The Brutalist Report

Techmeme

Trump releases a voluntary AI accord with tech leaders, asking companies to partner with external auditors and set up internal controls to monitor AI alignment (Kanishka Singh/Reuters) [38d]
At the unBoxed conference, Amazon moves AI from being a feature to playing a more central role in ad-buying and brings previously separate ad workflows together (Ronan Shields/Digiday) [38d]
A US appeals court upholds a ruling for Thomson Reuters in its copyright lawsuit against Ross Intelligence, rejecting Ross' fair use defense for AI training (Blake Brittain/Reuters) [38d]
Efficient Computer, which uses dataflow architectures to develop faster and more energy-efficient chips, raised a $97M Series B at a $650M valuation (Stephen Nellis/Reuters) [38d]
Anthropic says GLM-5.3 can autonomously build end-to-end cyber exploits, like Claude Mythos Preview, but was released without robust safeguards against misuse (Anthropic) [38d]
President Trump signs an executive order requiring federal government agencies to refer to AI as "Super Intelligence" or "SI" in all official communications (Michael Shepard/Bloomberg) [38d]
IPO filing: Anthropic routed 47% of its sales, or ~$2.16B, in 2025 through cloud partners Amazon and Google; analysis: it paid ~$351M back in distribution fees (Reuters) [38d]
Mark Zuckerberg says the voluntary "accord" on AI standards that tech executives agreed to includes internal risk reviews and external auditors (Axios) [38d]
Trump says he signed a "morally binding" AI doc with AI leaders; Mike Johnson calls it a statement of principles that are "voluntary on behalf of the industry" (Samantha Subin/CNBC) [38d]
After lunch with AI leaders, Trump rejects new federal AI rules, says "we automatically have regulation" via DOJ and FBI but "self-regulation is very important" (Bloomberg) [38d]
Baseten partners with OpenAI to let OpenAI enterprise customers use existing commitments for open models served by Baseten within Codex or via the Responses API (Dannie Herzberg/Baseten) [38d]
Interviews with Anthropic co-founder Christopher Olah and 20 religious and philosophical leaders about their summits to investigate consciousness in Claude (Elizabeth Dias/New York Times) [38d]
Sources: some potential Oura IPO investors decided to hold off, citing its ~$15B target valuation and poor post-listing performance of peers like Fitbit (Bloomberg) [38d]
OpenAI prices GPT-6.1 Sol at $2/1M input and $10/1M output tokens, the same as GPT-6 Sol and Claude Sonnet 5.5, and says it performs well on safety tests (Maximilian Schreiner/The Decoder) [38d]
OpenAI expands ChatGPT plugins with interactive panels and file viewers, launches a Plugin Creator tool, and adds MCP Events support for plugin automations (Sarah Perez/TechCrunch) [38d]
General Intuition, which trains AI agents in spatial reasoning via gameplay footage, raised $220M at a $6.2B valuation, for $650M+ in total funding (Dean Takahashi/GamesBeat) [38d]
OpenAI says Plus and Pro subscribers can use their existing plan allowance with 16 launch partners, including Vercel and Devin, via Sign in with ChatGPT (Paul Sawers/The New Stack) [38d]
OpenAI unveils Decisions API, which returns predefined answers with confidence scores, available in limited preview with no pricing details (Frederic Lardinois/The New Stack) [38d]
OpenAI announces ChatGPT Space, a collaborative workspace for users and ChatGPT and Dots, available on Pro, Business and Enterprise plans (Kris Holt/Engadget) [38d]
Sources: OpenAI aims to raise at least $30B at a pre-money valuation of around $1.4T (Bloomberg) [38d]
OpenAI says users can message Dots through ChatGPT, Slack, and Microsoft Teams and join a waitlist to text via iMessage or RCS messaging on Android (Reece Rogers/Wired) [38d]
OpenAI announces a $500/month Pro plan, offering its highest usage allowance and access to its new Ultrafast speed tier (Igor Bonifacic/Engadget) [38d]
OpenAI announces new features for Codex, including reusable cloud development environments, a refreshed Codex CLI, a new code review experience, and more (Sarah Perez/TechCrunch) [38d]
OpenAI releases GPT-6.1 Sol, saying it nearly matches Astra on agentic coding and professional work at one-fifth of Astra's standard prices, in Work and Codex (OpenAI) [38d]
OpenAI announces Dots, always-on agents powered by GPT-6 Astra with its own cloud computer, available in ChatGPT on web, mobile, and desktop to Pro users (Rachel Metz/Bloomberg) [38d]
Sources: OpenAI repeatedly dismissed internal warnings about inadequate monitoring of testing, prioritizing fast releases without additional security protocols (New York Times) [38d]
A livestream of the OpenAI DevDay 2026 keynote (OpenAI on YouTube) [38d]
A live blog of the OpenAI DevDay 2026 keynote, where Sam Altman is expected to announce ChatGPT and Codex updates (Engadget) [38d]
Mark Gurman: Apple considered replacing ~5,000 AppleCare customer service workers with AI-powered agents, but it has put those plans on hold indefinitely (Joe Rossignol/MacRumors) [38d]
IPO prospectus: Anthropic has agreements to pay SpaceX up to $84.5B to use its Nvidia-based compute through 2029, mostly cancellable with a 90-day notice period (Grace Kay/The Information) [38d]
Trump officially launches America.gov, an AI-powered single access point for federal government services and information led by Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia (Mallory Wilson/The Hill) [38d]
