🧭 Claude API Adds Data Residency Controls via inference_geo

Anthropic has shipped a new inference_geo parameter on the Claude API, giving enterprise customers explicit control over where model inference runs. The initial release supports two values: "us" (US-only inference, priced at a 1.1× multiplier over standard rates) and "global" (the default, existing behaviour). The parameter applies to all models released after February 1, 2026 — including Claude Opus 4.6 and Claude Sonnet 4.5 and later.

Who this matters for

• Financial services — many US broker-dealers and banks have contractual or regulatory requirements for domestic data processing
• Healthcare — HIPAA-covered entities handling PHI via the API can now specify US-only inference as part of their compliance posture
• Government contractors — FedRAMP-adjacent deployments benefit from explicit geographic pinning

Workspace administrators can set a default inference geography for the entire organisation and restrict which geos individual API keys are permitted to use. Anthropic has indicated that an EU inference region is planned and will follow via a separate preview programme.

🧭 NASA JPL: Claude Planned the Perseverance Rover's First AI-Driven Drive on Mars

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has published details of the first AI-planned drives on another planet, executed on December 8 and 10, 2025. Claude used its vision capabilities to analyse stereo camera imagery from Perseverance, wrote commands in the rover's bespoke Rover Markup Language, and stitched together a 455-metre route across Martian terrain. JPL engineers reviewed and made minor adjustments before transmission, but the core planning was Claude's.

The team reports that Claude can halve the time required for route planning compared to fully manual methods. Each planning cycle previously required engineers to manually assess dozens of hazard images, calculate path geometry, and write RML commands — a process that could take several hours. The AI-assisted workflow compresses this to a review-and-approve loop.

🧭 Claude for Healthcare Expands Connectors — PubMed, CMS & NPI Registry

Following the January 11 launch of Claude for Healthcare at the JPMorganChase Healthcare Conference, Anthropic has shipped an expanded set of live data connectors. Claude can now pull data directly from PubMed (medical literature), the CMS coverage database (payer and coverage rules), and the National Provider Identifier Registry — enabling use cases around prior authorisation acceleration, care coordination, and regulatory submissions without leaving the conversation.

The Life Sciences tier gains a connector to Medidata's clinical trial platform, allowing researchers to access historical enrolment data and site performance metrics within a workflow. All healthcare deployments run on HIPAA-ready infrastructure, and Anthropic emphasises that PHI is not used for model training.