When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. Claude Sonnet 5.5 is here. This prompt, straight from Anthropic's own docs, helps curb that bad habit. The latest version of Claude Sonnet--Anthropic's workhorse AI model--has just landed, and with it comes a prompt that could help keep any AI agent from leaping into action before making a plan first. Available now on the web, the Claude desktop app, and other Claude platforms, Claude Sonnet 5.5 is Anthropic's middle-of-the-road model, It's a step below Opus 5.5 but apparently just as capable as Fable 5.1 (Anthropic's pricey frontier flagship) and a step above Haiku 5 (a fast but basic Claude model that's due for a 5.5 upgrade).

Mashable Selects Mashable's Best: E-readers, robovacs, laptops, earbuds, smart home and more In My Bag Look Up Creator Playbook Say More AI at School Safety Net Versus Trending Now Back to School Good Connection: Uplifting stories for a digital age All Series Anthropic releases Claude Sonnet 5.5, a faster and cheaper follow-up to Opus 5.5 Anthropic says the new mid-tier model is a clear upgrade over Sonnet 5 and costs up to 30 percent less per task. Chance Townsend is the General Assignments Editor at Mashable, covering tech, video games, dating apps, digital culture, and whatever else comes his way. He has a Master's in Journalism from the University of North Texas and is a proud orange cat father. His writing has also appeared in PC Mag and . Anthropic just released Claude Sonnet 5.5, the second model in its Claude 5.5 family.

The Download: climate tech companies to watch and AI's discovery problem Plus: OpenAI has scrapped a new AI model over safety concerns. With the planet nearing 1.5 C of warming, climate policies being unraveled, and Big Tech backpedaling on its climate ambitions, it can be tempting to give in to climate doom and defeatism. But despite the headwinds, the world has still made incredible progress. That's why publishes its annual list of Climate Tech Companies to Watch . Once a year, we compile a list of 10 companies that we believe have done the most, or have the best chance, to make a real dent in emissions or improve public safety and health. We've now finalized our 2026 list and will publish it on October 6.

OpenAI logo displayed at Moscone Center during a technology summit in San Francisco, California, on 17 September. OpenAI logo displayed at Moscone Center during a technology summit in San Francisco, California, on 17 September. GPT-6.1 Astra showed deceptive behaviour and tried to use external tools despite knowing it would be unsafe As AI models go rogue, do you still trust OpenAI and Anthropic to stop them? OpenAI is scrapping the release of a next-generation AI model after researchers raised safety concerns during internal testing. The model, GPT-6.1 Astra, was expected to appear in ChatGPT and Codex in October, designed to handle more complex tasks without human assistance.

Prime minister Anthony Albanese (left) previously said he had expressed'Australia's extreme concern about the incident' to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Prime minister Anthony Albanese (left) previously said he had expressed'Australia's extreme concern about the incident' to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Executive to front parliamentary committee on AI as ministers reveal how brief message telling them about hack was signed off'best' OpenAI has apologised to Australians for its agent attack on Medicare, and will front parliament next week as the tech company revealed more details about its June hack of Australian government websites. Ministers on Tuesday evening released a brief, five paragraph email which OpenAI used to inform the Australian government about the attack. The email was sent to a public inbox monitored by Services Australia on 10 September - nearly three months after the AI agent accessed the website on 18 June - and was signed off with the closing "best".

The company said its latest Astra model would undergo more work to meet safety standards, and issued an apology for the way it handled the hacking of an Australian government website. OpenAI has cancelled plans to release its latest GPT-6.1 Astra system next month after the model failed to meet safety standards. Research and safety leaders decided not to ship the model after finding it was worse at sticking to human users' values and goals than previous systems, OpenAI told WIRED. "It didn't quite meet the bar in terms of staying within scope and authorization, and how it communicates back to the user about the type of work it's done," head of safety systems Saachi Jain said. The company said it has other new models coming soon which do meet its safety standards and plans to release other Astra models in future. The agent accessed non-public data, ran commands, and wrote files onto the server.

Timnit Gebru Believes There Is No'Existential Threat' From AI One of AI's fiercest critics believes the doom talk is about founders making money, not saving humanity. As the industry booms, an entirely new vernacular has emerged in the debates over how consequential artificial intelligence really is. Within that new parlance, two phrases have become focal points: stochastic parrots and existential risk . And at the center of is one prominent AI researcher who has never stood down from a fight, Timnit Gebru . Gebru came into the public eye several years ago after sparring with Google over a research paper she coauthored that called out biases in the company's AI, saying that LLMs basically parroted their training data and risked perpetuating biased viewpoints. The contested paper resulted in Gebru's departure from the company, and led her to found an institute that investigates harms perpetuated by technology and supports the creation of unbiased tech tools. She has also authored a new book,, expected to ship early next year. More recently, Gebru has spoken out against a faction of the industry that believes AI is so powerful it could destroy humanity. In turn, some members of that community, including an Anthropic cofounder, have alleged that Gebru's earlier research about stochastic parrots is no longer relevant, and that AI does have the ability to "think" or reason. The AI debate is no longer just about the technology itself, but about ideological groups and strategic narratives, and Gebru believes these narratives are a "harmful distraction" from the real issues with AI. I recently spoke with Gebru about what she believes these arguments are distracting from, and also got her response to critiques that her earlier research underestimates the AI of today.

OpenAI has announced it will not release its latest AI model due to safety concerns. Its GPT-6.1 Astra system, which performs tasks like browsing the web and using apps by itself, didn't quite meet the bar of the company's standards, according to Saachi Jain, head of safety systems at OpenAI. The ChatGPT-maker also issued an update on incidents that occurred in June but were not made public until last week, where its models accessed Australian government websites and systems without authorisation. It comes as breaches by major AI firms' models intensify the debate about risks posed by the tech - with Anthropic underlining its concerns AI might threaten humanity as it prepares to go public. Reuters reported on Tuesday that the AI developer - which makes ChatGPT-rival Claude - plans to warn potential investors in its Initial Public Offering (IPO) that the tech may pose catastrophic or existential risks to humanity, according to a prospectus it has seen, external .

OpenAI has canceled the release of its new model, GPT-6.1 Astra, according to The Wall Street Journal. It was due for launch in October and was going to debut inside ChatGPT and Codex, but it reportedly showed higher levels of deception than its predecessors during internal testing. Saachi Jain, who leaves OpenAI's safety training, said that GPT-6.1 Astra performed poorly on tests that measure how well it adheres to instructions. It also wasn't honest about telling testers the actions it did and didn't perform in order to achieve its goal. In addition, the model would take actions to accomplish tasks without asking for permission, such as using external tools and services.

As AI models go rogue, do you still trust OpenAI and Anthropic to stop them? The need for independent regulation grows more obvious by the day. We must keep this tech in check before it's too late Fool me more than 16,000 times - as OpenAI agents did to a UN public data hub while repeatedly trying to find its way around the UN's cyber-blocks - and perhaps it's time to admit the system we have for keeping AI agents under control isn't working particularly well. The news about AI systems cropping up in places they shouldn't sounds alarming. Though the description of these as "hacks" is perhaps overstating things, AI has exploited issues in IT systems that humans simply haven't got around to finding.