The Threshold Report - report for 2026-09-11

Compute & Infra+5Sep 10

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Oracle says it delivered 300,000 GPUs and 850MW

Oracle said yesterday that it delivered more than 300,000 GPUs and 850MW of data-center capacity to customers during the first quarter of its 2027 fiscal year. Those figures cover hardware and power that had already reached customers. The company's co-CEO said Oracle delivered nearly three times the GPUs and capacity of the preceding quarter and 73% of the capacity delivered in the prior fiscal year.

SOURCES · datacenterdynamics.com

Robots+5Sep 10

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Maven robots work 16-hour warehouse shifts at customer sites

Maven Robotics said yesterday that up to eight of its wheeled, dual-arm robots were operating 16 hours a day in customer facilities. They perform mixed palletizing for distribution centers, a job people often handle because retail orders change and include many box types. Maven plans to build 250 third-generation robots. The company reports at least 99% uptime for deployed systems.

SOURCES · techcrunch.com

Robots+5Sep 10

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Touch model nearly doubles robot hand-task success in tests

Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley reported a touch-based robot-control system yesterday. They trained a touch-control model on 100 hours of data and paired it with a higher-level action model. Touch can help a robot adjust its grip and force for small, fragile or deformable objects, including jobs such as inserting plugs and transferring delicate items. Across 12 manipulation tasks, the system averaged 65% success, nearly double the strongest comparison model using vision and language to direct actions.

SOURCES · spectrum.ieee.org

Agents+2Sep 10

Image: openai.com

ChatGPT Work adds a conversational company-data agent

A Data agent became available in ChatGPT Work yesterday. It can query approved company data sources and files, investigate changes and create shareable interactive dashboards through conversation. Employees can explore governed business information without writing database queries, and OpenAI says existing row, column and role restrictions carry into the agent's work. Connected tools can share the findings after a user approves the action.

SOURCES · openai.com

Agents+2Sep 10

Image: openai.com

OpenAI releases Codex agent harness in public API beta

Developers gained managed access to OpenAI's Codex agent harness through the Agents API public beta yesterday. The harness, meaning software that coordinates an agent's work, supports long-running jobs, tool use, subagents, files and code environments. It also condenses earlier context so an agent can continue a lengthy task without developers building their own session-management layer. Agents can run in an OpenAI-hosted sandbox, on a developer's own infrastructure or through listed sandbox partners.

SOURCES · openai.com

Agents+2Sep 10

Image: theverge.com

Slackbot builds reports and dashboards from workplace chats

Slackforce Surfaces became available to free and paid customers with Slackbot enabled yesterday. Users can ask Slackbot to build interactive reports, polls, dashboards, presentations, microsites and other tools from workplace conversations. It can draw on connected apps such as Google Drive and Salesforce, within the information each user has permitted Slack's AI tools to access. Slack says live-data use is due in October 2026.

SOURCES · theverge.com

Compute & Infra+2Sep 11

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Extremadura authorizes power works for planned 300MW AI campus

The Extremadura government granted preliminary administrative authorization for the substation and underground power lines at Data Riocaya's Nostrum Evergreen project in Badajoz today. Power authorization is a required regulatory step for a campus designed to draw up to 300MW from the grid. Data Riocaya's project documents target operations in 2031.

SOURCES · datacenterdynamics.com

Robots+2Sep 11

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Unitree open-sources one model for varied robot manipulation

Unitree fully open-sourced UnifoLM-WLA-1.0 today, meaning developers can download and adapt it. It is an embodied foundation model, meaning a general-purpose AI model built to control physical robots, for desktop and whole-body mobile manipulation. Unitree says a single model can adapt across tasks and end effectors, meaning robot hands or tools that contact objects. Developers have a shared model to adapt across robot bodies, and Unitree says it leads open models on several benchmarks.

