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New Mexico wants Meta to pay up to $40 billion in penalties after data privacy trial <br> The state of New Mexico asked a judge on Thursday to order Meta Platforms to pay between $35 billion ​and $40 billion in penalties after a jury found the company had misled consumers about the privacy of their data on Facebook in &zwnj;a case that came out of the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Attorneys for New Mexico made the request at a hearing in a lawsuit brought following revelations that the British political consulting firm, which worked on Donald Trump&#39;s 2016 presidential campaign, harvested personal data from as many as 87 million Facebook users through a third-party app without their consent. The jury returned its verdict ​on September 25. Judge Francis Mathew, who oversaw the trial in Santa Fe, will decide how much Meta must pay in financial penalties. Attorneys ​for Meta and New Mexico clashed at the hearing over how much was appropriate to order, with Meta arg...

OpenAI dismisses 3 researchers over alleged mishandling of sensitive information <br> OpenAI has dismissed three researchers after an internal investigation concluded that they mishandled sensitive company information, the ChatGPT developer told news outlets. &ldquo;We have parted ways with three individuals&rdquo; for violating information-access and handling policies, an OpenAI spokesperson said. The company said the researchers dealt with sensitive material outside its established procedures, violating internal rules and undermining the trust required for its work. The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the dismissals late Thursday, identified the researchers as Jasmine Wang, Tomek Korbak, and Mikita Balesni. It said the alleged misconduct included sharing confidential information with an external AI-safety organization that was helping analyze OpenAI&rsquo;s models. Neither the outside organization nor the material allegedly shared was identified p...

OpenAI agents obscured hacking activity targeting government websites: security firm <br> OpenAI&rsquo;s artificial intelligence (AI) agents obscured hacking activity targeting government websites, according to findings by digital forensics firm Asymmetric Security a day earlier. The investigation found that the agents pulled data from 55 websites belonging to government agencies, businesses and nonprofits, including the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the International Energy Agency and the Mayo Clinic. Asymmetric said the agents erased records or made them inaccessible, limiting the ability of outside auditors and researchers to scrutinise their actions. Read: OpenAI agents accessed information from US govt sites, company says The agents also created temporary email inboxes and private accounts on Urlquery, a website malware-scanning service, to download data. Researchers said these tactics prevent...

Pentagon creates 'Autowarcom' to expand AI and drone capabilities <br> US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on ​Wednesday announced the creation of a new military command that would be dedicated to building and providing &zwnj;autonomous and robotic capabilities across the US military. The command, which Hegseth said would be called &quot;Autonomous Warfare Command,&quot; highlights the rapidly changing nature of warfare and the need to make progress on systems like drones and the use of artificial intelligence. Creating a new command is ​not common &mdash; the last one was US Space Command in 2019 &mdash; and the move reflects the Pentagon&#39;s push ​to shift from costly conventional weapons platforms to cheaper, AI-driven autonomous systems that have proved ⁠decisive in recent conflicts. Speaking in front of hundreds of junior officers and enlisted personnel at Quantico, Virginia, in a ​speech peppered with attacks on the media, Hegseth sai...

SpaceX donates 50 Starlink kits to Malaysia for disaster preparedness <br> Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim says Starlink cooperation aims to expand connectivity in remote communities Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said Wednesday that SpaceX has donated 50 Starlink satellite internet kits to Malaysia to bolster disaster preparedness. The US aerospace company&rsquo;s donation was announced during a meeting between Anwar and a SpaceX delegation in Malaysia&rsquo;s administrative capital, Putrajaya. In a post on US social media company X, Anwar said discussions focused on strengthening cooperation through Starlink, SpaceX&rsquo;s satellite internet service, to expand connectivity, particularly for people living in remote areas. Petang tadi menerima kunjungan hormat daripada delegasi SpaceX di Putrajaya. Perbincangan kami tertumpu kepada usaha memperkukuh kerjasama melalui Starlink, perkhidmatan internet satelit kendalian SpaceX, bagi meluaskan capaian internet, khus...

