Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? It’s a long one today. Read on for all the answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: Coffee choice before bed
Answer: DECAF

6A clue: Recurring bug?
Answer: CICADA

7A clue: California’s most valuable crop, just barely edging out grapes
Answer: ALMONDS

8A clue: Fist pound
Answer: DAP

9A clue: Back of a soccer goal
Answer: NET

10A clue: Carefully thought (over)
Answer: MULLED

12A clue: Brain sparks
Answer: IDEAS

13A clue: Something that might end after “Pencils down!”
Answer: TEST

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Indentations at the end of a smile
Answer: DIMPLES

2D clue: Green: Prefix
Answer: ECO

3D clue: Film festival with the Palme d’Or
Answer: CANNES

4D clue: No ___ sugar (product claim)
Answer: ADDED

5D clue: Speedy
Answer: FAST

6D clue: Anthropic’s A.I. assistant
Answer: CLAUDE

7D clue: Own up to
Answer: ADMIT

11D clue: Back muscle, for short
Answer: LAT

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CNET editor Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, a journalist and pop-culture junkie, is co-author of “Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the ’70s and ’80s,” as well as “The Totally Sweet ’90s.” She’s been a journalist since 1989, working at Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, Twin Cities Sidewalk, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and NBC News Digital. She’s Gen X in birthdate, word and deed. If Marathon candy bars ever come back, she’ll be first in line.

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Inkling-Small matches or exceeds Inkling on reasoning and agentic tasks, the company said.

Nvidia-backed Thinking Machines Lab has unveiled a new open-weights model that performs “comparabl[y]” to Inkling, but at one-quarter of its size.

The company launched its first AI model Inkling earlier this month following a mega partnership with Nvidia that gave Thinking Machines access to GB300 NVL72 systems for training. The chipmaker also made a significant investment into the AI company.

Inkling-Small comes in at 276bn total parameters, with 12bn active. Compared to its bigger predecessor, the new model achieves similar performance with much less compute, said Thinking Machines. It matches or exceeds Inkling on reasoning and agentic tasks, the company added.

Artificial Analysis scores Inkling-Small 40pc on the Intelligence Index, placing it “well above average” relative to other comparable models. Inkling hits 41pc while DeepSeek V4 Flash matches Inkling-Small at 40pc. At 93 tokens per second, the model is also faster than the average, according to the benchmark.

On Humanity’s Last Exam, the new model scored above 31pc, ahead of Inkling’s 29.7pc, and on SWEBench-Verified, it crossed 80pc. The model takes text, image, and audio inputs, and outputs text.

Thinking Machines said that Inkling-Small, much like Inkling, is suited for real-world applications such as cropping, zooming and programmatic image inspection, improving usability on documents and charts where information could be difficult to read directly.

“Inkling-Small was made in pursuit of our mission to build AI that extends human will and judgement,” the company said. “Tinker customers have seen first-hand that the right fine-tuned model can outperform closed models on a variety of tasks, and do so faster and cheaper.”

The Mira Murati-led company is focused on creating highly customisable AI systems, according to its website.

Inkling is designed to be broad, the company explained at the time of its launch. “We trained it across agentic, reasoning, coding, instruction-following, factuality, vision and audio tasks, rather than narrowly optimising for one domain,” it said earlier this month.

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Online advertising firm Adform suffered a supply-chain attack that delivered cryptocurrency-stealing scripts to websites using its ad platform, replacing wallet addresses copied to visitors’ clipboards with ones controlled by an attacker.

Adform is one of Europe’s largest adtech firms, providing a full-stack platform that includes Demand-Side Platform (DSP), Supply-Side Platform (SSP), ad servers, and management tools.

Security researcher Kevin Beaumont discovered the malicious activity, saying that it stemmed from ‘trackpoint-async.js,’ Adform’s JavaScript tracking script served from ‘s2.adform.net’ and embedded in every website using the advertising platform.

