The AI Launch Button Is Now a Checkpoint
OpenAI is previewing GPT-5.6 to roughly 20 companies and disclosing participants to the US government. Anthropic’s restoration path starts with Mythos 5 access for critical-infrastructure operators.
GPT-5.6 Sol matches Mythos Preview on ExploitBench, adds Ultra mode with subagents for complex workflows, and max reasoning for deep problem-solving
We're beginning a limited preview of the GPT-5.6 series: Sol, our flagship model; Terra, a balanced model for everyday work; and Luna, a fast and affordable model.
Letter: the US lifts its block on Mythos 5, allowing Anthropic to release it to more than 100 US institutions; sources: talks about Fable 5 are ongoing
THE SCOOP — The US government Friday lifted its block on Anthropic's powerful Claude Mythos 5 AI model, allowing the company to release …
Sources: Apple's 14" and 16" OLED touch-screen MacBook Pros will be powered by the existing M5 Pro and M5 Max chips and have an updated industrial design
Apple Inc.'s first-ever touch-screen laptop will rely on the company's current high-end M5 chips, rather than next-generation silicon …
President Trump threatens to impose a 100% tariff on any country that imposes a digital services tax on US companies
President Donald Trump on Friday threatened to impose a “100% TARIFF” on the goods of any country that imposes a digital services tax on U.S. companies.
Sources: Zuckerberg urged execs to explore Polymarket and Kalshi partnerships, as the Arena prediction app targets 100M monthly active “predictors” aged 18-34
Mr. Zuckerberg's plans for Arena, a prediction markets app that Meta is building, also include appealing to 18- to 34-year-old users.
Sources: Paul Meade, Apple's top executive in charge of Vision Pro and smart glasses efforts, is leaving for OpenAI to work on the company's AI-powered devices
Apple Inc.'s top executive in charge of the Vision Pro headset and the company's smart glasses efforts is leaving for OpenAI …
Sources: Russian hackers were behind a 2025 ransomware attack on Jaguar Land Rover that used “mind-blowing” encryption and cost UK's economy an estimated $2.5B
A loose collective of cybercriminals initially took credit for crippling Jaguar Land Rover last year.
Polymarket says its annualized revenue is now $1B+; Dune Analytics: daily volume on Polymarket's US platform rose from ~$50M in mid-May to $200M+ by June 20
Prediction market platform Polymarket's annualized revenue are now well above $1 billion, the company shared exclusively with CNBC on Friday.
Sources: Apple is lobbying the Trump admin for clearance to buy memory chips from US-blacklisted Chinese company CXMT to ease pressure from rising chip prices
The iPhone maker wants Trump administration to sign off on purchases to ease pressure from rising chip prices
Sources: SpaceX and Charter have held executive-level talks on a consumer mobile phone offering, which would help SpaceX become a DTC mobile phone provider
SpaceX and Charter Communications Inc. have held executive-level talks about partnering on a consumer mobile phone offering, according to people familiar with the matter.
Sports clips' rise on platforms like YouTube has left broadcasters debating whether to use them to attract younger viewers or protect their subscription revenue
As the New York Knicks clinched their first championship in 53 years and the NBA notched its highest Finals series ratings since 1998 …
A look at advanced chip packaging, now more reliant on TSMC and its partners in Taiwan than ever, and the efforts to address this bottleneck in the US
A silicon wafer reflecting Subramanian Iyer, a specialist at the University of California, Los Angeles, in a technology called advanced chip packaging.
Insurance tech startup Corgi denies accusations that it used Papermark's open source software code to develop its software and present it as its own
Y Combinator-backed insurance tech startup Corgi became embroiled in yet another controversy earlier this week when Papermark …
How US federal AI policy has gone from implausibly libertarian to increasingly draconian and opaque, and how to fix it, including using independent auditors
35 thoughts on what has happened and what America should do — Nothing below is an official or unofficial view of OpenAI.
Japanese financial giant SBI agrees to acquire Bitbank, a top 10 Japanese crypto exchange by trading activity, for ~$289M, with the deal set to close in October
Japanese financial services giant SBI Holdings said it agreed to buy cryptocurrency exchange Bitbank for around $289 million.
The rapid pace of AI progress has created a pervasive fear of missing out across Silicon Valley, fueling anxiety among founders, executives, employees, and VCs
Claude Code is cutting into sleep time. — Matt Van Horn, a serial entrepreneur and father of four, never turns his laptop off anymore.
