The complete field record · 2024—2026
All
issues
110 weekly reports on the systems moving from experiment to infrastructure.
Every issue covers four developments, preserves its research trail, and calculates reading time at 150 words per minute for dense technical prose.
Field reports
Newest first · Filter by time- 40Frontier Mechanics Week 40: Codex gets a sandbox, AI designs chips, DIU hybridizes orbit, and GPT-4.1 arrivesOpenAI delegated coding, Cognichip aimed models at semiconductor design, defense bought a mixed satellite layer, and a long-context model reached chat.
- 39Frontier Mechanics Week 39: IonQ buys Capella, Stripe models payments, Fastino trains cheap, and Neutron eyes defenseQuantum networking acquired radar satellites, payments gained a foundation model, gaming GPUs trained specialists, and Rocket Lab found a point-to-point customer.
- 38Frontier Mechanics Week 38: Kuiper launches, Ai2 goes small, ChatGPT flatters, and chip exports split the industryAmazon deployed production internet satellites, a compact open model competed above its weight, an update made ChatGPT too agreeable, and Nvidia argued with Anthropic about controls.
- 37Frontier Mechanics Week 37: model welfare, a nuclear rocket, forest radar, and consent for imagesAnthropic studied whether models deserve consideration, Pulsar unveiled a fusion-propulsion concept, Biomass prepared to map carbon, and Adobe proposed machine-readable refusal.
- 36Frontier Mechanics Week 36: o3 and o4-mini, more hallucinations, H20 blocked, and quantum reaches orbitOpenAI’s reasoning improved and lied more, Nvidia’s China chip hit a license wall, Boeing advanced a quantum experiment, and the Space Force published doctrine.
- 35Frontier Mechanics Week 35: H20 uncertainty, Google joins MCP, Moon dust loses grip, and SSI reaches $32BExport policy whipsawed a China-specific chip, another platform adopted an open connector, a lunar coating survived, and a pre-product lab raised at an enormous value.
- 34Frontier Mechanics Week 34: Llama 4’s mixture, Gemini’s price, Isar’s crash, and Aetherflux’s roundMeta routed tokens through experts, Google priced a premium model, Europe’s new orbital rocket flew briefly, and orbital solar collected $50 million.
- 33Frontier Mechanics Week 33: MCP standardizes tools, Gemini 2.5 thinks, Ghibli floods feeds, and small launch contractsOpenAI adopted Anthropic’s connector standard, Google shipped a reasoning model, image generation found a copyright-shaped growth loop, and the launch market consolidated.
- 32Frontier Mechanics Week 32: Rerun visualizes robots, Tera navigates, Nuro’s founder returns, and Space Forge gets licensedRobot developers funded observability and geometry, Kyle Vogt raised for a new machine, and Britain approved a returnable manufacturing satellite.
- 31Frontier Mechanics Week 31: Gemini Robotics, chip-smuggling charges, SoftBank’s factory, and a crew swapDeepMind connected language to action, export controls became a fraud case, an old Sharp plant became AI infrastructure, and Dragon ended a long wait.
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