AI in practice

Anthropic confirms technical bugs after weeks of complaints about declining Claude code quality

AI and society

Anthropic settles landmark AI copyright lawsuit for at least $1.5 billion

AI in practice

Microsoft presents its first large AI models and signals greater independence from OpenAI

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AI in practice
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OpenAI has rolled out a new "Developer Mode" for ChatGPT, giving Plus and Pro users on the web full access to MCP (Model Context Protocol) tools, including both read and write functions.

The beta feature lets developers connect their own remote servers, manage tools, and use them directly in chats. It supports OAuth authentication, HTTP streaming, and Server-Sent Events (SSE). To activate it, go to "Settings → Connectors → Advanced Settings → Developer Mode." Once enabled, you can add connectors directly through the chat input field.

OpenAI warns that Developer Mode comes with serious risks, including prompt injection, unintended write operations, and potentially dangerous tool execution. If an MCP server is compromised, it could access or alter user data. Any write action requires separate confirmation to proceed.

"It's powerful but dangerous, and is intended for developers who understand how to safely configure and test connectors."

OpenAI

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AI startup Thinking Machines wants to make large language models more predictable. The team is studying why large language models sometimes give different answers to the same question, even when temperature is set to 0, a setting that should always return the most probable answer.

Despite a temperature setting of 0, Deepseek 3.1 generates different answers to the same query. | Image: Thinking Machines

According to Thinking Machines, the problem isn't just GPU precision, which they say is "not entirely wrong" but "doesn’t reveal the full picture." Server load also affects how a model responds: when the system is under heavy load, the same model can produce slightly different results. To fix this, the team developed a custom inference method that keeps outputs consistent regardless of system load. More predictable behavior like this could make AI-supported research more reliable.

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Adobe is bringing Google's new image AI, known as "Nano Banana" (officially Gemini 2.5 Flash Image), to Photoshop as an optional tool. The model is designed for editing existing images with a high level of consistency and reliability. Adobe's first demo video shows how Nano Banana works with the "Generative Fill" feature to expand or modify image content. The model is expected to roll out in September.

Video: Adobe

While Adobe's own Firefly image models support similar features, they don't reach the same level of quality. And if anyone from Adobe is reading: as a publisher, I'm no stranger to losing revenue to Big Tech. Feel free to reach out if you have questions.

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YouTube is rolling out multilingual audio tracks to millions of creators. The new feature lets viewers listen to videos in multiple languages right after they’re published. In YouTube’s tests, more than a quarter of total watch time came from languages other than the video’s original. Some creators are already leaning heavily into the feature - Mark Rober now offers up to 30 language versions per video, while Jamie Oliver has also seen a sharp boost in views.

YouTube is also experimenting with multilingual thumbnails, a tool that had previously only been available through a small pilot program. The technology still has limits. The AI-generated voices lag behind the quality of systems from companies like ElevenLabs and even Google itself, which recently added multilingual podcast support to NotebookLM.

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OpenAI has signed a $300 billion cloud deal with Oracle, according to the Wall Street Journal, which cited people familiar with the agreement. The five-year contract begins in 2027 and ranks among the largest cloud deals ever made. The agreement reportedly includes 4.5 gigawatts of computing capacity - about the same as the electricity consumption of 4 million U.S. households. In its quarterly report covering the period through August 31, Oracle announced contracts worth $317 billion. The WSJ says the bulk of that figure comes from the OpenAI deal. For OpenAI, the move is meant to address ongoing shortages in computing power that have slowed the development of new AI models. Oracle, meanwhile, will likely need to take on debt to pay for the chips required to deliver the capacity. OpenAI had previously worked exclusively with Microsoft. By expanding to Oracle, the company is also tying the deal to its broader infrastructure plan known as Stargate.

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Microsoft has added a new audio mode to Copilot, powered by its MAI-Voice-1 model. Users can choose from three modes: Emotive Mode for expressive, free-form delivery; Story Mode for storytelling with multiple voices; and Scripted Mode for exact, word-for-word playback. The tool features a wide range of voices and styles, from Shakespearean performances to sports commentary, and is available in Copilot Labs.

Video: Microsoft

Microsoft recently introduced MAI-1 as its first major language model and signed a deal with Anthropic to integrate its models into Office. Both moves signal that Microsoft is aiming for more independence from OpenAI.

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AI in practice

Anthropic confirms technical bugs after weeks of complaints about declining Claude code quality

AI and society

Anthropic settles landmark AI copyright lawsuit for at least $1.5 billion

AI in practice

Microsoft presents its first large AI models and signals greater independence from OpenAI

Google News