This week in AI: 28 Sep 2026 to 4 Oct 2026

15 stories this week across 8 categories. Each links to the official announcement, filing or paper it is based on.

The old town of Heidelberg seen from the Neckar river, with historic buildings along the riverbank. — Aleph Alpha releases Kolibri-1, a 78B German-English model with Apache 2.0 weights

Open Source AI3 Oct 2026, 09:00 UTC

Aleph Alpha released Kolibri-1 on 3 October 2026: a 78B mixture-of-experts model with 3.46B active parameters, 1M context and Apache 2.0 weights.

Summary

Aleph Alpha released Kolibri-1 on 3 October 2026, a German and English reasoning model with open weights under Apache 2.0. It is a mixture-of-experts model with 78B total and 3.46B active parameters and a context of up to 1,048,576 tokens. It was trained from scratch on infrastructure in Germany and Finland. The license covers only the weights and configuration files, and Aleph Alpha targets public administration, industry and aerospace.

Head and shoulders of a dark grey and blue Boston Dynamics Atlas humanoid robot with a round head, in front of a large Hyundai display. — Boston Dynamics unveils GR3 hand for Atlas with 13 degrees of freedom and tactile skin

Robotics & Physical AI1 Oct 2026, 13:10 UTC

Boston Dynamics showed GR3 on 1 October 2026, a four-finger Atlas hand with 13 degrees of freedom, up from 7, and pressure sensors across fingertips and palm.

Summary

Boston Dynamics presented GR3 on 1 October 2026, a new hand for its Atlas humanoid robot. It has four fingers and 13 degrees of freedom, up from 7 on the previous GR2 hand, with a four-degree-of-freedom opposable thumb and dense pressure sensors across the fingertips and palm. The company says the hand can carry a loaded minifridge of more than 100 lb and was designed for simulation-based training. No ship date is given.

A dark metal door with mail slots, the middle one labelled GitHub in gold letters. — GitHub Copilot adds computer use to operate desktop apps on macOS and Windows

AI Agents1 Oct 2026, 09:00 UTC

GitHub put computer use into public preview on 1 October 2026, so Copilot CLI and the Copilot app can click, type and move through desktop apps.

Summary

GitHub released computer use in public preview on 1 October 2026 for GitHub Copilot CLI and the GitHub Copilot app on macOS and Windows. Copilot can read app content, click controls, type, scroll and drag across desktop applications, aimed at GUI-only and legacy software with no API or MCP server. The feature is off by default, asks for approval per app, and organization-managed settings can disable it. Pricing is not stated in the announcement.

In brief

Aleph Alpha releases Kolibri-1, a 78B German-English model with Apache 2.0 weights Aleph Alpha released Kolibri-1 on 3 October 2026: a 78B mixture-of-experts model with 3.46B active parameters, 1M context and Apache 2.0 weights.
Boston Dynamics unveils GR3 hand for Atlas with 13 degrees of freedom and tactile skin Boston Dynamics showed GR3 on 1 October 2026, a four-finger Atlas hand with 13 degrees of freedom, up from 7, and pressure sensors across fingertips and palm.
GitHub Copilot adds computer use to operate desktop apps on macOS and Windows GitHub put computer use into public preview on 1 October 2026, so Copilot CLI and the Copilot app can click, type and move through desktop apps.
Google says monthly CVE disclosures doubled in 2026 as AI finds more serious bugs Google threat analysts said on 30 September 2026 that monthly CVEs rose from 5,045 to 10,740 this year and that half of AI-found bugs lead to code execution.
California Governor Newsom signs 13 AI bills, bars employers from firing by AI alone Governor Gavin Newsom signed 13 AI bills on 30 September 2026, including SB 947, which bars employers from relying only on AI to discipline or fire workers.
Ohio State signs Google Cloud AI deal with Gemini access and over 200 models for researchers Ohio State and Google Cloud announced an AI partnership on 29 September 2026: Gemini Enterprise access, DeepMind science tools and a 24/7 student assistant.
European Commission opens copyright consultation on AI use of protected works and piracy The European Commission opened a targeted consultation on 29 September 2026 on copyright and AI, live event piracy, music remuneration and research access.
Microsoft Research introduces Quine, a biology world model tested on pancreatic cancer Microsoft Research introduced Quine on 29 September 2026, a world model of biology that ranked compounds for pancreatic cancer cell-state shifts.
OpenAI adds computer use to its Agents API with a hosted browser and sign-in flow OpenAI added computer use to its Agents API on 29 September 2026. Agents work in an OpenAI-hosted browser, and apps approve each website and handle sign-in.
OpenAI releases GPT-6.1 Sol at $2 per 1M input tokens, one-fifth of GPT-6 Astra's price OpenAI released GPT-6.1 Sol at DevDay on 29 September 2026: $2 input and $10 output per 1M tokens, a 1,050,000-token context and coding scores near GPT-6 Astra.
Thomson Reuters wins Third Circuit appeal as court rules ROSS AI training was not fair use The Third Circuit ruled on 29 September 2026 that ROSS Intelligence's use of 2,243 Westlaw headnotes to train its AI search engine was not fair use.
White House order 14434 tells federal agencies to replace AI with Super Intelligence President Trump signed Executive Order 14434 on 29 September 2026, telling federal agencies to say Super Intelligence and SI instead of artificial intelligence.
Bank of America adds Intelligence Hub to AskGPS, its AI tool for nearly 3,000 payments staff Bank of America launched AskGPS Intelligence Hub on 28 September 2026, adding client data analysis to a generative AI tool used by nearly 3,000 payments staff.
Anthropic releases Claude Sonnet 5.5, 30% faster than Sonnet 5 at the same $2 input price Anthropic released Claude Sonnet 5.5 on 28 September 2026 at $2 input and $10 output per 1M tokens, cheaper cache reads and 30% faster output than Sonnet 5.
ElevenLabs launches Eleven v4 speech model in 90+ languages with a 100 ms Turbo variant ElevenLabs released Eleven v4 and v4 Turbo on 28 September 2026, text-to-speech models on a new architecture with 90+ languages and 10-second voice clones.