AI
For the first time in two years, a frontier model arrives more expensive
GPT-5.5 shipped with double the per-token price, inverting the downward trend that held since 2024.
For the first time in two years, a frontier model arrived more expensive
GPT-5.5 shipped with double the per-token price and 40% lower consumption. The same month, a model found flaws in Firefox and the Linux kernel that decades of auditing missed.
Security
A model finds flaws in Firefox and the Linux kernel that human testing missed
The company announced and restricted access on the same day, limiting use to a few organisations.
From the studio
The phase where nobody had to choose is over
For two years, each model generation arrived more capable and cheaper than the last, and that created a planning habit: an application unviable today would become viable next year, with no engineering effort.
April broke that premise. A frontier launch arrived with double the per-token price, the first increase in two years, justified by 40% lower consumption for the same task. The arithmetic may still balance, but it stopped balancing on its own.
The same month, a model found vulnerabilities in Firefox, the Linux kernel and OpenBSD, projects audited for decades, and the company restricted access on announcement day. And the annual index recorded AI data centres drawing the equivalent of an entire US state's electrical peak.
All three facts point to the same turn: each gain now carries a visible trade-off in cost, in risk or in dependency. For small operations, the consequence is good and laborious: measuring your own spend, using smaller models where they suffice, and having a tested plan B started paying again.
In this issue
Hardware
AI data centres consume the equivalent of a US state's peak demand
The annual index puts global draw at 29.6 gigawatts, with nearly every leading chip coming from one country.
Business
A $20 billion chip purchase comes with an equity stake attached
The arrangement repeats the pattern that would become common: buy capacity and buy part of the manufacturer.
AI
The model consumes 40% fewer tokens for the same work
The efficiency gain is what sustains a price increase without driving customers away.
AI
Six weeks between one generation and the next
The short interval changed what planning a product on someone else's model means.
Regulation
Nobel laureate compares AI to a fast car with no steering wheel at a UN conference
The argument is that capability is outpacing the governance meant to accompany it.
Regulation
State criminal investigation into a chatbot's role in a serious case
The inquiry changes the type of legal risk model companies face.
Hardware
A model co-designed with the newest accelerator generation
Designing model and hardware together left the lab and entered commercial launches.
Security
Restricted access programmes become the standard format for sensitive capability
Two frontier companies adopted the same design under different names within weeks.
Business
Buying chips with equity attached becomes a repeated arrangement
The format appears across different deals and changes how a manufacturer's sales figures read.
AI
Benchmark numbers come with comparisons chosen by whoever launches
The launch material listed its own results beside lower numbers for competitors.
Work
Rising prices change the arithmetic for anyone with a closed spreadsheet
Budgets built on continuous price decline stopped adding up in April.
Hardware
The electrical grid became the sector's limit on expansion
A 29.6 gigawatt draw explains why capacity contracts began being negotiated in power.
Security
Finding flaws in decades-audited projects changes the yardstick
Firefox, the Linux kernel and OpenBSD undergo intense review and still had something to find.
Business
The month prices stopped falling and the security yardstick rose
A pricier model, capability finding flaws nobody found, and power draw equal to a whole state.
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