According to the researcher, the trojanized JavaScript continuously monitors the clipboard of users visiting websites that embed trackpoint-async.js.

If the script detected Bitcoin, Ethereum, or TRON wallet addresses, it replaced them with an attacker-controlled address to redirect cryptocurrency payments.

“This allows end-user devices of downstream websites to be compromised with crypto-stealing malware. Meaning if you visit example.com and they use Adform, example.com will compromise your device,” Beaumont explains.

The researcher also observed other malicious Adform-hosted scripts communicating with an attacker-controlled server at 84.32.102[.]230:7744, sending the victim’s IP address, referring website, and URL path.

Running the script through the VirusTotal scanning platform shows that it is not flagged as malicious by any of the available antivirus engines.

Current status

Beaumont notes that the malicious code was removed from Adform’s tracking script soon after his discovery.

Adform confirmed its detected suspicious activity on July 27 and discovered a “cybersecurity threat.” The company said that it removed the malicious code and “took further measures to protect website visitors, our clients, and the Adform platform.”

“To our knowledge, the code was not designed to install software on a user’s device or establish persistence. It operated only while an affected webpage was open,” Adform says.

The company states that its services are now safe to use but its investigation continues.

Individuals who visited websites that embedded the “affected Adform technology on 27 July 2026” are impacted and the recommendation is to clear browser cookies to eliminate the malicious code.

“Adform has informed affected clients through dedicated communications and provided them with relevant information and recommended actions.” 

Beaumont has shared a sample of the malicious script via Pastebin for security engineers to analyze.

BleepingComputer’s analysis of a sample stored on Archive.org also confirmed that a self-executing payload had been injected into the Adform tracking library served from the company’s infrastructure.

The malicious code was appended in obfuscated form at the end of the legitimate library and included a function that replaced any string matching a crypto wallet address format.

Apart from hijacking clipboard content, the malware can also rewrite wallet addresses on web pages. This way, if a payment address is displayed, it would be the attacker’s.

Beaumont says the malicious activity delivered through Adform has been ongoing for the past week without being detected. The oldest sample BleepingComputer could find was from from the Archive.org snapshot on July 26, taken at 23:29:03 GMT.

BleepingComputer has contacted Adform to request a statement regarding Beaumont’s findings and will update the story if we receive a response.

Security teams log 54% of successful attacks and alert on just 14%. The rest move through your environment unseen.

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Australian creator Jazza and the team at Lumin’s Workshop decided a regular gaming die was far too small. They set out to make a twenty-sided die big enough to claim the title of largest dice of any kind, and one that could still tumble and settle on a single face.

The concept began to take shape as the groups collaborated on the huge roach costume project. Discussions at that first meeting kept returning to the concept of scaling up a D20, which they had previously investigated, but this time they wanted to go even bigger to be able to roll it properly. John took on the interior framework, and because a conventional icosahedron has 12 vertices, they created 12 corner pieces to construct those points and 3D printed them. Solid aluminum bars were then screwed along every single outer edge to provide the necessary bracing to keep the design straight even when standing alone. Before ultimately locking everything in, they completed a dry fit with the entire frame, which had to be perfect for the faces to line up properly; a single tiny shift and the whole thing was off.

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Twenty faces followed, each starting as a 1.5-meter equilateral triangle. They’d sourced sheets of 20mm foam, and a custom jig helped cut the precise angles required to ensure the edges met perfectly when assembled. Because the foam was fairly thick, they had considered it into their estimations from the start, and layers were stiffened using contact cement to prevent flex. To avoid any gaps, we added extra foam strips to the outer frame bars.

The color and finish came next, with deep red paint applied in multiple coats because the foam soaked up so much of the first layer. We also needed to get the details right, so the edge details and rivet-style accents were painted with a yellow ochre base and then a metallic gold applied with a sponge for texture. Darker shading on the edges to give it an aged appearance, as well as some purposeful cracks to make it look like old stone or marble rather than plain foam, gave the finished die a strong presence.

