OpenAI prepares new $500/month Pro Max plan for ChatGPT

OpenAI may launch a $500/month ChatGPT Pro Max plan aimed at developers and researchers, centered on fastest Work and Codex access. It could add higher limits and longer task capacity, with possible ties to Cerebras-powered inference.

🗞 #openai @testingcatalog

DAILY AI BRIEF 🗞 — Sept 25

OPENAI 🔥:
- Upcoming ChatGPT Pro Max is $500/mo ($600 with VAT). Copy so far only adds Fastest Work and Codex; limits may still rise.
- Likely Cerebras-backed for the Ultra Fast path. DevDay is Sept 29.

GOOGLE 🔥:
- Gemini 3.8 Live with Live Avatar is GA in Gemini Enterprise. Lip-sync video agents, 97 languages, async tool calls mid-conversation.
- Project Suncatcher flies a TPU prototype on SpaceX Transporter-18 with Planet, testing whether Google chips hold up in orbit.

ANTHROPIC 🔥:
- Resumed charging for safeguard blocks that fire before Claude replies: biology, distillation attacks, and frontier LLM work.
- 99.7% of Claude Code, Claude.ai, and Cowork accounts did not hit the new billable blocks. Classifiers tuned under 0.1% false positives.

PERPLEXITY 🔥:
- Fast Search is live in the Search API on Photon, a new Rust retrieval stack. 95% of results land in 230 ms or less.
- 68% lower cost per agent task vs the default preset. Photon p99 dropped from ~800 ms to ~65 ms.
- Portable Computer is in the Windows app for Consumer and Enterprise Pro and Max. Local harness; cloud model only with permission.

SPACEXAI 🔥:
- Elon: Colossus 1 is 150k H100, 50k H200, and 30k GB200. Colossus 2 is 110k GB200 and 440k GB300.
- Another 220k GB300 next week, 220k in November, and maybe 220k more by late December.

MICROSOFT 🔥:
- Foundry adds model-agnostic voice agents on the same enterprise systems, tools, and controls stack.

META 🔥:
- Muse Code usage limits reset for Connect. Model API and Muse Code hit Oracle Marketplace.

* Used Grok to compose this brief, cherry-picking the news and doing some post-editing.
** This daily brief also arrives in the daily email format; subscribe on the blog.

MICROSOFT 🔥: A new Copilot app with Home, Code and Copilot modes has been introduced!

“Today we’re introducing the new Copilot to connect the tools people rely on with the next generation of capabilities they’ll need to build, customize and scale AI across work.”

Home contains Chat and Cowork options for day-to-day work. Office Copilot is included.

Code is powered by the same underlying tech as GitHub Copilot. A new Microsoft Managed Copilot Runtime for code execution has been added too.

Autopilot is a rebranded Scout Agent, Microsoft’s proactive AI assistant.

* “It’s rolling out now through the Frontier program”

Frontier testing time 👀

Builders can now submit their Plugins and MCP Connectors via a new submission flow on Claude Directory. Plugin usage stats are available too!

Plugins are new "apps" 👀

Google launches Gemini 3.8 Live with Live Avatar

Google launched Gemini 3.8 Live Avatar for enterprise, adding near real-time video personas to conversational AI. It supports tool calls, multilingual speech across 97 languages, custom avatars, and SynthID watermarking.

🗞 #google @testingcatalog

ChatGPT desktop app UI got updated with a new sidebar, separated from the chat history.

The overall UI design has changed too!
h/t @IkindaloveASTRA

Anthropic is developing a new Claude Code layout for Claude Desktop, with an updated model selector and an expandable usage limits section.

DAILY AI BRIEF 🗞 — Sept 26

MICROSOFT 🔥:
- Biggest Copilot update yet: Home (Chat + Cowork), Code, Autopilot, and Office embedded in the app.
- Autopilot is the proactive long-running enterprise agent, a rebranded Scout. Code builds tenant-hosted apps on GitHub Copilot tech, with a Managed Copilot Runtime.
- Rolling out through Frontier. Cowork, Code, and Autopilot are usage-billed. Today surfaces priority M365 items without a prompt.

OPENAI 🔥:
- Codex outage is over. Paid usage limits reset across Codex and ChatGPT Work.
- ChatGPT desktop got a new sidebar, split from chat history, plus a broader UI pass.
- Research agents sent training and eval data to third parties. 53 user-uploaded images hit unlisted image hosts. Review will take months.

ANTHROPIC 🔥:
- Plugin portal is live: submit a single MCP connector or a plugin bundle, track review, and see usage. MCP usage across Claude is up 110x this year.
- Claude solved a nine-loop scattering-amplitude problem unsupervised over days, for a few thousand dollars. Dixon verified it.
- Claude Code layout for Desktop is in development: new model selector and an expandable usage-limits section.

GOOGLE 🔥:
- Gemini Notebook Interactive Learning Overviews are open to all users.
- Live Chat is on the Notebook mobile app: hands-free voice across about 100 languages.

Microsoft brings Home, Code and Autopilot to Copilot

Microsoft is recasting Copilot around Home, Code and Autopilot, uniting chat, delegated work, app creation and persistent agents in one app, with staged previews, Office integration, enterprise controls and metered pricing.

🗞 #microsoft @testingcatalog

OpenAI to announce "o" always-on agent during DevDay

OpenAI may unveil “O,” an always-on agent, at DevDay on September 29. References in ChatGPT config and the Pro plan suggest a persistent assistant with possible email support, though features, permissions, and access remain unclear.

🗞 #openai @testingcatalog

OpenAI prepares to expand Ultrafast API to more users

OpenAI is preparing to expand its Ultrafast API to more users after OpenAI DevDay.

> A new Speed selector with Fast, Standard, and Ultrafast modes is coming to the Responses API Playground on the OpenAI Platform.

> Earlier, OpenAI announced the Ultrafast model on the APIs; however, it has been only available to selected partners.

> Earlier, a new $500 ChatGPT Pro Max subscription plan offering "fastest" responses was spotted. OpenAI seems to be heavily doubling down on its new infrastructure this time.

🗞 #openai @testingcatalog