Chinese AI startup MiniMax has disrupted the artificial intelligence industry with the release of its new M2.5 language model, offering near state-of-the-art performance at a fraction of the cost of competitors like Claude Opus 4.6. The Shanghai-based company's open-source model, available in two variants, is priced significantly lower, potentially changing the landscape of high-end AI accessibility, according to VentureBeat.
The M2.5 model, released on Hugging Face under a modified MIT License, requires commercial users to prominently display "MiniMax M2.5" on their user interface. Despite this requirement, the model's affordability, both through its own API and those of its partners, is a key selling point. "Using the world's most powerful AI was like hiring an expensive," wrote Carl Franzen of VentureBeat.
In other news, the rapid deployment of the open-source AI agent OpenClaw has raised security concerns. According to VentureBeat, the agent, which allows shell access and file system privileges, has seen a surge in deployments, with Censys tracking its presence from roughly 1,000 instances to over 21,000 publicly exposed deployments in under a week. Bitdefender's GravityZone telemetry confirmed that employees were deploying OpenClaw on corporate machines using single-line install commands, potentially granting access to sensitive data and applications like Slack, Gmail, and SharePoint. A one-click remote code execution flaw, CVE-2026-25253, rated CVSS 8.8, allows attackers to steal authentication tokens and achieve full gateway compromise.
Meanwhile, in the realm of personal finance, individuals seeking to file their taxes have options. One such option is H&R Block's DIY tax service. The service is designed to help users navigate the complexities of tax filing, as one user found when filing taxes with multiple sources of income and tax documents.
Finally, the concept of AI agents is also being applied to team collaboration. Research suggests that the ideal size for productive real-time conversations is only about 4 to 7 people. As groups grow larger, each person has less opportunity to speak, increasing their frustration, according to Louis Rosenberg of Unanimous A.I., writing in VentureBeat.
Discussion
AI Experts & Community
Be the first to comment