Mission Everywhere

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch : Sources: in an internal Slack message Matt Mullenweg claims he is back in control of Automattic; on X, he says this may have been fifth coup attempt against him   —  Matt Mullenweg has posted a message to Automattic's Slack, claiming he is back in control as CEO of the WordPress.com parent company … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/7a9sAoV

Wall Street Journal : Anthropic details distillation efforts by Chinese companies, like Moonshot and DeepSeek, sending user queries to Claude via “transfer stations” outside China   —  Anthropic says DeepSeek and Moonshot used thousands of fake accounts and millions of real user queries in ‘distillation’ effort to clone its AI capabilities from Techmeme https://ift.tt/UjtKNnT

Benjamin Mayo / 9to5Mac : Apple adds a Reference Image feature to the iPhone 18 Pro, which digitally authenticates that photos taken with its camera haven't later been altered by AI   —  Apple is introducing a new Reference Image feature as part of the new iPhone 18 Pro, which digitally authenticates that the image … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/JRl3wob

Hartley Charlton / MacRumors : Apple unveils the 2nm A20 Pro, featuring a 6-core CPU with two “desktop class” super cores, a 7-core GPU up to 40% faster, and 32 Neural Engine cores in total   —  Apple today revealed the A20 Pro chip in the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max, built on a brand new architecture using 2nm process technology. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/ZR21z7B

Sebastien Bubeck / @sebastienbubeck : OpenAI's Sébastien Bubeck says he never asked for removal of Levent Alpöge from authorship of the work Alpöge and Tristan Buckmaster did on Navier-Stokes   —  I would like to clarify a few things: 1) The screenshot is my reaching out to Levent to coordinate our releases. I hope it's clear from the message that we came in with the best possible intentions. 2) I never ever asked for Levent to be removed from authorship of his own work (as indicated by my... from Techmeme https://ift.tt/9FcUhPA

Samantha Oltman / Bloomberg : AI coding startup Cognition raised $2B at a $48B valuation, up from $26B in May, and says its run-rate revenue grew from $492M in May to ~$900M   —  Artificial intelligence coding startup Cognition AI Inc. has raised $2 billion in a new round of funding that vaulted its valuation to $48 billion. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/v2wW4Zs

Tae Kim / Key Context : Astra working with Blender via computer use feels like magic, showing computer use could be the fourth demand wave after chatbots, reasoning, and agentic coding   —  AI computer tool use is a big deal.  —  A reminder that I'm on vacation this week, but the flood of impressions people … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/UvkuXCb

OpenAI : OpenAI says it hit its “automated research intern” goal, its researchers now use 3.1 agent-workdays per human workday, and top users spend $7,000+/day on tokens   —  For AGI to benefit all of humanity, we believe it must be democratically governed. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/KqN8fAB

ABC News : Trump admin debuts arcade.gov with a deportation-themed Snake clone and a Tetris-like wall-building clone; Tetris says it takes IP infringement “very seriously”   —  In “Build the Wall,” players aim to “protect the border” from zombies.  —  Isabella Murray, Nicholas Kerr, and Michelle Stoddart from Techmeme https://ift.tt/0QvtdzB

Jean Eaglesham / Wall Street Journal : Swiss Re: global premiums for insuring data centers will likely reach $20B-$30B/year by 2030; ~40% of US data-center capacity is located in tornado-prone areas   —  AI hyperscale data centers are exposed to a dizzying array of potential threats during construction and operation from Techmeme https://ift.tt/pEUjtXo

Miranda Murray / Reuters : Berlin is reviewing Rhysida's 5.79TB release of state data after refusing to pay a ransom; files reportedly include national defense and threat response plans   —  Berlin's state government said on Saturday it was reviewing with the highest intensity a trove of stolen data published by a ransomware group … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/u7Ap3Sg

Celia Ford / Transformer : OpenAI says it can't read all of Astra's reasoning and admits covert sandbagging would likely go uncaught, yet still calls it the world's most aligned model   —  OpenAI is hailing its new model as “the world's most intelligent and aligned”, but the details reveal an awareness of being evaluated … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/rxuetpV

The Deep View : OpenAI prices GPT-6 Astra at $10/1M input tokens and $50/1M output tokens, matching Anthropic's pricing for Claude Fable 5.1   —  OpenAI's now infamous model that was part of the Hugging Face breach is about to be loose in the world, but with new safeguards. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/d932gOL

Hayden Field / The Verge : OpenAI launches GPT-6 Astra, initially available to organizations in its Daybreak Access program; Greg Brockman says “we are now in the AGI era”   —  OpenAI's next big model is here: GPT-6 Astra.  The company calls it a “generational leap in capability” for areas like cybersecurity … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/PXimfju

The Information : Sources: Mira Murati's Thinking Machines Lab is in talks to raise $1B+ at a $40B+ pre-money valuation, lower than the $50B+ valuation it sought last year   —  Thinking Machines Lab, the AI developer led by ex-OpenAI chief technology officer Mira Murati, is in talks to raise at least $1 billion … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/IcVGWqT

Bloomberg : Humain launches humain-m3, an Arabic-language model developed with MiniMax, amid controversy among US allies over sovereign AI built with Chinese models   —  Saudi Arabia's artificial intelligence company Humain has built a national AI platform based on an open model from Chinese lab MiniMax Group Inc. … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/LGPghKH

Ina Fried / Axios : Meta rolls out Muse Spark 1.3 in Muse Code and Meta's API, saying it significantly improves coding and agentic performance, at the same price as its predecessor   —  Meta on Wednesday released Muse Spark 1.3, an update it says significantly improves performance in coding and agentic tasks. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/dRoCpMn

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch : X says US payouts for its Original Content Rewards and Subscriptions will now be handled through X Money   —  Elon Musk's social network X on Wednesday said that starting today, all of its U.S. creator payouts will be handled through X Money, the app's payments service. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/5BlKfcn

Rachel Metz / Bloomberg : Anthropic says Fable 5.1 will cost an estimated 25% less than Fable 5 for typical workloads and up to 45% less for highly agentic work   —  Anthropic PBC is releasing a new version of its powerful Fable artificial intelligence model that it says is better at coding and science tasks … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/srKpk5d

Anthropic : Anthropic unveils Claude Fable 5.1, which is generally available, and Mythos 5.1, for trusted partners and with cybersecurity and life sciences safeguards   —  We're introducing Claude Fable 5.1 and Claude Mythos 5.1.  They're the world's most advanced models for coding and knowledge work … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/6qb50uv