DAILY AI BRIEF 🗞 — Sept 29

ANTHROPIC 🔥:
- Claude Sonnet 5.5 is live everywhere, including the Platform and Claude Code. Second model in the 5.5 family; Haiku 5.5 is still weeks out.
- Same list price as Sonnet 5: $2/$10 per 1M tokens, cache reads $0.20. Official line: 30%+ faster and up to 30% cheaper per task.
- First Sonnet with Opus-class cyber safeguards. Cursor already has the slug.

OPENAI 🔥:
- DevDay keynote is today. The teaser promised 20+ launches; the agenda points to Codex plugins, a 1,000-hour internal agent run, and multiplayer Codex.
- Pro $200 reopens to new subscribers tomorrow. Usage math nets to about half the old plan’s API dollars. No 5h cap coming back. Extra subscription features tomorrow will not draw usage.
- WSJ: GPT-6.1 Astra will not ship. October target pulled over safety and alignment.
- Build strings name “Dots”: text, call, Slack, email, buy with approval, plus a custom-shaped character. “Spaces” also showed up separately.

XAI 🔥:
- Team Bots are in public beta for Teams and Enterprise. Shared teammates with skills, plugins, and credentials in Slack or Grok Bot.

NVIDIA 🔥:
- Open Agent Safety Platform is out with 100+ partners. OpenShell plus Sentry; BlueField-4 and DOCA sit outside the agent’s reach.

ELEVENLABS 🔥:
- v4 and v4 Turbo shipped. Turbo median latency ~100 ms. 90+ languages.
- Two-week API promo: $22 / $11 per 1M characters. Instant clones from 10 seconds of audio.

KLING 🔥:
- 4.0 Flash is live for Ultra Yearly. Full 4.0 is October: 4K HDR, 15 references, 10 keyframes, native 30-second clips.

MANUS 🔥:
- 2.0 adds persistent cloud workspaces and Cue, an agent with email, phone, wallet, and a Cloud Computer.

* 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.

OPENAI 🔥: "10am PT, on the dot", OpenAI DevDay keynote is set. "Dots" are coming!

Manus 2.0 launches with Studio, Cloud Computer and Cue

Manus 2.0 expands across web, desktop, and mobile with a new agent system, Studio, automations, game and video tools, device control, and Cue personal agents, while reporting lower token use, faster task completion, and reduced cost.

🗞 #manus @testingcatalog

Meta released many connectors for Muse to support new use cases for small businesses.

> Asana, Box, Canva, Dropbox, Figma, Granola, HighLevel, Intuit QuickBooks, Klaviyo, Lovable, Notion, Shopify, Slack, Stripe, Zoom, as well as your Facebook and Instagram business accounts, are now supported.

Muse is probably one of the most awaited products globally at this moment.

Soon? 👀

OPENAI 🔥: Dots will require a Pro 200 plan. I hope they expand further at some point.

See this big O on the back? 👀

BREAKING 🔥: OpenAI announced Dots, personalized AI assistants available on ChatGPT.

What we know so far 👀
- Powered by Astra!
- Dots can keep working on long tasks
- Likely will be only available on Pro 200 plans
- Will support voice conversations
- Have their own VM in the cloud
- Users will start with one Dot today
- Soon will be accessible through messengers
- Support 4k+ connectors
- Highly customizable!

BREAKING 🔥: OpenAI introduced "Ultrafast", a new premium speed tier.

> "Ultrafast offers up to 8× faster token generation (300 tokens per second) in Codex and up to 6x in the API."

> "GPT‑6 Astra Ultrafast is available today in the API⁠ and in ChatGPT Work and Codex⁠ on Pro 500 and Enterprise plans. GPT‑6.1 Sol Ultrafast is coming soon.

Pro 500 is mentioned too 👀

OPENAI 🔥: Codex Cloud was announced during OpenAI DevDay to allow developers to run Codex remotely.

> "Available on Plus, Pro, Business, Healthcare, Education, and Enterprise."

BREAKING 🔥: OpenAI announced ChatGPT Pro 500 plan, with x25 usage capacity and access to Ultrafast mode.

No 5h limit, too 👀

OpenAI introduced ChatGPT Space, a new collaborative workspace for humans and AI Agents.

> "In Space, you can work with pages—a new kind of interactive document with charts, images, checklists, and dashboards.

> "Rolling out today to Pro, Business, and Enterprise plans."

Pro testing time 👀

Meta launches Muse for Small Business with new connectors

Meta launched Muse for Small Business, an AI agent that connects Meta tools and third-party apps to support planning and operations. It can use business data across services, with approval required before posting, messaging or spending.

🗞 #meta @testingcatalog

DAILY AI BRIEF 🗞 — Sept 30

OPENAI 🔥:
- dots shipped: always-on GPT-6 Astra agents with a cloud computer and 4,000+ plugins. On Pro (incl. $100), Business Premium, and Enterprise; EEA/UK/Switzerland skipped at launch.
- GPT-6.1 Sol is live in Work, Codex, and the API. Near-Astra at $2/$10; cached input $0.10, 95% off standard.
- Ultrafast hits ~300 tok/s in Codex (8x) and 6x in the API. Astra Ultrafast today on Pro 500 and Enterprise; Sol Ultrafast soon.
- Pro 500 is the new top plan: 25x Plus usage plus Ultrafast.
- Codex CLI refresh: voice start/steer, /agents view, worktrees, full-screen UI.
- Codex Cloud: reusable environments keep agents running with the laptop closed.
- Bloomberg: targeting another $30B at a $1.4T valuation.

META 🔥:
- Muse dropped Slack, Notion, Figma, Canva, Shopify, Zoom, and more. Muse for Small Business is out.

PERPLEXITY 🔥:
- Automations landed in Computer: scheduled or event-triggered runs across Slack, Gmail, Outlook, and Linear.

XAI 🔥:
- Elon: Grok 4.7 ranks #1 on the Artificial Analysis Cyber Index.

CURSOR 🔥:
- /visualize draws charts and diagrams inline in the Agents Window.

ChatGPT profiles now have new sections for Top Plugins and a Showcase with Sites. Users can configure the list of sites to showcase and make them publicly visible.

Finally, something for non-Pro users 👀

Interesting to note that Perplexity was again leading the pack over here - we will see more and more "premium" experiences being the core focus for AI labs.

ICYMI 👀: Google is killing Gemini Gems on November 17, replacing them with Skills!

It was originally planned for October 20, but it was delayed (as per report from August 9)

OpenAI launches GPT-6.1 Sol at one-fifth of Astra pricing

OpenAI launched GPT‑6.1 Sol, offering near‑Astra results for coding, computer use and business workflows at about one‑fifth the cost, with cached input at $0.10 per million tokens and stronger accuracy, safety and tool use.

🗞 #openai @testingcatalog