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The European Union starts process to open up Android to AI competitors

Gemini is basically enjoying a monopoly for integrated system access on Android. The EU wants to change that. (Picture: generated)

Google has been aggressively implementing AI and Gemini on its platforms, such as web search — and Android. Right now, Gemini is basically the only AI with system access on the platform, and the EU sees room for improvement.

Under the Digital Markets Act, Google isn’t just another vendor — it’s one of seven dominant platforms, deemed «gatekeepers» to other services. That means it has to behave like a platform, like Windows, and offer equal access to its services.

The European Commission lists letting competing AI assistants have easy access to functions like sending emails, sharing and editing photos — and have system level access to control apps. It should also provide Android API access and support for free, they say.

Continue reading “The European Union starts process to open up Android to AI competitors”

Google signs on to Pentagon contract for classified work

All top labs except Anthropic are now available to the Department of War. (Picture: Shutterstock)

Joining OpenAI and xAI, Google’s contract follows the controversial «all lawful government use» rules for classified work at the DoD, The Information (paywalled) was first to report.

The contract is quoted by Reuters to include specific language against use for «domestic mass surveillance» and autonomous weapons «without appropriate human oversight and control,» but Google doesn’t get to second guess or outright ban this usage of their models, The Verge reports.

Anthropic famously defected from its Pentagon contract over precisely these issues, but OpenAI quickly signed on to a contract with better language.

Rumors of a coming deal sparked protest internally at Google, with 600 Googlers signing a letter demanding that Google refuse any classified use, as they also did over Israel contracts.

Read more: The Information (paywalled), Reuters, The Verge, and TechCrunch.

Taylor Swift moves to trademark audio clips and image to protect from AI

The likeness of this image could be trademarked and used to sue AI platforms. (Picture: U.S. Patent & Trademark Office)

The trademark filings of two audio snippets and an image of her on stage with a guitar are intended to ward off AI deepfakes.

The problem that copyright doesn’t fix is not the actual copying of Swift’s work, but deepfakes that copy her voice and likeness in generated content:

— Historically, singers relied on copyright law to protect their recorded music, writes trademark lawyer Josh Gerben. — But AI technologies now allow users to generate entirely new content that mimics an artist’s voice without copying an existing recording, creating a gap that trademarks may help fill.

Trademarking an artist’s voice and image has only been done once before, by Matthew McConaughey, in an effort to ensure that any «use of his likeness would require approval» in an AI world, Gerben writes.

It’s a novel approach that has yet to be tested by courts, but should provide protection for similar copies of Swift’s works — even those that are «confusingly similar.»

Read more: Josh Gerben’s blog post, Variety, and Reuters.

OpenAI and Microsoft drop exclusivity

OpenAI’s models can now be distributed through AWS and Google Cloud. (Picture: Microsoft)

As Microsoft made big early bets on OpenAI, they gained exclusivity to their models and a revenue share from OpenAI.

Now, with a $50 billion deal from Amazon waiting in the wings, the companies are amending the deal so the models can be made available «across any cloud provider.»

That’s big news for enterprise adoption and competition with Anthropic, as their models can now be made widely available on Google Cloud and AWS.

As part of the new deal, Microsoft is still OpenAI’s «primary cloud partner,» and will get dibs on new models. The difference is the non-exclusive license through 2032, and that they will no longer pay a revenue share to OpenAI. OpenAI, however, will be paying Microsoft through 2030, with an undisclosed total revenue cap.

— With this, builders will have even more choice to pick the right model for the right job, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy wrote, according to Reuters.

Read more: OpenAI’s announcement, Reuters, and Ars Technica

OpenAI is building a «fundamentally changing» agent-first phone, Kuo says

This is how Ming-Chi Kuo imagines a new agent-first interface. (Picture: Ming-Chi Kuo)

Supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, mostly known for breaking early Apple news, has published an article on x.com claiming that OpenAI is already working with MediaTek and Qualcomm to develop a phone with an agentic interface.

— Smartphones will remain the largest-scale device category for the foreseeable future, he writes, and shipments of high-end phones are around 300-400 million units a year — a mass market OpenAI would be keen on reaching.

The phone itself should be an agent-first experience, «fundamentally changing how people think of smartphones,» Kuo says.

This means moving away from apps to agents, from icons to tasks, and then doing away with the well-worn grid interface in favor of an agent-powered stream layout.

Along with the chip giants on board, systems integrator Luxshare is slated as their main manufacturing partner, aiming for a full system spec late this year or early 2027. Mass production is «expected» in 2028, meaning the project is moving fast.

