The brief · 11 February 2026

The AI brief, 2026-02-11

Today, AI predicts Medicaid crises before they hit, China drops a model giving Claude a run for its money, and Berlin opts for the lightest-touch law possible.

1 min read J / K to navigate

Zhipu drops GLM-5, a Chinese model nipping at Claude Opus 4.5's heels

Another open-source model catching up to the top tier, but this one was trained on Huawei Ascend chips, not Nvidia. If you code with AI, nothing changes for you today. But it confirms that dependence on American chips is no longer a blocker for Chinese labs.

practitioners › GLM-5, open source, performance close to Claude Opus 4.5 on coding and beating Gemini 3 Pro on some benchmarks, trained on Huawei Ascend chips, released February 11, 2026.

Reuters →

Germany Opts for Light-Touch AI Oversight

Berlin has signed off on its implementation law for the EU AI Act, and the message is unmistakable: as few authorities as possible, as little friction for business as possible. If you build or sell AI in Europe, Germany is now setting the tone for how the regulation gets interpreted in practice, not Brussels. The open question is whether other capitals follow this lighter path or tighten enforcement on their own turf.

practitioners › Germany's Cabinet approved the KI-MIG on February 11, 2026, establishing national authorities, penalties, and enforcement of the AI Act with a deliberately light, pro-innovation approach.

Bundesregierung →