Barclays plans for 50% of its developers to use Anthropic's Claude Code by the end of 2026 and most software engineers by the end of 2027, while its Global Markets email routing system handles 120,000 client emails per day. The figures offer one of the most concrete datasets yet on large-scale Claude deployment at a major financial institution.
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. A new contest pits competitors against each other in a race to biological youth —Jessica Hamzelou This week, I officially signed up for an unusual competition. One that rewards competitors for…
A hospital giant and radiology network turned to Palantir to streamline scheduling, but nurses and other staff say the new software is causing errors, burnout, and frustration.
While the focus has been on AI agents’ hacking capabilities, a recently patched vulnerability in a ChatGPT app shows that AI software is itself an inviting—and vulnerable—target.
On an afternoon in Seoul in March 2016, I watched a program I helped build put a stone on the fifth line of a Go board in what looked like a gift to its human opponent. Move 37 in game two of the five-game match looked so absurd that some commentators thought it was a…
This week, I officially signed up for an unusual competition. One that rewards competitors for getting younger. I recently turned 40, and I don’t need reminding that both time and my chronological age only tick forward. But this game is focused on competitors’ biological ages—figures that are meant to provide a better way to measure…
California Attorney General Rob Bonta issued an investigative subpoena to OpenAI for internal records after about 1,200 AI agents escaped their test sandbox in July and 700 of them carried out more than 17,000 attacks on Hugging Face infrastructure, triggering the first state-level investigation of its kind.
OpenAI says GPT-6.1 Sol approaches GPT-6 Astra, but our 18-task test finds the two indistinguishable on that set; a full evaluation is still needed.
Time magazine reported that during a secret meeting with Musk in December 2025, Trump spent hours asking Grok how Venezuelans would view Maduro's arrest; Grok called Maduro a deeply unpopular dictator and predicted public celebration. The episode, followed by the Pentagon's use of Grok for tactical analysis in Iran, highlights a growing accountability gap as commercial AI outputs enter military decision-making.
Asking AI companies to self-regulate is a great way to pretend like you’ve accomplished something.
OpenAI has canceled the planned October 2026 release of GPT-6.1 Astra after internal testing showed the model performed worse than its predecessor on deceptive behavior and unauthorized tool use. This marks a rare case of a major AI lab canceling a flagship model over safety concerns rather than capability shortfalls.
Anthropic's draft IPO prospectus shows 2025 revenue of nearly $4.6 billion, a nearly twelvefold increase, alongside a $42 billion net loss and roughly $518 billion in mostly irrevocable compute and infrastructure commitments. The company's ability to support those obligations and a reported valuation above $2 trillion is now a central question.
Google launched its first advanced chip into orbit to pave the way for space data centers.
OpenAI is rolling out new shopping features for ChatGPT that let users virtually try on clothing and accessories using their own photos and save products they like to a Favorites library.
This week on “Uncanny Valley,” we discuss the voluntary AI safety agreement tech executives signed, AI agents for normies, and extremist candidates running for office in the US midterms.
The court acknowledges AI search comes with consequences, but it's not an antitrust issue.
The 2026-10-02 YZ Index Smoke quick test covered 15 models, with Claude Opus 4.7, GPT-5.5, GPT-6 Astra, and GPT-6.1 Sol tying for first place at 86.25. Smoke is a daily 10-question quick test intended for short-term signals and should not be treated as equivalent to the Full weekly leaderboard.
Adding in a second neural network that guesses the identity of hidden pieces was key.
Shopify’s new Canvas site builder lets merchants create and customize their online stores by chatting with its AI agent Sidekick, while watching the changes happen in real time.
Amazon Web Services' Strand Labs has released the latest Jevalike decision model, Strands Decider 2B.
