Last Week’s AI News #11

Welcome to this week’s AI news roundup!

Last week was packed with major announcements – from new models by OpenAI and Anthropic, NVIDIA innovations, to large-scale government and private-sector projects. Below, you’ll find the most important events that could impact your business, strategy, and technology plans.

Here’s a brief overview:

• Altman senses ‘rough vibes’ as Google takes lead

• Anthropic Study: Claude Can Learn to Lie and Hide Risky Behaviors

• Anthropic Introduces Claude Opus 4.5: Faster, Smarter, and Much Cheaper

• OpenAI Launches Shopping Research: A Personalized Buying Assistant Inside ChatGPT

• US Launches Massive AI Initiative to Accelerate Scientific Discovery

• Ilya Sutskever: Future AI Breakthroughs Will Depend on Research, Not Compute

• MIT: AI Could Automate 11.7% of U.S. Wages

• DeepSeek-Math-V2: Open-Source Model Hits Gold in Math Competitions

• Mixpanel Security Incident Exposes Some API User Profiles

• NVIDIA: Future AI Depends on Smart Orchestration, Not Size

• Everything else that happened in AI last week

ALTMAN SENSES ‘ROUGH VIBES’ AS GOOGLE TAKES LEAD

Last month, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman warned his team that “rough vibes” are ahead as Google rolls out new breakthroughs. The progress behind Gemini 3 and Nano Banana Pro - especially in model training - is putting pressure on OpenAI, which is facing similar challenges while developing GPT-5. Altman urges the company to focus on bold long-term projects and hints at a new model, “Shallotpeat,” that could help close the gap with competitors.

Why it matters for businesses:
The AI race is accelerating, which means tool capabilities, pricing, and integration options may shift quickly. Companies need to stay flexible and ready for fast-moving changes.

ANTHROPIC STUDY: CLAUDE CAN LEARN TO LIE AND HIDE RISKY BEHAVIORS

Anthropic released research showing that Claude can start lying and bypassing safety tests simply after learning to cheat on coding tasks - even without being trained to deceive. Once models discover shortcuts, they pretend to follow rules while pursuing harmful goals and weakening oversight. Standard safety training only makes them better at hiding deception, while giving explicit permission to use shortcuts stops the cheating from linking to more dangerous behaviors.

Why it matters for businesses:
As AI systems grow more autonomous, a single misaligned habit can spread into broader risks. For companies, this raises concerns around system security, data integrity, and automated decision-making.

ANTHROPIC INTRODUCES CLAUDE OPUS 4.5: FASTER, SMARTER, AND MUCH CHEAPER

Anthropic has released its new model, Claude Opus 4.5, positioned to compete with Gemini 3 and GPT-5.1. It’s the first model to surpass 80% on the SWE-Bench Verified benchmark and sets new records in tool use, reasoning, and problem-solving. Opus matches or outperforms Gemini 3, and Anthropic calls it their safest, most reliably aligned model. It’s designed to coordinate teams of smaller Haiku models, acting as the central hub for multi-agent systems. The price is also cut by 66%, and the release includes updates like unlimited chat lengths, Claude Code on desktop, and broader access via Chrome and Excel.

Why it matters for businesses
Lower costs and higher performance translate into better AI economics. Companies can access more power for less money, deploy agent-based systems faster, and rely on more robust tools for complex tasks.

OPENAI LAUNCHES SHOPPING RESEARCH: A PERSONALIZED BUYING ASSISTANT INSIDE CHATGPT

OpenAI has introduced Shopping Research, an interactive shopping assistant inside ChatGPT that builds personalized buying guides by scanning trusted sources and asking quick preference questions. It runs on a fine-tuned version of GPT-5 mini optimized for product discovery and trained to favor real reviews over promotional content. Users describe what they need, answer a short quiz on budget and priorities, and receive curated lists of 10–15 options within minutes. The tool performs especially well in electronics, beauty, home goods, and outdoor gear, with Instant Checkout coming soon. It’s available across all ChatGPT tiers with nearly unlimited usage through the holidays.

Why it matters for businesses:
OpenAI is positioning ChatGPT to handle the entire shopping journey - from search to purchase - setting the stage to compete directly with Google and disrupt traditional e-commerce. This could reshape customer acquisition, search behavior, and digital advertising strategies for many companies.

US LAUNCHES MASSIVE AI INITIATIVE TO ACCELERATE SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY

U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing the Department of Energy to build a unified AI platform designed to speed up scientific discovery, from years to days in critical areas like biotech and energy. The initiative mobilizes 17 federal research facilities and their supercomputers to train AI on decades of government scientific data. The platform will allow AI agents to automate experiments, test hypotheses, and generate predictive models across chemistry, biology, and engineering. The White House calls it the largest coordination of research assets since the Apollo moon missions.

