Anthropic said it detected and halted surveillance operations originating in China, Iran and West Africa between January and July 2026 that targeted dissidents, minorities and diaspora communities. The company said some entities used Claude to identify people and develop tools for gathering intelligence.
Anthropic detected attempts to use its models in research that could aid the development of biological weapons, as well as in designing conventional weapons and conducting surveillance and disinformation activities. The company said it was unable to determine the intentions of some researchers, but banned their accounts as a precaution without disclosing their identities or the institutions and countries linked to the biological research.
Google will issue a security update for the Chrome browser every two weeks instead of once every four weeks, coinciding with the release of version 153. The company says AI agents developed using the Gemini model helped detect and fix vulnerabilities, including one that remained hidden for more than 13 years.
Apple introduced the iPhone Duo with outer and inner displays, an A20 Pro chip, multitasking support and Apple Pencil compatibility. The device starts at $1,999, with preorders opening on October 16 and sales beginning on October 23.
A master's thesis by researcher Omar Amer tested artificial intelligence models' answers to 30 Sharia questions and identified errors and confusion between areas of Islamic jurisprudence, alongside answers that were broadly correct. It concluded that these systems can assist with research and indexing, but lack the qualifications to issue fatwas and should not independently issue religious rulings.
The expansion of artificial intelligence and distributed computing depends on a submarine cable network carrying more than 99% of international data traffic. The concentration of these cables in areas exposed to tensions, combined with the limited repair fleet and aging vessels, threatens to increase latency, reduce capacity and raise the operating costs of distributed systems when outages occur.
The “Does It Play?” movement organized a boycott of PlayStation services in late August to protest Sony’s plans to release games digitally only starting in 2028, as well as its position that store purchases are usage licenses rather than full ownership. The company has not announced an official position on the campaign, and no impact on it has emerged so far.
A report from China highlights the advancing capabilities of humanoid robots in sports and services, as authorities move to develop standards governing testing, applications and safety. The shift toward practical use is raising questions about who is responsible when malfunctions or accidents cause harm to people.
Google has renamed Lake Ontario “Lake America” on its mapping service for users in the United States, following the name change in U.S. government records. The original name will remain visible in Canada, while both names will be shown to users elsewhere in the world, amid opposition from Canadian and U.S. officials.
NASA launched the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center aboard a Falcon Heavy rocket for a planned five-year scientific mission that can be extended. The observatory will map a broad section of the universe, study dark energy and dark matter, and search for thousands of planets beyond the solar system.
US authorities seized internet domains they said were used by a Chinese state-backed group to target government agencies and critical infrastructure, including NASA and the Federal Reserve. Beijing rejected the allegations as disinformation in the latest episode of mutual accusations over hacking and cyberespionage operations.
Investment firms have closed cryptocurrency-linked funds or shelved plans for new products as prices and liquidity decline, while institutional investors increasingly focus on major coins and tokenized assets.
The spread of AI music-generation platforms is triggering disputes over song ownership, the use of copyrighted works to train models, and the impact of the flood of machine-generated tracks on artists’ earnings.
ChatGPT’s new voice mode uses the GPT-Live model to listen and speak at the same time, with 3 response levels and differences between free and paid plans, but it currently does not support screen or video sharing.
Economic and technological concerns are converging around the artificial intelligence boom, from inflated company valuations and debt-financed data centers to the prospect of higher interest rates and unexpected behaviors in advanced models.
Astronomers have discovered MoM-BH*-1, the most distant known “black hole star,” dating from an era when the universe was less than 660 million years old. Its detection by the James Webb Space Telescope could help explain the “little red dots” and improve understanding of the early growth of supermassive black holes.
Anthropic has added an invisible watermark to the text outputs of Claude models in response to European transparency rules, but said the watermark may disappear after heavy editing or translation, and tools to read it are not yet available.
Manufacturing experiments in microgravity are expanding to include drugs, semiconductors and optical fibers, with new investments and commercial platforms, while the industry faces challenges involving cost, scaling, regulation and space debris.
Recent measurements show that ordinary matter accounts for no more than about 4.9-5% of the universe, while dark matter makes up about 27% and dark energy roughly 68%, amid continuing international efforts to determine their nature and understand their impact on the evolution of the universe.
The film “Crime Code” traces the rise of the Sky ECC app and its use by criminal networks, followed by its hacking in an operation that led to the interception of nearly 1 billion messages, the prevention of 114 murders and the seizure of 121 tonnes of drugs. The case has sparked debate over the limits of privacy and the responsibility of encryption companies.
Researchers from the Arc Institute used the Evo artificial intelligence model to design bacterial viruses, and 16 genomes successfully produced viable viruses, raising hopes for medical applications as well as concerns about misuse.
Phone companies, including Huawei, Xiaomi and Honor, are adopting silicon-carbon batteries to increase energy density and provide greater capacities in thin devices, while performance durability and manufacturing costs remain among the biggest obstacles to widespread adoption.
At IBC2026 in Amsterdam, GatesAir will unveil the Maxiva XTK, a software-defined exciter and signal-processing platform supporting global standards for digital television and DAB/DAB+ radio and compatible with previous generations of transmitters.
Disney and TikTok have announced a global partnership to showcase selected clips created by fans of Disney properties on TikTok within Disney+, with the initiative set to launch on a pilot basis in the United States in the coming months.
The “Does It Play?” movement organized a boycott of PlayStation services in late August to protest Sony’s plans to release games digitally only starting in 2028, as well as its position that store purchases are usage licenses rather than full ownership. The company has not announced an official position on the campaign, and no impact on it has emerged so far.