PAGES28
WORDS49,227
SOURCES289
READ TIME86 min
TYPEHUB
CHECKED25 AUG 26
Who makes these systems, how their claims hold up, and the questions worth asking before you depend on any of them.
The landscape
Who builds what, and who owns whom.
COMPARISON · 14 MIN · 26 SOURCESClaude Opus 5.5 vs Opus 5: What Changed and What It CostsCheaper per token, and Anthropic says cheaper per task too. Where that figure comes from, what its own benchmarks show, and what breaks if you switch.COMPARISON · 10 MIN · 19 SOURCESGrok 4.7 vs Grok 4.6: What Actually ChangedSame price, same context window, a new and larger base model. What xAI’s own benchmarks show, why they are not like for like, and where the fast variant runs.EXPLAINER · 12 MIN · 23 SOURCESAI Labs Outside the US and Their Open-Weights LicencesDeepSeek, Qwen, Kimi, GLM, MiniMax, ByteDance Seed and Mistral: who runs each lab, what it releases, and what its open-weights licence really allows.EXPLAINER · 4 MIN · 2 SOURCESWhat Companies Actually Use Grok Bot ForxAI says the heaviest use is outside engineering. The published examples by department, the one savings claim, and how to read it.EXPLAINER · 3 MIN · 5 SOURCESHow Big Is Colossus? The Numbers xAI PublishesxAI’s own page gives two different GPU counts for the Memphis cluster that trains Grok. Every published figure, and where they disagree.EXPLAINER · 3 MIN · 4 SOURCESWho Owns Grok Now? xAI, X and SpaceX, ExplainedSpaceX acquired xAI on 2 February 2026 and the company now calls itself SpaceXAI. What changed for Grok, and what the announcements do not say.EXPLAINER · 4 MIN · 4 SOURCESIs Llama Dead? What Meta Replaced It WithMeta never announced Llama’s retirement, but llama.com now redirects and the newest models on its developer site carry the Muse name. What changed, with dates.EXPLAINER · 5 MIN · 3 SOURCESMeta Muse vs Gemini Spark vs Grok Bot, ComparedThree personal AI agents launched within a month. What each vendor claims, who can use each one, and what has not been independently tested.EXPLAINER · 6 MIN · 8 SOURCESWHO BUILDS AITwo layers: a handful of frontier labs, and an open-weights wave months behind them.TRACKER · 5 MIN · 8 SOURCESWhat Happened to Vertex AI, NotebookLM and Imagen?Eight Google, Meta and xAI products were renamed, merged or shut down in 2026: the old name, what replaced it, the date, and the company page that says so.EXPLAINER · 4 MIN · 7 SOURCESWhat Is Meta Muse? The Personal AI Agent From Meta, ExplainedMeta launched its personal AI agent on 8 September 2026. What Muse does, how Meta says its Sentinel keeps it in check, and why Microsoft has a Muse too.EXPLAINER · 4 MIN · 4 SOURCESMuse, Grok Bot, AI Studio: Which Product Do You Mean?Three AI names each point to more than one product. What Meta Muse, Microsoft Muse, Grok Bot, Google AI Studio and Meta AI Studio actually are, with sources.EXPLAINER · 4 MINThe history of AI:1950 to todayMore than seventy-five years of artificial intelligence, from Turing's question to today's frontier models.DATED · 3 MIN · 8 SOURCESTHE TIMELINEWhat actually happened, dated: capability, measured harms, research and law from 2022 to now — including the forecast…EXPLAINER · 3 MIN · 2 SOURCESOPEN OR CLOSEDOpen weights trail the frontier by months, not years. Explained plainly, with sources named and dated.EXPLAINER · 3 MINThe AI Tools Atlas: the landscape by job, not by logoThe AI tool landscape mapped by what you are trying to do: assistants, coding agents, image, video, voice, answer…
Checking a claim
Every demo works. That is what a demo is.
THE RECORD · 3 MIN · 3 SOURCESAuditing a Vendor’s AI ClaimsEvery demo works; that is what a demo is. Questions that separate a product from a demo, what to ask about accuracy figures, and answers that end the call.REFERENCE · 4 MINHow to Check the Figures HereSix recurring sources supply most of the numbers on this site. The feed or document behind each, how to re-query it, and why your figure may differ.DATED · 5 MIN · 2 SOURCESHOW AI GETS LABELLEDEU law now requires AI providers to mark generated content. How credentials and watermarks work, how each one fails, and why a missing label proves nothing.EXPLAINER · 3 MINAGI, Meaning: what the term actually claims — and why nobody agreesAGI has four competing definitions — capability, economic, autonomy, and the levels gradient.
What it costs
Pricing, margin, and the meter nobody quotes.
THE CRAFT · 3 MIN · 1 SOURCESWhat You Are Actually BurningYou pay for everything the model reads, re-sent every turn. Where the cost really goes, why agents multiply it, and the model choice that fixes most of it.DATED · 7 MIN · 6 SOURCESSeven Repos and What They Actually Cost to RunSeven open-source repositories routinely sold as ready-made AI businesses. What each actually does, what licence it carries, and what it costs to run.DATED · 4 MIN · 1 SOURCESThe Seven Ways People Sell AI WorkTask farming, creation-as-a-service, social, media channels, automation, arbitrage and resale: what each needs, and why five are services and two are trading.DATED · 10 MINHow to Make Money with AI ContentThe real ways to earn with AI content: affiliate marketing, brand deals, digital products, faceless video, client work. Methods and tools, no income promises.THE CRAFT · 3 MIN · 2 SOURCESWhat You Owe a Client Whose System You AutomatedWhat you owe a client after automating their work: a handover document, disclosure, an off switch, a visible check for silent failure, and agreed limits.
The rules and the consequences
EU bans in force since February 2025 and most penalties since August 2025; the AI Office’s enforcement powers and fines on general-purpose model providers since August 2026.
DATED · 7 MIN · 13 SOURCESTHE RULES ARRIVINGThe EU AI Act became broadly applicable on 2 August 2026. What changed, when, and what it actually means.DATED · 6 MIN · 7 SOURCESAI AND WORKNot mass unemployment — the bottom rung. What changed, when, and what it actually means.DATED · 4 MIN · 7 SOURCESENERGY AND WATEREstimates of the water behind one AI query differ a thousandfold. Why they disagree, what operators disclose, and why where the water comes from matters most.EXPLAINER · 6 MIN · 1 SOURCESHow AI Got Into Your Tools Without AskingFree intelligence arrived like a gift at the gates. Explained plainly, with sources named and dated.