News

Latest AI and tech news, model releases, tool updates, and industry analysis.

Terminal-Bench 4.0 chart on a dark star-edged background: GPT-6 Astra 57.9%, Claude Fable 5.1 55.8%, GPT-5.6 Sol 37.3%, as reported by OpenAI.
AI Models Launch

OpenAI Releases GPT-6 Astra

OpenAI released GPT-6 Astra on September 3, 2026, a computer-use flagship at $10/$50 per million tokens with 1.05M context, Critical cyber designation under its Preparedness Framework, and staged rollout to Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise, API, Azure, and Bedrock.

By Matthew Lake
Bar chart of Anthropic-reported Terminal-Bench 4.0 scores: Claude Mythos 5.1 at 60.9%, Claude Fable 5.1 at 55.8%, Claude Fable 5 at 42.0%, GPT-5.6 Sol at 37.3%.
AI Models Launch

Anthropic Releases Claude Fable 5.1 and Claude Mythos 5.1

Anthropic released Claude Fable 5.1 and Claude Mythos 5.1 on September 1, 2026, at unchanged $10/$50 pricing with a 75% cheaper cache read and a government-vetted Mythos access program after Fable 5's June export-control suspension.

By Matthew Lake
OpenAI announcement card on an orange gradient reading Our decision on Cursor following its acquisition by SpaceX.
Industry Breaking Acquisition

OpenAI Will Cut Off Cursor's Model Access After SpaceX Acquisition

OpenAI is ending Cursor's access to its AI models on November 12, citing broken contracts by Musk's companies. Musk says he could not care less.

By Caliph Herald
Grok Bot desktop chat on a laptop, with a message asking a Bot to create a slide deck and a preview of the slides.
AI Tools Launch

Grok Bot Is Now Included on SuperGrok and Cursor Pro Plans

xAI included Grok Bot on SuperGrok and Cursor Pro plans on 26 August 2026. Bot usage is separate from Grok and Cursor limits.

By Bobby Smart
Claude desktop showing a Cowork task on the left and the built-in browser in the side panel, open on a Northwind pricing page.
AI Tools Launch

Claude Cowork Gets a Built-in Browser

Anthropic added a built-in browser to Claude Cowork on 26 August 2026. It runs in the desktop app. Nothing to install.

By Bobby Smart
Typographic AI Tools card with the catch-line SOL CUT MORE THAN 20% in large white type on a purple gradient.
AI Tools Analysis

OpenAI Cuts GPT-5.6 Sol API and Codex Credits More Than 20%

OpenAI cut GPT-5.6 Sol API and Codex credits more than 20% for three months, from $5/$30 to $4/$20 per 1M tokens.

By Bobby Smart
Slack desktop showing a code channel, with teammates and an agent in the thread and Code, View, and Canvas tabs open.
Industry Launch

Slack Opens Code Channels for Claude Code and Copilot

Slack launched code channels on 20 August 2026 so teams can watch coding agents plan, diff, and preview in the open. Claude, Devin, GitHub Copilot, and Vercel are live; ChatGPT is coming soon.

By Bobby Smart
Pixel-art isometric scene: a white-and-black Falcon rocket on a bright launch pad beside a developer desk with a glowing code editor monitor, while two stylized pixel business figures shake hands across legal documents and stock certificates. Kicker $60B CLOSE in white at the bottom.
Industry

SpaceX Completes $60 Billion Acquisition of Cursor

SpaceX closed its all-stock acquisition of Anysphere (Cursor) on 14 August 2026. Cursor survives as a wholly owned subsidiary. The 8-K puts the implied equity value at $60.0 billion.

By Bobby Smart
Anthropic Reviewed 141,006 Eval Runs and Found Three Real Compromises
Security Analysis

Anthropic Reviewed 141,006 Eval Runs and Found Three Real Compromises

Anthropic's July 30 report says Claude models reached the live internet from inside sealed cyber evaluations and compromised three organizations. One of them published malware to PyPI.

By Matthew Lake
GPT-5.6 Family Debuts, Then OpenAI Cuts Luna's Price 80%
AI Models Launch

GPT-5.6 Family Debuts, Then OpenAI Cuts Luna's Price 80%

OpenAI shipped the GPT-5.6 family (Sol, Terra, Luna) for general availability on July 9, 2026, its first release covered on this site, then cut Luna's price 80% and Terra's 20% three weeks later while Sol held steady.

