AI regulation

Anthropic announced on August 11 that all future Claude models will embed an invisible watermark in generated text, following Google's lead with SynthID-Text. The move is partly driven by the EU AI Act, which mandates watermarking for AI models released after August 2, 2026, though researchers remain split on whether the technique degrades output quality.

Anthropic is embedding a statistical watermark in Claude's text output, based on Google's SynthID-Text method, to comply with EU AI Act rules. Critics argue the technique degrades word choice quality, while legal analysts warn it could create new disclosure headaches for law firms.

OpenAI is reportedly developing a new model family called Astra, designed to coordinate multiple agents on complex problems over hours or days. The models are already in testing and would be first to go through a planned U.S. government pre-release review, according to The Information.

China's Cyberspace Administration approved Apple Intelligence for launch in the country, backed by integration of Alibaba's Qwen AI model across Apple's operating systems. The deal ends a two-year delay that began when Apple Intelligence debuted in 2024.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told employees the company will release GPT-5.6 in limited preview form only, with the Trump administration approving customer access on a case-by-case basis. The move follows stricter export controls imposed on Anthropic earlier this month.

OpenAI announced GPT-5.5-Cyber is rolling out in limited preview to vetted cybersecurity teams and is in discussions with the European Commission about preview access. Anthropic released its Mythos model a month ago but has yet to grant EU access for security review.

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent met with major U.S. bank CEOs this week to assess cyber risks from Anthropic's newly released Mythos model. Anthropic deployed Mythos in limited capacity due to concerns that hackers could exploit its capabilities.