📄 The Long ReadEvery story in this issue, reported at length — with the numbers, charts and sources behind them.→ Read the PDF · 190 KB
01DeepSeek V4 Pro 0813: Flagship 1.6T MoE Model Exits Preview [AI Models & Research]DeepSeek's flagship model graduated from preview to general availability. The 1.6T-parameter mixture-of-experts with 49B active per token scores above Opus 4.8 on Terminal Bench 2.1, Cybergym, and DeepSWE, supports a 1M context window, and is priced at $0.435/$0.87 per million tokens -- frontier-adjacent performance at a fraction of Western competitors' pricing. → source
02Liquid AI Ships LFM2.5-VL-3B: Vision-Language Model That Runs on Your Phone [AI Models & Research]A 3.1B-parameter open-weight vision-language model beats models 2.6x its size on screen understanding and UI grounding, running at 228 tokens/s on an Apple M5 Max and 20 tokens/s on a Galaxy S26 Ultra in just 3GB of memory. The hybrid convolution-attention backbone cuts KV cache by up to 90%, making real-time on-device vision AI practical. → source
03AI4AI at Test-Time: Can Strong Models Transfer Skills to Weak Ones Without Training? [AI Models & Research]Researchers from Salesforce and USC ask whether capability transfer from large to small models can happen at test time -- not through parameter updates, but through harnesses that orchestrate the weaker model's behavior. The findings challenge the assumption that distillation always requires gradient-based training. → source
04195TB of Credentials Leaked in LiteLLM Supply-Chain Attack Impacting 2,500 Organizations [AI Tools & Ecosystem]Security firms CloudSEK and Hudson Rock revealed that a 40-minute window of compromised LiteLLM packages on PyPI in March exfiltrated 195TB of credentials from 2,500 organizations including Microsoft, Amazon, Cisco, Samsung, and Salesforce. The attack chain started with a compromised Trivy scanner and was claimed by TeamPCP -- a gang largely made up of teenagers. → source
05Made by Google 2026: Pixel 11, Gemini Intelligence, and Sign Language AI [AI Tools & Ecosystem]Google's Pixel 11 lineup ships with Gemini Intelligence features including task automation across apps, phone-dialing agents, and Rambler speech-to-text that cleans up disfluencies in real time. DeepMind also launched a Sign Language to Text engine in Gemini, enabling deaf users to interact with their phones through sign language instead of voice. → source
06Hinton, Ng, and Fei-Fei Li Unite on Openness -- With Caveats [AI Tools & Ecosystem]At Ai4 2026 in Las Vegas, three of AI's most prominent figures offered a unified defense of openness in AI development while disagreeing on specifics. Hinton cautioned about open-weight misuse, Ng argued openness drives competition, and Li suggested transparency should be calibrated by application risk. The panel comes as major labs increasingly lock down models. → source
07Amazon Will Train AI on Twitch Streamers' Content by Default Unless They Opt Out [AI Tools & Ecosystem]Twitch confirmed that all streamers are opted in by default to having their streams, VODs, clips, and chats used to train Amazon's generative AI models. An opt-out toggle buried in security settings is the only way to prevent it -- and Twitch admitted Amazon has already been training on Twitch content for at least two years. → source
08Cognition AI in Talks to Raise at $40B Valuation as Devin Nears $1B ARR [AI Applications & Industry]The startup behind the Devin AI coding agent is in early talks for a round that would value it at $40B or more -- up 50% from its $26B May valuation. Annualized revenue has roughly doubled to approaching $1B, driven by enterprise adoption at Goldman Sachs, Mercedes-Benz, Citi, and U.S. government agencies. The raise would cement coding agents as the highest-velocity sector in AI. → source
09Lovable Raises $400M at $13.3B Valuation -- Vibe-Coding Startup Doubles in Eight Months [AI Applications & Industry]Stockholm-based Lovable closed a $400M Series C at $13.3B, double its December valuation. The platform has facilitated 60 million projects since its November 2024 launch, attracts 900M monthly visits to Lovable-built apps, and counts two-thirds of Fortune 500 companies among its users. ARR is tracking toward $600M by end of August. → source
10Thrive Holdings Raises $2B at $12B to Bring OpenAI-Powered Tools to Accounting and IT [AI Applications & Industry]Backed by SoftBank, D1 Capital, and Altimeter, Thrive Holdings operates like a private equity firm for AI -- buying traditional businesses and injecting OpenAI technology into their workflows. With 70+ companies across its Current (accounting) and Shield (IT) platforms, the raise funds expansion into physical assets. OpenAI has taken a stake. → source
11Blacksmith Hits $550M Valuation: AI Code-Testing Startup Grows 10x in Under a Year [AI Applications & Industry]As AI-generated code floods development pipelines, Blacksmith sells the infrastructure to test and validate it. The YC-backed startup raised $45M Series B led by Peak XV at a $550M valuation -- nearly 10x from its $60M mark less than a year ago. Weekly CI jobs have grown 5-10% week-over-week since January, and its Codesmith agent now auto-fixes failed checks. → source
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