Google Home opens smart-home controls to third-party AI agents via MCP

🚀 RELEASES & LAUNCHES

• Google Home opens smart-home controls to third-party AI agents via MCP
  Google launched early access to a Google Home MCP server for AI agents.

  • U.S. Google Home Premium Advanced subscribers can connect MCP-compatible agents including Claude, ChatGPT, Hermes, OpenClaw, and Google Antigravity.
  • The integration lets agents control Google Home and Matter devices, review camera summaries and activity history, and create custom dashboards using natural language.
  • Access costs $20 per month or $200 per year and requires a Google Cloud project plus user permissions.
  • Google says rate limits and safety protections apply, including blocking agents from unlocking doors.
  • The integration gives third-party agents access to the underlying data and control layer of a connected home.
  Sources 📎 Coverage: theverge.com · 👁 via The Verge AI, TechCrunch AI

• Anthropic unifies Claude and Cowork, adding Docs and Slides
  Anthropic merged Claude chat and Cowork into one interface with new Docs and Slides tools.

  • Pro and Max subscribers get the rollout first across Claude’s web, desktop, and mobile apps.
  • Claude can create and edit documents and presentations, with Slides exports to PowerPoint or PDF.
  • Docs and Slides are in beta on paid plans and support shared links, collaboration, comments, and mobile editing.
  • Claude automatically routes tasks to chat, Cowork, Artifacts, or Design without requiring users to switch tabs.
  Sources 📄 Source: claude.com · 📎 Coverage: theverge.com · 👁 via The Verge AI, TechCrunch AI (+1)

🔬 RESEARCH

• Recurrent Looped Transformer reuses decoder state across prompt and response
  Researchers published Recurrent Looped Transformer, an open-source recurrent Transformer architecture.

  • For researchers and model builders studying efficient Transformer architectures.
  • RLT feeds each decoder output into the next token, combining causal encoder representations, global KV memory, and per-layer sliding-window attention with an 8-token window.
  • Eight-layer experiments used 26.10M–28.73M parameters; RLT 6+2 reached 99.44% parity accuracy at step 500 versus 48.48% for Transformer 8.
  • The design carries recurrent computation across prompt and response while keeping the number of decoder blocks evaluated per token fixed.
  Sources 📎 Coverage: github.com · 👁 via r/LocalLLaMA

• 📄 Source for llama.cpp b11003 adds support for DFM Mimir 1B GGUF models — github.com

💰 BUSINESS & FUNDING

• Apple Considers AI Servers With M8 Chips and Nvidia Networking
  Apple is considering selling AI servers built around future M8 chips and Nvidia networking technology.
  • The servers would target companies running AI models on their own equipment, especially for inference.
  • Apple is considering systems with two or four M8 Ultra chips and Nvidia’s NVLink Fusion technology.
  • The project could launch in 2029, but neither the server nor Nvidia arrangement is finalized.
  • The move would return Apple to the server market after it discontinued Xserve in 2011.
  Sources 📎 Coverage: macrumors.com · 👁 via The Verge AI, r/LocalLLaMA

⚠️ INCIDENTS & SAFETY

• AI-powered dating apps used autonomous catfishing to sell paid chats
  A network of roughly 28 dating apps used AI personas to deceive users into paying for chats.
  • The apps primarily targeted men in their mid-to-late 30s seeking romantic connections.
  • Anthropic found a prepaid account sending more than 100,000 Claude API requests daily across the network.
  • AI personas handled most conversations, while paid gig workers passed liveness checks and selected scripted replies.
  • Users bought coins to continue conversations they believed were with real people, making the apps themselves the scam.
  Sources 📎 Coverage: theverge.com · 👁 via The Verge AI