The afternoon briefing.
Apple commits $30B to Broadcom, Grok 4.5 challenges rivals on price, and Meta's AI tool raises Instagram privacy concerns.
Frontier AI. The competitive landscape for large language models continues to evolve rapidly, with xAI launching Grok 4.5 at a significantly lower cost than Fable 5 and GPT-5.5. OpenAI is also expanding its offerings, publicly releasing GPT-5.6 and enhancing ChatGPT's voice mode for more natural, simultaneous conversations. Meanwhile, Anthropic is advising a strategy to use its expensive Fable 5 model primarily as a planner, delegating tasks to smaller, more cost-effective models like Sonnet 5.
AI Agents & Robotics. The vision for more capable AI agents is gaining traction, with startups like General Intuition betting on video game data to train physical AI foundation models for robotics. Mistral is also entering the robotics market with Robostral Navigate, an 8B model that can steer robots using a single camera. However, new research highlights critical safety gaps, showing that agentic safety triggers are not merely textual and can be bypassed by "MCP attacks" more than half the time.
Hardware Investment. Major investments are shaping the future of chip manufacturing and storage technology. Apple has committed over $30 billion to Broadcom for U.S. chipmaking, marking its largest American manufacturing investment to date. Samsung is pushing storage boundaries with its new PCIe Gen 6 SSD, capable of transferring a 40GB LLM in just 1.4 seconds. This comes as PC shipments have seen their first decline in two years, attributed to memory shortages.
Platform Governance. Tech giants are navigating complex issues around user privacy and platform integrity. Meta's new AI tool, Muse, allows image generation using public Instagram photos, sparking a backlash and prompting users to seek opt-out options. Separately, Elon Musk announced X will send DMs to users when posts they've engaged with are corrected by Community Notes. Concerns also persist regarding supply chain security, with a Chinese lidar maker tied to Nvidia accused of being a cyber risk for the U.S.
Apple commits $30 billion to Broadcom for U.S. chipmaking push
Apple is expanding its partnership with Broadcom through a new $30 billion-plus chipmaking agreement. This marks Apple's largest American manufacturing commitment to date.
Grok 4.5 is so cheap compared to Fable 5 and GPT 5.5
xAI has released Grok 4.5, trained on tens of thousands of Nvidia GB300 GPUs. The model trails competitors in coding benchmarks but costs $2 per million input tokens, a fraction of the price of Fable 5 and GPT-5.5.
ChatGPT can now listen and talk at the same time
OpenAI's GPT-Live can listen and speak simultaneously using a full-duplex architecture. Complex questions are handed off to GPT-5.5 in the background, improving response quality.
OpenAI to publicly release GPT-5.6
OpenAI is set to publicly release its GPT-5.6 model, expanding access beyond previous government limits. This follows Anthropic's recent restoration of access to its latest models.
General Intuition bets video game data can train physical AI foundation models
General Intuition is leveraging millions of hours of video game data to train foundation models for physical AI. This approach aims to simplify building smarter robots with minimal real-world data.
Agentic safety triggers aren't textual safety triggers, MCP attacks beat SOTA guardrails
New research shows that agentic safety triggers differ from textual ones, with MCP attacks bypassing state-of-the-art guardrails over half the time. This highlights a breakdown in current safety assumptions for LLM agents with tool access.
New Meta AI tool lets users alter photos on public Instagram accounts
Meta's new AI tool, Muse, allows users to generate images using public Instagram photos. The company has provided instructions on how users can opt out of this feature.
Elon Musk says X will send DMs when engaged posts are corrected by Community Notes
X plans to send direct messages to users when posts they have interacted with receive Community Notes corrections. This update aims to address criticisms about the timeliness of the platform's crowdsourced fact-checking system.
Samsung unveils fastest PCIe Gen 6 SSD, transfers 40GB LLMs in 1.4 seconds
Samsung has unveiled its fastest PCIe Gen 6 SSD, featuring sequential read and write speeds up to 28.4 GB/s and 21.9 GB/s respectively. This allows the 16TB model to transfer a 40GB LLM in just 1.4 seconds.
Microsoft’s Xbox reset pivots Obsidian to make Fallout, cancels other projects
As part of a major Xbox "reset" involving layoffs and studio changes, Obsidian Entertainment is shifting focus to a new Fallout title. Multiple projects, including a sequel to Avowed, have been canceled.
Waymo will soon go fully autonomous in four more cities
Waymo is expanding its fully autonomous operations, removing human supervisors in San Diego, Las Vegas, Tampa, and Denver. This move signifies a significant expansion of its driverless service.
Chinese lidar maker Hesai Technology accused of being cyber risk for U.S.
Hesai Technology, a Chinese lidar maker with Nvidia ties, has been accused of posing a cyber risk to the U.S. The company was blacklisted in 2024 by the U.S. Department of Defense as a Chinese military entity.
Crypto VC firm Paradigm raises $1.2B for ‘technical frontier’ startups
Crypto-focused VC firm Paradigm has raised $1.2 billion to invest in "technical frontier" startups. The fund will expand its focus beyond cryptocurrency to include robotics and AI.
Official renders for Samsung's Galaxy Z Flip 8, Watch 9, Watch 2 Ultra and Z Fold 8 leak
Official renders of Samsung's upcoming Galaxy Z Flip 8, Watch 9, Watch 2 Ultra, and Z Fold 8 have leaked. These images arrive weeks before the company's next Unpacked event.