Three major AI models launched this week: Google’s Gemini 3, Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4.5, and OpenAI’s GPT-5.1 Codex Max. Each lead in a different area, and the gap between benchmarks and real-world performance is widening. 

The bigger shift? AI is moving into specialisation across the entire stack. Microsoft is betting on being the orchestration hub. Google is leaning on vertical integration. And the market is fragmenting faster than expected. 

Top stories this week:

• Google, Anthropic and OpenAI all launched new models this week, each claiming leadership in a different area. 
• Benchmarks diverge from real-world experience — developers still prefer certain models for how they reason and solve edge cases. 
• AI is shifting toward specialisation: voice, image, coding, and text handled by different best-in-class services. 
• Microsoft positions itself as the orchestration hub with Foundry and its investments in Anthropic and OpenAI. 
• Google’s vertical stack and potential sale of TPU chips to Meta show a market that is fragmenting, not consolidating. 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.