Issue #31

THURSDAY 1 OCTOBER 2026 · 4 CLAIMS CHECKED · 0 SURVIVED THE RECEIPTS · ISSUE 31 OF 31

• TRUE, BUT · Moved GoalpostAI 'needs $6 trillion a year' to justify the data-centre boom. The number is a $1.5 trillion spending forecast divided by an assumed ratio of about a quarter.Bain & Company, 7th Global Technology Report
• TRUE, BUT · Rented HaloThe FTC is investigating OpenAI and Anthropic 'one day after' a White House pact. The probe opened in the summer; only the news arrived one day later.The Independent (Alex Woodward), syndicated on Yahoo News
• TRUE, BUT · Cherry-Picked SliceGoogle says Gemini 4 Argon beat OpenAI and Anthropic across benchmarks. The independent index has it tied with GPT-6 Astra and five points behind Claude Opus 5.5.Google, Gemini 4 Argon launch post
• TRUE, BUT · Scope SwapOpenAI says dots are always-on agents "built to handle everything". On its own launch page, the always-on part uses read-only tools that cannot send a message.OpenAI, Introducing dots (DevDay 2026)

THAT IS THE RECORD FOR ISSUE #31. NEXT VERDICT DROPS 9PM AEST.