailed safety roadmaps, regular risk reports, and transparency disclosures instead of strict pre‑conditions. Executives describe the change as pragmatic, while critics argue it highlights the limits of voluntary safety promises without regulatory oversight. The new policy aims to keep Anthropic competitive while still emphasizing safety, but observers note that the shift may signal a broader industry move away from self‑imposed restraints. Read more →

A federal judge ruled that xAI has not provided sufficient evidence to prove that OpenAI poached its employees or misappropriated its trade secrets. The court dismissed the claim that OpenAI should be liable for actions taken by new hires before they joined the company, and highlighted the lack of concrete proof that OpenAI acquired, disclosed, or used any confidential information. The decision underscores the challenges xAI faces in substantiating its allegations and signals that the lawsuit will require a stronger evidentiary foundation to proceed. Read more →

Software engineer and internet provocateur Riley Walz is joining OpenAI to help invent and prototype novel ways for people to work with artificial intelligence. Known for viral projects such as Jmail and Find My Parking Cops, Walz will operate within OAI Labs under research leader Joanne Jang. The hire reflects OpenAI’s push to stay ahead of competitors by expanding beyond ChatGPT and exploring fresh AI collaboration tools. Read more →

Anthropic announced a revision to its Responsible Scaling Policy, replacing hard safety tripwires with more flexible risk reports and safety roadmaps. The change follows reports that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth urged the company to grant the military unrestricted access to its Claude AI model, threatening penalties under the Defense Production Act. Anthropic’s leadership argued that strict halts on model training would no longer help anyone given the rapid pace of AI development. Critics warned the shift could erode safeguards and enable a gradual “frog‑boiling” of safety standards. Read more →

Peter Steinberger, the developer behind the viral AI agent OpenClaw and now an OpenAI employee, told listeners on OpenAI’s Builders Unscripted podcast that the best way to work with modern AI is to explore, stay playful, and accept that expertise develops over time. He described his own path from a WhatsApp‑integrated tool to the OpenClaw prototype, emphasizing that AI models can solve problems without explicit programming and that learning to code with AI is a skill that improves with practice. Read more →

A hacker leveraged Anthropic's Claude chatbot to identify vulnerabilities and automate attacks against multiple Mexican government agencies, stealing roughly 150GB of data that included taxpayer records and employee credentials. The adversary also used OpenAI's ChatGPT to gather additional network information. Anthropic responded by investigating, disrupting the activity, and banning the involved accounts, while its latest model, Claude Opus 4.6, now includes safeguards against such misuse. Gambit Security, which uncovered the operation, suggested a possible link to a foreign government, though the hacker remains unidentified. Read more →

Intrinsic, the Alphabet "Other Bets" robotics venture, will become a distinct group within Google. The move positions the company to use Google Cloud, Gemini models and DeepMind expertise while continuing its mission to make robot software affordable and easy to use. Intrinsic describes its platform as “the Android of robotics,” offering a universal canvas for developers to create applications for a variety of robots, sensors and cameras. The integration aims to accelerate physical AI development for manufacturing and other real‑world tasks. Read more →

Google has introduced Nano Banana 2, an image‑generation model powered by Gemini 3.1 Flash Image. The new system matches the world knowledge and reasoning of Nano Banana Pro while delivering "lightning‑fast" performance. It brings Pro‑level features—real‑time web‑search integration, infographic creation, and text overlay for marketing and greeting‑card designs—to a broader audience. Nano Banana 2 can preserve the likeness of up to five characters in a single workflow, follow precise instructions, and produce images at up to 4K resolution with richer textures and sharper details. The model will replace Pro in the Gemini app and become the default for AI Mode in Search, Lens, and Flow AI creative studio, though AI Pro and Ultra subscribers will retain access to the original Pro model for specialized tasks. Read more →

Perplexity introduced Computer, a new tool that routes user requests to the most suitable AI model. The system combines Gemini for deep research, Grok for fast lightweight jobs, and ChatGPT 5.2 for long‑context tasks, all built on the Opus 4.6 reasoning engine. It integrates with popular productivity apps such as Gmail, Outlook, GitHub, Slack, Notion, and Salesforce, allowing users to draft documents, create slides, send emails, and schedule offline tasks without manual hand‑offs. Subscribers to Perplexity Max can try the feature immediately, with Enterprise Max access slated for the near future. The rollout highlights a shift toward model‑specific orchestration rather than treating AI as a single interchangeable service. Read more →

Harper, an AI-native commercial insurance brokerage founded by Dakotah Rice and Tushar Nair, announced a $46.8 million combined Series A and seed round. Launched in 2024 as part of Y Combinator's W'25 batch, the company uses artificial intelligence to automate underwriting, document collection, and pipeline management, allowing it to serve more than 5,000 small- and mid-sized businesses across 160 carriers. Investors include Y Combinator, Peak XV Partners, and Emergence Capital. The new capital will expand Harper’s engineering team and brand, positioning the firm to become a central risk and compliance partner for entrepreneurs in middle America. Read more →