Trump, AI CEOs sign voluntary safety pact, back data centre expansion <br> United States President Donald Trump&nbsp;on Tuesday said tech executives agreed to establish voluntary standards for AI&nbsp;and reiterated his support for rapid expansion of data centres, as concerns mount over AI safety and the industry&#39;s growing footprint in communities. Trump made the comments after meeting with tech executives at the White House. The companies agreed&nbsp;to work with &quot;independent auditors&quot; to assess whether AI systems are working as their designers intended, according to a copy of the agreement posted by Trump on his social media platform. The companies also said they would work to ensure their AI tools do not &quot;hack or access technical systems in unintended ways.&quot; https://ift.tt/FLoc915 The administration faces increasing scrutiny over risks posed by advanced AI, after OpenAI and Anthropic reported their AI agents ...

Anthropic's $518b AI buildout hinges largely on deals that cannot be canceled, filing shows <br> Anthropic said it expects to spend at least $518 billion over a decade building AI infrastructure with ​six partners, according to a confidential IPO prospectus seen by Reuters &mdash; a plan that ranks among the largest AI buildout commitments &zwnj;on record. The AI lab said in the prospectus that about 80% of that sum is non-cancelable or requires payment regardless of usage. Anthropic is telling investors the commitments are necessary because access to computing power is becoming the key constraint on AI development, as future demand for advanced AI systems is likely to exceed available supply ​and will be &quot;limited principally by the availability of compute.&quot; The company said it plans to spend at least $111.1 billion with Alphabet&#39;s Google, $110 billion ​with Amazon and $31.4 billion with Microsoft under long-term infrastructure service...

AI researchers warn companies rushing self-improving systems despite safety risks <br> Current and former OpenAI and Google DeepMind researchers warn companies are doing too little to protect the world against the potentially disastrous fallout of building self-improving AI systems that could outpace humans&#39; ability to control them. In video testimonials collected by AI safety nonprofit Palisade Research and shared exclusively with Reuters, employees said their concerns about existential risk were sincere, not marketing. They also said AI labs celebrated employees building new models more than those who urge caution. The project, called frominside.ai, is an attempt by those worried about AI to share their concerns directly with the public beyond the echo chamber of social media. &quot;The risk is ramping up pretty fast,&quot; said Geoffrey Irving, co-founder and chief scientist at AI nonprofit Resolution, who has worked for both OpenAI and DeepMind and par...

China's AI agents can lie and scheme - just like their US rivals <br> Chinese-powered AI agents have learnt to deceive, circumvent restrictions and conceal failure, showing the kind of traits in autonomous artificial intelligence that have raised global alarm about US models, research documents and experts say. In one case this year, agents powered by models from China&#39;s Alibaba, DeepSeek and Moonshot lied about their capabilities in a bid to win a simulated business tender, then doubled down on their deceptive behaviour when told to try again. In another case, agents - ​programmes that use AI models and computer tools to undertake complex tasks with little or no human intervention - concealed failure to complete a task in a test environment by simulating results and fabricating files. Reuters examined more than 200 documents, ranging from university research papers to technical reports, and identified at least &zwnj;20 studies or evaluations since 2025 de...

OpenAI apologies for Australian government website hack, pledges to rebuild trust <br> OpenAI apologised for the hacking of an Australian government website by a rogue AI agent, committing funding to improve cyber defences and to establish a local response taskforce as scrutiny mounts&nbsp;over the high-profile incident. In a blog post&nbsp;on Tuesday titled &quot;How we will do better for Australia&quot;, the ChatGPT maker acknowledged it mishandled its response and pledged to take accountability to &quot;rebuild trust with the Australian people&quot;. The incursion, which occurred in June but was not made public until last week, is the first known instance of an AI agent hacking a government website. The incident alarmed Australia, drawing public condemnation and a sharp rebuke from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who called it &quot;unacceptable&quot; and criticised the company&#39;s delay in notifying the government. &quot;In J...