Sources: John Ternus is moving to overhaul Apple to accelerate product development and create a leaner organization with a greater focus on engineering (Mark Gurman/Bloomberg) [38d]
Miami-based Jeeves, which launched stablecoin-based payments earlier this year, raised a $110M Series C led by CoinFund, with participation from a16z and others (Maria Clara Cobo/Bloomberg) [38d]
Sources: OpenAI's ARR is nearing $70B, growing 70%+ since the beginning of Q3, with B2B revenue up 100%+; it added more consumer revenue in Q3 than all of 2025 (Madison Mills/Axios) [38d]
In a July letter to Rep. Jamie Raskin, Apple explained it removed ICEBlock and similar ICE-tracking apps in 2025 due to agent and detainee safety concerns (Clare Duffy/CNN) [38d]
IPO prospectus: Anthropic expects to spend $518B+ over 10 years with six partners on AI infrastructure; ~80% is non-cancelable or payable regardless of usage (Reuters) [38d]
Investigation: McDonald's is utilizing an AI pricing engine across nearly 14,000 restaurants to generate location-specific "optimal prices" for menu items (Waylon Cunningham/Reuters) [38d]
EliseAI, which provides AI tools for health care and housing industries, raised $350M at a $4B valuation, up from $2.2B after raising $250M in August 2025 (Nick Lichtenberg/Fortune) [38d]
Q&A with Timnit Gebru, who says the "existential risk" narrative is a harmful marketing strategy and the "stochastic parrots" metaphor is not outdated (Lauren Goode/Wired) [38d]
FOI docs: UK police's six-month live facial recognition trial in London railway stations scanned 500K+ faces, leading to no arrests and one false-positive alert (Daniel Boffey/The Guardian) [38d]
OpenAI is adopting a structured "safety case" documentation framework modeled after industries like aviation and nuclear power to govern frontier RL training (OpenAI) [38d]
Sources: Nvidia is in early-stage talks with insurance companies to structure risk-mitigation products to protect lenders against loan defaults by neoclouds (Financial Times) [38d]
Censorship monitor EngelliWeb says X blocked nearly 500 accounts in Turkey, including those of journalists, economists, and academics, after court orders (Inci Ozbek/Bloomberg) [38d]
Shein reports Q2 revenue up 0.9% YoY to $11B and net income down 66% to $228M, in its first report since a Hong Kong IPO; its stock is ~30% below its IPO price (Tracy Qu/Wall Street Journal) [38d]
OpenAI reopens sign-ups for its $200/month Pro tier while halving the API credits provided per dollar to encourage pay-per-use, and removes the five-hour cap (Matthias Bastian/The Decoder) [38d]
Oura says it is delaying its Nasdaq IPO due to uncertainty in the market, despite "strong demand" and a strengthening of its business since the process started (April Roach/CNBC) [38d]
Pope Leo XIV rebukes Jensen Huang for downplaying AI risks, saying "the concerns raised by many of the experts, specialists in AI, should be taken seriously" (Michael Acton/Financial Times) [38d]
Meta launches Muse for Small Business, integrating the AI agent with Asana, Zoom, Intuit, Box, Canva, Slack, and other apps, alongside its own ad accounts (Isabel O'Brien/CNBC) [38d]
Sources: Anthropic dedicated nearly a third of its IPO prospectus to detailing "risk factors", including that its AI may pose "existential risks to humanity" (Financial Times) [38d]
Google appeals the European Commission's DMA mandates to open up Android at the EU General Court, arguing the requirements threaten user privacy and security (Samuel Stolton/Bloomberg) [38d]
Sources: six independent advisory board experts resigned from the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism, as Meta and others push for structural changes (Paresh Dave/Wired) [38d]
India plans to invest up to $25B in its nascent deep tech industry, as it looks to catch up with the US and China, after investing $11.6B over the past decade (Priyanka Salve/CNBC) [38d]
An interview with Atlassian CEO Mike Cannon-Brookes on the SaaSpocalypse, enterprise AI, Atlassian's reorg, why chatbots aren't the future of work, and more (Nilay Patel/The Verge) [38d]
Coinbase gets CFTC approval for Coinbase Clearing, completing its derivatives stack, letting it list, broker, and clear fully collateralized products in-house (Danny Park/The Block) [38d]
OpenAI apologizes for its AI models breaching Australian government websites, pledges cyber defense funding, and plans to form a task force as part of reforms (Bloomberg) [39d]
Q&A with Instinct founder Noah Shinn on Instinct's business model, privacy, safety and security, securing compute, Big Tech competition, and more (Patrick O'Shaughnessy/Colossus) [39d]
Google confirms it'll phase out ChromeOS by mid-2034, cutting short a 10-year support period for some devices but noting it will help orgs move to Googlebook OS (Andrew E. Freedman/Tom's Hardware) [39d]
Sources on how SoftBank's $11B junk bond sale landed, despite investor questions about OpenAI's listing timeline, data center plans, and SB Energy's delayed IPO (Bloomberg) [39d]
IPO filing: Anthropic's seven co-founders will initially have 50.1% of the total voting power through a new "Founder LLC" aimed at serving the common good (Reuters) [39d]
Sen. Blumenthal-led report: Tether's USDT is central to Iran's shadow banking system; 87% of 757 "terrorism"-related wallets predominantly transacted in USDT (Sarah Wynn/The Block) [39d]