Short News Archive

Feb 27, 2026

Claude Code now remembers what it learns across sessions - automatically tracking debugging patterns, project context, and preferred working methods without manual input. Previously, users had to log this information themselves or use /init to populate CLAUDE.md files. The new auto-memory function builds on that that: Claude creates a MEMORY.md file per project, stores its findings, and pulls them up automatically in later sessions. Work through a tricky debugging problem once, and you won't have to explain the fix again. Users can also explicitly ask Claude to save specific information. The feature is on by default and can be disabled via /memory, the settings file, or an environment variable.

Another recent update: locally running sessions can now be continued on the go via smartphone, tablet, or browser at claude.ai/code - without data migrating to the cloud.

Comment Source: Anthropic

Matthias Bastian

Feb 26, 2026

Short News

Anthropic's AI assistant Claude is picking up new features in its desktop app Cowork. Users can now set up scheduled tasks that Claude handles automatically at set times, things like a morning briefing, weekly spreadsheet updates, or Friday presentations for the team.

Anthropic also points to the plugins already available that give Cowork specialized knowledge in areas like design, technology, and law. A full overview of available plugins is here. Moreover, there's a new "Customize" section in Cowork's sidebar where users can manage all their plugins, skills, and connections from one place.

Cowork is available as a research preview for macOS and Windows, open to all paying Claude subscribers. As with any agent-based AI system, there are cybersecurity considerations. It's worth being careful about which parts of your computer you give the software access to.

Comment Source: Claude via X

Matthias Bastian

Feb 26, 2026

Short News

Anthropic has acquired AI startup Vercept to boost Claude's computer use capabilities. Vercept built AI that works directly on a user's machine, understands screen content, and executes tasks. Founders Kiana Ehsani, Luca Weihs, and Ross Girshick are joining Anthropic with their team. The acquisition price hasn't been disclosed.

Vercept solves perception and interaction problems central to AI-driven computer use, according to Anthropic. The technology lets an AI model read and operate human-designed interfaces from screenshots without needing a dedicated programming interface (API).

Vercept will shut down its desktop AI agent "Vy" in the coming weeks. What likely caught Anthropic's attention is the startup's "VyUI" interface recognition model, which reportedly outperformed comparable OpenAI technology in benchmarks.

Benchmark (UI element identification / grounding)	VyUI accuracy	OpenAI model
ScreenSpot v1	92%	18.3%
ScreenSpot v2	94.7%	87.9%
GroundUI Web	84.8%	82.3%

Claude already handles multi-step tasks in running applications. With the recently released Sonnet 4.6 model, Claude scores 72.5 percent on OSWorld—a benchmark that measures how well AI models complete real-world computer tasks—up from less than 15 percent at the end of 2024. The Vercept team could push that number even higher.

Comment Source: Anthropic | Vercept

Matthias Bastian

Feb 26, 2026

Short News

Andrej Karpathy, former AI developer at Tesla and OpenAI, says programming with AI agents has changed fundamentally over the past two months. According to Karpathy, AI agents barely worked before December 2025, but since then they've become reliable, thanks to higher model quality and the ability to stay on task for longer stretches.

As an example, he describes how an AI agent independently built a video analysis dashboard over a weekend: he typed the task in plain English, the agent worked for 30 minutes, solved problems on its own, and delivered a finished result. Three months ago, that would have been an entire weekend project, Karpathy says.

As a result, programming is becoming unrecognizable. You’re not typing computer code into an editor like the way things were since computers were invented, that era is over. You're spinning up AI agents, giving them tasks *in English* and managing and reviewing their work in parallel.
Karpathy via X

Karpathy also points out that these systems aren't perfect and still need human "high-level direction, judgement, taste, oversight, iteration, and hints and ideas." What makes his take especially notable is how recently he held the opposite view. As late as October 2025, he called the hype around AI agents exaggerated, saying the products were far from ready for real-world use. He fundamentally changed that opinion after the release of Opus 4.5 and Codex 5.2 in the winter and is now doubling down on it.

Comment Source: Karpathy via X

Matthias Bastian

Feb 25, 2026

Short News

Perplexity has launched "Perplexity Computer," a new chat interface that pulls together multiple agentic AI models into a single system. Similar to Claude Cowork, but browser-based and with access to models from different providers, it handles entire workflows on its own.

Users describe the outcome they want, and the system spins up sub-agents for web research, document creation, data processing, or API calls. According to Perplexity, AI models are becoming increasingly specialized, so a complete workflow needs access to all of them, a convenient argument for a company built on top of other providers' models, though that doesn't make it wrong.

