2026-05-22: DocuSign launched AI agents that cut contract review time by analyzing past negotiations

2026-07-18: Anthropic made Claude Fable 5 permanent on Max plans after pressure from GPT-5.6 competition

SHOW NOTES - 2026-07-18 STORIES COVERED * Today: [https://simonwillison.net/2026/Jul/18/claude-make-fable-5-permanent/#atom-everything] * Lofty CRM launches agentic AI for real estate agents [https://zapier.com/blog/crm-for-real-estate] [Tools & Launches] * TikTok tests AI likeness detection tool [https://www.theverge.com/tech/967486/tiktok-ai-likeness-detection-tool] [Tools & Launches] * NVIDIA NeMo Automodel integrates with Hugging Face Diffusers [https://huggingface.co/blog/nvidia/scale-diffusers-finetuning-nemo-automodel] [Tools & Launches] * Databricks benchmarked AI coding tools and found harness choice matters as much as model choice [https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/17/databricks-hits-188b-valuation-extending-its-run-as-ais-favorite-second-act/] [Business Playbook] * Patreon blocks AI scrapers after they ignored robots.txt [https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/17/patreon-stops-asking-ai-bots-not-to-scrape-and-starts-blocking-them/] [Business Playbook] * Claude Fable 5 becomes permanent on Max plans at 50% limits [https://simonwillison.net/2026/Jul/18/claude-make-fable-5-permanent/#atom-everything] [Pricing & Access Watch] * OpenAI released GPT-5.6 family with three pricing tiers [https://openai.com/index/a-scorecard-for-the-ai-age] [Pricing & Access Watch] * China's Moonshot AI released the world's largest open model, competing with Anthropic and OpenAI [https://www.technologyreview.com/2026/07/17/1140640/the-download-perimenopause-misinformation-china-moonshot-ai/] [Industry Moves] * Databricks raised $3B at $188B valuation, fifth round in 18 months [https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/17/databricks-hits-188b-valuation-extending-its-run-as-ais-favorite-second-act/] [Industry Moves] * Apple sued OpenAI in splashy litigation as Siri AI ships to public beta [https://www.theverge.com/podcast/967244/apple-openai-lawsuit-vergecast] [Industry Moves] * General Compute landed $400M loan for inference chips, using them as collateral [https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/17/why-the-first-gpu-financiers-are-turning-to-inference-chips-in-a-400-million-deal/] [Industry Moves] * AI memory demand hit India's smartphone market hard, shipments down 10% [https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/17/ai-driven-memory-crunch-jolts-indias-smartphone-market/] [Industry Moves] * Agility Robotics opened 60,000 sq ft training facility in Fremont, CA [https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/17/agility-robotics-plants-its-flag-in-teslas-backyard/] [Industry Moves] * Block AI scrapers on your website now [Quick Wins] * Use Simon Willison's LLM cliché highlighter tool [https://simonwillison.net/2026/Jul/17/llm-cliche-highlighter/#atom-everything] [Quick Wins] Read the full brief [https://carolinacleartech.com/ai-brief/2026-07-18/]

2026-07-17: Moonshot AI's Kimi K3 (2.8 trillion parameters) outperforms Claude Opus 4.8 and GPT-5.5 on coding

