Matthias Bastian

Mar 6, 2026

OpenAI launches "Codex Security," an AI-powered security agent built to find vulnerabilities in software projects. The tool, formerly known as "Aardvark," is now available as a research preview for ChatGPT Enterprise, Business, and Edu customers, free for the first month. Codex Security analyzes code repositories, builds a project-specific threat model, and tests any vulnerabilities it finds in isolated test environments, OpenAI says.

During the beta phase, OpenAI says the system cut false positives by more than 50 percent and reduced redundant alerts by 84 percent in one case. Over the past 30 days, Codex Security scanned more than 1.2 million commits and flagged 792 critical vulnerabilities.

OpenAI has also reported vulnerabilities in open-source projects, including OpenSSH, GnuTLS, GOGS, Thorium, and Chromium, with 14 CVEs issued so far. A program for open-source maintainers is set to expand. More details on getting started are available in the documentation.

Anthropic also recently shipped its own cybersecurity tool, sending cybersecurity stocks into the red.

Comment Source: OpenAI

Matthias Bastian

Mar 6, 2026

Short News

Anyone worried about an AI bubble now has more reason for concern: Softbank is looking to borrow up to $40 billion, primarily to finance its stake in OpenAI, Bloomberg reports. If the deal goes through, it would be the largest pure dollar borrowing in the Japanese conglomerate's history. The bridge loan would run for about twelve months, with four banks—including JPMorgan Chase—underwriting it. Negotiations are still ongoing.

SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son is making a massive bet on artificial intelligence. Beyond the $30 billion earmarked for OpenAI, the company has already poured over $30 billion into the startup and held roughly eleven percent of its shares as of late December. To fund these investments, SoftBank sold off Nvidia shares, among other assets.

The scale of AI-related borrowing is becoming hard to ignore. According to the Financial Times, OpenAI's partners have racked up a combined debt of around $96 billion. Bank of America data shows the five major tech companies took on $121 billion in new debt—four times the usual amount. The Bank of England flagged growing risks at the end of 2025, noting that only three percent of consumers actually pay for AI services so far.

Comment Source: Bloomberg

Matthias Bastian

Mar 6, 2026

Short News

OpenAI is launching "ChatGPT for Excel," a beta add-in that lets users create, edit, and analyze spreadsheets through natural language. The tool runs on the new GPT-5.4 model, which OpenAI says is specifically optimized for financial tasks like modeling, scenario analysis, and data evaluation.

ChatGPT running as an add-in inside Microsoft Excel. The left side shows a balance sheet with financial data from 2020 to 2023, while the right panel shows ChatGPT responding to a cash flow analysis question and making changes directly in the worksheet. | Image: OpenAI

OpenAI tested its own models alongside Opus 4.6 on an internal benchmark designed to evaluate real investment banking tasks, such as building a three-statement model with correct formatting and sources.

Model	Average Score (higher is better)
GPT-5	0,437
GPT-5.2 Thinking	0,684
GPT-5.2 Pro	0,717
GPT-5.4 Thinking	0,873
Opus 4.6	0,641

OpenAI is also rolling out financial data connections for providers like FactSet, Moody's, S&P Global, and LSEG. ChatGPT for Excel is initially available in the US, Canada, and Australia for Business, Enterprise, Pro, and Plus users. A version for Google Sheets is planned to follow.

Comment Source: OpenAI

Matthias Bastian

Mar 6, 2026

AI in practice

Anthropic's new study shows AI is nowhere near its theoretical job disruption potential

Matthias Bastian

Mar 6, 2026

Short News

Anthropic's AI chatbot Claude is adding more than a million new users daily. Mike Krieger shared the milestone on X. The Instagram co-founder joined Anthropic in 2024, initially as Chief Product Officer, and now leads the AI lab's new experiments division.

Mike Krieger announced that more than a million people are signing up for Claude every day. | Image: Anthropic

The surge likely has several drivers. In the consumer space, Anthropic has benefited from the ongoing Pentagon controversy, where the company is widely considered the moral winner compared to OpenAI.

At the same time, AI adoption is growing across the board. Since October 2025, annualized revenue for both companies is estimated to have roughly doubled—from $13 billion to $25 billion for OpenAI, and from $7 billion to $19 billion for Anthropic. That said, both companies are still burning through cash, with massive costs and liabilities offsetting those revenue figures.

Comment Source: Krieger via X

Matthias Bastian

Mar 5, 2026

AI in practice

OpenAI launches GPT-5.4 Thinking and Pro combining coding, reasoning, and computer use in one model

Matthias Bastian

Mar 5, 2026

AI in practice

ChatGPT users research products but won't buy there, forcing OpenAI to rethink its commerce strategy

OpenAI wanted to turn ChatGPT into a shopping destination, but only about a dozen retailers signed up and users weren’t buying. Now the company is handing off purchases to app partners like Instacart and Target.

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Matthias Bastian

Mar 5, 2026

Short News

Google is expanding its AI-powered search into the workplace. The company has rolled out the "Canvas" feature in AI mode for all users in the US. Canvas is a workspace built into Google's chat systems that lets users organize projects and plans over time. ChatGPT and Claude offer similar functionality.

The update also adds support for creative writing and coding tasks. Users can create documents or build interactive tools and dashboards directly within search: just type in a prompt, and Google generates a working prototype that pulls together current web information and data from Google's Knowledge Graph. Results can be tested, code viewed, and everything refined through chat. The feature is available now at google.com/ai in the US.

With Canvas, AI mode is looking more and more like the Gemini app. Google seems to be gradually unifying its chat offerings, adding features that blur the line between search and a full AI assistant. At some point, AI mode and Gemini could merge into a single product, giving Google its own direct equivalent to ChatGPT.

Comment Source: Google

Matthias Bastian

Mar 5, 2026

Short News

Alibaba's lead AI researcher Junyang Lin has unexpectedly resigned. Lin was the driving force behind Alibaba's Qwen model series and shaped the company's open-source strategy. According to Chinese technology portal 36Kr, several core team members followed him out the door, including Binyuan Hui (Qwen coder), Bowen Yu (post-training), and Kaixin Li (Qwen 3.5/VL). A number of younger researchers reportedly also quit on the same day.

Alibaba CEO Eddie Wu accepted Lin's resignation and announced a new "Foundation Model Task Force," which he will lead alongside CTO Zeming Wu and Jingren Zhou, The Information reports. The company says it plans to double down on open source and ramp up AI investments. "In technology, standing still means falling behind," Wu wrote in a memo to the team. "In technology, standing still means falling behind. Advancing foundation models is a core strategic priority for our future."

Comment Source: The Information | 36kr

Matthias Bastian

Mar 4, 2026

Short News

OpenAI has released its Codex app for Windows. Codex is an AI-powered coding tool that helps developers build software by running multiple agents asynchronously across projects, delegating repeatable tasks through Automations, and connecting agents to tools and workflows via Skills. Developers can review, guide, and step into agent work without losing context.

For the Windows version, OpenAI built its own sandbox that operates at the OS level with restricted tokens, file system access rights, and dedicated sandbox user accounts. This lets AI agents run directly in Windows environments like PowerShell without forcing developers to switch to WSL or virtual machines. OpenAI has published the sandbox code as open source on GitHub.

The Windows app arrives a few weeks after the Mac version, which was downloaded over a million times in its first week, according to OpenAI. More than 500,000 developers had already signed up for the Windows waiting list. OpenAI says Codex now has over 1.6 million weekly active users total. The app is available across all ChatGPT plans.

Comment Source: OpenAI