OpenAI released its GPT-5.6 model family on July 9 in three tiers — Sol, Terra, and Luna — alongside ChatGPT Work, an enterprise agent that combines Codex with ChatGPT to carry out longer, multi-step jobs. OpenAI says Sol beats Anthropic's Opus 5 on coding and long-horizon agent benchmarks at less than half the compute cost, and the rollout reaches ChatGPT, Codex, and the API globally within 24 hours.
Why it matters
The launch lands the same week Anthropic pushed Claude Cowork to mobile, turning the two labs' enterprise-agent roadmaps into a direct, simultaneous contest for the same knowledge-work budget.
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Anthropic brings Claude Cowork to mobile and web
Anthropic expanded Claude Cowork beyond desktop to mobile and web starting July 7, letting users start agentic tasks on a laptop and monitor or steer them from a phone. Usage data shows just 8.7% of Cowork sessions are software development, with business-process work and content creation now the dominant use cases.
SpaceXAI releases Grok 4.5, calling it an 'Opus-class' coding model
xAI shipped Grok 4.5 on July 8, its first model built specifically for coding and agentic work using real Cursor session data. It prices at $2/$6 per million tokens — over 60% cheaper than Opus 4.8 or GPT-5.5 — while ranking fourth on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index.
Meta to begin production of in-house Iris AI chip in September
Meta will start manufacturing its custom Iris chip, co-designed with Broadcom and fabricated by TSMC, this September to cut reliance on Nvidia. The chip is part of a plan to double Meta's AI computing capacity to 14 gigawatts by 2027.
News publishers led by NYT ask court to sanction OpenAI over evidence claims
A group of publishers filed a sanctions motion on July 9 accusing OpenAI of falsely telling the court it couldn't search training data and ChatGPT logs for copyrighted news content, then later revealing it had built tools to do exactly that. Publishers are seeking evidentiary sanctions, fees, and adverse jury instructions in the ongoing copyright case.
FTC opens comment period on AI-accuracy policy statement
The FTC issued a policy statement addressing the legal implications of state laws that would require altering the 'truthful outputs' of AI models, opening a public comment period through July 31. The move signals federal pushback against state-level mandates that could force AI providers to change model outputs.
