🚀 RELEASES & LAUNCHES
Microsoft gives Copilot local-file access and control over Windows
Microsoft announced Copilot features that can access local files and take actions across Windows.- Windows users will get Copilot features that combine local and cloud AI models under Microsoft’s “Hybrid Intelligence” approach.
- A demo showed Copilot finding, renaming, and zipping tax documents, then drafting an email with the archive attached.
- A new Windows search experience can turn on dark mode, adjust microphone volume, and send texts from the search bar.
- Hybrid Intelligence features are expected within the next couple of months, while the new search experience is coming to Windows 11 PCs this fall.
Sources 📎 Coverage: theverge.com · 👁 via The Verge AIMistral previews 1-trillion-parameter open-weight model Le Chonk
Mistral previewed Large 4, a 1-trillion-parameter open-weight model.- The preview is for developers, cybersecurity leaders, enterprises, and governments.
- Mistral Large 4, code-named Le Chonk, is a 1-trillion-parameter multimodal mixture-of-experts model with about 49 billion active parameters.
- It targets coding, cyberdefense, manufacturing, finance, electrical engineering, and visual-grounding tasks.
- The model is available through Mistral’s API, with weights planned for Hugging Face and other repositories later this month.
- Mistral says it is the strongest open-weight model developed outside China, giving adopters a self-hostable alternative to closed models.
Sources 📎 Coverage: wired.com · 👁 via Ars Technica AILiquid AI Releases Open d1-3B and 600M Edge Decision Models
Liquid AI released open-weight d1-3B and d1-omni-600M decision models for edge deployment.- The models target developers building local structured-decision applications such as classification, routing, inspection, and moderation.
- d1-3B supports text and images, while experimental d1-omni-600M supports text with images or up to 30 seconds of audio.
- Both models return typed probabilities for yes/no, choice, and score questions without generating output tokens.
- Liquid AI reports average scores of 82.9 for d1-3B and 78.4 for d1-omni-600M across seven public datasets; d1-3B scored 74.1 across 11 image benchmarks.
- The open-weight releases let developers run decision models locally instead of relying on Liquid AI’s hosted API.
Sources 📄 Source: huggingface.co · 📎 Coverage: runtimewire.com · 👁 via Hugging Face Blog, r/LocalLLaMA (+2)Meta adds AI tools to detect ads directing users to CSAM
Meta deployed AI tools to detect ads and accounts linked to child exploitation.- The measures target Facebook and Instagram users, advertisers, and accounts involved in child exploitation.
- Meta added an LLM to detect “signposting” ads, destination-link analysis, AI ad sweeps, a red-teaming agent, and stronger repeat-offender detection.
- Meta actioned 33.2 million child-exploitation content items globally and 5.3 million in India from January through June 2026.
- More than 97% globally and over 98% in India were detected before user reports, while the new systems expand enforcement from ad content to off-platform destinations.
Google opens SynthID detector globally for AI-generated media checks
Google opened its SynthID Detector to everyone for checking AI-generated images, video, and audio.- The free website is for anyone globally in English, after testing with journalists, media professionals, and researchers.
- It checks images, video, and audio for SynthID watermarks from Google, OpenAI, Nvidia, and Kakao; Apple support is planned.
- Users must sign in and receive an approximate daily quota of 10 checks; Google says existing checks exceed 1 million requests per day.
- The detector covers media generated or edited with supported AI tools but cannot identify content without SynthID or watermarks that were removed.
Microsoft unveils RTX Spark Surface Laptop Ultra and $5,999 Dev Box
Microsoft unveiled RTX Spark-powered Surface Laptop Ultra and Dev Box hardware.- The hardware targets AI developers, creators, and organizations running local models and 3D workloads.
- Surface Laptop Ultra starts at $2,599.99 and combines RTX Spark, up to a 20-core Grace CPU, 128GB unified memory, and a 15-inch 120Hz touchscreen.
- Surface RTX Spark Dev Box is available for preorder from $5,999.99 with up to one petaflop of AI compute and 128GB unified memory.
- Both devices support local AI development, including models up to 120B parameters, reducing reliance on cloud inference and API costs.
Microsoft releases Agent Lightning v1.0 for training AI agents with RL
Microsoft released Agent Lightning v1.0, an open-source framework for training existing AI agents with reinforcement learning.- For developers training agents built with production harnesses such as OpenHands, Codex, Claude Code, and mini-SWE-agent.
- Agent Lightning v1.0 is an open-source, roughly 3,500-line framework that connects existing agents to reinforcement-learning training.
- An LLM proxy records model calls and rollout-level training data while the agent continues running in its existing harness.
- The framework reduces the need to rebuild agent loops inside RL systems and narrows the gap between training and deployment.
chatgpt-visual-interface — TechCrunch AI
google-playground-ai-game-creation — TechCrunch AI
chatgpt-teens-college-planner — The Verge AI
💰 BUSINESS & FUNDING
Google, Meta and Isomorphic Labs invest $300M in Biohub virtual-cell effort
Google, Meta and Isomorphic Labs invested $300 million in Biohub’s virtual-cell initiative.- The initiative is for biomedical researchers studying disease and drug responses.
- Biohub’s $1.8 billion Virtual Biology initiative will build AI datasets and predictive cell models.
- Google DeepMind, Meta and Isomorphic Labs are contributing $300 million, while the DOE plans more than $500 million over five years.
- Biohub says the models and data will be openly accessible and could enable researchers to run biological experiments digitally.
Sources 📎 Coverage: theverge.com · 👁 via The Verge AIHealthleap raises $38M for AI that flags overlooked hospital risks
Healthleap raised $38 million for its hospital-risk AI platform.- Hospitals using Healthleap include Penn Medicine, Cedars-Sinai, Intermountain, Houston Methodist and Emory Healthcare.
- The platform analyzes EHR notes, labs, vitals and other records nightly, then sends daily risk scores to care teams without diagnosing patients.
- Healthleap raised an $8M seed round and a $30M Series A, and its software is deployed in more than 50 hospitals.
- The company plans to expand beyond malnutrition and delirium toward more than 40 conditions, including aspiration pneumonia and heart-failure readmission risk.
Sources 📎 Coverage: techcrunch.com · 👁 via TechCrunch AIMichael Smith Sentenced to 18 Months for $8M AI Music Streaming Fraud
Michael Smith was sentenced to 18 months for using AI-generated songs and bots to obtain $8 million in streaming royalties.- Music streaming platforms, artists, songwriters and fans were affected by Michael Smith’s scheme.
- Smith used up to 10,000 bot accounts and hundreds of thousands of AI-generated songs to generate billions of streams from 2017 to 2024.
- He received 18 months in prison, two years of supervised release and an order to forfeit $8,091,843.64.
- The case was the first criminal conviction over music-streaming fraud and highlighted how artificial streams divert royalties from legitimate creators.
🔬 RESEARCH
- 📄 Source for Common Sense Media rates ChatGPT for Teens an unacceptable risk — institute.commonsensemedia.org