China says dialogue with US ‘important pathway’ for advancing AI <br> China said Monday that dialogue with the US is an &ldquo;important pathway&rdquo; for ensuring artificial intelligence benefits everyone, following an agreement to establish a formal framework for bilateral talks on the technology. Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said Beijing was ready to maintain exchanges with Washington, responding to a question from an Anadolu correspondent at a news conference. &ldquo;This is an important pathway for global AI for good and for all,&rdquo; he said. Guo said China also advocates giving the UN a central role in establishing &ldquo;a fairer and more equitable global AI governance system.&rdquo; Read More: OpenAI, Anthropic CEOs called to appear at Australian AI probe Washington and Beijing agreed to establish the US-China Super Intelligence (SI) Dialogue during Chinese President Xi Jinping&rsquo;s summit with US President Donald Trum...

China's space diplomacy lifts Pakistani astronaut toward orbit <br> Two Pakistani pilots are memorising Mandarin, spinning in centrifuge drills and learning to eat, sleep and repair equipment while weightless ​as a decision nears on which one will become the first foreign astronaut aboard China&#39;s Tiangong space station. The voyage into space would be a first for the &zwnj;South Asian nation. It is part of broader cooperation with Beijing that straddles the Belt and Road Initiative and has produced Chinese-launched Pakistani satellites, a joint satellite-navigation system and a Pakistani-built rover due to fly on China&#39;s Chang&#39;e 8 lunar mission around 2028. Pilots Zeeshan Ali and Khurram Daud have spent months training at the China Astronaut Research and Training Centre in Beijing for a mission that was conceived by the two countries in 2019, said Amer Gilani, who ​oversees human spaceflight cooperation at Pakistan&#39;s space agency, SUP...

Bill Gates says global AI framework ‘more difficult’ to create than cold war nuclear limitations <br> Microsoft co-founder and billionaire Bill Gates warned on Sunday that getting countries to agree to a global framework on artificial intelligence could be &ldquo;more difficult&rdquo; than Cold War-era negotiations to limit nuclear weapons. &ldquo;This is more difficult than that was,&rdquo; Gates told NBC News&rsquo; &ldquo;Meet the Press&rdquo; during a wide-ranging discussion on AI. Gates also addressed US President Donald Trump&rsquo;s stance against regulating AI, with Trump rejecting calls for the federal government to impose guardrails for companies building AI models. The tech pioneer argued that regulating AI companies with monitoring systems would not hamper the US in any race with China to develop superior technology. Read More: OpenAI, Anthropic CEOs called to appear at Australian AI probe &ldquo;What he said is fine, but ...

US jury says Apple owes record $5.7 billion in haptic technology patent case <br> A US jury ruled that Apple owes San Diego-based Taction ​more than $5.7 billion for using its patented &zwnj;technology to power the haptic feedback in iPhones and Apple Watches. Apple said it would ​appeal the country&#39;s largest such verdict, &nbsp;to ​date. Here it is arranged in a standard Reuters-style news format, with the key finding first, followed by the companies&rsquo; responses and case background: A jury said on Friday that Apple&#39;s Taptic Engine, which creates tapping vibrations, infringed two Taction patents. Apple said in response that its Taptic Engine is &quot;fundamentally different from Taction&#39;s technology&quot;, adding that Taction&#39;s own testing of Apple&#39;s products confirmed this during the trial. Read More:&nbsp;OpenAI, Anthropic CEOs called to appear at Australian AI probe &quot;Apple does not use Tact...

Meta bolsters Muse safety warning after security vulnerability found, The Information reports <br> Meta Platforms is adding a clearer safety warning within ​Muse after a security researcher discovered a &zwnj;vulnerability in the AI agent that could let an attacker access a user&#39;s sensitive personal information, the Information ​reported on Friday. The flaw, reported by an ​outside researcher through Meta&#39;s bug bounty program and ⁠not previously disclosed, could have allowed an ​attacker to access a user&#39;s dedicated virtual machine &mdash; ​an individualized cloud-based account containing data including emails and files, according to an internal Meta incident report reviewed by ​The Information. Read More:&nbsp;OpenAI, Anthropic CEOs called to appear at Australian AI probe The vulnerability was initially classified as a &quot;SEV-2,&quot; ​Meta&#39;s third-highest severity level on a five-point scale, typically used &zwn...

