WD
AI Companies Really, Really Want to Buy Your Work Files and Emails
Data brokers are collecting all sorts of internal corporate files to help train AI models. Not everyone is thrilled.
MIT
The Download: a humanoid cleans house and Samsung builds for the AI boom
This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. I watched a humanoid robot clean my apartment. It felt like a taste of the future. —Grace Huckins When I saw an X post about a new humanoid-robot cleaning service in…
Goodfire Mechanistic Shaping First Uses Internal Representations to Suppress Reward Hacking Rate to 2%
Goodfire has introduced Mechanistic Shaping, which uses internal model representations during training to reduce reward hacking in RL models from 100% to 2% while raising honesty to 96–98%. The method was validated across language and vision tasks and points to a new approach for alignment.
METR Estimates Anthropic's R&D Pace Reached 1.9x, with Most Acceleration Attributed to AI Assistance
METR reported that Anthropic's internal model capability growth rate accelerated to 1.9 times its historical pace starting in October 2025. The report attributes most of the acceleration to AI assistance in R&D workflows rather than fully autonomous contributions.
TC
Physicl raises $10M to make the digital world real enough for robots
Physicl is trying to solve the sim-to-real gap with a pipeline originally built to market goods online.
TC
Underdog shows off a 32MB speech model in new demo
Despite its small size, Underdog's new model can generate both speech and music.
Pentagon CTO Announces AI Lab Compliance Landscape to Be Published This Month, Using Administrative Consolidation Instead of Dedicated Congressional Legislation
Pentagon Chief Technology Officer Emil Michael said the federal government will publish a comprehensive map of existing federal laws and regulations applicable to domestic AI labs within one to two weeks. The move reflects the White House’s preference for consolidating existing authorities rather than enacting new AI-specific legislation.
US Department of Justice Establishes Dedicated AI Enforcement Body, but a Legal Loophole Leaves It Handicapped from the Start
The U.S. Department of Justice has created DOJ-SITF, its first dedicated AI enforcement body holding both criminal and civil authority. However, because existing laws such as the CFAA still require proof of deliberate human intent, its ability to prosecute autonomous AI conduct is limited, while companies face growing compliance pressure without clear standards.
MIT
I watched a humanoid robot clean my apartment. It felt like a taste of the future.
I’m not the sort of person who typically pays for a house cleaner. I’m too frugal, and I kind of enjoy putting on a podcast and going to town on my tub with a Magic Eraser. But when I saw an X post about a new humanoid-robot cleaning service in San Francisco, I immediately signed…
TC
Palo Alto Networks in talks to buy AI agent security startup Clutch for $500M
Clutch, backed by Lightspeed and SignalFire, was last valued at $85 million, according to a source.
SpaceX Sets 13 GW AI Compute Target, Replicating Google's 27 Years in 18 Months: Non-Tech Companies Are Rewriting Infrastructure Rules
SpaceX plans to build 13 GW of AI data center capacity by the end of 2027, potentially surpassing the Stargate alliance's planned 7-10 GW. Its speed advantage comes from Tesla Megapack energy storage bypassing grid interconnection delays, with Google and Anthropic already committing $26 billion in annual contracts.
TC
Airbnb says it’s launching an AI travel agent in the first half of 2027
Airbnb says its upcoming AI agent will help travelers plan trips, compare options, manage bookings, and get assistance throughout their stay.
WD
Ads in Chatbots Have Arrived. Here’s What’s Working—and What’s Not
As Anthropic maintains its vow to keep ads out of Claude, the rest of the AI chatbot industry is racing to win over advertisers without antagonizing users.
ARS
Lawsuit: Man introduced his wife to ChatGPT. She used it to plan his murder.
Bitter energy drinks turned out to be ChatGPT-steered poisoning, lawsuit says.
ARS
Google: Schools can keep search while skipping Gemini, but AI search is non-negotiable
Google is technically offering schools more choice but not the choices anyone wants.
NVIDIA Cosmos 3 Adds Four Open Models: Full Coverage from Single-Robot to Autonomous Driving, but the 96GB VRAM Requirement Is a Sobering Reality
NVIDIA has released four open-weight Cosmos 3 Nano checkpoints for autonomous driving and robotics, extending interactive world simulation into both sectors. While the open license lowers ecosystem barriers, the 96GB VRAM requirement for Nano and data-center GPU needs for Super still create clear hardware tiers.
OpenAI Releases GPT-6 Cyber: Exploit Capability Up 51%, Claims 99.93% Boundary Compliance Rate
OpenAI has released GPT-6 Cyber, a specialized security model that improves exploit development by 51% over its predecessor while being classified Critical under OpenAI's Preparedness Framework. OpenAI says access controls and alignment training support release, though most safety data is internal and only the Firefox vulnerability findings have been independently confirmed.
TC
OpenAI released a new cybersecurity model. Is that enough?
OpenAI's newest cybersecurity model comes out as AI labs face scrutiny of their work to protect digital infrastructure.
TC
Meta warns that election backlash against data centers could make AI expansion harder
Meta warns that growing political opposition to data centers could threaten future AI investments, as communities push back against massive infrastructure projects.
TC
Meta says US users can now video chat with their Muse AI avatar
Meta's AI agent can now take calls as a customizable animated avatar, ahead of the launch of a Tamagotchi-like wearable designed to bring Muse to life.