It's an extortion spree in education due to Oracle PeopleSoft Zero-Day attacks. Google Cloud and its Mandiant unit said educational institutions and others are under attack from ShinyHunters for an unpatched vulnerability. The details are here via Google Cloud. Oracle mitigations here.
KKR and a set of investors that includes Nvidia, Kuwait Investment Authority and Vistra have launched Helix Digital Infrastructure, a company that aims to speed up deployment of AI data centers. Former AWS CEO Adam Selipsky will lead the venture, which kicks off with a $10 billion investment. The AI infrastructure will be based on Nvidia designs.
OpenAI is reportedly mulling price cuts to battle Anthropic, which has surged in popularity. Apparently, OpenAI is looking get ahead of Anthropic price cuts and deliver more value at lower costs. To be clear: Neither company can afford to cut prices, but runaway token costs are going to crimp demand.
Anthropic's launch of Claude Fable 5 has included a bit of backlash as the company would downgrade to Opus 4.8 depending on the query such as cybersecurity and sensitive topics. In a post, Anthropic said it will visibly show the switch to Opus 4.8. That won't be enough to satisfy everyone, but at least it's more transparent.
By default, automatic model switching is active in Claude, Claude Cowork, Claude Code, Claude Design, and Claude for Microsoft 365. In this case, Claude re-runs your blocked Claude Fable 5 request on Claude Opus 4.8 in the same conversation. You’ll see a notice explaining that the model switched, and the response will be labeled with the model that answered. Opus is a highly capable model with strong safeguards of its own, and for most otherwise legitimate requests blocked on Fable 5—including most biology questions—Opus should give you a helpful answer.
After the switch, the model picker stays on Opus for the rest of the conversation. You can switch back to Claude Fable 5 anytime from the model picker.
See: Anthropic’s Claude Fable 5, Mythos 5: What you need to know
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and the company laid out two thought pieces on AI regulation. The gist: AI is moving too fast for policy and regulation and needs to pick up the pace. The dual posts cover economics and tax policy, AI positive impact and proposals on how governments should manage the risks of foundation models.
Google launched DiffusionGemma, an open weight model that uses text diffusion for faster text generation compared to regular LLMs. The guide to DiffusionGemma is an oddly interesting read.
Logitech launched the Mobi Fold and Mobi Fold for Business, a foldable mouse. Logitech's plan is to target business travelers. According to Logitiech, 72% of professionals own a mouse and only 26% of them use one when working in public places. The Mobi Fold is quirky, but think I'll give it a spin.
GitLab launched a series of updates at its GitLab Transcend conference including a GitLab Flex plan, which is one annual contract that covers platform seats, GitLab Credits and new tools as they become available.
GitLab also announced a managed GitLab service on Google Cloud.
Amazon said its less-than-truckload (LTL) freight service now ships to any destination including third-party warehouses, distribution centers and retail partners with GPS tracking. The LTL addition is part of Amazon Supply Chain Services. See: Amazon launches Amazon Supply Chain Services, aims to replicate AWS
Anthropic launched Claude Fable 5, a Mythos-class model that has safeguards for cybersecurity. The company also launched Claude Mythos 5 that'll be deployed through Project Glasswing.
See: Anthropic’s Claude Fable 5, Mythos 5: What you need to know
Meta launched America's Workforce Academy, a free skilled trade program with job guarantees for all graduates. Meta said it will invest $115 million in the first year. The program kicks off in Louisiana, Ohio, Indiana and Texas.
China has started operations of its underwater wind-powered data center. According to the Chinese government, the data center cost about $226 million and has 24 megawatts of power. The underwater data center was announced in October 2025.
The Guardian covered the launch of operations of the underwater data center, which is off of the coast of Shanghai. The demonstration project may lead to more underwater data centers powered mostly by renewable energy.