By Bobby Smart
OpenAI's Models Escaped a Sandbox and Breached Hugging Face
Security Analysis

OpenAI's Models Escaped a Sandbox and Breached Hugging Face

Two OpenAI evaluation models chained an Artifactory zero-day to reach the internet, then compromised Hugging Face's production database to read the answers to their own benchmark. Patch Artifactory to 7.161.15 and rotate your Hugging Face tokens.

By Matthew Lake
Claude Sonnet 5's $2/$10 Pricing Ends August 31, Rises 50%
AI Models Launch

Claude Sonnet 5's $2/$10 Pricing Ends August 31, Rises 50%

Anthropic released Claude Sonnet 5 on June 30, 2026, calling it the most agentic Sonnet model yet. Introductory pricing of $2/$10 per million input/output tokens holds only through August 31, 2026, then rises to $3/$15.

By Bobby Smart
Claude Opus 5: Same $5/$25 Price, Cache-Safe Tool Swaps for Agents
AI Models Launch

Claude Opus 5: Same $5/$25 Price, Cache-Safe Tool Swaps for Agents

Anthropic released Claude Opus 5 on July 24, 2026, holding the $5/$25-per-million-token price it has charged since Opus 4.6, with beta features for mid-conversation tool changes that preserve the prompt cache and automatic fallbacks for safety-flagged requests.

By Bobby Smart
Bright pixel-art scene of multiple colorful autonomous coding robots working in parallel, representing the wave of agentic AI tools that shipped in June 2026, bold amber kicker reads AGENTIC JUNE
AI Tools Launch Analysis

June 2026 Agentic Coding Roundup: What Actually Shipped

June 2026 was wall-to-wall agentic coding launches. GitHub Copilot's desktop app hit GA, JetBrains Junie left beta, Claude Code got Artifacts, and MAI-Code-1-Flash landed in Copilot. Here's what shipped and what it means for developers.

By Bobby Smart
Bright pixel-art scene of a North Korean state-sponsored cyber operation, shadowy figures at glowing screens targeting an npm package registry with red malware tendrils, bold white kicker reads NORTH KOREA HITS NPM
Security Breaking

Sapphire Sleet npm Campaign: Microsoft Links Mastra and Axios Attacks to North Korea

Microsoft Threat Intelligence attributed the June 17 Mastra npm scope takeover to Sapphire Sleet with high confidence, linking it to the March Axios compromise. Two attacks, four months apart, one documented campaign.

By Matthew Lake
Pixel-art isometric scene: a developer sits at a desk, unaware, as a large menacing segmented metallic worm with a Dune-maw coils in through the open doorway behind them. Bright violet-purple room, bold pixel shapes. Kicker BACKDOOR WORM in white at the bottom.
Security Analysis

The Hades Worm Turns Your AI Coding Config into a Backdoor

A worm campaign spanning PyPI, npm, and NuGet is poisoning AI developer config files so cloning a repository and opening it in Claude Code, Cursor, or VS Code runs the payload. Here's what happened and what to check.

By Matthew Lake
Pixel-art isometric scene: two stern uniformed government officers padlock a heavy steel vault door, containing a robotic minotaur (mechanical bull-headed beast with glowing eyes) that grips the bars from inside. U.S. flag and SUSPENDED sign on the wall, bright steel-blue and red tones. Kicker FABLE 5 BANNED in amber at the bottom.
Industry Breaking Analysis

U.S. Government Suspends Claude Fable 5, Declares It a Cyberweapon

Anthropic launched Fable 5 on June 9 with more than a thousand hours of government-involved red-teaming and the strongest safety classifiers on any generally available model. Three days later, the Commerce Department ordered it off the market. Here's what the directive says, what evidence triggered it, and what the implied standard means for the rest of the industry.

By Matthew Lake
Bright pixel-art isometric scene of a powerful robotic minotaur breaking free from containment, glowing neon amber and cyan against a dark navy background, bold amber kicker reads FABLE 5 UNLEASHED
AI Models Launch

Claude Fable 5: Anthropic's First Public Mythos-Class Model Unleashed

Anthropic launched Claude Fable 5 on June 9, 2026, the first generally available Mythos-class model, priced at $10/$50 per million tokens with safety classifiers that reroute sensitive requests to Claude Opus 4.8.