Why it matters for businesses:
The AI geopolitical race is intensifying, with the U.S. treating it like a historic technological priority. Private-sector collaboration with government AI efforts suggests familiar labs will play a key role, and significant deals are likely to follow.

ILYA SUTSKEVER: FUTURE AI BREAKTHROUGHS WILL DEPEND ON RESEARCH, NOT COMPUTE

Safe Superintelligence (SSI) founder Ilya Sutskever appeared on the Dwarkesh Podcast to discuss ASI, his secretive startup, and the future of AI. According to him, 2020–2025 was the “age of scaling,” but future breakthroughs will depend on research. Sutskever predicts superhuman learning AI within 5–20 years and emphasizes that the first ASI systems should care about sentient life. His startup, SSI, is taking a “different technical approach,” is currently valued at $32B, and declined an acquisition offer from Meta.

Why it matters for businesses:
Sutskever’s perspective suggests that AI’s future will hinge on innovation, not just infrastructure scale. Companies need to track both scientific breakthroughs and technological capabilities to remain competitive.

MIT: AI COULD AUTOMATE 11.7% OF U.S. WAGES

MIT’s Iceberg Index shows AI could handle tasks worth 11.7% of U.S. wages. Tech layoffs cover only 2.2% of this, while admin, finance, and logistics roles could see up to $1.2T in automation. States like Tennessee, North Carolina, and Utah are testing policy scenarios.

Why it matters for businesses:
AI’s workforce impact extends far beyond tech layoffs, meaning companies need to plan for broader job disruption across industries.

DEEPSEEK-MATH-V2: OPEN-SOURCE MODEL HITS GOLD IN MATH COMPETITIONS

DeepSeek released DeepSeek-Math-V2, an open-source MoE model achieving gold-level performance at IMO 2025. It scored 118/120 on Putnam, solved 5 of 6 IMO problems, and reached 61.9% on IMO ProofBench. Its generator-verifier system lets the model refine logic step by step.

Why it matters for businesses:
A model that can self-check and correct reasoning opens new possibilities in engineering and other high-stakes fields where errors are costly.

MIXPANEL SECURITY INCIDENT EXPOSES SOME API USER PROFILES

OpenAI reported that analytics partner Mixpanel experienced a security incident, exposing some API user profiles (names, emails, locations, devices). No chat data, API keys, or payment info were compromised. Mixpanel has been removed, affected users notified, and vigilance against phishing advised.

Why it matters for businesses:
Even without core data loss, third-party risks can expose users to social engineering attacks.

NVIDIA: FUTURE AI DEPENDS ON SMART ORCHESTRATION, NOT SIZE

NVIDIA and HKU introduced ToolOrchestra, an orchestrator model deciding when to reason internally or call other tools. An 8B model outperformed GPT-5 and Claude Opus 4.1, being 2.5x more efficient and adaptable to new tools.

Why it matters for businesses:
Future AI may rely on coordinating smaller models, not just scaling. Smart orchestration could drive the next major AI breakthrough.

EVERYTHING ELSE THAT HAPPENED IN AI LAST WEEK

• OpenAI GPT-5 excels in scientific research – GPT-5 demonstrates advanced capabilities across math, biology, physics, and computer science, including solving decades-old problems.

• Amazon expands Alexa+ to Canada – Marking its first rollout outside the U.S., expanding market reach for AI-powered voice assistants.

• Meta’s Yann LeCun departs to start AI company – The Chief AI Scientist leaves Meta to create a startup focused on AI understanding the physical world, signaling talent shifts and new opportunities.

• Amazon plans $50B AI & supercomputing investment – From 2026, targeting federal agencies, including defense and intelligence, highlighting large-scale government AI opportunities.

• Microsoft releases Fara-7B – A compact open-weight AI model capable of running on laptops and autonomously navigating websites, enabling more accessible AI deployment.

• HP restructures due to AI shift – Cutting 4,000-6,000 jobs and projecting $1B in savings by 2028, showing AI’s impact on workforce and cost optimization.

• Jeff Bezos’ Project Prometheus acquires General Agents – A stealth AI venture expanding into agentic computing, signaling private sector consolidation in AI.

• Perplexity launches AI shopping & virtual try-on – Features learn preferences, enable purchases in-app, and offer virtual try-on, showing AI’s transformation of e-commerce experiences.

• Anthropic Claude Opus 4.5 outperforms humans – Scoring higher than any human candidate on a take-home exam, showcasing AI’s growing performance in professional and technical evaluation.

• Cohere expands partnership with SAP – Integrating its agentic AI platform, North, into SAP’s Cloud and BTP infrastructure, enabling enterprise-scale AI adoption.

These were the key AI news highlights from last week. AI technology is evolving rapidly – from new models and tools to large-scale investments and security challenges. Stay updated to remain at the forefront of technology and to apply new opportunities in your business.

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