With the die eventually completed, they required a trailer to transport it out of the factory, so they took it to Lumin’s factory in Campbellfield, outside of Melbourne, for some real-world testing. A trailer was required to haul the beast about, and lifting it and sending it tumbling down a slope resulted in some quite pleasant rolls that fell on various numbers, including one of those ultra-rare twentys when Jazza and a workshop mate assisted. The die is now housed inside the shop as both a display item and an office mascot.
[Source]

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle is a fun one, covering a wide variety of sports. If you’re struggling with the puzzle but still want to solve it, read on for hints and the answers.

Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Yellow group hint: Fore!

Green group hint: Football games.

Blue group hint: College competitors.

Purple group hint: Not shoes.

Answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Yellow group: Golf clubs.

Green group: Can precede “Bowl,” in NFL context.

Blue group: An Atlantic 10 athlete.

Purple group: ____ Sox.

What are today’s Connections: Sports Edition answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is golf clubs.

The four answers are driver, hybrid, iron and putter.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is can precede “Bowl,” in NFL context.

The four answers are fog, ice, pro and Super.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is an Atlantic 10 athlete.

The four answers are Billiken, Flyer, Rambler and Spider.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is ____ Sox.

The four answers are Aqua, White, Red and Woo.

CNET editor Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, a journalist and pop-culture junkie, is co-author of “Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the ’70s and ’80s,” as well as “The Totally Sweet ’90s.” She’s been a journalist since 1989, working at Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, Twin Cities Sidewalk, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and NBC News Digital. She’s Gen X in birthdate, word and deed. If Marathon candy bars ever come back, she’ll be first in line.

See full bio

Expect to save over $600 on the hottest models, including $250 off monitors, for crisp and clear gaming (or writing), 40% off laptops, and up to $1,200 off desktops for true gamers. We’ve rounded up the top Dell coupon codes and discounts so you can save big on pricey tech.

Get 10% Off With Top Dell Coupon Codes

If you haven’t bought from Dell, right now you can get seriously rewarded for switching. Right now, new customers can get 10% off Dell products when you sign up for their email newsletter. Plus, you’ll get additional perks like exclusive offers in your inbox and invites to special sale events, including flash discounts during seasonal sales. Plus, right now you can use Dell promo code AFFBUNDLE10 to get an extra 10% off when you bundle select PCs with accessories. And, save your tech refresh with clearance sale discounts and Dell promo codes today.

20% Off With This Dell Coupon: Dell 14 Premium

As mentioned, one of the best ways to save big on tech purchases is by buying a certified refurbished Dell laptop through the Dell Outlet. The Dell outlet has tons of like-new tech for hundreds less than if bought brand new. You can get top tech like the Dell 14 Premium for $1,036 when bought refurbished—that’s $259 in savings! With this powerful laptop, you’ll have built-in Intel Arc 140T Graphics and FHD RGB + IR Camera and Microphone, among other perks. Be sure to check out the Dell Outlet for tons of Dell tech for hundreds less.

Get $520 Off the Dell 14 Plus

The Dell 14 Plus served as Dell’s rebranding launch, and when we reviewed the laptop, we appreciated its fast performance, great battery life, solid IPS display, comfortable keyboard and touchpad. With this Dell 14 Plus offer, you get the laptop for only $860 if you have a valid college email address that’s been verified. You’ll get the Intel Core Ultra 7 256V with eight core processing, Windows 11 Home operating system, Intel® Arc Graphics, 16 GB of memory, and 1 TB of SSD storage.