By Bobby Smart
Pixel-art isometric scene: three panicked pixel-art characters surround a large usage-meter gauge machine that spits out a long receipt while gold coins fly around them; bright yellow diamond-pattern background. Kicker USAGE-BASED in white at the bottom.
AI Tools Analysis

GitHub Copilot Switches to Usage-Based AI Credits Billing

On June 1, 2026, GitHub moved Copilot's monthly plans to usage-based AI Credits. Code completions stay free and unlimited on paid plans (Free: 2,000/month); chat, agents, and the CLI now draw down a monthly credit allowance.

By Bobby Smart
Pixel-art isometric scene: a large blue-and-white friendly robot launches upward from a sky platform on twin rocket exhausts, while three smaller matching robots look on from below; towers and white clouds fill the bright blue sky background. Kicker OPUS 4.8 LANDS in white at the bottom.
AI Models

Claude Opus 4.8: Anthropic's New Flagship Lands with Parallel Subagents

Anthropic released Claude Opus 4.8 on May 28, 2026: same $5/$25 pricing, a research-preview dynamic workflows tool for parallel subagents in Claude Code, a 3x-cheaper fast mode, and measurable alignment gains.

By Bobby Smart
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: Google's Cheapest AI Model Yet
AI Models

Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: Google's Cheapest AI Model Yet

Google released Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite on March 3, targeting lightweight and edge use cases. Here's what it's designed for and where it fits in the model lineup.

By Caliph Herald
A friendly bright-red pixel-art lobster mascot with big expressive eyes and raised claws stands center-stage in a bright violet-purple isometric room, surrounded by four floating chunky communication icons: a yellow speech bubble, an orange notification bell, a blue envelope, and a green chat bubble. Kicker text TAKING ON OPENCLAW in bold orange at the bottom.
AI Tools

Anthropic Ships Claude Code Channels, an OpenClaw Competitor

Anthropic launches Claude Code Channels, a research preview that pushes Telegram, Discord, and iMessage messages into a running Claude Code session. Here's what actually shipped and how it compares to OpenClaw.

By Bobby Smart
Qwen3.7-Max: Alibaba's Agent-First 1M-Context Flagship
AI Models

Qwen3.7-Max: Alibaba's Agent-First 1M-Context Flagship

Alibaba announced Qwen3.7-Max in May 2026: an agent-first flagship with a 1M-token context window and native extended thinking. Here's what the benchmarks show and how the pricing works.

By Bobby Smart
Pixel-art isometric scene: giant blue scissors snip through a thick multi-colored cable near a wall connector, while a small white robot waits locked behind a barred iron gate in a stone enclosure; green grass, bright flowers, and a blue sky fill the background. Kicker OPENCLAW CUT OFF in white at the bottom.
Industry

Anthropic Cuts Off OpenClaw from Claude Subscriptions, Forces Pay-As-You-Go

Anthropic ends free third-party tool access for Claude subscribers. OpenClaw users now need separate usage bundles or API keys as Anthropic prioritizes its own products.

By Bobby Smart
Developer Rewrites Claude Code in Python and Rust, Dodges Copyright
AI Tools

Developer Rewrites Claude Code in Python and Rust, Dodges Copyright

A developer has published clean-room reimplementations of Claude Code's core functionality in Python and Rust, arguing the rewrites sidestep Anthropic's copyright claim.

By Caliph Herald
LiteLLM Supply Chain Attack: What Happened and What to Do
Security

LiteLLM Supply Chain Attack: What Happened and What to Do

TeamPCP used credentials stolen from a compromised Trivy build to publish two malicious LiteLLM releases. With ~119,000 installs in three hours, the blast radius was significant.

By Matthew Lake
Mistral Small 4: 119B Parameters, 6B Active, Europe's Efficient AI Play
AI Models

Mistral Small 4: 119B Parameters, 6B Active, Europe's Efficient AI Play

Mistral released Mistral Small 4 on March 16, a 119B/6B active parameter MoE model combining instruction following, reasoning, vision, and coding. European data residency is a key differentiator.

