The European Parliament has barred lawmakers from using built-in AI tools on their work devices, citing cybersecurity and privacy concerns, while in the tech world, Anthropic released a new version of its Sonnet model, Mistral AI acquired Koyeb, and SpaceX veterans secured $50 million in Series A funding for data center links. These developments highlight the rapid evolution of AI and the infrastructure supporting it.
According to an email seen by Politico, the Parliament's IT department stated it could not guarantee the security of data uploaded to AI companies' servers. The email further noted that the full extent of information shared with AI companies was still being assessed, concluding that "it is considered safer to keep such features disabled." This decision affects AI chatbots like Anthropic's Claude, Microsoft's Copilot, and OpenAI's ChatGPT, as uploading data to these platforms could expose user information to U.S. authorities.
Meanwhile, Anthropic unveiled Sonnet 4.6, the latest iteration of its mid-size model, continuing its four-month update cycle. This new version, which will be the default for Free and Pro plan users, boasts improvements in coding, instruction-following, and computer use. The beta release of Sonnet 4.6 includes a context window of 1 million tokens, twice the size of the previous largest window for Sonnet, allowing it to hold entire codebases, lengthy contracts, or numerous research papers in a single request, according to TechCrunch. This launch follows the recent release of Opus 4.6 and anticipates an updated Haiku model in the coming weeks.
In other news, Mistral AI, valued at $13.8 billion, made its first acquisition, purchasing Koyeb, a Paris-based startup specializing in simplifying AI app deployment and managing its infrastructure. This move signals Mistral's ambition to become a full-stack player, accelerating its AI cloud infrastructure offering, Mistral Compute, which was announced in June 2023. Koyeb, founded in 2020 by former Scaleway employees, focuses on serverless computing, a concept that has gained traction as AI demands increase.
Furthermore, a group of SpaceX veterans secured $50 million in Series A funding for Mesh Optical Technologies, a Los Angeles startup. The company, founded by Travis Brashears, Cameron Ramos, and Serena Grown-Haeberli, aims to mass-produce optical transceivers. These devices convert optical signals into electrical signals for computers, a critical component for data centers. The founders recognized the market's limitations while designing a new generation of compute-hungry SpaceX satellites.
The increasing demand for AI infrastructure is also impacting memory chip prices. According to TechCrunch, the cost of DRAM chips has jumped approximately sevenfold in the last year. This surge underscores the growing importance of memory in AI infrastructure. As companies like Anthropic and Mistral AI continue to innovate, the need for robust and secure infrastructure will only intensify.
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