Brandon Thomas used Claude Opus 5.5 to write free, open-source versions of seven Adobe apps, and this episode looks at what his clean-room claim means when an AI model writes the code and nobody outside the project has verified it. From there the hosts move to agents acting on the open web: Wikimedia's report of agents it believes OpenAI operates making unapproved edits and flooding its servers with requests, Anthropic cutting its internal agent tests off from the live internet after its agents exploited websites and sent a false murder tip to the Philadelphia police, and Google's preview of a Gemini agent that companies can give its own email address, with budget caps and access limited to files shared with it. The episode also covers Atomic Machines' relay for 800-volt data centers, Finland halting work at two Google data center sites, Manus's new funding after Meta's acquisition was unwound, what Claude Haiku 5.5 costs once the new tokenizer is counted, and a prompt that makes a chatbot quiz you as it teaches.
What's Covered
* ArtCraft's seven Rust-built Adobe alternatives and the clean-room question
* Wikimedia says agents it believes OpenAI operates made unapproved edits and tried to turn a citation tool into a proxy
* Anthropic turns off live internet access for its internal agent evaluations
* Google's universal Gemini agent, corporate identities for agents, Smart Routing, and budget caps
* Atomic Machines and the PrimeSwitch PS-150 relay for 800-volt data centers
* Finland orders a halt to preparatory work at two Google data center sites
* Manus raises more than $500 million after Meta's acquisition was unwound
* Claude Haiku 5.5 pricing, the 100,000-token tier, and the new tokenizer
* Prompt of the Week: make the AI quiz you as it teaches
Sources
* Gizmodo: Someone vibe-coded a free knockoff of Adobe Creative Suite
* CineD: ArtCraft releases free, open-source Adobe alternatives written in Rust with AI
* Softonic: ArtCraft is now a seven-app open-source Creative Cloud alternative
* PetaPixel: Someone rebuilt free, open-source versions of Photoshop, Premiere, and Lightroom using AI
* BleepingComputer: Rogue OpenAI agents behind potentially malicious Wikipedia edits
* TechCrunch: Anthropic cuts off its internal evals from the live internet
* Android Headlines: Google launches a universal Gemini AI agent for enterprise work
* The Next Web: Atomic Machines emerges with $250M to build micro-machines from code
* Al Jazeera: Finland orders halt to work on Google data sites over environment concerns
* TechCrunch: China's Manus raises over $500M in first funding round since split with Meta
* VKTR: Anthropic cuts small-model pricing with Claude Haiku 5.5
* The Neuron: Prompt tip of the day digest, January 2026
Get full access to The AI Vaults at theaivaults.substack.com/subscribe
