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In this newsletter:
- Anthropic releases Claude Sonnet 4.6, which controls your computer like a human
- Google releases a smarter 3.1 Pro model and adds AI music generation to the Gemini app
- WordPress launches AI assistant that edits sites through text prompts
Plus, you’ll find new AI tools and this week’s top AI news headlines!
🤖 Anthropic Releases Claude Sonnet 4.6, Which Controls Your Computer Like a Human
Anthropic upgraded Claude Sonnet 4.6 to give free and Pro users access to capabilities that previously required expensive Opus-level models for tasks like navigating spreadsheets and filling multi-step web forms.
What's new:
- Claude Sonnet 4.6 is now the default model for Free and Pro plans on Claude AI and Claude Cowork
- Pricing unchanged from Sonnet 4.5 at $3/$15 per million tokens
- 1 million token context window in beta holds entire codebases, lengthy contracts, or dozens of research papers
- Performance that previously required an Opus-class model is now available with Sonnet 4.6
- Developers with early access prefer Sonnet 4.6 to its predecessor by a wide margin, often even prefer it to Claude Opus 4.5 from November 2025
- Major improvement in computer use skills compared to prior Sonnet models
- OSWorld benchmark shows sixteen months of steady gains - model can navigate complex spreadsheets, fill out multi-step web forms, pull information together across multiple browser tabs
- Improved resistance to prompt injection attacks compared to Sonnet 4.5, performs similarly to Opus 4.6
How people are using it:
- More effectively reads context before modifying code, consolidates shared logic rather than duplicating it
- Less frustrating to use over long sessions than earlier models
- Users preferred Sonnet 4.6 to Opus 4.5 59% of the time, rating it significantly less prone to overengineering and "laziness."
- Better at instruction following with fewer false claims of success, fewer hallucinations, and more consistent follow-through on multi-step tasks
- Visual outputsare notably more polished with better layouts, animations, and design sensibility
- Fewer rounds of iteration are needed to reach production-quality results
API and platform updates:
- Supports adaptive thinking and extended thinking
- Context compaction in beta automatically summarizes older context as conversations approach limits
- Claude's web search and fetch tools now automatically write and execute code to filter and process search results
- Code execution, memory, programmatic tool calling, tool search, and tool use examples are now generally available
- Claude in Excel add-in now supports MCP connectors for S&P Global, LSEG, Daloopa, PitchBook, Moody's, and FactSet
- Free tier upgraded to Sonnet 4.6 by default with file creation, connectors, skills, and compaction included
Why it matters:
Anthropic is making AI that actually controls your computer available to everyone, not just paying customers. Organizations can finally automate specialized software built before modern interfaces existed without building custom connectors.
Free users get what Pro users had months ago, while Pro users get capabilities that previously required expensive Opus subscriptions.
👀 Read more about Claude Sonnet 4.6 upgrades!
🚀 Google Releases Smarter 3.1 Pro Model and Adds AI Music Generation to Gemini App
Google released Gemini 3.1 Pro with double the reasoning performance for complex problem-solving, and launched Lyria 3 music generation in the Gemini app that creates 30-second tracks with lyrics and cover art from text prompts.
Gemini 3.1 Pro upgrade:
- Designed for tasks where a simple answer isn't enough, with advanced reasoning for complex challenges
- Achieved 77.1% verified score on ARC-AGI-2 benchmark (evaluates solving entirely new logic patterns)
- More than double the reasoning performance of Gemini 3 Pro
- Generates website-ready animated SVGs directly from text prompts that remain crisp at any scale with small file sizes
- Rolling out to the Gemini app with higher limits for Google AI Pro and Ultra plans
- Available on NotebookLM exclusively for Pro and Ultra users
- Developers and enterprises can access via the Gemini API in AI Studio, Antigravity, Vertex AI, Gemini Enterprise, Gemini CLI, and Android Studio
- Released in preview to validate updates before general availability
Lyria 3 music generation:
- Available in the Gemini app for all 18+ users globally in beta
- Describe the song you want, and the app generates a 30-second track with lyrics and Nano Banana cover art
- Upload a photo or a video, and AI createsa song to match the mood of the media file
- Users can change and control style, vocals, and tempo
- If you add the artist's name to the prompt, Gemini creates a track in a similar style or mood without mimicking the artist outright
- All songs include SynthID watermark to identify AI-generated content
- Gemini can identify if the uploaded track is AI-generated
- Rolling out to YouTube creators globally through the Dream Track feature (previously US only)
- Supports English, German, Spanish, French, Hindi, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese
Why it matters:
Google is pushing smarter reasoning models to compete with ChatGPT's latest releases while simultaneously adding creative generation to catch up with OpenAI's Sora.
The dual launch shows Google attacking both technical reasoning and creative content at once, though AI-generated music faces lawsuits from the music industry over copyright training material, while platforms like Deezer mark AI music to curb fraudulent streams.
👀 Read more about Google AI upgrades!
💻 WordPress Launches AI Assistant That Edits Sites Through Text Prompts
WordPress rolled out an AI assistant built into the site editor and media library that lets users create pages, change fonts, generate images with Google's Nano Banana, and edit text by typing commands instead of clicking through menus.