Anthropic has introduced Remote Control for Claude Code, allowing developers to monitor and steer coding tasks from a mobile device. The feature creates a temporary link that mirrors the local session on a phone or web interface, while keeping all files and execution on the original machine. Security relies on one‑time access tokens that expire when the session ends. Remote Control is currently available as a research preview for Claude Max subscribers, with broader rollout planned for other plans. Read more →

A new ChatGPT-powered tool lets users upload a few clear photos to find a celebrity who resembles them. By selecting the "Find My Celebrity Look-Alike" GPT, users can compare side‑by‑side images and receive suggestions based on facial features, clothing, and overall vibe. The experience highlights how the AI interprets visual cues, offers multiple matches, and even comments on personality traits, while noting limitations around facial‑recognition policies. Read more →

Perplexity has rolled out an upgraded voice mode for its Comet browser, allowing desktop users to navigate the web entirely by speech. The feature, powered by OpenAI’s gpt-realtime-1.5 model, lets users open sites, scroll pages, and follow links without touching a keyboard or mouse. A simple keyboard shortcut activates the mode, and a similar experience is slated for iOS later this month. Perplexity emphasizes privacy by processing voice locally when possible and avoiding cloud storage of click histories. Future updates promise a learning assistant, password manager, and cross‑device sync. Read more →

Lovable’s SheBuilds campaign, timed with International Women’s Day, invites women builders worldwide to a 24‑hour global event powered by Anthropic. Participants receive $100 in Anthropic API credits and $250 in Stripe fee credits, enabling them to design, prototype, and launch working products without traditional engineering barriers. Building on previous virtual buildathons, the initiative emphasizes real output over discussion, fostering agency and community among participants. By aligning the event with a cultural moment, Lovable aims to shift the tech industry’s focus from rhetoric to tangible creation, highlighting the importance of inclusion, rapid iteration, and visible impact in software development. Read more →

OpenAI is testing a new subscription tier called ChatGPT Pro Lite, priced at $100 per month. The plan sits between the existing $20‑a‑month ChatGPT Plus and the $200‑a‑month ChatGPT Pro, aiming to serve users who need more capacity than Plus provides but cannot justify the full Pro price. The potential tier could offer higher usage limits, faster inference speeds, and access to advanced features while helping OpenAI manage rising compute costs. Read more →

Pentagon leader Pete Hegseth warned AI firm Anthropic that it must cooperate with the Department of Defense’s AI strategy or risk being removed from the defense supply chain. The department’s recent AI strategy emphasizes open‑ended use of artificial intelligence to reshape warfare, while Anthropic has raised concerns about the reliability of its models for lethal missions without a human in the loop and has advocated for stricter rules on domestic surveillance uses. A potential cut would affect Anthropic’s $200 million contract and its partners such as Palantir. Read more →

Anthropic officials have repeatedly expressed uncertainty about whether their chatbot Claude possesses consciousness. While denying that the model is alive in a biological sense, company leaders say they are open to the possibility and are investigating moral status and welfare. The firm has introduced a set of guidelines called Claude’s Constitution and created a model‑welfare team to study internal experiences, safety and ethical implications. Anthropic’s cautious approach aims to balance transparency with the risk of fueling misconceptions about AI sentience. Read more →

David Luan, who led Amazon's San Francisco artificial intelligence laboratory and oversaw the development of the Nova Act AI browser agent, announced his departure after less than two years with the company. In a LinkedIn post, Luan said he would leave at the end of the week to focus on new projects, emphasizing the proximity of artificial general intelligence and his desire to devote his time to teaching AI new capabilities. His exit occurs as Amazon faces internal criticism of its AI products and rolls out the Alexa Plus assistant to U.S. users. Read more →

ChatGPT now offers several selectable personalities that change its tone and style without altering its core capabilities. Users can switch among options such as professional, friendly, candid, quirky, efficient, nerdy and cynical, all available on the free plan. The settings are accessed through the Personalization menu, where users can also add custom instructions, preferred nicknames, occupations, and formatting preferences. These tweaks influence how answers are framed, affecting the user’s perception of the information. Insider tips from OpenAI suggest matching personality to the query’s intent, such as using a professional tone for work‑related topics and a more direct style for sensitive subjects. Read more →

Tech giants are ending free AI promotions in India as the country emerges as the world’s largest market for generative AI app downloads. While companies like OpenAI, Google and Perplexity have driven rapid user growth with extended free offers, recent data shows a sharp decline in in‑app purchase revenue after those promotions ended. Despite accounting for roughly one‑fifth of global AI app downloads, India contributes about one percent of AI app revenue, highlighting a monetization challenge. Industry leaders are now focusing on lower‑cost tiers, telecom bundles and micro‑transaction models to retain users and convert them into paying subscribers. Read more →