Future Technology[Daily Briefing] 🤖 GPT-5.6 runs Copilot · 🇪🇺 35 EU AI supercomputers
GPT-5.6 is now the model running Microsoft Copilot
OpenAI has released GPT-5.6 and, in the same breath, named it the preferred model powering Microsoft 365 Copilot. The timing is loaded. It lands right as reports swirl about Microsoft cooling on OpenAI and quietly leaning into its own in-house MAI models for apps like Word and Excel to cut costs.
GPT-5.6 is not one model either. It ships as a family of three, called Sol, Terra, and Luna, aimed at flagship, enterprise, and high-volume jobs. That mirrors the tiered lineups Google and Anthropic have run for a while, and it is a clear sign OpenAI has moved on from the single-big-model era that made GPT-4 famous.
For the hundreds of millions of people living inside Microsoft 365, this is the part that actually matters. Copilot drafts your emails, summarises long threads, and builds your spreadsheet formulas, and the quality of all of it rides on the model underneath. A sharper model means fewer confidently wrong meeting notes and more useful first drafts.
Why it matters: the phrase "preferred model" is doing a lot of quiet work. Microsoft is openly building its own models to reduce its reliance on OpenAI, so OpenAI planting its flag on Copilot is as much a public loyalty signal as it is a product update. The thing to watch over the next few months is whether "preferred" slowly turns into "one of several".
Read the full breakdown on Future Technology
Quick hits
OpenAI loses its number two. Fidji Simo, widely regarded as OpenAI's second in command, has stepped down from her role, citing illness. A significant gap at the top of the most-watched company in tech. Read on FT (The Verge, 3 min read)
Microsoft's carbon emissions jumped 25 percent. The company that pledged in 2020 to be carbon negative by 2030 just watched its footprint climb instead, and the AI data-centre buildout is the reason. Read on FT (4 min read)
An AI agent ran its own 100 million dollar raise. A startup handed the fundraising process to its own AI agent, and it actually closed nine figures. Equal parts impressive and slightly unnerving. Read on FT (TechCrunch, 3 min read)
Europe is building 35 NVIDIA AI supercomputers at once. Announced at ISC High Performance 2026, it is a continent-scale bet on owning its own compute rather than renting it from the US and China. Read on FT (3 min read)
Samsung Galaxy Unpacked is heading to London. After Seoul, Paris, and Brooklyn, the UK capital becomes the fourth city to host Samsung's flagship launch. A deliberate nod to the European market. Read on FT (2 min read)
Tool of the day: Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra
With Unpacked coming to London, the S25 Ultra is the phone the S26 has to beat. Honest take: it is still the best all-round Android flagship you can buy today, with a 200MP camera, a genuinely useful S Pen, and years of software support. But a new flagship is only weeks away. If you can wait, the Unpacked reveal will either hand you a newer phone or push S25 Ultra prices down, so watch the timing before you buy. Check the current price on Amazon
Quick one back to me: if you use Copilot at work, have you actually noticed the model upgrades landing, or does it all blur into the same background hum? Hit reply and tell me, I read every message.
Nath, Future Technology
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