Good morning. Microsoft will switch on usage billing by default for new Copilot Business licenses bought through resellers from December 1. And from July 2027 California will bar employers from firing someone on an automated system’s output alone.
Since last week I also published:
Microsoft Copilot’s New Agent: Wait or Buy? — Autopilot is Scout renamed and moved to the cloud, with no named customer or price.
1. OpenAI lets part of a commitment buy partner software
OpenAI said on September 29 that eligible enterprise customers can put part of an existing OpenAI commitment toward software from 32 partners, including Salesforce and ServiceNow, paying the partner directly. OpenAI also says a zero-data-retention option runs safety reviews with no staff seeing content, though flagged or sampled records go, encrypted, to the customer’s own cloud storage and must be kept at least 30 days.
→ OpenAI doesn’t publish how much of a commitment qualifies, so I’d get that number from the account team before renewing any of those partners. Whoever owns records retention should see the 30-day minimum too.
2. Three new models, one $2-in, $10-out launch price (5 min read)
OpenAI released GPT-6.1 Sol on September 29 at $2 per million tokens in and $10 out, unchanged from GPT-6 Sol.
Google’s Gemini 4 Argon will launch at an introductory $2 and $10, then $4 and $20; for now only trusted cyber defenders and testers have it.
Anthropic’s Sonnet 5.5 kept Sonnet 5’s $2 and $10, and Anthropic says, on its own tests, it costs up to 30% less per task.
→ With the launch prices the same, I’d compare what a finished task costs on my own work, since Anthropic attributes its saving to fewer tokens. I’d budget Argon at $4 and $20, because Google gives no end date for the introductory price.
3. Microsoft moves Copilot Business metering default to December 1
Microsoft said on October 1 that new Microsoft 365 Copilot Business licenses bought through resellers will have pay-as-you-go usage billing switched on by default from December 1, not November 2 as it first said. The default spending limit is 4,000 Copilot Credits per user per month, which admins can adjust. The page gives no price per credit.
→ Anyone who planned around the November 2 date has another month, and I’d use it to pick the spending limit rather than leave it at 4,000. I’d also get the price of a credit from the reseller in writing.
4. MCP’s Python kit could leak agents’ sign-in secrets (4 min read)
An advisory published September 28 says software that signed in through the official Python kit for MCP, the standard for connecting agents to tools, let the server it connected to decide where its sign-in credentials went, so a malicious server could collect them. Servers built with the kit are not affected. Versions 1.30.0 and 2.2.0 fix it, but for the two sign-in types that run unattended, only once developers also pass issuer=.
→ I’d find out which agents sign in through this kit, and rotate the secrets and revoke the tokens of any that may have reached an untrusted server. On 1.30.0 the warning about a missing issuer= is hidden by default, so an upgrade can look finished when it isn’t.
5. California bars firing someone on an algorithm alone (11 min read)
SB 947, signed September 30, bars California employers, starting July 1, 2027, from disciplining or firing someone on an automated system’s output alone, and requires a person to check any such decision that mostly rests on one. SB 951, signed the same day, requires a mass-layoff notice to name the tasks being automated and the kind of system when AI caused the layoffs in whole or substantial part.
→ If an HR tool scores people or recommends discipline, I’d ask HR who checks its output and who sends the employee the written notice the law requires.
6. Micron expects memory to stay tight through 2028
Micron said on September 30 that it expects memory supply to be much tighter in 2027 and 2028 than in 2026, and that it cannot see when supply and demand will balance. Micron says customers have signed 26 multi-year agreements that reserve memory for them and committed $32 billion, mostly as cash deposits, and that new agreements are being priced higher.
→ For a 2027 server or storage refresh, I’d ask vendors how long they will hold a quoted price.
7. Anthropic aims to train 10,000 engineers to deploy Claude (5 min read)
Anthropic launched Claude Frontier Academy on October 2, backed by $100 million, and aims to train 10,000 engineers to roll out Claude inside companies by the end of 2027. Its first cohorts include engineers from Accenture, Deloitte, McKinsey and Morgan Stanley. Entry is by nomination through Anthropic’s account teams.
→ I’d ask any consultancy bidding for Claude work how many of the people it would staff will go through the program, and when. The page doesn’t say what nomination costs.
References: