🌐 Google ships TranslateGemma for 55 languages 🌐
New open translation models run efficiently from smartphones to cloud infrastructure.

Google released TranslateGemma, a suite of open translation models built on Gemma 3 and fine-tuned using synthetic and human-translated data with reinforcement learning. Available in 4B, 12B, and 27B parameter sizes, these models support 55 languages and outperform Gemma 3 baselines across 55 language pairs while retaining multimodal capabilities. The rollout spans devices from smartphones to cloud GPUs, making high-quality translation more accessible across hardware tiers. This release expands access to production-grade translation for developers building multilingual applications.

🧠 OpenAI leads $252M round in brain-tech startup 🧠
OpenAI expands beyond software with investment in non-surgical neural interface technology.

OpenAI has led a $252 million seed round in Merge Labs, a brain-computer interface startup co-founded by Sam Altman. Unlike traditional BCIs requiring surgical implants, Merge Labs plans to use molecules and deep-reaching ultrasound to communicate with neurons non-invasively. The founding team includes World/Tools for Humanity's Alex Blania and Sandro Herbig, alongside researchers from Caltech and Forest Neurotech. This marks OpenAI's significant expansion into hardware integration, as the company aims to bridge biological and artificial intelligence. The investment signals a direct path toward human-AI interfaces that could reshape how users access AI capabilities.

📊 Anthropic reveals how people use Claude 📊
New Economic Index analyzes one million conversations to measure AI's real-world productivity impact.

Anthropic published its fourth Economic Index Report, introducing new "economic primitives" to measure how Claude is used across consumers and enterprises. Analysis of 1 million anonymized conversations reveals that 46% of Claude usage is work-related, with coding tasks dominating at 34% of conversations. The report estimates AI could boost US labor productivity by 1.0-1.8 percentage points annually over the next decade, though success rates drop for more complex tasks. Geographic patterns show striking variation: higher-income countries use Claude collaboratively, while lower-income regions focus on coursework. The data provides policymakers and researchers with a baseline for tracking AI's economic impact as capabilities advance.

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🤖 Cursor swarm builds 3M-line browser in seven days 🤖

The Cursor team revealed they ran hundreds of AI coding agents autonomously for weeks, with one swarm producing a fully functional web browser spanning 3 million lines of code in under seven days. Using the "Ralph Wiggum technique," agents were divided into planners, workers, and judges, enabling hundreds of models to collaborate without losing context. The speed of autonomous code generation signals a capability jump for AI-assisted development workflows. Notably, GPT-5.2 handled long-duration runs better than Claude Opus 4.5.

🔄 Mira Murati's startup loses cofounders to OpenAI 🔄

Thinking Machines Lab, founded by former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati less than a year ago, has lost two co-founders returning to OpenAI. Co-founder Barret Zoph was terminated amid misconduct allegations, while Luke Metz and researcher Sam Schoenholz are also departing. Murati elevated Meta AI researcher Soumith Chintala as new CTO. The departures represent competitive pressure on the $12 billion-valued startup that raised a $2 billion seed round.