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Wed 19 Aug · 16 stories · 5 sections

Frontier labs 4 items

OpenAI pauses Astra RL training for two weeks, citing misalignment findings and new cyber-capability safeguards after the HF breach.
OpenAI launches ChatGPT for Teens, a mode limiting high-risk chats on self-harm and violence, with study tools and tighter guardrails.
Alibaba says open multimodal model Qwen3.8-27B passed 1M downloads within days of release, one of its fastest-growing models yet.
Cartesia releases Sonic-3.6 in beta: a 44-language text-to-speech model now topping Artificial Analysis voice leaderboards.

Agents & tooling 3 items

Modular open-sources the Mojo language, its Python-superset for high-performance AI kernels.
Anthropic extends a Claude Code promotion raising weekly usage limits 50% for Pro, Max, and Team plans through August 31.
Alipay launches an all-in-one platform for merchants to automate tasks with AI agents; Alibaba shares are up 40%+ since a June low.

Research & papers 3 items

Anthropic shows Claude accelerating protein design and analytical chemistry in two experiments, and plans a scientist access program.
GLM-5.3 with max reasoning scores 60 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index: level with Kimi K3, below Opus 5 (63) and Fable 5 (62).
MIT Technology Review reviews evidence that AI recursive self-improvement may arrive more slowly than lab leaders predict.

Business & policy 4 items

Sources: Anthropic Q2 revenue more than doubled to $11.6B with a small operating profit; OpenAI grew 18% QoQ to $6.7B as losses deepened.
Google bought failed US airline Spirit's data at its bankruptcy auction for AI use, The Register reports.
ByteDance signs Hollywood's first AI video framework with the MPA, adding film and TV copyright protections to Seedance and Seedream.
AI inference chip startup Etched raised $700M led by customer Jane Street at a $21B valuation, up from $10.3B in July.

Also notable 2 items

Cerebras announces CS-4, its next-generation wafer-scale system, claiming the industry's fastest AI accelerator.
Politico: AI-drafted bills are swamping the US House's legislative counsel, which now spends more time fixing than drafting them.
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