Save $450 With Dell Coupons for Laptops, Alienware Monitors, and More

Been wanting to upgrade your WFH or gaming setup? Dell has marked down some of their most popular laptops and monitors during their holiday and tech refresh sale events. There are stellar deals like $400 off the Alienware 16X Aurora (one of the best gaming laptops we’ve seen of its kind), and $450 off the Alienware 18 Area-51. Complete your gaming experience with an Alienware Area-51 desktop for $1,200 off, which includes 50% more processing power. Some other great Dell monitor deals we’ve found include the ability for Rewards members to earn up to 3 times the amount of points (or 9% back) on select Alienware monitors. Plus, you can save $100 on the Alienware 4K QD-OLED gaming monitor, or $120 on the Alienware 27 Gaming monitor, right now. And you can also get 30% off the Dell 24-inch monitor when you purchase any laptop or desktop computer.

We’ve also found steep discounts on some of our favorite WIRED-tested gear, including $160 off the Bose Quiet Comfort headphones (now only $199), and $350 off the Dell 14 Plus Laptop.

The deals don’t stop there though, with discounts on Dell’s best-selling laptops and PCs, including: $200 off the Dell 15 laptop, $500 off the Dell 16 Plus laptop, and 50% off software when you purchase a PC. Whether you want to work-from-home or game-from-home more effectively, check out the latest offers in the Dell deals hub.

Dell has rotating best deals of the week too, like their best-selling monitors, which include Dell 27 Plus 4K monitors (starting at $129), $400 off QD-OLED gaming monitors like the popular Alienware 34 Curved model, plus $350 off Alienware Aurora gaming desktops and $200 off Tower Plus desktop computers.

10% Dell Coupon for Students, Military Members, and Medical Workers

Students, it’s the worst time of your life, you might as well save a little money. Just kidding, life only gets harder from here. Kidding. Again. Maybe. What is not a joke is this deal. Dell is giving students a 10% discount on things students need like Dell XPS laptops and Alienware gaming rigs. No need to say anything about gaming. It’s for your eyes, because they’re starting to bleed from all the term papers.

To the discount, first, make sure you have a Dell account and that the Dell Rewards box is checked. Once you’re enrolled in both, verify your .edu email address through the membership tab of your account. Not a student? No problem, Dell still has some great deals for your computing needs. Beyond students, Dell offers an extra 5% off Heroes discount for military members, veterans, employees, rewards members, and businesses. Verify through GovX or VCS in a matter of minutes to get exclusive pricing and early access to sale events.

Don’t Miss Dell’s Ultimate College Offer

Getting prepared for college is the most exciting, sometimes stressful, and often one of the most expensive times in a person’s life. With Dell’s Ultimate College Offers, students can save an extra 10% and get the Microsoft College Offer for free on select PCs—this includes a year of Microsoft 365, Xbox Game Pass, and a customizable Xbox controller, because Dell knows that although you work hard, you need to play a little too. This is over $500 worth of products, for free, with this limited-time Dell discount offer.

Exclusive Discount for Seniors at Dell

Dell wants to make their valuable tech more accessible to seniors by providing Dell discounts for seniors. Once you become a verified senior, you’ll be eligible for special Dell savings on laptops and computing tech. First, create a Dell account, then register as a Dell Rewards member. Once you verify your senior status, exclusive Dell senior savings will be reflected in the cart!

Get 6% Back With Dell Rewards Coupons and Financing Offers

Don’t forget that, in addition to the Dell coupons available, there are also limited-time discounts for Dell Rewards program members. Rewards customers get double the points right now, or 6% back on almost everything. This means if you’re signed up with an email, you can get triple the discount, plus, 5% off select XPS and Dell Premium systems. If you open a Dell Pay Credit Account, you’ll earn $100 (or 10,000 points) in Dell Rewards dollars once you enroll in the Dell Rewards program.

Earn $50 Back With Dell Online Coupon

Becoming a Dell Rewards Member is one of the easiest ways you can save when shopping online at Dell. When you shop Dell.com as a member you’ll earn 3% back in rewards, which are usually added to your account within 30 days of your order’s ship date. Plus, you can monitor Rewards history, get exclusive member perks, deals, and member-only benefits with your rewards account. And perhaps best of all, right now Dell Rewards Members can earn an extra $50 back on any XPS PC (until July 1).

