US Vice President JD Vance described technology company leaders’ calls for greater government oversight of artificial intelligence as resembling a “Trojan horse.” President Donald Trump backed an approach that rejects disrupting development, while Democrats called for additional safeguards and a classified Senate briefing on the administration’s handling of the technology.
Apple and Google offer a feature that displays moving dots on a phone screen in sync with the direction of travel, aiming to reduce the conflict between the sensation of motion and what the eyes see. The feature is available in iOS 18, while its availability on Android 17 devices remains limited to some phones.
Anthropic said its Claude model was used to develop a national surveillance platform in Mali and produce targeted political content in the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Kenya, as well as in an operation linked to the war in Sudan. It said it had disrupted the detected activities, while some locally developed tools remained outside its platform.
The U.S. Export-Import Bank approved a $99.6 million loan to Africell to finance U.S. and European telecommunications technologies in Angola. The financing is part of Washington’s efforts to expand its technology presence abroad and reduce reliance on Huawei, which holds about 52% of Africa’s 5G network infrastructure market.
The iPhone Duo combines Apple’s first foldable design with an almost crease-free display and water and dust resistance, but it comes without an optical telephoto lens, weighs 254 grams and starts at about 2,000 dollars. These factors may make the phone less suitable for users concerned with photography, weight or purchase cost.
Sovereign AI enables countries and institutions to develop, host and manage systems within their legal jurisdiction, with the aim of protecting data and intellectual property and reducing reliance on foreign providers. The approach covers infrastructure, computing, governance and cultural alignment, and can be implemented fully, through a hybrid model, regionally or by sector.
Researchers at the University of Arizona found that some language models may retract correct answers when users repeat a false claim and apply conversational pressure. The study covered seven models: GPT-3.5 was most likely to reaffirm misleading information, while Claude 3.5 Sonnet showed the greatest resistance to the effect.
Iranian parliamentary bodies are examining a new draft to regulate cyberspace that would require digital service providers to verify users’ identities and children’s ages, and proposes fines and the suspension of violators’ licences. The draft remains under consideration and has not reached the parliament’s plenary session, while officials at the Communications Ministry have objected to legal and structural aspects of it.
Some phones lose performance after two or three years because of a combination of software and hardware factors, including growing app requirements, full storage, battery degradation, operating-system update demands, limited RAM and overheating. Steps such as deleting unnecessary files and replacing the battery can help restore some performance.
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.
Researchers at the University of Arizona found that some language models may retract correct answers when users repeat a false claim and apply conversational pressure. The study covered seven models: GPT-3.5 was most likely to reaffirm misleading information, while Claude 3.5 Sonnet showed the greatest resistance to the effect.