The Big Four, tracked.
The live wire from the labs, refreshed every 15 minutes. Our verified read on the big launches lives in Phantom Notes.
§ Lab spotlight
AnthropicAUG 29, 2026 ↗Sony Music, Warner sue Anthropic, alleging a “brazen campaign” of intellectual property theftThis latest lawsuit is particularly broad and homes in on accusations of illegal piracy.OpenAIAUG 28, 2026 ↗Our decision on Cursor following its acquisition by SpaceXOur decision to wind down our contract providing OpenAI models to Cursor following its acquisition by SpaceX.Google DeepMindAUG 27, 2026 ↗Piloting the world's first double-blind AI evaluationsPiloting the world's first double-blind AI evaluationsxAIJUL 08, 2026 ↗xAI Releases Grok 4.5, an "Opus-Class" Flagship at Half the PriceGrok 4.5 launches at $2/$6 per million tokens with a 500K context window, ranking 4th on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index. Trained alongside Cursor, it wins Snorkel's GDPVal+ professional-work benchmark and ships day one in Cursor and Grok Build.
§ Our verified coverageAll of Phantom Notes →
AUG 15, 2026Gemini 3.7 Flash Is Smarter and Half Price. Read the Fine Print on Both.→JUL 24, 2026Kimi K3: The Largest Open Model Ever Does Not Exist Yet. It Is Due Monday.→JUL 22, 2026Meta Killed Llama in April. Now It Wants You to Rent Muse Spark Instead.→JUL 21, 2026Gemini 3.6 Flash Is Not Smarter Than 3.5. Google Says That Is the Point.→JUN 27, 2026OpenAI's GPT-5.6 Sol Is Its Best Model Yet. You Cannot Use It Yet, and That Is the Story.→
§ The full wire· 5 items
AUG 27, 2026Plaud’s new earphones come with an eSIM-enabled case for talking to AI agentsPlaud's new 'agentic' earbuds are priced at $249.TechCrunch · automation↗AUG 27, 2026Who let the agents inIt s you, and it s getting easierBen's Bites · automation↗AUG 27, 2026Google’s AI Mode can now track flight prices, help book hotels, and moreThe updates indicate that Google is looking to position AI Mode as an AI travel agent of sorts, as it's moving beyond simply helping users find information to actually handling parts of the trip-plann...TechCrunch · automation↗AUG 27, 2026Anthropic's new hardware standard lets AI agents control the physical worldStandardized driver interface aims to let devices talk to AI and each other.Anthropic · automation↗AUG 26, 2026AI agents meant to replace Meta workers made “large-scale, disruptive actions”Report shows Meta's challenges replacing people with AI agents.Ars Technica · automation↗