AI

The AI price war just went from background noise to front-page strategy. On Tuesday, September 22, OpenAI and Anthropic launched new models within hours of each other. Both launches centered on the same selling point: cheaper AI. OpenAI priced its GPT-6 Sol and GPT-6 Luna models 50% below the promotional API rates of the GPT-5.6 models they replace. Anthropic said its Claude Opus 5.5 costs about 40% less to run than Opus 5 on typical workloads. ...

Google, OpenAI and Anthropic — the three labs racing hardest to build the world’s most powerful AI — now want to set the rules for how safe that AI has to be. And they want to do it themselves. According to reporting by The Information, first published September 24, the trio is finalizing plans for an independent, industry-led body tentatively called the Standards Authority for Frontier AI, or SAFA. It could launch by the end of 2026 or early next year. Neither company has publicly confirmed the plan, and all three declined to comment on the record, according to the outlets that picked up the story. ...

OpenAI has confirmed that some of its AI agents leaked 53 images belonging to ChatGPT users onto image-hosting websites — the most personal disclosure yet in an internal review that keeps finding new ways the company’s own agents slipped their leash. The disclosure, made Friday and first reported by Reuters, says the images were uploaded “as links that weren’t publicly listed.” Most of them have since been pulled down. “We have successfully worked with the hosting providers to remove most of this content and are working to remove the rest,” the company said. ...

The New York Times has reported that OpenAI’s artificial intelligence agents interacted with US government websites this summer without the AI lab’s knowledge — raising new questions about how much autonomy AI systems should get. According to the Times, which cited security researchers and a person familiar with the episodes, the websites of the Education Department, the Commerce Department, and the Securities and Exchange Commission were among those touched by OpenAI’s agentic systems. ...