GOVERNANCE

Anthropic and OpenAI lean in to fight AI misuse

As AI becomes a powerful tool in the arsenal of hackers and bad actors, the two biggest labs in the industry are working to fight misuse. 

On Thursday, Anthropic announced updates to its usage policy in response to the "evolving capabilities of our models." Several of these updates are meant to clarify existing rules as the company's flagship Claude models take on more long-running independent work, as well as address new patterns for AI misuse and clarify requirements for high-risk use cases. 

The update that's making headlines is the fact that Anthropic has prohibited "sustained and needless abusive or cruel behavior toward our models" for the most extreme cases, in which the abuse is taking place with "no discernible purpose." But the updates seek to tackle several different kinds of model misuses: 

• It takes on deceptive activity, in which state-run media outlets, government propaganda organizations, and commercial firms use Claude to generate networks of fake accounts and news sites. This update created a new section dedicated specifically to not engaging in deceptive campaigns, as previous rules on this were splintered across elections, fraud, privacy, and disinformation restrictions. 

• It adds clear prohibitions on using Claude to develop weapons, including weapons' software and components, and actions such as arming drones. 

• Anthropic sharpened the section around elections by focusing it specifically on banning Claude's use to deceive voters or disrupt elections. The company also retooled its surveillance and law enforcement section to specifically prohibit tracking people without consent or recommending who to investigate, arrest, or charge. 

• And in use cases that impact people's "health, legal rights, finances, livelihood, or access to essential services," the company now requires a human in the loop and clear labeling of AI use. 

Anthropic isn't the only company trying to track down and curb misuse. Also on Thursday, OpenAI shared that it recently ended two influence operations, one from Russia and one from Iran, that used its models as part of "false front" campaigns, in which they push geopolitical messaging to specific audiences using legitimate-seeming organizations. 

OpenAI said that the Iranian operation created the personas of seven journalists to pitch stories to small and medium-sized outlets, also generating social media comments related to the US-Iran war. The Russian operation, meanwhile, attracted people in Latin America to run an on-the-ground think tank using fake documents and audio scripts. The lab said that both operations heavily used AI. 

"What is most striking about these operations is that they closely resembled complex influence operations of the pre-AI age, but used AI to make some of the workflows easier," OpenAI said in its blog post.

The Hugging Face attack in July set off a domino effect that has turned a lot of discussion about AI risk into a death spiral. As much of the talk shifts towards losing control of these models and setting off catastrophic and lethal risk, conversations about the practical, present-day risks are being drowned out. While AI doomsday talk is headline-grabbing, the reality is that risks like these, such as influence operation campaigns, the spread of disinformation, and bad actor-led hacking, are far more tangible and pressing than discussing what to do if AI takes over the world. While it's commendable that the two leading frontier labs are working to tamp down on this malicious behavior, if the public conversation shifts towards elevating awareness of these risks, more work could be done to prevent them.

TOGETHER WITH OPTIMIZELY

Opal U: Build 3 AI Agents in 5 Days (Live, Not Recorded)

Most AI courses leave you with notes. Optimizely's Opal U leaves you with working agents.

It's a live, 5-day cohort where senior marketers build real automations around their own workflows, with a coach guiding every session.

• Live masterclasses, not recorded: A 5-day cohort, 1 hour a day, where senior marketers build alongside a coach. This is not another passive AI course.

• 3+ agents, real bottlenecks: Participants leave with at least three working AI agents built around their own repetitive tasks and workflows, not generic demos.

• A framework, not just outputs: Learn how to prioritize which AI use cases are actually worth building first, the question most teams get stuck on.

• Proof, not promises: Past graduates report saving 10+ hours a week, and 1 in 5 have landed a promotion or new role off the back of it.

• Skip the line: Cohorts cap at 50 seats and the waitlist regularly hits 3,000+. Use our link to apply directly and skip the virtual queue.

Apply now and skip the waitlist

PRODUCTS

Is Alexa enough to set Amazon tablets apart?

As AI-powered devices continue to gain traction, Amazon is trying out a popular form factor.

On Thursday, Amazon launched Alexa Tablets, built from the ground up around its namesake AI assistant. Though the tablet line-up offers several new hardware upgrades, including all-new aluminum unibody, vivid displays, and more advanced processors to support the more demanding AI workloads, the more noteworthy feature is the core integration of Alexa+, with built-in, personalized experiences that make it easier to leverage Alexa. 

For instance, when you open the devices, the home screen has Alexa integrations in the top-left and bottom-right corners. The Alexa+ chatbot is in the bottom-right corner, where you can start conversations as you would with any other chatbot. 

• However, if you have On-Screen Intelligence turned on, you can ask Alexa for help with what's on the screen in real time by pulling from the bottom-right corner or speaking directly to it. 

• The top-left corner, known as the Dynamic Tab, includes the time, books, songs, or shows you were watching, as well as suggestions. When you swipe right on it, you can access a personalized "For You" feed that acts as a hub for a user's content, along with AI prompts to offer a deeper dive. 

• This device connects with user Amazon accounts, learning from a user's existing context.  