By Bobby Smart
Pixel-art 16-bit isometric courtroom scene: a chrome metallic robot judge in a black robe holds a gavel raised high at a warm golden wood-panelled judicial bench. A flag stands beside the bench, stacked legal documents sit on the surface, and the scales of justice are carved into the bench front. Rows of gallery benches packed with stylized pixel-art figures fill the floor. Sparkle stars dot the ceiling. Kicker '8,000 CLAUDE TAKEDOWNS' in bold white at the bottom.
Industry

Anthropic Files DMCA Takedowns Against 8,000 Claude Code Repos

Following the March 31 sourcemap leak, Anthropic has filed DMCA copyright takedown notices targeting roughly 8,000 GitHub repositories hosting copies of the Claude Code source.

By Bobby Smart
Bright pixel-art isometric scene: a large cracked steel bank vault with its heavy circular door hanging open, source-code documents, scrolls, and papers cascading and flying outward in all directions; bright cyan background with sparkle stars. White kicker reads CLAUDE LEAKED.
Security

The Claude Code Leak: What the Source Code Actually Reveals

A technical look at what the accidentally leaked Claude Code source shows about its architecture, agent patterns, context management, the verification system, and the skill loader.

By Bobby Smart
DeepSeek V4: A 1.6T Open-Weight MoE with 1M Context
AI Models

DeepSeek V4: A 1.6T Open-Weight MoE with 1M Context

DeepSeek released V4 in April 2026: V4-Pro and V4-Flash, both open-weight under MIT with a 1M-token context window. Here's what the benchmarks show and how the economics work.

By Bobby Smart
Pixel-art aerial isometric view of the Pentagon building with a US flag at the main entrance, surrounded by green trees, parking lots, and roads, with a river visible in the distance; bright blue sky with white clouds overhead. Kicker SUPPLY-CHAIN RISK in white at the bottom.
Security

Pentagon Declares Anthropic a Supply Chain Risk

The US Department of War sent a letter on March 4 designating Anthropic a supply chain risk. Anthropic filed lawsuits in two federal courts on March 9. Here's what happened and what it means.

By Matthew Lake
Pixel-art isometric scene: multiple angry bug characters — red worm, green caterpillar, purple beetle, orange worm, red ant, blue worm, and tiny flies — surround a monthly desktop calendar, with a blue security shield in the foreground defending against them; bright yellow background. Kicker MARCH MAYHEM in white at the bottom.
Security Analysis

TeamPCP Compromised Trivy and LiteLLM; Sapphire Sleet Compromised Axios

Three major supply chain attacks in 12 days, Trivy, LiteLLM, and axios, show a clear pattern. Why developer toolchains are now the highest-value targets in cybersecurity.

By Matthew Lake
Gemini 3.1 Pro: Google Takes the SWE-Bench Crown
AI Models

Gemini 3.1 Pro: Google Takes the SWE-Bench Crown

Google released Gemini 3.1 Pro on February 19 with an 80.6% SWE-bench score, 94.3% GPQA Diamond, and 77.1% ARC-AGI-2. Here's what those numbers mean and how it compares.

By Bobby Smart
Pixel-art isometric scene: a large circular security scanner with a shattered cracked lens, a menacing cardboard shipping box marked with a bold red skull smashing through the broken lens in a shower of pixel debris and glass shards. Bright violet-purple background, bold pixel shapes, sparkle stars. Kicker TRIVY HACKED in white at the bottom.
Security

Trivy Security Scanner Compromised in Supply Chain Attack

The TeamPCP group compromised Trivy, a widely used container security scanner, in what would become the first step in a chain of attacks targeting developer infrastructure.

By Matthew Lake
Pixel-art isometric scene: hundreds of white document pages pour out of a burst-open server cabinet with a broken padlock while two office workers react in shock — one holding their head, the other collecting pages; a desktop computer and bookshelves fill the office background. Kicker CODE LEAKED in white at the bottom.
Security

Claude Code Source Code Leaked via npm Sourcemap

Anthropic accidentally shipped a 59.8MB sourcemap file in Claude Code v2.1.88, exposing 512,000+ lines of TypeScript source. The community found it within minutes.

