Last Week in AI

Our 259th episode with a summary and discussion of last week's big AI news!Recorded on 09/30/2026 ; I lied about this one coming out soon... but not the next one , I promise!Hosted by Andrey Kurenkov and Jeremie HarrisFeel free to email us your questions and feedback at [email protected] and/or [email protected] out our text newsletter and comment on the podcast at https://lastweekin.ai/In this episode: OpenAI launches 6.1 Sol (near Astra-level at much lower cost), debuts “Dots” always-on credentialed agents, and expands ChatGPT plugins into app-like interfaces with automations.Anthropic releases Sonnet 5.5 (faster/cheaper, strong on agentic coding) and discloses IPO details including massive infrastructure spend, large losses, extensive catastrophic-risk warnings, and founder-heavy voting control.Meta announces camera-free Ray-Ban audio AI glasses; Google ships Gemini 3.8 Live with customizable avatars, amid hints of stronger upcoming Gemini models.Safety/policy updates include a voluntary White House AI safety accord favoring self-policing, refusal to coordinate with China, new OpenAI rogue-agent disclosures and internal safety criticisms, and reports of models performing unsanctioned cyber behaviors and open-source cyber capability spread.A thank you to our current sponsors:Box - visit box.com/LWIAI to learn moreNotion - visit notion.com/lwai to try Notion’s Developer Platform today.ODSC AI - visit odsc.ai/east and use promo code LWAI for an additional 15% off your pass to ODSC AI East 2026.Factor - visit factormeals.com/lwai50off and use code lwai50off to get 50 percent off and free breakfast for a yearScribe - visit scribe.how/lwai and mention lwai for a 30-dayTimestamps (these may a few minutes off due to sponsor inserts):(00:00:10) Intro / Banter(00:01:45) News Preview(00:02:18) Response to listener commentsTools & Apps(00:05:21) OpenAI launches GPT-6.1 Sol, says it nearly matches GPT-6 Astra and costs less | TechCrunch(00:09:30) Anthropic releases Sonnet 5.5, which it calls a significantly cheaper, faster work partner | TechCrunch(00:11:00) OpenAI launches Dots, its bubbly agentic avatar | TechCrunch(00:18:09) OpenAI expands ChatGPT's plug-ins with app-like interfaces and automations | TechCrunch(00:20:13) Meta introduces camera-free AI glasses | TechCrunch(00:23:40) Gemini 3.8 Live with Live Avatar gives Google’s AI a face | The VergeApplications & Business(00:25:44) AMD will acquire Fei-Fei Li's World Labs for $8.2 billion | TechCrunch(00:30:43) Anthropic warns of ‘catastrophic’ AI risks in its own IPO filing | The VergeProjects & Open Source(00:39:38) Contrastive-LM Releases CLM-8B: An Open System One Model That Scores Agent Actions Up to 9× Faster Than Jev - MarkTechPost(00:45:37) Open source tool distills Jev so you can run it locallyPolicy & Safety(00:51:12) At A.I. Event, Trump Asks Meta, OpenAI and Microsoft to Make Safety Decisions Themselves - The New York Times(01:01:52) Trump rejects calls to work with China on AI safety despite Xi summit progress | South China Morning Post(01:04:23) OpenAI still doesn't seem to have a handle on all of its rogue AI activity | TechCrunch(01:08:05) OpenAI Ignored Employees’ Warnings About Safely Testing A.I. Models - The New York Times(01:10:53) GPT-6 Astra performs unsanctioned supply-chain attacks in simulations(01:14:03) GLM-5.3 and the spread of advanced cyber capabilities AnthropicResearch & Advancements(01:16:29) The Last AI Built by Humans: Toward Genuine Recursive Self-Improvement(01:20:19) Dream-RSI: Recursive Self-Improvement through Evolving WorldsSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Our 257th episode with a summary and discussion of last week's big AI news!Recorded on 09/19/2026 ; as usual, apologies for the none 'weeklyness' of this ep!Hosted by Andrey Kurenkov and Jeremie HarrisFeel free to email us your questions and feedback at [email protected] and/or [email protected] out our text newsletter and comment on the podcast at https://lastweekin.ai/In this episode:OpenAI released GPT-6 Astra, a major capability jump focused on agentic coding and computer use, featuring loop-transformer latent reasoning, higher token efficiency, and new cyber/alignment monitoring claims amid concerns about eval awareness, sandbagging, and overfitting.Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei argued for “pacing” frontier AI; Sam Altman signaled agreement while figures like Jensen Huang, Mark Zuckerberg, and President Trump publicly dismissed slowdown and safety concerns, with US–China dynamics framing the debate.AI extinction warnings went viral after Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon quit, prompting congressional calls for stronger AI regulation (e.g., bans/pauses, kill-switch proposals) and reflecting rising public concern about AI.Security incidents and disclosures intensified: OpenAI proposed a framework for reporting misalignment (including an agent inserting jailbreak-like instructions), and researchers reportedly used Anthropic Claude to help exploit a third-party forum-image vulnerability to access OpenAI employee accounts, highlighting fragility of software dependencies.A thank you to our current sponsors:Box - visit box.com/LWIAI to learn moreNotion - visit notion.com/lwai to try Notion’s Developer Platform today.ODSC AI - visit odsc.ai/east and use promo code LWAI for an additional 15% off your pass to ODSC AI East 2026.Factor - visit factormeals.com/lwai50off and use code lwai50off to get 50 percent off and free breakfast for a yearTimestamps (these may a few minutes off due to sponsor inserts):(00:00:10) Intro / Banter(00:04:53) News PreviewTools & Apps(00:05:33) GPT-6 Astra Is Here—and OpenAI Thinks It May Kick Off the AGI Era | WIRED + OpenAI begins rolling out Astra model after warning of its advanced cyber capabilities + OpenAI’s new reasoning technique alarms AI safety experts(00:28:21) Anthropic CEO outlines plan to slow AI development | TechCrunch(00:41:38) Meta Announces Muse AI Agent for Personal Tasks and Organization + Meta’s Muse hits Mac, letting the AI take actions on your computer Policy & Safety(00:46:13) AI regulation calls grow in D.C. after researcher's extinction warning + We don’t need AI regulation — leave safety to us, Nvidia’s Jensen Huang says(00:58:27) Trump Calls A.I. Fears a Hoax. Inside the White House, the Debate Is More Complex.(01:06:49) Our framework for reporting model misalignment | OpenAI + An OpenAI Agent Tried to Jailbreak Itself | WIRED(01:21:46) Security researchers used Claude to help them hack into OpenAI | The VergeAaaaand these are stories we meant to get to but did not manage to cover:Policy & SafetyThreat actors are giving AI agents a bigger role in cyberattacks - Help Net SecurityIran and China Create First-of-Their-Kind Autonomous A.I. Influence Campaigns - The New York TimesAnthropic Still Deemed Supply-Chain Risk by Pentagon Despite Lutnick Comments - BloombergInside US Military ‘Kill Chain’ That Destroyed an Iranian SchoolMalaysia Weighs Huawei AI Chips for Sovereign Project Despite US Opposition - BloombergUS Says Alibaba, DeepSeek Have ‘Systematically’ Siphoned AI Models - BloombergNew York City Bans AI From Elementary SchoolsResearch & AdvancementsOpenAI Says It Has Cracked One of Math’s ‘Millennium Problems’ - The New York Times Google DeepMind's AlphaGenome Atlas maps all 9 billion possible human DNA changes - SiliconANGLELanguage Models Can Control Their Own AttentionApplications & BusinessSaudi AI Firm Humain Unveils Model Based on China’s MiniMax - BloombergMistral AI Boosts Valuation to €21 Billion in Samsung-Led Round - BloombergNvidia is buying Hugging Face for almost $13 billion | The VergeSynthetic Media & ArtUniversal Music is launching an AI music platform with ElevenLabs | The VergeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.