The line-up includes the Amazon Alexa Tablet 12 Pro, Alexa Tablet 11, and Alexa Tablet 8. However, the Alexa Tablet Pro is the best of the bunch. At just 6.5mm thick, it feels remarkably light, and its evenly distributed weight makes it comfortable to hold. Amazon deliberately chose a 3:2 aspect ratio, rather than the more typical 16:10, to better suit content and multitasking. Powering it is a 4nm 8-core chip that Amazon claims delivers nearly three times the processing speed and nine times the graphics performance of any previous Amazon tablet. A new Nanomatte display option also reduces glare. 

And despite the AI integration the tablet offers a distraction-free "Kindle Sanctuary" option for reading, turning off notifications, reducing blue-light and providing up to 20 hours of battery life. 

Amazon Alexa Tablet 12 Pro feels like it was made for me. It keeps some of Kindle's best features, including the Kindle sanctuary and three reading modes: black-and-white e-ink, the more muted tones of Colorsoft, and a vivid color option that e-ink can't offer. The nanomatte display also gives it an edge over premium tablets like the iPad, at a lower price ($549.99 for the 12 Pro with nanomatte). However, nearly all of these advantages come down to hardware upgrades, and that's exactly my concern. The AI features seem genuinely useful, but I'm not sure people will buy the tablet for its AI alone, since Alexa+ doesn't have the star power of ChatGPT or Gemini. However, that may change if Alexa+ gets another upgrade, which could be on the way if Amazon follows prior years' patterns.

TOGETHER WITH MEMOKET

0.4 Oz That Remembers Every Meeting

Memoket Gem is the lightest AI wristband on the market — a 0.4 oz wearable that records your conversations with one press and turns them into instant summaries, action items, and full context across every off-screen meeting. 

With Memoket Gem, you get:

• Hands-free capture as a wristband, Apple Watch clip, or pendant

• One connected memory across conversations instead of 100 meeting notes

• Seamless sync with ChatGPT, Claude, Google Calendar, and Notion

• AI agents with full context from your real-life conversations via MCP 

Get 10% off with code DEEPMEMO26 through Oct 31.

Get Memoket Gem →

BIG TECH

Why Google may have an edge in enterprise agents

As Meta and OpenAI push into agentic tools, Google is beginning its own agent journey with enterprises.

At the Google Cloud Gemini at Work 2026 event on Thursday, the company unveiled the Gemini Agent, a "universal agent for work" that lives inside of the Google Workspace suite. The agent can answer questions, handle knowledge work tasks, create media, and write and run code within a single interface. 

Google CEO Sundar Pichai said at the event that the company is starting with business customers before rolling out to consumers, aiming to solve the “harder problems around security, scale, and performance." 

The Gemini Agent operates inside of a user's existing context and can be accessed from any device, including Gmail, Drive, Docs, Slides, Sheets, Chat, and Calendar. It also connects to outside collaboration tools, such as Microsoft Teams, Slack, and development tools like Git and Jira.

• Google highlighted three ways that the Gemini Agent can work: as a personal assistant, proactively suggesting and delegating tasks, and as a "coworker agent" that works alongside your team. 

• The agent also offers Gemini's same "memory, skills, and controls it has everywhere else." For instance, users can ask for meetings to be set up with their usual teams without having to list every single participant, understanding your relationships from previous calendar events.

• Additionally, Google built the agent to have data and analytics skills for both technical teams and everyday business workers. The agent also offers industry-specific tools, skills and connectors for financial services and legal teams. 

• To keep costs transparent Google built in controls with multi-model orchestration, smart model routing to Gemini and Anthropic's Claude models, and token spending caps. 

Addressing the question of governing these agents, Google noted that each agent gets its own traceable identity, fine-grained and specific access permissions that are approved by organization administrators, and consistent auditing. Tasks are executed inside of an "Agent Sandbox" with an individual network boundary.

Google has been lagging behind OpenAI and Anthropic for several months on the frontier AI development front, putting out models at a far slower pace than its competitors. However, Google has all of the winning ingredients for the winning recipe to soar in the industry, with legacy name recognition, market share of work tools for both consumer and enterprise spaces, and tons of resources, both cash and compute, at its disposal. Additionally, Gemini 4 Argon aside, several of the company's recent models have centered cost efficiency at a time when enterprises are curbing token budgets more than ever. Adding an easy-to-integrate, seamless workplace agent like this could further bolster Google's enterprise play, especially considering how thoroughly embedded its tools are in business operations and workplaces. 

LINKS

• DeepMind spin out Isomorphic Labs in talks to raise at $50 billion valuation

• OpenAI's math report sparks ire from mathematicians, cryptographers 

• Anthropic launches critical infrastructure defense program 

• AI leaderboard firm Arena raises 200 million at $3.1 billion valuation

• US Federal Reserve cites AI investments as inflation driver

• Manus parent company Butterfly Effect raises $500 million

• Google AI Edge Foresight: Google launched an AI notetaking app for remote and in-person meetings. 

• Odyssey-3: The firm launched its most powerful foundational world model yet. 

• OSS Scanner: An opt-in vulnerability scanner for the open source ecosystem by Anthropic. 

• Claude Motion and Dashboards: Anthropic launched live, animated dashboards in beta.

• Invoca: Agentic AI Analyst

• WorkOS: Applied AI Engineer

• Spellbrush: LLM Engineer

• Faros: AI-Native Builder

GAMES

POLL RESULTS

Do you use AI-powered note taking tools in meetings?

Yes (35%)
Sometimes (11%)
No (48%)
Other (6%)