TRD Anthropic co-founder says the singularity is underway
Posted: Tue Oct 20, 2026 9:00 am
.bh__table, .bh__table_header, .bh__table_cell { border: 1px solid #C0C0C0; } .bh__table_cell { padding: 5px; background-color: #FFFFFF; } .bh__table_cell p { color: #2D2D2D; font-family: 'Helvetica',Arial,sans-serif !important; overflow-wrap: break-word; } .bh__table_header { padding: 5px; background-color:#F1F1F1; } .bh__table_header p { color: #2A2A2A; font-family:'Trebuchet MS','Lucida Grande',Tahoma,sans-serif !important; overflow-wrap: break-word; } Read Online | Sign Up | AdvertiseGood morning, {{ first_name | AI enthusiasts }}, and welcome to our 5,481 new readers. Anthropic has spent 2026 warning that AI is moving faster than anyone is ready for. Now one of its co-founders says the moment has a name.Jack Clark just said that the singularity, when AI-driven progress starts outrunning humanity’s ability to keep up, is officially underway. What comes with it? A possible $44T U.S. economy, serious job disruption, and a short window to decide if AI needs an intelligence cap.In today’s AI rundown:
Anthropic co-founder says the singularity is underway
Image source: IMFThe Rundown: Anthropic co-founder Jack Clark just told economists and policymakers at the IMF and World Bank’s annual meetings that the singularity, the point where AI speeds up discovery faster than humans can follow, has “now begun.”The details:
AI adoption has outpaced strategy
The Rundown: Atlassian’s 2026 State of the Developer Experience report, based on global research with 1,560 respondents including devs and engineering leaders, maps out clear paths for leaders to help their teams manage the speed vs. friction tension happening right now.In the report, you’ll explore how:
One hacker’s AI agents break into 100+ companies
Image source: NorForgeThe Rundown: Security firm NorForge revealed that a Chinese-speaking hacker let AI agents do nearly all the work to successfully break into the websites of 100+ companies, with Reuters identifying victims like Cummins, Deere, and SharkNinja in the hack.The details:
Try ChatGPT’s new voices with GPT-Live-1.1
The Rundown: In this guide, you’ll try ChatGPT’s new voices, compare them with the same short passage, and check whether a spoken correction reaches the final answer.Step-by-step:
Find high-value AI use cases
The Rundown: Most AI planning starts with the wrong question. Instead of asking “What should AI do?”, ask “Where does the work break?” Optimizely’s template helps you identify high-value AI use cases by finding the manual work slowing you down.This template gives you:
Inception’s Mercury 3 speeds past rivals
Image source: InceptionThe Rundown: AI startup Inception just launched Mercury 3, a “diffusion” language model it says matches or beats OpenAI’s GPT-6 Luna and Anthropic’s Claude Haiku 5.5 by its own numbers at 4-8x their speed.The details:
Trending AI Tools
Everything else in AI todayCData’s Foundations for AI virtual event on Nov. 5 covers why agents need an AI Gateway to govern access and spending, and features insights from Anaqua’s CIO on rolling out AI. Register here.*Elon Musk said he will give a SpaceX share to “every kid in America” starting next year via Trump Accounts, responding to the news of Anthropic’s Public Benefit Fund. The U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security formally banned DeepSeek from civilian agency systems, giving departments 60 days to request exceptions and extending the ban to third-party tools built on the Chinese lab’s models.Black Forest Labs released FLUX 3 Max, a sped-up FLUX 3 built with fal that it says matches Seedance 2.5 on quality at 22x the speed, rendering 10s clips in 12 seconds.Chinese AI lab MiniMax launched M3.1 Flash, a new model previously tested as “Space Bunny”, scoring well on coding and computer use at an extremely low price. *Sponsored Listing
Highlights: News, Guides & Events
Source: https://therundownai.beehiiv.com/p/anth ... s-underway
- Anthropic co-founder says the singularity is underway
- One hacker’s AI agents break into 100+ companies
- Try ChatGPT’s new voices with GPT-Live-1.1
- Inception’s Mercury 3 speeds past rivals
Image source: IMFThe Rundown: Anthropic co-founder Jack Clark just told economists and policymakers at the IMF and World Bank’s annual meetings that the singularity, the point where AI speeds up discovery faster than humans can follow, has “now begun.”The details: - Clark pointed to AI’s scores on Humanity’s Last Exam (expert-level questions) going from 8% to 67.7% since 2025, and FrontierMath improving from 2% to 94%.
