Claude is surging in popularity in early 2026, triggering outages and new peak-hour usage limits that consume up to 2x more credits, yet ChatGPT still dominates with up to 900 million users compared to Claude's estimated 30 to 180 million.
Reddit and Wikipedia are cracking down on AI-generated content through bot removals and strict new policies, even as both platforms simultaneously sell their human-curated data to major AI companies like Google and Meta, creating a paradox that experts warn undermines their own efforts.
OpenAI launches enterprise-focused Codex plugins integrating Google Drive, GitHub, and Slack, while simultaneously shutting down Sora, ending its $1 billion Disney deal, and pausing adult content plans as the company aggressively pivots toward IPO readiness and a 50-50 consumer-to-enterprise revenue split.
OpenAI shuts down its Sora AI video app after just five months, triggering Disney to pull a $1 billion licensing deal as the entertainment giant's AI strategy hangs in uncertainty under new CEO Josh D'Amaro.
Meta's Oversight Board warns that Community Notes cannot replace professional fact-checkers, citing severe human rights risks in repressive regimes and conflict zones, structural flaws favoring dominant groups, and a stark efficiency gap — just 900 notes published in six months versus 35 million fact-checker labels in the EU.
Slack unveils a rebuilt Slackbot that now functions as a personalized AI agent, capable of understanding individual work context and taking real actions within workflows — all without users ever leaving the platform.
Eli Lilly signs a landmark $2.75 billion deal with AI drug pioneer Insilico Medicine, offering $115 million upfront to fast-track AI-generated drugs across multiple disease areas into global markets.
Anthropic's most powerful AI model yet, Claude Mythos, has been exposed in a data leak, revealing it dramatically outperforms previous models in coding and cybersecurity — but comes with alarming warnings that it is 'far ahead of any other AI model in cyber capabilities' and could enable large-scale AI-driven cyberattacks.
A new five-phase agent evaluation checklist is reshaping how teams build reliable AI systems, urging developers to manually review real agent traces, design specialized graders, and integrate continuous feedback loops into production pipelines.
Anthropic's accidental leak of nearly 3,000 internal files reveals 'Claude Mythos,' a powerful new AI model surpassing Opus 4.6 in coding, reasoning, and cybersecurity, while OpenAI quietly prepares a rival model codenamed 'Spud' — with both companies racing to launch flagship models ahead of their anticipated IPOs.