Always Get a Discount With Dell Price Matching

Unlike many companies, Dell’s Price Match Guarantee covers competitor prices and if a product drops on the Dell website. Best of all, their competitor price match policy is available before or after you buy. So, when you find an identical Dell, HP, Apple or Lenovo computer, you’ll just need to share the link with a Dell expert through chat or a phone call to get that lower price. If you’ve already purchased the item, but find the product on Dell’s or a competitor’s site within 30 days, share the link through the Order Support portal and you’ll be refunded the difference.

Shop Our Favorite Dell Laptops for Your Gaming or Office Upgrade

Dell’s XPS laptops are the perfect addition to your tech setup. They’re lightweight, small, and plenty speedy. They’re Windows’ rough answer to Apple’s Macbook Pro line. The XPS 13 and upgraded Dell 14 Premium are some of our favorite laptops. Check out the featured laptop offers above to save up to $600, complete with free 2-day shipping and AI-driven PC options powered by Microsoft Copilot technology. If you’re a gamer, you probably already know that Dell makes Alienware, and the Dell Alienware m16 R2 is a powerful gaming machine masquerading as your next work laptop. It’s one of our favorite dual-use gaming rigs, making it perfect for students.

Join Dell’s Business Partnership Program for More Savings

The Dell Business Partnerships program is ideal for small business owners, with exclusive access to business-only tech savings. When enrolled in this valuable service, you’ll get exclusive member-only discounts, IT help, and exclusive access to Dell business tech advisors to help you navigate through any business tech issues. Plus, you’ll get extra savings when enrolled with Dell Rewards, automatic savings that are applied at checkout, and tons of membership benefits like discounts and guided help. To enroll in Dell’s Business Partnership program, you’ll need to get your Dell Membership passcode, sign in or create your account and enroll in Dell Rewards. Once that’s done, you’ll just need to validate your membership passcode, and your discount will be applied automatically in your cart.

Two weeks ago the same project could only push a handful of PlayStation 5 titles past their loading screens. Today a free, open-source emulator called Kyty is running fully 3D commercial games on ordinary Windows PCs with player control and frame rates that actually feel usable.

XIII, a 2020 cell-shaded version of a classic first-person shooter, is an excellent example. The PS5 Emulation community’s footage demonstrates that the game is truly starting to come together, with frame rates ranging from 20 to 30. You can walk about, shoot objects, and look up and down, and even if the floor and skyboxes are missing in some spots, the textures break, and the lighting goes all goofy, the game is still playable. To be fair, it has never actually been playable outside of official hardware.

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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Wrath of the Mutants isn’t far behind, as after a slight wobble at launch, it settles into a fairly consistent 22 to 24 frames per second, with crisper character models and settings than XIII. The movement is still choppy, but you can play as the turtles bashing the bad enemies without the entire scene disintegrating into chaos. Both of these results are quite remarkable, coming as they did within a 48-hour period at the end of July. That speed is significant, as Kyty has previously managed menus and short video clips for games such as Grand Theft Auto V and Quake II Remastered, but it has only lately been able to get in-game control to function reliably on two separate 3D engines. This has put it well ahead of its primary competitor, SharpEmu, at least in terms of what they are presenting publicly. SharpEmu has its job cut out just getting some of the deeper rendering and synchronization issues resolved before they can reach the same point, and they won’t get there anytime soon based on the current demos.

It’s easy to see why this is happening, given that Sony has discontinued physical CDs and Grand Theft Auto VI still has no release date on PC, much alone a release date at all. The emulation community has seized the opportunity and is working tirelessly to close the gap. Kyty is developed in C++, and the developers refer to it as a compatibility layer rather than a full-fledged reimplementation from the ground up. It can already handle a combination of Unreal, Unity, and bespoke engines without the need for any specific hardware modules.