SOURCES · spectrum.ieee.org

Robots+2Sep 10

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Comau validates AI-vision robot for Decathlon order preparation

In work validated inside Decathlon operations yesterday, Comau used an e-commerce order-preparation system built around its MyCo collaborative robot. The setup combines ROS 2 robot-control software, AI-powered vision and a modular gripper. Its modular design targets fulfillment work where product types change frequently. The system is intended to pick, handle and palletize products with differing shapes, weights and materials.

SOURCES · therobotreport.com

Text+2Sep 10

Image: openai.com

OpenAI launches finance-specific ChatGPT service for eligible firms

Eligible banks and investment firms could begin using ChatGPT for Financial Services yesterday. The ChatGPT Work offering combines GPT-6 Astra with licensed financial information from providers including Daloopa, PitchBook, LSEG News and Crunchbase. It includes firm templates and enterprise controls for research, financial modeling and client materials. Source-level citations let users trace the evidence behind its work.

SOURCES · openai.com

Other News

AudioSep 10

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Pocket FM says AI produces 99% of new stories

Pocket FM said yesterday that AI powers 93% of its catalog and produces 99% of its new audio stories. Human creators still supply ideas and storytelling. The company says AI has made production about 80 times cheaper and cut the time needed for 100 hours of content from roughly a year to one day.

SOURCES · techcrunch.com

Compute & InfraSep 10

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OpenAI pauses new $200 ChatGPT Pro subscriptions

Demand for Astra led OpenAI to stop accepting new subscriptions to its $200-per-month ChatGPT Pro plan yesterday. OpenAI said Pro places the greatest strain on its systems and that existing subscribers will keep access while it adds capacity. The API, Go and Plus plans remain available.

SOURCES · techcrunch.com

ScienceSep 10

Image: openai.com

Bioengineering lab uses AI to search for antimicrobial candidates

César de la Fuente's laboratory uses deep-learning models to search genome and protein databases for possible antimicrobial molecules. Researchers there also use ChatGPT and Codex for hypothesis development, coding, data processing and analysis. The workflow lets them screen more biological sequences before committing laboratory time to experimental testing. OpenAI says the initial candidate search can shrink from years to hours.

SOURCES · openai.com

TextSep 10

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Study catalogs public-service request surges after generative AI

Researcher Chris Schmitz identified 84 possible cases in 11 jurisdictions yesterday, where complaints, benefits requests, petitions or legal filings rose sharply after generative AI became widely available. AI can help people finish claims they might otherwise abandon, increasing access to public services. Agencies may then face more submissions without larger budgets. Schmitz cited UK housing-ombudsman complaints rising from 2,600 in 2022 to just over 7,000, along with a fivefold increase in U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau complaints.

SOURCES · techcrunch.com

Upcoming

Announced or reported, but not yet real or available.

Compute & InfraSep 11

SpaceX signs $13.3 billion annual AI compute contract

Waiting on: Service start - SpaceX says the contract will begin generating revenue in December 2026.

datacenterdynamics.com

TextSep 10

OpenAI and GSA schedule discounted government AI access

Waiting on: Program launch - The 27-month offer is scheduled to start on October 1, 2026.

openai.com

Oracle says it delivered 300,000 GPUs and 850MW

Maven robots work 16-hour warehouse shifts at customer sites

Touch model nearly doubles robot hand-task success in tests

ChatGPT Work adds a conversational company-data agent

OpenAI releases Codex agent harness in public API beta

Slackbot builds reports and dashboards from workplace chats

Extremadura authorizes power works for planned 300MW AI campus

Unitree open-sources one model for varied robot manipulation

Comau validates AI-vision robot for Decathlon order preparation

OpenAI launches finance-specific ChatGPT service for eligible firms

AI Investments

Security

Anthropic details Claude misuse and model-evaluation incidents

Meta fixes invasive AI prompt suggestions about children

Other News

Pocket FM says AI produces 99% of new stories

OpenAI pauses new $200 ChatGPT Pro subscriptions

Bioengineering lab uses AI to search for antimicrobial candidates

Study catalogs public-service request surges after generative AI

Upcoming

SpaceX signs $13.3 billion annual AI compute contract

OpenAI and GSA schedule discounted government AI access