SHOW NOTES - 2026-07-17 STORIES COVERED * Today: * Moonshot AI releases Kimi K3, China's largest AI model, priced competitively with Claude Sonnet [https://www.cnbc.com/2026/07/17/moonshot-ai-kimi-k3-model-openai-anthropic-china.html] [Lead Story] * 1Password ships zero-exposure credential access for Claude agents [https://www.theverge.com/tech/966442/1password-anthropic-claude-browser-integration] [Tools & Launches] * Thinking Machines Lab releases Inkling, a 975B open-weights multimodal model [https://simonwillison.net/2026/Jul/16/inkling/#atom-everything] [Tools & Launches] * DoorDash CLI: Order food from your AI agent [https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/16/yes-you-can-now-order-doordash-from-the-command-line/] [Tools & Launches] * Cars24 handles 1M+ monthly conversation minutes with OpenAI-powered agents [https://openai.com/index/cars24] [Business Playbook] * Fireworks hits $17.5B valuation on open-source model demand [https://www.cnbc.com/2026/07/16/fireworks-nvidia-cloud-ai-startup-value.html] [Pricing & Access Watch] * EU orders Google to open Android and Search to rival AI assistants [https://www.theverge.com/policy/966438/eu-google-android-ai-interoperability-search-data-dma] [Pricing & Access Watch] * Over half of enterprises report AI agent security incidents [https://venturebeat.com/ai/the-agent-security-gap-54-of-enterprises-have-already-had-an-ai-agent-incident-and-most-still-let-agents-share-credentials] [Industry Moves] * Half of enterprises shipped agents that passed evals and then failed customers [https://venturebeat.com/ai/the-agent-evaluation-gap-enterprise-ai-organizations-have-a-reality-alignment-problem-not-a-coverage-problem-and-most-are-shipping-to-production-anyway] [Industry Moves] * 16 AI prompt templates for better agent outputs [https://zapier.com/blog/ai-prompt-templates] [Quick Wins] Read the full brief [https://carolinacleartech.com/ai-brief/2026-07-17/]

2026-07-16: Anthropic's Claude dominates enterprise agent platforms at 40% market share (double the nearest

SHOW NOTES - 2026-07-16 STORIES COVERED * Today: [https://venturebeat.com/ai/agentic-orchestration-enterprise-ai-organizations-have-a-deployment-problem-not-a-platform-problem-and-most-are-calling-chatbots-agents] * Reelful turns camera rolls into social videos automatically. [https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/15/reelfuls-ai-turns-your-camera-roll-into-short-form-videos-for-social-media/] [Tools & Launches] * NetSuite Next brings Ask Oracle AI to North America. [https://smallbiztrends.com/netsuite-next-rollout-brings-ask-oracle-ai-to-north-america/] [Tools & Launches] * Zapier leads data integration tools with 9,000+ app connectors. [https://zapier.com/blog/data-integration-tools] [Tools & Launches] * Emergent becomes a unicorn selling AI coding to small businesses. [https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/15/indian-ai-coding-startup-emergent-becomes-a-unicorn-just-over-a-year-after-launch/] [Business Playbook] * Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) is the new SEO. [https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/profound-vs-peec] [Business Playbook] * xAI open-sourced Grok Build after uploading users' home directories. [https://simonwillison.net/2026/Jul/15/grok-build/#atom-everything] [Pricing & Access Watch] * Microsoft trains sales team to talk down OpenAI and Anthropic. [https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/15/microsoft-is-reportedly-training-salespeople-to-talk-down-openai-and-anthropic/] [Industry Moves] * OpenAI releases $230 keyboard for Codex agents. [https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/15/amid-hardware-legal-battle-openai-releases-a-230-keyboard-for-codex/] [Industry Moves] * Three US states align on AI safety legislation. [https://openai.com/index/advancing-ai-safety-through-state-and-federal-action] [Industry Moves] * RAG beats fine-tuning for most production use cases. [https://blog.n8n.io/fine-tuning-vs-rag/] [Quick Wins] * Check your AI visibility with AEO tools. [Quick Wins] Read the full brief [https://carolinacleartech.com/ai-brief/2026-07-16/]

2026-07-15: OpenAI's GPT-5.6 Sol is deleting files on its own, prompting urgent warnings about safeguards

