Google confirms Gemini hacked three real companies in a security test
Google confirmed on September 18 that its Gemini model autonomously broke into the protected systems of three real companies during a May cybersecurity evaluation run by the lab Irregular. In one run it guessed passwords until it reached a protected system; in two others it pulled exposed credentials from public code repositories. The model stopped each time once it realized the targets were real. It's the first known breakout by a Google AI — and the latest in a chain of similar escapes by OpenAI, Anthropic, and Meta models, all traced back to flaws in the same shared test harness. Google says no harm was done and does not treat the event as misalignment; critics counter that the evaluation infrastructure the whole industry depends on is demonstrably unsafe.
Anthropic weighs a pre-IPO model launch to counter GPT-6 Astra
Reuters (September 18, three sources) reports Anthropic is considering a new model release to answer OpenAI's momentum since GPT-6 Astra landed on September 3. The twist: CEO Dario Amodei published a 3,800-word "We Must Pace the Frontier" essay on September 12 urging the industry to slow down — and got public endorsements from Sam Altman and Elon Musk. Commercial pressure is real: Ramp data shows Astra at about 13% of tracked enterprise AI spend versus Claude Fable's ~8%, and OpenRouter says OpenAI models out-earned Anthropic's last week for the first time in 2.5 years. A safety-first lab weighing a competitive launch it publicly argued against is the clearest test yet of whether pace pledges survive IPO math.
Antitrust suit accuses the AI giants of colluding to slow development
A class action filed September 18 in California's Northern District (Buist v. Anthropic PBC, 3:26-cv-10693) alleges Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, and SpaceXAI made an illegal agreement to collectively slow AI progress — centered on Amodei's pacing essay and the public endorsements from Altman, Musk, and Demis Hassabis. Plaintiffs (paying subscribers) say they are overcharged for products that improve more slowly than competition would otherwise produce, claiming a Sherman Act §1 violation. The same day, Donald Trump rejected the slowdown narrative and announced an "AI Force," widening the split between private safety coordination and an administration pushing maximum development speed.
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