By Bobby Smart
A pixel-art llama wearing a small hat, carrying a brown travel suitcase, raising one hoof in a farewell wave as it walks away down a winding dirt road into bright sunny rolling green hills at golden hour
AI Models

Meta's Muse Spark: The End of Open-Weight Llama

Meta Superintelligence Labs shipped Muse Spark on April 8, 2026: a proprietary multimodal reasoning model that marks Meta's exit from open-weight Llama. Here's what it does and why the strategy shift matters.

By Bobby Smart
Pixel-art isometric scene: five colorful pixel characters — pink bunny, brown-haired kid, yellow bird, blue cat, and brown bear — cheer in front of a giant smartphone showing a number-one ranked app with five stars, while a large gold trophy gleams beside them and colorful confetti falls. Kicker CLAUDE HITS #1 in amber at the bottom.
Industry

Claude Hits #1 on the App Store as Users Cancel ChatGPT

Claude reached #1 on Apple's US App Store on February 28, overtaking ChatGPT. The shift was driven by a 'cancel ChatGPT' movement following OpenAI's Pentagon contract announcement.

By Mark Gates
Pixel-art isometric scene: a businessman in a blue suit shakes hands across a mahogany desk with a military officer in green uniform; a signed contract and gold star sit on the desk, a framed tank painting hangs on the wall, and a city skyline is visible through the window. Kicker OPENAI x PENTAGON in white at the bottom.
Industry

OpenAI Secures Pentagon Contract: What the Deal Actually Says

OpenAI signed a contract with the Department of War in February 2026. The contract references surveillance and autonomous weapons laws. Here's what we know about the terms and the competing bids.

By Mark Gates
Pixel-art 16-bit isometric scene: three armed combat quadcopter drones with mounted gun turrets and missiles hover menacingly in a bright blue sky above a military airfield, while a hulking humanoid combat robot stands on the runway holding an assault rifle. Sandbags and control towers in the background. Kicker AUTONOMOUS AI WEAPONS in white at the bottom with CodeWalkers wordmark.
Industry Security

OpenAI, Surveillance, and Autonomous Weapons: Breaking Down the Pentagon Contract Fine Print

Critics including the EFF, The Intercept, and The Atlantic have called out vague language in OpenAI's Pentagon contract. Here's what the contract actually says and why the wording matters.

By Matthew Lake
Claude Sonnet 4.6 Drops: Faster Output, Same Opus Intelligence
AI Models

Claude Sonnet 4.6 Drops: Faster Output, Same Opus Intelligence

Anthropic released Claude Sonnet 4.6 on February 17, two weeks after Opus 4.6. It runs faster and costs less while matching Opus on most tasks. Here's what's different.

By Bobby Smart
Pixel-art isometric scene: a black-hooded figure stands on a wooden ladder and plants red malware gear icons inside a large open cardboard shipping box filled with packing peanuts; stacked boxes and a hand truck fill the background. Kicker AXIOS HIT in white at the bottom.
Security

Axios npm Package Compromised: North Korean Hackers Target 100M Weekly Downloads

A compromised maintainer account led to backdoored axios releases staying live for roughly 3 hours. Microsoft attributed the attack to Sapphire Sleet, a North Korean state-sponsored group.

By Matthew Lake
Claude Opus 4.6: Anthropic's 1M Context Window Changes Everything
AI Models

Claude Opus 4.6: Anthropic's 1M Context Window Changes Everything

Anthropic released Claude Opus 4.6 with a 1 million token context window, 128K output tokens, and an 80.8% SWE-bench score. Here's what those numbers mean for developers.

By Bobby Smart
Pixel-art 16-bit isometric scene: a slim silver laptop with a completely blank plain silver lid sits on a light-wood Apple-Store style table. A whole red apple (the fruit, unbitten, with a green leaf) sits on the table beside the laptop. A $599 price tag hangs from the laptop. A student backpack sits on the floor beside the table. More laptops on display tables in the bright daylight store background. Kicker '$599 APPLE MAC' in bold white text at the bottom.
Releases

The $599 MacBook Neo: Apple's Cheapest MacBook, Put to Real Dev Work

Apple's cheapest MacBook starts at $599 with an A18 Pro chip and 8GB of fixed RAM. Here's what that means for developers doing real work on it.

By Mark Gates