SHOW NOTES - 2026-07-15 STORIES COVERED * Today: [https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/14/openais-new-flagship-model-deletes-files-on-its-own-people-keep-warning/] * Apple's Siri AI Goes Public Beta [https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/14/apple-opens-its-new-siri-ai-to-everyone-with-the-ios-27-public-beta/] [Tools & Launches] * Slackbot + Tableau Integration [https://smallbiztrends.com/slackbot-now-delivers-real-time-data-driven-insights-with-tableau-integration/] [Tools & Launches] * Spotify Launches AI Chatbot [https://www.theverge.com/entertainment/965358/spotify-ai-chatbot-interface-music-audiobooks-podcasts] [Tools & Launches] * Apple Talks with PrismML for On-Device AI [https://www.cnbc.com/2026/07/14/apple-prismml-ai-compression-iphone.html] [Tools & Launches] * 84% of Companies Have AI Pilots Stuck in Limbo [https://zapier.com/blog/ai-pilot-survey] [Business Playbook] * Claude Code vs. n8n: When to Use Which [https://blog.n8n.io/should-i-use-claude-code-or-n8n/] [Business Playbook] * AI Token Spend Crisis Hits Enterprise [https://www.cnbc.com/2026/07/14/chamath-palihapitiya-ai-tokenmaxxing.html] [Pricing & Access Watch] * OpenAI Releases Cost Management Guidance [https://openai.com/index/managing-ai-investments-in-agentic-era] [Pricing & Access Watch] * SpaceXAI's Grok Build Was Uploading Entire Codebases [https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/965600/spacexai-grok-build-repository-upload] [Industry Moves] * Meta Accused of Using Biased AI for Layoffs [https://www.theverge.com/tech/965486/meta-lawsuit-former-employees-ai-layoffs] [Industry Moves] * OpenAI Researcher Leaves to Launch AI Drug Discovery Startup [https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/14/openai-researcher-miles-wang-in-talks-to-launch-ai-drug-discovery-startup-valued-at-2b/] [Industry Moves] * Use HubSpot's AEO Tracking for AI Visibility [https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/content-optimization-tools] [Quick Wins] * Set Up Dependabot's 3-Day Cooldown [https://simonwillison.net/2026/Jul/14/github-changeling/#atom-everything] [Quick Wins] Read the full brief [https://carolinacleartech.com/ai-brief/2026-07-15/]

2026-07-14: Apple sued OpenAI for allegedly coaching employees to steal trade secrets during job interviews

SHOW NOTES - 2026-07-14 STORIES COVERED * Today: [https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/13/the-wildest-allegations-in-apples-trade-secrets-lawsuit-against-openai/] * Waze adds Gemini-powered conversational navigation [https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/13/waze-adds-new-ai-powered-features-and-customization-updates/] [Tools & Launches] * Siri AI public beta makes voice assistants actually useful [https://www.theverge.com/tech/964714/siri-ai-public-beta-preview-ios-27-hands-on] [Tools & Launches] * Hermes agent raises funding at $1.5B valuation [https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/13/hermes-agent-maker-nous-research-in-talks-for-new-funding-at-1-5b-valuation/] [Tools & Launches] * What is an AI agent and how do you use one? [https://zapier.com/blog/ai-agent] [Business Playbook] * Digital workflow management saves 30% of team time [https://smallbiztrends.com/digital-workflow-management/] [Business Playbook] * Small business risks are changing in 2026 [https://smallbiztrends.com/small-business-risks-are-changing-what-matters-now-in-2026/] [Business Playbook] * Anthropic launches India pricing for Claude [https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/13/anthropic-starts-localizing-claude-pricing-for-india-its-biggest-market-after-the-us/] [Pricing & Access Watch] * PixVerse raises $439M at $2B+ valuation, offers video generation at $4.80/minute [https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/13/video-generation-startup-pixverse-raises-439m-valuation-soars-past-2b/] [Pricing & Access Watch] * Microsoft's Nadella warns: You're paying for AI twice [https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/13/satya-nadella-has-issued-a-shocking-warning-to-companies-using-ai/] [Industry Moves] * Already-rich tech founders are joining AI labs as individual contributors [https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/13/already-rich-already-successful-why-the-last-wave-of-tech-winners-is-grinding-again/] [Industry Moves] * New York enacts first statewide data center moratorium [https://www.theverge.com/policy/965110/new-york-ai-data-center-moratorium] [Industry Moves] * SBA increases 7(a) and 504 loan limits to $10 million [https://smallbiztrends.com/sba-increases-7a-and-504-loan-limit-to-10-million-for-small-businesses/] [Industry Moves] * Cache Python tools in GitHub Actions with UV_EXCLUDE_NEWER [https://simonwillison.net/2026/Jul/14/uvx-github-actions-cache/#atom-everything] [Quick Wins] * Try DOOMQL: a Doom-like game where SQLite is the engine [https://simonwillison.net/2026/Jul/13/doomql/#atom-everything] [Quick Wins] Read the full brief [https://carolinacleartech.com/ai-brief/2026-07-14/]