What's new:
- Available on Business or Commerce plans at no extra cost starting Tuesday
- AI assistant appears in Editor, Media Library, and Block notes once enabled
- Works inside your site, understanding content and layout, no copy-pasting or code needed
- Sites built with the AI website builder have an assistant enabled automatically, regardless of plan
- Other users opt-in through Settings by toggling "AI tools."
In the Editor:
- Adjust layouts, styles, and patterns on posts and pages by talking
- Ask "Make this section feel more modern and spacious" or "Change my site colors to be brighter and bold"
- Request "Add a testimonials section below this section" or "Add a Contact page."
- Edit content with "Rewrite this to sound more confident" or "Translate this section into Spanish."
- Generate images with "Generate an image of a croissant for this blog post."
In Media Library:
- Create and edit images directly with the "Generate Image" button
- Uses the latest Nano Banana models without needing other subscriptions
- Generate new visuals or make targeted edits to existing images
- Specify aspect ratios and image styles for control over the final look
- Ask "Update this image to be black and white" or "Replace this stack of pancakes with a stack of waffles."
In Block notes:
- Tag AI assistant with "@ai" in block notes (feature from WordPress 6.9)
- Ask questions and get answers with your content as context, including relevant links and external sources
- Request "@ai Please fact-check this block" or "@ai Give me headline ideas for this article."
- Get "@ai Suggest examples to strengthen this paragraph."
Important notes:
- Works best with block themes, won't appear in the editor for classic themes
- Can still generate and edit AI images in Media Library with classic themes
- Completely opt-in, only runs if you enable it
- WordPress AI assistant does better with design and targeting individual blocks compared to Claude integration
Why it matters:
WordPress is making site editing accessible to users who don't know how to navigate complex menus by letting them describe changes in plain language.
Unlike standalone AI tools that give isolated chat boxes or code snippets, this assistant works inside the actual site, understanding context and taking action where users are already building - no technical knowledge required.
👀 Read more about WordPress AI assistant!
My Latest LinkedIn & X/Twitter Posts:
- 15 ways to use voice AI in business (view post)
- How to build real-time AI avatars with emotion control (view post)
- How to find winning hooks from competitor ads fast (view post)
- How to automate contact management with AI (view post)
- 10-step roadmap to build AI agents from scratch (view post)
- How to turn your website into a 24/7 AI receptionist (view post)
- How to turn voice commands into finished work with AI (view post)
- Top free AI courses for professionals with official links (view post)
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New AI Tools to Boost Your Productivity:
- Lyria: Generates high-quality music from text prompts.
- Design.com: Generates complete websites from business details.
- Pikodee: Generates and remixes images and thumbnails for creators.
- Decision Forcing Studio: Structures decisions using forcing-function frameworks.
- Lightfield: AI-native CRM that auto-updates after meetings and tracks next steps.
- Ungrid: AI CRM for solopreneurs that joins meetings and updates pipelines.
- MemoTune: Generates full songs with lyrics from personal story inputs.
- VideoMule: Creates AI-generated video ads from product inputs.
- Columns Flow: Builds data workflows and dashboards with AI.
- Twintone: Generates UGC-style ads without managing creators.
- Ryplis: Automates on-brand replies and ad comment moderation.
- Synapse: Finds competitor SEO gaps and generates content to outrank them.
- Konvertly: Finds leads, writes emails, and books meetings automatically.
- Egaki: Optimizes brands to rank in AI-generated search answers.
This Week's Top AI News Headlines:
- OpenAI Introduces ChatGPT Lockdown Mode to Curb Harmful Mental Health Advice and Prevent Risky or Unverified Therapeutic Responses (View Article)
- Google’s New Gemini Pro Model Sets Record Benchmark Scores Again, Claiming Top Performance Across Coding, Math and Reasoning Tests (View Article)
- YouTube Tests Bringing its Conversational AI Tool to TVs to Let Viewers Ask Questions and Explore Videos Through On-Screen Prompts (View Article)
- Reddit Tests New AI Shopping Search Feature to Surface Product Recommendations and Reviews From Community Discussions (View Article)
- Reload, an AI Employee and Agent Management Platform, Raises $2.275M and Launches Virtual AI Worker to Automate Business Tasks (View Article)
- Microsoft Says Office Bug Exposed Customers’ Confidential Emails to Copilot AI, Raising Data Privacy and Enterprise Security Concerns (View Article)
- ChatGPT Ads Appear in the Wild as OpenAI Begins Testing Sponsored Placements inside the Chat Interface for Free Users (View Article)
- Amazon Blames Human Employees for AI Coding Error After Internal Tool Generates Faulty Code and Triggers Online Backlash (View Article)
- Amazon’s AI Shopping Agent is Placing Orders on Third-Party Retail Sites Without Direct Partnerships, Sparking Pushback From Retailers (View Article)
- OpenAI is Reportedly Launching a Smart Speaker Designed by Jony Ive to Bring ChatGPT into the Home as a Voice-First AI Device (View Article)
- Biotech Startup Uses Lab-Grown Human Brain Cells to Boost AI Computing Power Beyond Traditional Silicon Chips (View Article)
- Qodo, an AI Coding Agent Orchestration Platform, Releases Version 2.1 With Expanded 11x Memory Context to Help AI Developers Maintain Long-Term Task Awareness (View Article)
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Have a wonderful week!
Andrew Bolis
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