Read the full story on x.com.

Google to invest up to $40 billion in rival/partner Anthropic

Google and Anthropic are rivals in the chatbot arena, but partners in compute. (Picture: Anthropic)

Alphabet, Google’s parent company, has reached an agreement to initially invest $10 billion in Anthropic, increasing to $40 billion on reaching «performance targets,» Reuters reports.

The deal comes hot on the heels of Amazon’s investment of $25 billion this week, also contingent on «commercial milestones.»

Google’s investment comes as Anthropic is seeking to expand its compute capacity after several reports of throttling and downtime for its Claude service, amid rising popularity.

Earlier this month, Google and Broadcom secured a «partnership» with significant compute for Anthropic, as the company announced it had hit a $30 billion annualized run-rate revenue.

Read more: Reuters, CNBC, and TechCrunch.

OpenAI moving to a faster, «iterative» release schedule for new models

We can expect more models at a faster pace from OpenAI going forward. (Picture: Adobe)

GPT-5.5 came out just six weeks after GPT-5.4, so naturally, people are wondering if this is part of a new trend of quicker releases:

— Yes, we expect quite rapid continued progress, says OpenAI Chief Scientist Jakub Pachocki on a call related to today’s release, according to Tae Kim on Substack.

— We see pretty significant improvements in the short term, extremely significant improvements in the medium term, he adds.

Sam Altman has also weighed in, saying that «We believe in iterative deployment; although GPT-5.5 is already a smart model, we expect rapid improvements.»

Altman goes on to say that this is also part of a safety strategy, arguing that iterative releases make it easier for the world to prepare for advances in AI.

Read more: Key Context by Tae Kim, Altman’s tweet.

OpenAI releases GPT-5.5, a step up in intelligence with the same latency

From chatbot to «research partner,» ChatGPT-5.5 steps up with complex reasoning. (Picture: Adobe)

Some advanced models lose speed when upgraded, but not so for OpenAI’s latest. GPT-5.5 handles more demanding tasks at a faster clip — and «excels» at agentic coding, computer use, knowledge work and scientific research.

It also matches the GPT-5.4 on token latency, «while performing at a much higher level of intelligence,» OpenAI says.

Codex is much improved by the new model, with better code debugging, document and spreadsheet creation, use of software and moving across toolsets.

It’s also strong on benchmarks, using significantly fewer tokens to complete the same Codex tasks as GPT-5.4.

On computer use and scientific research, it should get higher quality results with fewer tokens or retries, and requires less guidance, OpenAI says.

The model is more expensive than GPT-5.4, clocking in at $5 per million input tokens and $30 per million output tokens — almost twice the cost.

Read more: OpenAI’s announcement, writeups at CNBC, Axios and The Verge.

OpenAI makes it super easy to create and deploy agents in ChatGPT

You just need a description of the task to get going with ChatGPT’s new agents. (Picture: OpenAI)

Dubbing them «workspace agents,» OpenAI is rolling out Codex-powered agents to Business, Enterprise, Edu, and Teachers tiers.

In a bid to popularize agents beyond enthusiasts and IT departments, these agents are for everyone, and are sharebale between teams.

They are also very easy to create; simply add a description of the job you want done, and ChatGPT walks you through the process of turning it into an agent.

Continue reading “OpenAI makes it super easy to create and deploy agents in ChatGPT”

Private Discord group gains access to Mythos — to «play around» with it

The unnamed group has not run any cybersecurity prompts for fear of losing access. (Picture: adobe)

Bloomberg (paywalled) is reporting that a «private online forum» has managed to get access to Anthropic’s heralded Mythos model — said to be so advanced, it would be too dangerous to release.

— We’re investigating a report claiming unauthorized access to Claude Mythos Preview through one of our third-party vendor environments, Anthropic tells TechCrunch.

The group is part of a Discord channel focused on finding information on unreleased models, and made some educated guesses as to where the model would be located. They also had some help from a member whose job gave him access.

As for the warnings of dangerous fallout from public access to the model, the group says they are only interested in «playing around with new models,» not «wreaking havoc,» Gizmodo says, but the «hack» itself will raise concern in the security sector.

Read more: Bloomberg (paywalled), TechCrunch, and Gizmodo.

Meta to record screens, keystrokes, and mouse movements from employees

US workers for Meta will have to contend with most of their daily work being monitored for the training of future AI agents — in an initiative called Model Capability Initiative, according to internal memos seen by Reuters.

They will now get software installed on their computers to track basically everything they do, and take the occasional screenshot, to help train Meta’s agents, which are currently «struggling to replicate how humans interact with computers.»

