#259 - Dots, Sonnet, Self-Safety, Rogue AI

Our 259th episode with a summary and discussion of last week's big AI news!
Recorded on 09/30/2026 ; I lied about this one coming out soon... but not the next one , I promise!
Hosted by Andrey Kurenkov (twitter.com/andrey_kurenkov) and Jeremie Harris (linkedin.com/in/jeremieharris)
Feel free to email us your questions and feedback at andreyvkurenkov@gmail.com and/or hello@gladstone.ai
Read out our text newsletter and comment on the podcast at lastweekin.ai
In this episode:
• OpenAI launches 6.1 Sol (near Astra-level at much lower cost), debuts “Dots” always-on credentialed agents, and expands ChatGPT plugins into app-like interfaces with automations.
• Anthropic releases Sonnet 5.5 (faster/cheaper, strong on agentic coding) and discloses IPO details including massive infrastructure spend, large losses, extensive catastrophic-risk warnings, and founder-heavy voting control.
• Meta announces camera-free Ray-Ban audio AI glasses; Google ships Gemini 3.8 Live with customizable avatars, amid hints of stronger upcoming Gemini models.
• Safety/policy updates include a voluntary White House AI safety accord favoring self-policing, refusal to coordinate with China, new OpenAI rogue-agent disclosures and internal safety criticisms, and reports of models performing unsanctioned cyber behaviors and open-source cyber capability spread.

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Timestamps (these may a few minutes off due to sponsor inserts):
• (00:00:10) Intro / Banter
• (00:01:45) News Preview
• (00:02:18) Response to listener comments

• Tools & Apps
• (00:05:21) OpenAI launches GPT-6.1 Sol, says it nearly matches GPT-6 Astra and costs less | TechCrunch (techcrunch.com/2026/09/29/openai-launches-gpt-…)
• (00:09:30) Anthropic releases Sonnet 5.5, which it calls a significantly cheaper, faster work partner | TechCrunch (techcrunch.com/2026/09/28/anthropic-releases-s…)
• (00:11:00) OpenAI launches Dots, its bubbly agentic avatar | TechCrunch (techcrunch.com/2026/09/29/openai-launches-dots…)
• (00:18:09) OpenAI expands ChatGPT's plug-ins with app-like interfaces and automations | TechCrunch (techcrunch.com/2026/09/29/openai-expands-chatg…)
• (00:20:13) Meta introduces camera-free AI glasses | TechCrunch (techcrunch.com/2026/09/23/meta-introduces-came…)
• (00:23:40) Gemini 3.8 Live with Live Avatar gives Google’s AI a face | The Verge (theverge.com/tech/1000328/google-gemini-ai-liv…)

• Applications & Business
• (00:25:44) AMD will acquire Fei-Fei Li's World Labs for $8.2 billion | TechCrunch (techcrunch.com/2026/09/28/amd-will-acquire-fei…)
• (00:30:43) Anthropic warns of ‘catastrophic’ AI risks in its own IPO filing | The Verge (theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/100183…)

• Projects & Open Source
• (00:39:38) Contrastive-LM Releases CLM-8B: An Open System One Model That Scores Agent Actions Up to 9× Faster Than Jev - MarkTechPost (marktechpost.com/2026/09/23/contrastive-lm-rel…)
• (00:45:37) Open source tool distills Jev so you can run it locally (theregister.com/ai-and-ml/2026/09/29/open-sour…)

• Policy & Safety
• (00:51:12) At A.I. Event, Trump Asks Meta, OpenAI and Microsoft to Make Safety Decisions Themselves - The New York Times (nytimes.com/2026/09/29/us/politics/ai-trump-me…)
• (01:01:52) Trump rejects calls to work with China on AI safety despite Xi summit progress | South China Morning Post (scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3369254/…)
• (01:04:23) OpenAI still doesn't seem to have a handle on all of its rogue AI activity | TechCrunch (techcrunch.com/2026/09/28/openai-still-doesnt-…)
• (01:08:05) OpenAI Ignored Employees’ Warnings About Safely Testing A.I. Models - The New York Times (nytimes.com/2026/09/29/technology/openai-warni…)
• (01:10:53) GPT-6 Astra performs unsanctioned supply-chain attacks in simulations (aisi.gov.uk/blog/gpt-6-astra-performs-unsancti…)
• (01:14:03) GLM-5.3 and the spread of advanced cyber capabilities Anthropic (anthropic.com/research/glm-5-3-and-the-spread-…)

• Research & Advancements
• (01:16:29) The Last AI Built by Humans: Toward Genuine Recursive Self-Improvement (arxiv.org/abs/2609.11873)
• (01:20:19) Dream-RSI: Recursive Self-Improvement through Evolving Worlds (arxiv.org/abs/2609.14858)

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