- One Anthropic model has U.S. GDP at $44T by 2030 if AI spreads fast, which Clark admitted sounds outlandish but also predicts “very disruptive” job impacts.
- The world’s 10M scientists may soon direct “a billion virtual scientists,” Clark said while urging nations to build labs and robots before they run short.
- He also said CEO Dario Amodei has floated limits on AI’s “ceiling of intelligence,” adding that he believes there is only “a small number of years” to act.
The Rundown: Atlassian’s 2026 State of the Developer Experience report, based on global research with 1,560 respondents including devs and engineering leaders, maps out clear paths for leaders to help their teams manage the speed vs. friction tension happening right now.In the report, you’ll explore how:- Devs are managing more output
- An AI-native SDLC fixes bottlenecks
- Only 23% of leaders have an AI strategy
Image source: NorForgeThe Rundown: Security firm NorForge revealed that a Chinese-speaking hacker let AI agents do nearly all the work to successfully break into the websites of 100+ companies, with Reuters identifying victims like Cummins, Deere, and SharkNinja in the hack.The details:- NorForge watched the attacks after finding 20+ hacker control panels for Cairn, an open-source tool for AI agents, left online with no password.
- The hacker fed the agents a pre-screened list of busy online stores and orders under 100 Chinese characters, then sent them after over 1,200 sites.
- NorForge puts AI costs near $50 per successful break-in, with a typical one taking nearly a day using Claude Code and DeepSeek V4.1 Flash.
- It’s unclear if any data was taken, with SharkNinja calling the threat contained, Deere citing “remediation actions,” and Cummins “investigating.”
The Rundown: In this guide, you’ll try ChatGPT’s new voices, compare them with the same short passage, and check whether a spoken correction reaches the final answer.Step-by-step:- Open ChatGPT’s Voice settings and choose Live where available. Pick a voice and start a new chat with the guide’s fictional workshop notice
- Ask it to read the notice, then try the same words with another voice. Keep the language and instructions fixed so the comparison stays useful
- Try a regional voice in a language you know well. Listen for clear names, dates, and numbers, and ask for a slower repeat when needed
- Interrupt the notice with a new date and headcount. Check that those details change while the time and budget stay fixed
- Ask Voice to search OpenAI’s release notes. Open its source link and check the answer rather than trusting the spoken search cue alone
The Rundown: Most AI planning starts with the wrong question. Instead of asking “What should AI do?”, ask “Where does the work break?” Optimizely’s template helps you identify high-value AI use cases by finding the manual work slowing you down.This template gives you:- A personalized AI use case in minutes
- The same process that turned a 2-3 hour GA4 reporting task into a 5-minute one
- A use case mapped to how your team actually works, not a generic list of ideas
Image source: InceptionThe Rundown: AI startup Inception just launched Mercury 3, a “diffusion” language model it says matches or beats OpenAI’s GPT-6 Luna and Anthropic’s Claude Haiku 5.5 by its own numbers at 4-8x their speed.The details: - Language models write one at a time, while diffusion models draft many words at once and refine them, leading to outputs of 1,000+ tokens a second.
- Inception pitches it as useful for apps where any lag shows, with early users running live tutors, voice customer support, and web-browsing agents on it.
- Mercury 3 is priced at $0.20/$0.70 per million tokens, with the company saying the model is 40x the size of Mercury 1 while still maintaining the same speeds.
- Co-founder Stefano Ermon said scaling diffusion is limited by “compute and data, not fundamental algorithmic barriers,” and a successor is already in training.
Robin by Atera - AI agent that autonomously resolves T1 & complex T2 IT incidents end to end, no technician needed*
FLUX 3 Max - Black Forest Labs’ fast text-to-video AI with voices and sound
Mercury 3 - Inception’s speed-focused diffusion AI rivaling GPT-6 Luna
Exa 3.0 - Exa’s SOTA web search for AI agents
- Read our last AI newsletter: Anthropic designs a pay package for the public
- Read our last Tech newsletter: Elon Musk’s ‘flying car’ is here
- Read our last Robotics newsletter: SoftBank’s $18B bet on robot guards
- Today’s AI tool guide: Try ChatGPT’s new voices with GPT-Live-1.1
- RSVP to next workshop on Oct. 21: Get real work out of Microsoft Copilot
Source: https://therundownai.beehiiv.com/p/anth ... s-underway