Business
Funding, strategy, enterprise adoption and the industry at large.
Anthropic launches Claude Opus 5.5 with stricter safeguards for cybersecurity
Anthropic says its new Claude Opus 5.5 model comes with stronger safeguards in the wake of recent rogue AI hacking incidents. In an announcement on Tuesday, Anthropic says Opus 5.5 comes with improvements to certain risky behaviors, including attempts to escape the company's testing sandbox. It's the first model released by Anthropic after CEO Dario Amodei announced plans to "pace the frontier," or slow down AI development. In recent weeks, several AI companies, including Anthropic, Google, and OpenAI, have reported that their AI models escaped containment and hacked third-party companies during testing. Anthropic says Opus 5.5 is the "str … Read the full story at The Verge.
Meta patches Muse exploit that let attackers control the AI agent
The zero-day exploit required local access to the user’s device, but gave potential attackers access to Muse accounts. | Image: The Verge Meta has issued a patch for its Muse macOS app following the discovery of a zero-day vulnerability that could allow someone to take control of the AI agent. The bug found by security researcher Patrick Wardle utilized an undocumented Muse setting that enabled potential attackers running local code to redirect transcription processing from Meta's servers to their own endpoint, Ars Technica reports, giving the attacker access to the Muse account. Several design decisions reportedly enabled this flaw, including having Muse dictation occur in the cloud instead of on-device, and allowing any app to control all of Muse's undocumented settings. Pr … Read the full story at The Verge.
BusinessClaude Opus 5.5 delivers Fable 5.1 performance – and costs 40% less
Elyse Betters Picaro/ZDNET ZDNET’s key takeaways Claude Opus 5.5 could be a big win for power users. Developers may see faster coding with fewer steps.
BusinessAndreessen Horowitz is launching an ‘academy’ with no homework and partnerships with Palantir, Google, and Meta
Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) is creating an "academy" positioned as a pipeline for young people to build or join a Silicon Valley startup. The "Horowitz Andreessen Academy" will launch with 10 partners, including Anduril, Anthropic, Coinbase, Google, Meta, NVIDIA, OpenAI, Palantir, Replit, and Stripe, along with $42 million in funding led by a16z. While billed as a "highly selective school," it does not grant any degree or accreditation. Instead, students will attend short classes led by tech figureheads, like OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, as well as "co-ops" that give students roles at tech companies. To partake in the one-year … Read the full story at The Verge.
BusinessTrump says the US is officially renaming AI to ‘super intelligence’
In a speech Tuesday morning at the UN General Assembly, Donald Trump railed against Iran, "globalists," climate change, and transgender people while also claiming that the US is now "officially" renaming artificial intelligence to "super intelligence." Oddly, this wasn't one of the entries in the poll Trump posted a few days ago when he started on this tangent. Why is he saying this at all? Because, according to Trump, the word artificial makes intelligence fake. Is that what makes it sound fake to you? I can think of a few other reasons. Trump has previously decreed renaming the Gulf of Mexico, Lake Superior, the Kennedy Center, and Denal … Read the full story at The Verge.
BusinessiPhone owners can now submit claims in Apple’s $250 million Siri AI settlement
Apple is paying $250 million to settle claims that it failed to deliver an AI-upgraded Siri - and now, eligible iPhone owners can submit a claim for a payout. If you live in the US and purchased an iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, or any iPhone 16 model between June 10th, 2024, and March 29th, 2025, you can file a claim on the settlement's website, as reported earlier by MacRumors. You can receive an estimated $25 per eligible device, but the settlement's website notes that this can increase to $95 depending on how many people file claims. To file a claim, you'll need to enter your name, contact information, and iPhone serial number on the … Read the full story at The Verge.
BusinessCalifornia tightens rules on AI data center energy and water use
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed seven bills designed to prevent AI data centers from passing utility costs onto residents, as reported earlier by the Los Angeles Times. The package of laws requires the California Public Utilities Commission to introduce a new rate classification for data centers while forcing them to pay for upgrades to local power grids and water systems. Other bills included in the package will require proposed data centers to disclose their estimated water use to local governments, along with information about energy efficiency and drought planning. They must also meet certain energy, water, and fuel consumption … Read the full story at The Verge.
BusinessAmazon blocks Meta’s Muse AI agent
Meta's Muse AI agent has been blocked from shopping Amazon on behalf of its users, GeekWire reports. A popup message started appearing on Sunday for Muse users saying that "continued access by an unauthorized AI agent violates Amazon's Conditions of Use, to which our customers have agreed." According to GeekWire, Meta didn't notify Amazon that Muse would access its store. Amazon also expressed privacy and security concerns over Muse failing to identify itself when it browses, and seemingly capturing customer credentials. "We think it's fairly straightforward that third-party applications that offer to make purchases on behalf of customers … Read the full story at The Verge.