Perplexity Computer currently runs Opus 4.6 as its core model, supplemented by Gemini, Grok, ChatGPT 5.2, Nano Banana for images, and Veo 3.1 for video. Each task gets its own secure environment with browser, file system, and tool connections. Perplexity Computer is available as part of the Max plan at 200 dollars per month.

Comment Source: Perplexity

Matthias Bastian

Feb 25, 2026

Short News

Google has relaunched and expanded its AI creative studio Flow. The company's image generation experiments, Whisk and ImageFX, are now being integrated directly into Flow, and starting in March, users will be able to transfer their existing projects and files. At the core is Google's image model Nano Banana, which lets users generate images and use them directly as the basis for videos with Veo.

Other new features include a lasso tool for targeted editing of image areas using text input, flexible media management with collections, and tools for extending clips and controlling camera movements. Google is aiming to combine text, image, and video creation into a single workflow.

Flow is available at flow.google and free to use after signing up - paying users get higher usage limits and access to the full set of tools. According to Google, users have created over 1.5 billion images and videos since the platform launched last year.

Comment Source: Google

Matthias Bastian

Feb 25, 2026

Short News

Anthropic won't back down on its military AI restrictions, but the Pentagon is giving it little choice. According to Reuters, the AI company continues to refuse to loosen its safety guardrails for military use. The dispute centers on security measures that prevent Anthropic's technology from being used for autonomous weapon control and domestic surveillance.

At a meeting between Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Hegseth delivered an ultimatum: either Anthropic complies by Friday, or the Pentagon will invoke the Defense Production Act—a law that can force companies to cooperate—or classify Anthropic as a supply chain risk. According to Franklin Turner, a government contracts attorney at McCarter & English, such a move against Anthropic would be unprecedented and could trigger a wave of lawsuits.

Amodei argued that the existing safeguards don't interfere with current military operations. Meanwhile, the Pentagon is negotiating parallel AI contracts with Google, xAI, and OpenAI for battlefield applications, including autonomous drone swarms, robots, and cyberattacks. Elon Musk's xAI has already secured an agreement with the Pentagon to deploy on classified networks this week.

Comment Source: Reuters

Jonathan Kemper

Feb 25, 2026

Short News

Claude Code users can now continue a locally running programming session from their smartphone, tablet, or browser. The session keeps running on the user's own machine - no data moves to the cloud. Local files, servers, and project configurations all remain accessible. Users connect through claude.ai/code or the Claude app for iOS and Android and can switch seamlessly between terminal, browser, and phone. If the network drops, the session automatically reconnects, though it ends after roughly ten minutes offline.

The feature is initially available as a research preview for Max subscribers, with Pro users next in line. Unlike Claude Code on the web, which has been running tasks in Anthropic's cloud environments since last year, remote control sessions run entirely on the user's own computer.

Anthropic is aggressively building out Claude Code, adding automated code reviews and GitHub integrations. The company is also raising $10 billion at a $350 billion valuation. Inventor Boris Cherny says the new Claude Cowork tool was built almost entirely with Claude Code itself.

Comment Source: Anthropic/X | Docs

Jonathan Kemper

Feb 24, 2026

Short News

Anthropic now lets Claude switch independently between Excel and PowerPoint, for example, running an analysis and then building a presentation directly from the results. The company is also expanding Cowork for enterprise customers with private plugin marketplaces, letting admins curate and distribute plugin collections to specific teams. New templates cover HR, design, engineering, finance, asset management, and more.

In finance, new MCP interfaces for FactSet and MSCI provide real-time market data and index analysis; S&P Global (Capital IQ Pro) and LSEG have contributed their own plugins.

New third-party integrations include Google Workspace, DocuSign, Salesforce, Slack, and FactSet. Admins gain finer user-access controls plus OpenTelemetry support for cost and usage monitoring. The Excel-PowerPoint feature is available as a research preview on all paid plans. Cowork is Anthropic's desktop tool for agent-based office work; plugins were added in late January but have known security vulnerabilities.

Comment Source: Anthropic | Anthropic

Matthias Bastian

Feb 24, 2026

Short News

OpenAI has shipped two API updates for developers: the new gpt-realtime-1.5 model for the real-time API is designed to make voice commands more reliable. In internal testing, OpenAI saw roughly a ten percent improvement in transcribing numbers and letters, a five percent bump in logical audio tasks, and seven percent better instruction following. The audio model has also been updated to version 1.5.

The Responses API also now supports WebSockets. Instead of retransmitting the full context with every request, this opens a persistent connection that only sends new data as it comes in. According to OpenAI, the change speeds up complex AI agents with many tool calls by 20 to 40 percent.

Comment Source: OpenAI via X1 | OpenAI via X2