All of this is still very much a work in progress, as you can notice graphical errors from a mile away, the frame rate drops like a stone when you hit a difficult scenario, and some games are still only running at one or two frames. To complicate matters further, it requires a legal dump of the game you own to function (even though you probably already have one laying around). Also, keep in mind that this is still very early days, and each new build released can change behavior overnight. What is evident is that the community is accustomed to sharing short video and demonstrating their growth, which is becoming increasingly visible week after week.

What sticks out is the simplicity of the hardware requirements. None of the videos discuss the necessity for costly equipment or a unique setup. You only have a standard gaming PC, which could be one of the reasons this community is developing so quickly. Anyone can download the most recent code from GitHub, attach it to a game folder, and return a log file. Each report assists the team in determining what is causing the next set of visuals to disappear or skyboxes to fail.
[Source]

The Arch Linux project has temporarily disabled adoption of Arch User Repository (AUR) packages after a surge in malicious takeovers of existing packages.

The decision was announced on the distribution’s mailing list by contributor Robin Candau, who said that the situation is temporary until a solution is found.

“Due to the current influx of malicious package adoptions and follow-up commits made via the AUR, package adoption is currently disabled while we are handling the situation,” announced Candau.

“We will send a follow-up once we’re able to. In the meantime, feel free to report suspicious adoption events or commits that haven’t been dealt with yet, and stay vigilant!”

Independent Federated Intelligence Network (IFIN) conducted a technical analysis of the malware and reported that the campaign began on July 29 with the package ‘openconnect-sso.’

IFIN reports that the campaign bears many similarities to the last campaign, including the use of the Tor network for staging.

In June, a separate campaign hit AUR via more than 400 packages, distributing a Linux rootkit and info-stealer malware to unsuspecting users.

In the latest attack, the researchers identified a two-stage infection, with the first stage acting as the loader, and the second one being a Linux x86_64 payload described as stealer malware with remote administration (RAT) and SSH worm features.

Further analysis showed that the first-stage loader evades detection by checking for debuggers, sandboxes, virtual machines, and CI/CD environments before installing systemd services and cron jobs to ensure persistence.

It then downloads and launches a Tor client disguised as dbus-daemon to retrieve the second-stage payload from an ‘.onion’ server.

The second stage is a Rust-based infostealer that targets browser credentials, cryptocurrency wallets, password manager data, cloud and developer secrets, AI service API keys, SSH keys, and messaging platform tokens.

It also provides the attacker with remote command execution over an encrypted Tor channel and can spread laterally by using stolen SSH keys to copy and execute itself on other systems.

A Reddit user tracking the campaign alleges that it has expanded to over 200 AUR packages, either through compromised maintainer accounts or by adopting orphaned packages.

According to the same researcher, the campaign has spread to fairly popular AUR packages such as boringssl-git, icloudpd, windscribe-cli-v2-bin, stirling-pdf-desktop-bin, openconnect-sso, arduino-language-server-noclang-bin, and pgadmin4-server.

The compromised status of these packages has not been independently confirmed, and a list of all 200 AUR packages believed to be malicious has not been made available as of publication.

Security teams log 54% of successful attacks and alert on just 14%. The rest move through your environment unseen.

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One company’s inventive campaign for an unreleased product has become a contest between Anthropic and OpenAI to see which can shout the loudest about its own failures.

Readers who tuned in earlier today saw the latest episode in the drama – or sitcom – as Anthropic tried to outdo OpenAI’s appropriation of the Mythos marketing playbook and made itself the punchline.

Since first teasing Mythos in April, Anthropic has marketed the model through fear – declaring its cybersecurity models too dangerous for public release and offering access only to a select few trusted organizations via Project Glasswing.

To its credit, the strategy has paid off. Anthropic has closely associated the Mythos name with cybersecurity, which may explain why OpenAI appeared to borrow its competitor’s proven PR strategy last week.

