Weekly news roundup: Siri AI, Salesforce layoffs, xAI lawsuit and Anthropic expands Mythos access

Apple unveils new Siri AI

This week, Apple unveiled Siri AI, a redesign of its voice assistant, at its Worldwide Developers.

According to a blog post by Apple, the new Siri AI will be a “profoundly more capable and conversational assistant with personal context understanding, broad world knowledge, and onscreen awareness.” The new assistant can carry out multi-step requests, understand information across apps, analize images and access real-time information from the web, according to the company.

Apple is positioning the Siri upgrade as the next phase of its Apple Intelligence strategy and a direct response to growing competition from OpenAI, Google, Anthropic and Microsoft.

Salesforce cuts staff

On 8 June, Salesforce announced a further round of layoffs, with 86 employees affected. Many of those impacted were members of the Agentforce team, the company's flagship artificial intelligence platform.

The cuts mark Salesforce's second round of layoffs in 2026, following the elimination of approximately 1,000 roles in January as part of a wider restructuring effort.

Anthropic announces public version of Mythos AI model

Anthropic launched Claude Fable 5, the first publicly accessible version of its highly capable Mythos AI system, but with specific guardrails in place.

The first versions of Mythos were restricted to government agencies and a number of cybersecurity organizations due to concerns about its advanced capabilities.

In order to secure Claude Fable 5, the company ran over 1000 hours of jailbreak testing.

Claude Fable 5 has been designed with several capabilities, including: 

• Advanced coding assistance.
• Software engineering workflows.
• Cybersecurity defense work.
• Research and analysis.
• Long-form task execution.

xAI faces lawsuit over AI safety concerns

Elon Musk's AI company, xAI, is facing a lawsuit from former engineer Devin Kim, who alleges he was dismissed after raising concerns about AI safety.

The lawsuit claims that Kim voiced concerns about issues including discrimination, misuse and broader risks linked to advanced AI systems before being terminated. According to the lawsuit, Kim voiced his concerns while working on Grok, xAI’s chatbot. The lawsuit does not directly target Elon Musk, but instead focuses on Kim’s ex-supervisor, Jimmy Ba.

Kim is seeking compensation and a court declaration that the conduct of xAI and SpaceX was unlawful.

ShinyHunters claim Oracle breach 

Cybercriminal group ShinyHunters claimed responsibility for a breach involving Oracle PeopleSoft servers, alleging that it accessed and stole sensitive customer information.

PeopleSoft is an enterprise HR software thatmanages payroll, admin and other HR operations.

The breach is said to have mainly impacted universities, with hackers claiming to have stolen student record data.

Investors rush into historic SpaceX IPO 

Investor enthusiasm surrounding SpaceX has reached unprecedented levels, with reports indicating that retail demand for the company's initial public offering has exceeded $70 billion.

The surge in demand reflects both SpaceX’s dominant position in the market and the broader excitement around the company’s future. If the listing proceeds at this level of demand, it is likely to set a significant benchmark for future tech IPOs and could reshape expectations around valuation in the private space and deep-tech sectors.

Iran-backed hackers threaten the World Cup

On Friday, an Iran-linked hacking group known as Handala claimed that it had gained access to FBI surveillance drones, according to SITE Intelligence Group, a cybersecurity monitoring group. The drones could be used to threaten the 2026 World Cup.

Handala said that it has had access to footage and data collected by the FBI's first-person view (FPV) drones "for months," according to SITE. The hackers claim that the World Cup could be under threat.

In a statement cited by SITE, the group said: “Better tighten your World Cup security, we don’t like some of those teams at all. Don’t forget: FPVs are everywhere; you never know when one might end up right in your team’s bus.”

The FBI is using drones around the stadiums hosting World Cup matches as part of security operations that prevent unauthorized aircraft activity.

Executive moves 

• Kemal Cetin. Mars appointed Kemal Cetin as its new global chief digital and information officer, effective August 3. Cetin is currently chief business and digital solutions officer at global dairy company FrieslandCampina.
• Paul Colangelo. Casepoint, a legal technology company, appointed Paul Colangelo as its new chief executive officer. Colangelo was previously founder and CEO of Neumo, a government software development firm.
• Sarang Fegde. On June 10, Podean appointed former Amazon executive, Sarang Fegde, as chief technology officer. Fegde will also sit as a member of the company’s board of directors.

IPO watch

The U.S. IPO market remains a key indicator of broader tech sentiment. Here's a look at the latest listings and activity from the past week, based on data from the Nasdaq IPO calendar:

Ocean Capital Acquisition Corp.

• A special purpose acquisition company.
• Opening/trading day: June 9.
• IPO price: $10/share.

WhiteHawk Minerals Corp.

• A natural gas mineral and royalty company.
• Opening/trading day: June 9.
• IPO price: $26/share.

Eloxx Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

• A clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company.
• Opening/trading day: June 9.
• IPO price: $11/share.

Snow Rothschild Acquisition Corp.

• A special purpose acquisition company.
• Opening/trading day: June 9.
• IPO price: $10/share.

Parabilis Medicines, Inc.

• A clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company.
• Opening/trading day: June 10.
• IPO price: $20/share.

JAB Acquisition Corp I

• A blank check company.
• Opening/trading day: June 10.
• IPO price: $10/share.

ERock, Inc.

• A power generation systems company.
• Expected opening/trading day: June 10.
• IPO price: $21.50/share.

RMG ML Sports Holdings

• A special purpose acquisition company.
• Opening/trading day: June 10.
• IPO price: $10/share.

Forbright, Inc.

• A financial services platform.
• Expected opening/trading day: June 11.
• IPO price: $18-20/share.

Space Exploration Technologies Corp.

• An aerospace manufacturer, transport and satellite communications company.
• Expected opening/trading day: June 12.
• IPO price: $135/share. 

Rosa Heaton is a content manager and writer for the IT Strategy team at TechTarget.