Agency News Weekly

Heads Up for U.S. Agencies – BOI Filing is Required Again

UPDATED – The US Treasury Department has announced on X that it will not enforce penalties for those who do not file.

The Corporate Transparency Act’s Beneficial Ownership Information reporting requirements are back in effect with a new March 21, 2025 deadline.
A court order in January had temporarily suspended the deadline to file. However a new ruling on February 17 has reinstated it.
If you already filed last year, there is no need to refile.
Business owners must report personal details including legal names, birth dates, addresses, and government-issued identification documents.
BOI reporting was put in place to help prevent money laundering and other financial crimes.
For most, filing only takes a few minutes. Access the BOI filing system here.

New Claude AI Model is a Leap Forward for Developers

Anthropic’s Claude 3.7 Sonnet is a significant advance in AI-assisted web development, offering both quick responses and extended thinking modes.
Testing shows remarkable improvements in handling complex codebases, advanced tool usage, and full-stack development compared to previous versions.
Real-world usage shows Claude completing complex development tasks in single passes that typically require 45+ minutes of manual work.
Claude Code, an “agentic coding tool” is also available by joining a preview.
Among its growing features is the ability to connect a GitHub repository directly to Claude.

Google Releases Free Gemini Code Assist with Generous Limits

Google has released a free version of Gemini Code Assist, a free tool for developers, with an impressive 180,000 code completions per month and a 128k token limit.
The tool works with most common development environments, and maintains context awareness of your code base to offer relevant suggestions without switching between applications.
Free users get nearly all enterprise features except productivity metrics and customized AI responses.

Hostinger Announces AI App Platform

Hostinger is launching Horizons, an AI platform that lets anyone create and publish web apps without coding knowledge, complete with integrated hosting and domain services.
Users can create functional web apps like calorie trackers or language games within minutes through a simple chat interface.
The AI-powered system supports 80+ languages and accepts voice commands, making it easy to test business ideas quickly without spending thousands on development or waiting months for completion.
The new product will launch fully in March, following successful trials with select customers.

OpenAI’s New Deep Research Tool and GPT-4.5 Now Available in ChatGPT

OpenAI’s Deep Research tool that was launched in February is now available in ChatGPT’s $20/mo Plus tier.
Deep Research can autonomously gather, analyze, and synthesize information from hundreds of reputable online sources to complete complex research tasks in minutes instead of hours.
Previously only available to $200/mo Pro users, now Plus, Team, Enterprise, and Edu users have 10 deep research queries per month.
OpenAI’s latest model, GPT-4.5 is also now available as a research preview for Pro users of ChatGPT.

WooCommerce 9.7 was released February 25 with major performance upgrades, enhanced shipping displays, and improved security features.
The checkout experience has been streamlined, with shipping methods showing delivery times and descriptions.
Woo’s Core Product Manager James Kemp announced on X that callbacks have been cut back by 99% (from 4,550 to 24) and execution time reduced by 75% in the Site Editor.
Other improvements were made to the APIs for stock handling and product variations, email styling, and customer data protection.
WooCommerce 9.7 should be fully backward compatible.

Ready for a blast from the Past? SkySpace will take your Bluesky profile and make it into a MySpace page complete with a customizable background, a Top 8 you can set, and even a music plugin.
Coschedule has published the State of AI in Marketing Report for 2025 with some interesting statistics.
Jamie Marsland talks about the Three Biggest Existential Threats Facing WordPress.