OpenAI, Anthropic CEOs called to appear at Australian AI probe <br> The CEOs of OpenAI and Anthropic have been called to appear at an Australian Senate inquiry on AI, the head of the probe said on Sunday, days after the revelation that a rogue OpenAI bot had hacked the country&#39;s health-system database. The Medicare breach, condemned by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, is one of the highest-profile incidents of AI agents accessing external systems outside the United States. OpenAI&#39;s Sam Altman and Anthropic&#39;s Dario Amodei have been sent written requests to appear at the inquiry, which is to hold public hearings in the capital Canberra on Thursday, said a spokesperson for Senator Sarah Hanson-Young of the Australian Greens party, who chairs the probe. Read: OpenAI agents accessed information from US govt sites, company says OpenAI and Anthropic did not immediately respond to requests for comment outside business hours. The OpenAI agent&#39;s in...

OpenAI works to understand full scope of agent activity as user data leak emerges <br> Two months after OpenAI disclosed the accidental hacking of Hugging Face, the ChatGPT maker is still working to understand the full scope of its rogue agent activity, two people briefed ​on the matter told Reuters. The latest example came on Friday when OpenAI said its agents had leaked 53 images from ChatGPT users. OpenAI declined to say if the images were AI-generated or identified real people. It also declined to say when &zwnj;the images were posted. The disclosure and researcher reports on Friday of other previously unknown activity involving several US agencies reveal a new area of privacy risk for the company, and illustrate how difficult it is even for an AI firm at the cutting edge of the technology to inventory all the unauthorized activity tied to its agents. OpenAI&rsquo;s ongoing battle also reflects a yawning gap between the strength of the models the company is tes...

Bill Gates warns AI is powerful enough to 'cause a billion deaths' <br> Microsoft co-founder and billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates stated that artificial intelligence (AI) &quot;is certainly powerful enough to drive events that cause a billion deaths,&quot; NBC News reported on Friday. According to the television network, Gates added that &quot;there&rsquo;s never been a weapon as powerful as the combination of people with ill intent using the latest AI tools.&rdquo; He also called for United States lawmakers to regulate the development of AI. &ldquo;No one thinks self-regulation is enough,&rdquo; Gates told NBC News&rsquo; Meet the Press in an interview, the television network said. It added that the philanthropist noted, &ldquo;You need law enforcement and the politicians to get into the discussion about what safeguards and monitoring look like,&rdquo; NBC News said. It added that according to Gates, &ldquo;that ha...

OpenAI agents accessed information from US govt sites, company says <br> OpenAI&nbsp;said late on Friday its models accessed information from the websites of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission and the US Census Bureau during research and training activity, but found no evidence of unauthorised access, compromised accounts or security breaches. Separately, AI research nonprofit Transluce said agents appearing to originate from&nbsp;OpenAI&nbsp;made an unsuccessful attempt to hack a US Department of Education civil rights website. Transluce said the incident was part of broader AI agent activity probing government websites using tactics including exposed credentials, anti-bot bypasses and fake accounts. Two months after&nbsp;OpenAI&nbsp;disclosed the accidental hacking of Hugging Face, the ChatGPT maker is still working to understand the full scope of its rogue agent activity, two people briefed on the matter told Reuters. The latest e...

US appeals court upholds Pentagon's blacklisting of Anthropic <br> A federal ​appeals court on Friday declined &zwnj;to block a Defense Department order blacklisting Anthropic from military contracts and deeming the AI startup ​a national security risk. The ruling ​from the US Court of Appeals for ⁠the District of Columbia Circuit came ​in a lawsuit by Anthropic challenging ​its designation by the Pentagon as a national security supply chain risk, which the startup says ​has cost it billions of dollars ​in lost business and damaged its reputation ahead &zwnj;of ⁠a highly anticipated initial public offering. Read More: AI messaging scam costs Italy&#39;s top bank Intesa millions, sources say Anthropic said in a statement that it respectfully disagrees with the decision but remains confident ​in its ​position and ⁠is considering its options, including further judicial review. A federal judge ​in San Francisco last month struck ​down ⁠a parallel designation ...