Source: Intel has promised to deliver SpaceX and Apple a toolkit this fall to test its 14A node before they make final commitments to produce chips with Intel
At a tech conference in San Francisco this week, admirers surrounded Lip-Bu Tan, the chief executive of Intel …
Streaming services must comply with a California law that bans playing ads louder than the content being watched from July 1, but its implementation is unclear
On July 1, it will be illegal for streaming platforms to play ads louder than the content being watched in California.Forums:r/politicsandArs OpenForumForums:r/politics:Streaming services' obnoxiously...
OpenAI hopes to make GPT-5.6 generally available in the coming weeks and says “this kind of government access process” should not become the long-term default
Company says White House review of AI releases shouldn't become long-term default; ban on Anthropic's Mythos model remains
Sources: the CFTC began an extensive investigation of Polymarket earlier this year; the agency's former acting head killed a separate investigation in July 2025
Microsoft says it will increase the prices of Xbox consoles on August 1 by $100 for 512GB models and $150 for 1TB models, the third price hike since May 2025
Microsoft quietly extends the Extended Security Updates program for Windows 10 consumers by a year, letting eligible users get updates through October 12, 2027
A look at South Korea's four vocational “meister” schools that train students to work in semiconductor manufacturing, leading to jobs at Samsung and SK Hynix
Chungbuk Semiconductor High School in Eumseong County, South Korea, is the oldest vocational high school …
Sources: Meta lobbyists are urging California lawmakers to exempt social media platforms from legislation that would increase penalties in child-harm cases
OpenAI releases three versions of GPT-5.6, called Sol, Terra, and Luna, as a limited preview to ~20 companies, with participants disclosed to the US government
OpenAI is rolling out GPT-5.6 Friday, but says it's limiting access to all three versions of the new model at the behest of the U.S. government.
AWS hikes prices for Nvidia GPUs in its EC2 Capacity Blocks service, which let businesses rent AI compute in advance, by 20%; Trainium chip pricing is unchanged
Amazon Web Services is raising the price for its AI workload rental service by 20%, the company said on Friday.
Sources: Meituan, Baidu, Xiaomi, and other Chinese tech giants have been trimming their workforces, fueling Chinese workers' concerns of being replaced by AI
When a friend checked in on a Meituan employee late last month to see if he had survived the latest round of corporate culling …
AI executives and lobbyists say they are seeking regulatory clarity from the Trump administration but are wary of pressing for answers, fearing retaliation
How AI-native law firms use “management services organization” structures to access capital historically barred from US law firms, including PE and VC funds
Source: the Trump administration is close to allowing Anthropic to restore access to Fable 5; limits could be lifted as soon as this coming week
The Trump administration is close to allowing Anthropic to restore access to its powerful Fable 5 model, which has been offline for 15 days …
Q&A with Tim Sweeney on his vision for a cross-platform gaming social system, Unreal Engine 6, AI's PR challenges, the state of AAA game development, and more
Anthropic says the US government is allowing Mythos 5 to be redeployed to critical infrastructure operators, and is working to restore general access to Fable 5
Since June 12, we've been working closely with the US government to restore access to Claude Mythos 5 and Fable 5. Today, the government notified us that Mythos 5, our strongest cybersecurity model, c...
OpenAI says GPT-5.6 Sol and Terra were capable of identifying vulnerabilities but were unable to execute autonomous, end-to-end attacks against hardened targets
GPT-5.6 is a new family of three models: Sol, our new flagship model; Terra, a capable lower-cost option; and Luna, our fastest and most cost-efficient model.
OpenAI appoints ex-Uber India head Prabhjeet Singh as its first managing director for India, to scale its presence in its second-largest market after the US
Sources: Donald Trump Jr. got ~$300K in Kalshi equity after becoming a strategic adviser in 2025, when the company was valued at ~$2B; Kalshi is now worth $22B+
YouTube rolls out changes to Shorts, like adding a setting to double the playback speed, removing the “dislike” button, adding a Clear Screen mode, and more
The FTC fast-tracks approval for SpaceX to acquire Mesh, which raised a $50M Series A in February to make high-efficiency optical transceivers for data centers
Oracle's stock fell 19% this week, the steepest weekly drop since a 20% plunge in August 2001, amid concerns about its debt load and AI investments
Sources: Revolut told new hires they'll have to work in office at least three days a week from next year, retreating from its long-held remote-first approach
Tokyo-based Sakana AI's Fugu and China-based 360's cybersecurity model Tulongfeng claim to rival Anthropic's banned Mythos and Fable 5 amid the US export ban
On Wednesday, Chinese cybersecurity firm 360 reportedly unveiled Tulongfeng, an AI tool it says can go head-to-head with Anthropic's Mythos.