Anthropic confirms leaked model marks a "step change" in reasoning after data breach reveals its existence

A data leak at Anthropic has exposed details about an unreleased AI model that internal documents call the company's most powerful to date. After Fortune broke the story, Anthropic confirmed it is already testing the model with select customers, claiming it marks a "step change" in reasoning, coding, and cybersecurity capabilities. The breach happened because of a misconfiguration in Anthropic's content management system. A default setting automatically made uploaded files public, leaving nearly 3,000 internal documents exposed for anyone to see.

OpenAI is reportedly also gearing up for a major release. The company is preparing a new model codenamed "Spud," which has already finished pretraining. Similar to Anthropic, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has internally promised a massive jump in capabilities, saying the model can "really accelerate the economy," whatever that means. Both companies will likely time the release of their strongest models to ensure they are optimally positioned for their planned IPOs later this year.