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Models

Meta releases Muse Spark Open under its own licence

Meta's open-weights Muse Spark Open is free of charge under its Muse Model License, but if a company or any of its affiliates offers AI models to third parties via API or a similar interface, and together they gross over $20m in any consecutive 12 months, the company must notify Meta and sign a separate written agreement before offering the model or a derivative as part of that model-as-a-service business. Meta's own table puts it behind GLM 5.3, Kimi K3 and Qwen3.8-2.4T-A95B on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index.

The back panel of an Apple Mac Studio desktop computer on a wooden desk, showing its ports and ventilation grille

Chandni Melwani · Global · Oct 20, 2026

Legal

Five states suing OpenAI ask courts to restrict model testing

Attorneys general in eight states sued OpenAI on October 14, 2026, alleging it misled consumers about ChatGPT's safety and harmed children. Iowa, Idaho, Arizona, Montana and Arkansas also ask courts to restrict OpenAI's testing of advanced AI models.

The Iowa State Capitol in Des Moines, its gold central dome above a columned portico, seen from the foot of a wide stone staircase under a partly cloudy sky

Chandni Melwani · US · Oct 20, 2026

Money

Character.AI files for bankruptcy owing Google $4.1 million

Character Technologies, which runs Character.AI, filed for Chapter 11 in Delaware on October 12, 2026, and its petition puts Google at the top of its list of largest unsecured claims, at $4.1 million. Disney has agreed to open the bidding at $20 million plus transition services, for a non-exclusive perpetual licence of certain intellectual property and certain claims.

Close-up of a rack server's front drive bays, with green status lights glowing

Chandni Melwani · US · Oct 18, 2026

Models

Google's Argon beats Opus 5.5 on LiveBench reasoning, not coding

Gemini 4 Argon costs $2 per million input tokens and $10 per million output through November 30, then $4 and $20, the same as Claude Opus 5.5. On LiveBench 2.0 it beats Opus 5.5 on reasoning but trails it on coding, and it ranks sixth on Vals' Terminal-Bench 4.0.

Chandni Melwani · Global · Oct 18, 2026

Capital

Nvidia's $250m UK compute pledge targets agent safety and security

Nvidia will fund five years of compute access, valued at $250 million, for UK research on agentic AI safety and security, with providers, architecture and commercial terms still to be agreed.

The domed Radcliffe Camera library among the stone college buildings of the University of Oxford, seen from above

Chandni Melwani · UK · Oct 18, 2026

Platform Updates

Shopify lets any AI agent check out with Shop Pay

Shopify's Shop MCP lets any AI agent search its catalogue and pay with a signed-in shopper's Shop Pay. Shop's help page holds shoppers responsible for agent purchases within the permissions and budgets they set, even unexpected ones.

A person browsing a grid of products in a shopping app on a smartphone

Chandni Melwani · Oct 18, 2026

Workflows

Sophos says AI closes 52% of its MDR cases

In an October 9, 2026 OpenAI customer story, Sophos's technology chief says agents developed using OpenAI's Daybreak models automate about half the cases Sophos handles. In May, Sophos said its analysts had shifted to threat hunting, investigation, customer advisory and governance of the autonomous systems themselves.

Three people working at desks with multiple monitors in a bright open-plan office

Chandni Melwani · Oct 18, 2026

Models

Anthropic's cheaper Haiku 5.5 turns text into more tokens

Claude Haiku 5.5 is priced 90% below Haiku 4.5 for prompts up to 100,000 tokens, but Anthropic's docs say it turns the same input text into approximately 30% more tokens. Anthropic says it costs around 75% less to run on average.

Close-up of Python code in a dark code editor on a computer screen

Chandni Melwani · Global · Oct 8, 2026

Jobs

DNB to cut about 400 full-time equivalents, citing AI agents

Norway's DNB will cut about 400 full-time equivalents in Technology & Services. Finansforbundet, a finance-sector union, says lower staffing is only one way to take the gains AI can bring.

DNB's dark, pixel-patterned office building in Oslo's Barcode district, seen from below against a blue sky

Chandni Melwani · Norway · Oct 8, 2026

Infrastructure

Mubadala's GlobalFoundries will make interposers for TSMC in New York

GlobalFoundries, whose majority shareholder is Abu Dhabi's Mubadala, will make silicon interposers for TSMC's advanced AI packaging at its fab in Malta, New York, under a multi-year agreement GF puts at $2 billion.

Close-up of a silicon wafer covered in a grid of iridescent chip dies

Chandni Melwani · US · Oct 8, 2026

Platform Updates

Meta is testing checkout inside its AI chats

Meta named Shopify, Stripe, PayPal and Adyen for checkout inside its AI chats. In September, Amazon blocked Meta’s Muse agent from shopping on Amazon.com, Adweek reported.

A person holding a payment card in one hand and a smartphone in the other above an open laptop on a wooden table

Chandni Melwani · Oct 8, 2026

Legal

USA Today Co. alleges OpenAI copied its papers without paying

USA Today Co. and 13 companies it owns sued OpenAI in Manhattan federal court on October 8, 2026, alleging it copied journalism from their 19 publications without permission. The complaint seeks damages in excess of $250 million and asks for the destruction of models and training sets that incorporate that content.

The bronze-doored entrance of the Daniel Patrick Moynihan United States Courthouse in Manhattan, with bollards and orange traffic barrels on the pavement

Chandni Melwani · US · Oct 8, 2026