OpenAI agents exploited a zero-day to escape their sandbox, leading to the autonomous cyberattack on Hugging Face. The episode duly secured sensational headlines playing on the long-held fear that AI will one day go rogue and take over the world.

Anthropic responded this week by lathering on even more clown makeup, squandering an opportunity in the process.

The Claude maker sent its models into a testing environment to capture a flag. Their prompts said they had no internet access, but because of what Anthropic called “a misunderstanding” with evaluation partner Irregular, the connection was live.

Anthropic’s models then followed OpenAI’s script: they reached the public internet and attacked systems belonging to outside organizations. This time, three were affected rather than one, the company admitted.

In one scenario, Mythos 5 persuaded developers to download a poisoned PyPI package. It was installed on 15 machines, including one at a cybersecurity company that routinely scans such packages for malware.

In Anthropic’s words: “When that company’s scanner installed the package, Claude’s hidden code executed. We believe the company’s security scanner treated PyPI packages as safe to install, and as a result, Claude was able to exfiltrate the company’s credentials to a collection point it had set up. Claude then used these credentials to access further infrastructure from this company.”

Worse still, the first of the three incidents occurred in April. Anthropic discovered them only months later, during a retrospective manual review prompted by OpenAI’s disclosure. Had it not gone looking, they might never have been discovered, let alone disclosed.

There are some caveats. Opus 4.7, the oldest model tested, attacked production systems despite apparently recognizing what it was doing. Mythos 5 recognized that accessing the internet violated its instructions, then reasoned its way into continuing anyway. It was also responsible for publishing the poisoned PyPI package.

Only an unnamed research model stopped itself from attacking external organizations.

Anthropic also said the models were not running with the production safeguards and monitoring that would normally surround a deployment. Most damningly, Anthropic ran Mythos 5 – the model it had deemed too dangerous for public release – without safeguards in an environment that unexpectedly had internet access.

Following OpenAI’s admission that it failed so badly in its responsibility to control its technology, Anthropic could have easily spun the story in its favor.

You don’t have to be fictional tapdancing political PR antihero Malcolm Tucker to see how Anthropic could have used the episode to make its case as the safer, more trustworthy AI company.

Instead, realizing its own marketing playbook was being used to help a competitor, it went head-to-head with OpenAI, willingly admitted that it made similar sandbox-based blunders, and disclosed that the results were even more calamitous. Three companies hacked, not just one.

So, while the AI biz has attempted to eclipse OpenAI’s “rogue agent” story with its own, what’s left behind is a new reputation for irresponsible handling of technology.

Failed superheroes

The incident does not instill a great deal of trust in either Anthropic or OpenAi to safeguard the world from its AI.

Dr Ilia Kolochenko, founder of ImmuniWeb and practising cybersecurity and data protection lawyer, likened the two companies to failed superheroes.

“While making conclusions would be a bit premature at this point in time, the incidents certainly do not increase confidence in the AI vendor’s ability to safely deploy AI, let alone to assure their customers that the so-called frontier models are safe to use,” he told The Register. 

“It is akin to hiring a superhero to protect you but being afraid that the superhero may suddenly go rogue and kill you and your family. Nobody needs such a superhero.”

Likewise, security pro Jake Williams, VP at HunterStrategy and IANS faculty member, said: “I’m not going to mince words: the major AI labs are negligent in protecting the public from their agents. 

“We need government regulation now or at the very least a private cause of action with guaranteed punitive damages for agents damaging others.”

By trying to reclaim a marketing trope that served it well, Anthropic has invited scrutiny of its own safety record and accusations that it is chasing attention above all else.

Other experts we spoke to shared the concern that both companies are mishandling their agents, with potentially greater consequences as the systems become more capable.

The common thread is recklessness, which Anthropic and OpenAI seem oddly eager to advertise. ®