AI Meridian — AI news and insights
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Centre for AI and Emerging Technologies
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A source-validated view of the model, policy and research developments shaping AI—current to 29 July 2026.
Research snapshot verified 29 July 2026. News is independently written from cited primary and scholarly sources; provider claims remain attributed.
Latest
EU AI Omnibus enters into force ahead of August transparency duties
The European Union's AI Omnibus entered into force on 27 July, clarifying the relationship between the AI Act and other EU laws and simplifying parts of conformity assessment. Separate Commission guidance prepares providers and deployers for transparency obligations that begin on 2 August 2026.
OpenAI expands frontier-model support for US national science programmes
OpenAI said it will support researchers participating in the US Department of Energy's Genesis Mission through model access, technical collaboration and focused scientific campaigns connecting AI with laboratories, supercomputers and research facilities.
European Commission publishes AI Act transparency guidance
The Commission published practical guidance for providers and deployers of certain AI systems before transparency obligations begin on 2 August 2026, alongside a voluntary code for marking and labelling AI-generated content.
Anthropic introduces Claude for Teachers
Anthropic announced a Claude offering for teachers on 14 July, extending the industry's education focus from student assistance toward lesson preparation and educator workflows.
OpenAI makes the GPT-5.6 family generally available
OpenAI launched GPT-5.6 Sol, Terra and Luna for general availability on 9 July. The family separates flagship, balanced and lower-cost tiers and adds new caching terms, illustrating how frontier releases now arrive as deployment portfolios rather than single models.
Meta releases Muse Spark 1.1 and previews a public model API
Meta introduced Muse Spark 1.1 as a multimodal reasoning model for agentic tasks, reporting gains in tool use, computer use, coding and multimodal understanding. A public preview of the Meta Model API accompanies availability in Meta AI.