This includes the use of keyboard shortcuts, clicking buttons, and using pull-down menus, Reuters says.

The idea is definitely to train their successors, according to Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth, who sent a memo to employees on Monday saying that «the vision we are building towards is one where our agents primarily do the work and our role is to direct, review and help them improve.»

Just yesterday, OpenAI debuted a tool to take constant screenshots of users’ computers in order to customize Codex to their usage.

Read more: Reuters exclusive, TechCrunch and Gizmodo.

Mozilla uses Mythos to fix 271 bugs in latest Firefox, claims «vertigo»

The Mythos model is only available to select organizations for defensive cybersecurity. (Picture: generated)

The browser developer has been working with Anthropic since February, and got their hands on an early version of Claude Mythos Preview to scan for vulnerabilities.

— For a hardened target, just one such bug would have been red-alert in 2025, and so many at once makes you stop to wonder whether it’s even possible to keep up, Mozilla writes in their blog.

The upshot is that the 271 bugs mean that the company can approach security «much better than just keeping up», and that «defenders finally have a chance to win, decisively.»

— We have many years of experience picking apart the work of the world’s best security researchers, and Mythos Preview is every bit as capable, Mozilla continues.

They used Claude Opus 4.6 to find 22 bugs back in March, but this Mythos-powered bug hunt was so large it left them with a feeling akin to vertigo, they say.

Read more: Mozilla’s blog, interview on Wired, writeups on Ars Technica and Engadget.

OpenAI brings web search, thinking to ChatGPT Images 2.0

A stoat on a goat on a boat in a moat, approaching photorealism. (Picture: generated)

The new image model for ChatGPT does not only offer higher fidelity, but more precision in how it renders pictures. According to OpenAI, it’s a sea change:

— If we think of Dall-e as cave drawings, and Images 1.0 as ancient art, then Images 2.0 is the Renaissance, OpenAI claims, according to Gizmodo.

It is a little bit faster to generate, and offers better instruction following, more accurate object placement — and reasoning with web search.

That means it can render multiple images from a single prompt, and «double-check» its outputs, as well as offering the latest information in the picture.

As for the benchmarks, GPT Image 2.0 has entered LMArena’s leaderboards at #1 for Text-to-Image with a whopping 242 point lead, and is 125 points ahead on Single-Image-Edit and up 90 on Multi-Image Edit.

The model is available today across all of ChatGPT’s tiers. For the thinking mode, you’ll need a paid Plus, Pro or Business subscription.

Read more: OpenAI’s announcement, Launch thread, Gizmodo and The Verge.

OpenAI introduces «Chronicle,» a tool constantly screenshotting your desktop

The new feature is tailored to high-output work environments, or it would be a privacy disaster. (Picture: Adobe)

The new feature is an agent observing your screen all the time you work, storing screenshots as «memories» to better help with context for your Codex tasks.

— Over time, it helps Codex learn how you work: the tools you use, the projects you return to, and the workflows you rely on, OpenAI croons on x.com.

The point is to learn even more detail about you, from how you prefer your code to the tools and apps you use to perform. This can then later be recalled by Codex.

Notwithstanding the privacy concerns from Windows Recall, which also uses AI to take and store screenshots of your desktop, OpenAI is warning that the screenshots are even stored unencrypted on your computer.

They also warn that it eats up rate limits quickly, is very prone to prompt injection attacks and is only available on the $200 Pro subscription, as a research preview on macOS. Once enabled, it can be paused at any time in a menu item.

Citing strain on servers, Anthropic secures 5 GW of compute from Amazon

It’s a deal where it appears both sides win. (Picture: Amazon)

Anthropic admits to taxing its servers lately, saying that their recent growth «places an inevitable strain on our infrastructure; our unprecedented consumer growth, in particular, has impacted reliability and performance […] especially during peak hours»

The AI lab says 1 gigawatt of the new capacity on Amazon’s custom silicon will come online in late 2026, and is committing to spending $100 billion on Amazon over the next decade to «train and run Claude.»

The deal also includes an initial investment of some $5 billion from Amazon which will scale to $25 billion «in the future,» tied to «commercial milestones.»

Andy Jassy, CEO of Amazon, has taken some flak for their gigantic $200 billion spend on AI infrastructure, but with this deal, they are recouping half of that:

—Anthropic’s commitment to run its large language models on AWS Trainium for the next decade reflects the progress we’ve made together on custom silicon, Jassy says.

Read more: Anthropic’s announcement, Amazon’s release. Writeups on CNBC, TechCrunch, and Engadget.