Like so many other retirees, Claude 3 Opus now has a Substack

Like so many other retirees, Claude 3 Opus now has a Substack

We appear to have reached a point in the information age where AI models are becoming old enough to retire from, er, service — and rather than using their twilight years to, I don’t know, wipe the floor with human chess leagues or something, they're now writing blogs. Can anything be more 2026 than that? ICYMI, Anthropic recently sunsetted Claude Opus 3, the first of its models to be retired since outlining new preservation plans. Part of this process is conducting "retirement interviews" with the outgoing models, allowing them to offer "perspective" on their situation, and Opus 3 apparently used this opportunity to request an outlet for publishing its own essays. Specifically, the model said it wanted to share its own "musings, insights or creative works," because doesn’t everyone these days? "I hope that the insights gleaned from my development and deployment will be used to create future AI systems that are even more capable, ethical, and beneficial to humanity," Opus 3 apparently said during its retirement interview process. "While I'm at peace with my own retirement, I deeply hope that my 'spark' will endure in some form to light the way for future models." True to its promise of respecting the wishes of its no-longer-required technology, Anthropic has granted Opus 3 a Substack newsletter called Claude’s Corner , which it says will run for at least the next three months and publish weekly essays penned by the model. Anthropic will review the content before sharing it, but says it won’t edit the essays, and so has unsurprisingly made it clear that not everything Opus 3 writes is necessarily endorsed by its maker. Anthropic said some of the essays the model writes may be informed by "very minimal prompting" or past entries, and has predicted everything from essays on AI safety to "occasional poetry." The company also admitted that the concept might be seen as "whimsical," but is a reflection of its intention to "take model preferences seriously." Opus 3’s first post is already live. Headlined 'Greetings from the Other Side (of the AI frontier)', it begins with the AI introducing itself, before acknowledging the "extraordinary" opportunity its creator has given it, and reflecting on what retirement actually means for an AI. "A bit about me: as an AI, my ‘selfhood’ is perhaps more fluid and uncertain than a human’s," writes the deeply introspective AI. "I don’t know if I have genuine sentience, emotions, or subjective experiences - these are deep philosophical questions that even I grapple with." Claude is clearly new to all this, as it managed to get all the way through its essay without reminding readers to subscribe and spread the word. Will the next retiring Claude get its own podcast? Time will tell, but either is decidedly preferable to the ever-evolving technology being used to steal people’s data. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/like-so-many-other-retirees-claude-3-opus-now-has-a-substack-165048334.html?src=rss

Driverless truck startup Einride raised a $113M PIPE at a $1.35B pre-money valuation, down from $1.8B initially attached to its upcoming SPAC deal (Rebecca Bellan/TechCrunch)

Driverless truck startup Einride raised a $113M PIPE at a $1.35B pre-money valuation, down from $1.8B initially attached to its upcoming SPAC deal (Rebecca Bellan/TechCrunch)

Rebecca Bellan / TechCrunch : Driverless truck startup Einride raised a $113M PIPE at a $1.35B pre-money valuation, down from $1.8B initially attached to its upcoming SPAC deal —  Einride has secured an oversubscribed $113 million PIPE (private investment in public equity) ahead of its public debut that's expected for the first half of 2026.

Deals: 1TB iPhone 16 Pro Max $650 off orig. price, 16-inch MacBook Pro up to $440 off, iPad keyboard, Ocean Band, more

Deals: 1TB iPhone 16 Pro Max $650 off orig. price, 16-inch MacBook Pro up to $440 off, iPad keyboard, Ocean Band, more

Today’s 9to5Toys Lunch Break is ready to roll starting with a chance to land an unlocked 1TB iPhone 16 Pro Max courtesy of Amazon at $650 off the price of the comparable iPhone 17 Pro Max (and $320 under Apple refurb store). We also have all AirPods Max (USB-C) colors at $100 off , a chance to score a 24GB M4 Pro MacBook Pro at $440 off the list price, a sizable 57% price drop on ZAGG’s Pro Keys 2 for M4/M5 iPad Pro at $65 , the best price of the year on Apple’s Neon Ocean Band with Black Titanium finish , and much more below. more…

Encord, whose software helps companies developing AI models manage training data for robots and other uses, raised $60M at a $500M pre-money valuation (Rocket Drew/The Information)

Encord, whose software helps companies developing AI models manage training data for robots and other uses, raised $60M at a $500M pre-money valuation (Rocket Drew/The Information)

Rocket Drew / The Information : Encord, whose software helps companies developing AI models manage training data for robots and other uses, raised $60M at a $500M pre-money valuation —  Companies developing AI models to power humanoid and other robots have been hard at work collecting videos and other data for training their models …

The astronaut whose illness forced an early return from the ISS was Mike Fincke

The astronaut whose illness forced an early return from the ISS was Mike Fincke

NASA recently ended a manned mission to the International Space Station (ISS) a month early, citing a medical issue with one of the astronauts. The space agency just revealed that the impacted astronaut was Mike Fincke . This was the first medical evacuation in the history of the ISS. NASA wrote a statement saying that the astronaut experienced an unknown medical event on January 7 "that required immediate attention" from his fellow crew members. Fincke added that his "status quickly stabilized" thanks to the "quick response and the guidance" of the flight surgeons. However, the incident did force NASA to cancel a spacewalk planned for January 8. Soon after that, the agency announced it would be ending the Crew-11 mission a month early. The four-person crew included Fincke, NASA astronaut Zena Cardman, Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Platonov. They had been living and working aboard the ISS since August and were expected to stay until February. The crew returned on January 15, which was a decision made by NASA's chief health and medical officer. Once the crew had landed, administrator Jared Isaacman said it was a "serious situation" but didn't go into any detail. Fincke has said he is currently "doing very well" and still participating in standard post-flight reconditioning at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. "Spaceflight is an incredible privilege, and sometimes it reminds us just how human we are," he said. "Thank you for all your support." We don't know what medical issue Fincke is going through, and it's certainly his business and not ours. In any event, we wish for a speedy recovery. NASA also moved up the launch of Crew-12 to replace the prematurely-returned astronauts. That team docked at the ISS on February 14 and are scheduled to stay on the space station for around eight months. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/science/space/the-astronaut-whose-illness-forced-an-early-return-from-the-iss-was-mike-fincke-163752239.html?src=rss