Exploring the Fable 5 ban, SpaceX’s strategic acquisition, and a burst of open source advancements
Note from Last Week in AI (Andrey): I’m back! And i’m sorry for putting the substack on a silent pause, work got a bit too overwhelming so I fell behind on this. I’ll do my best to resume normal posting, starting with catching up on podcast episodes missing from here (which are not last week… but I guess I should post them still, sorry for the spam!)
I’ve also paused paid subscriptions until I can get back to consistent posting. Apologies for the flakiness, and thanks for being a subscriber!
Our 249th episode with a summary and discussion of last week’s big AI news!
Recorded on 06/17/2026
Note: work has kept me from publishing episodes promptly, apologies! I’ll get back on schedule soon.
Hosted by Andrey Kurenkov and Jeremie Harris
Feel free to email us your questions and feedback at andreyvkurenkov@gmail.com and/or hello@gladstone.ai
In this episode:
Anthropic cut off access to Fable 5 and Mythos 5 after a US government order tied to alleged jailbreaks, prompting debate over inconsistent policy, export controls, and the practicality of preventing jailbreaks.
SpaceX completed an IPO at a roughly $1.75T valuation and then moved to acquire AI coding startup Cursor for $60B, positioning xAI with Cursor’s talent, data, and product to compete more effectively in coding.
Infrastructure and business updates include Anthropic pursuing direct US data center leases backed by Google, leaked documents showing OpenAI’s revenue growth alongside large losses, and chatbot market share shifting with ChatGPT below 50% as Gemini and Claude gain.
Projects and policy highlights include OpenRouter’s Fusion multi-model synthesis, new open releases from Moonshot, Qwen, and NVIDIA, DOJ support for xAI’s unpermitted gas turbines in Memphis, and a Munich court ruling Google liable for false AI Overview statements.
Timestamps (note - these don’t take into account dynamically inserted ads and therefore may be off by a couple of minutes):
(00:00:10) Intro / Banter
(00:03:38) Ad break + news preview
Tools & Apps
(00:04:52) Anthropic cuts off Fable 5 and Mythos 5 access following government order | The Verge + All the news about Anthropic’s new AI fight with the White House
(00:25:53) Facebook’s new AI Mode search gets its info from public posts | The Verge
Applications & Business
(00:27:00) SpaceX to acquire the AI coding startup Cursor for $60 billion
(00:40:10) Leaked financial docs show OpenAI is losing billions of dollars a year - Ars Technica
(00:46:00) ChatGPT’s market share slips below 50% for first time | TechCrunch
(00:50:34) ‘Tell Him He’s a Piece of Shit’: Meta’s New AI Unit Is a Total Mess | WIRED
Projects & Open Source
(00:59:36) Surpassing Frontier Performance with Fusion — OpenRouter Blog
(01:17:31) ProCUA-SFT Technical Report
Policy & Safety
(01:20:33) DOJ Lawyers Argue xAI Is ‘Vital’ for National Security in NAACP Lawsuit | WIRED + People Living Near xAI’s Dirty Data Centers Are Pissed About the SpaceX IPO
(01:25:29) A Court Has Ruled That Google Is Liable for False Statements Generated by AI Overviews | WIRED
(01:28:47) Why Do Naive SFT Filters For Safety Properties Fail?
Research & Advancements
(01:34:14) From AGI to ASI
(01:39:44) Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index v4.1: a shift toward agentic workloads
(01:42:12) SIA: Self Improving AI with Harness & Weight Updates