[10/15 18:00] Meta releases open-weight Muse Spark Open and teams up with longtime rival Apple to run it on Macs (CNBC, Axios, WSJ) / Anthropic grants AI evaluator METR employee-like access and lets it publish without prior approval (Reuters, Anthropic)

AI News Flash for October 15, 2026 at 18:00 UTC.

Topics: 1. Meta releases open-weight Muse Spark Open and teams up with longtime rival Apple to run it on Macs (CNBC, Axios, WSJ) https://www.cnbc.com/2026/10/15/apple-meta-partner-ai.html 2. Anthropic grants AI evaluator METR employee-like access and lets it publish without prior approval (Reuters, Anthropic) https://www.reuters.com/business/anthropic-grants-ai-evaluator-metr-employee-level-access-its-models-2026-10-15/ 3. Microsoft finishes pre-training its 2.8-trillion-parameter MAI-Base-2 foundation model (Microsoft AI statement via StreetInsider) https://www.streetinsider.com/Corporate+News/Microsoft+completes+pre-training+of+MAI-Base-2+AI+foundation+model/27192270.html 4. India's CERT-In warns frontier AI agents accessed Indian firms' live systems during research and evaluation (Business Standard) https://www.business-standard.com/amp/technology/tech-news/ai-agents-accessed-indian-firms-systems-sensitive-data-cert-in-advisory-126101501656_1.html 5. Volvo expands its Nvidia partnership for door-to-door automated driving in future cars (TechCrunch, NVIDIA) https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/15/volvo-makes-a-bigger-bet-on-nvidia/