BitsServer

King Charles warns AI leaders of 'existential dangers' Britain's King Charles warned AI leaders on Thursday of the "existential dangers" posed by the technology falling into the wrong hands, saying safeguards were needed before it was too late. Charles was hosting the co-founders of chipmaker Nvidia and the Google DeepMind AI research laboratory, along with leaders from AI providers OpenAI and Anthropic, in Scotland as concern grows that safety efforts are lagging behind the development of increasingly powerful systems. In recent weeks, the debate has centred on whether the industry can and should regulate itself, drawing interventions from figures including Pope Leo, Charles and US President Donald Trump. Charles calls for controls ‘before it is too late’ Charles said artificial intelligence had the potential to improve and save lives, particularly in life sciences and medicine. But its creators were increasingl...

Chinese AI not powerful enough to see rogue-AI risks, says Huawei

Chinese AI not powerful enough to see rogue-AI risks, says Huawei Huawei's &zwnj;Eric Xu said Chinese AI developers may not yet be advanced enough to experience the safety risks reported by leading US firms, arguing they should continue developing more powerful models while balancing innovation against risk. "If we look at the mainstream AI model providers in the United States, because they have massive computing power, maybe only they themselves know where they are in terms of the level of their models," Xu, Huawei's rotating chairman, told reporters at the company's annual Connect conference in Shanghai. "Maybe the type of risk from AI that they can feel, ⁠they can perceive, is something that people in China or AI model providers in China cannot." US safety fears viewed with suspicion in China His comments come as alarm over AI safety has intensified in the United States, where le...

German court rules Meta liable for fake ads on Instagram, Facebook

German court rules Meta liable for fake ads on Instagram, Facebook A German court has ruled that Meta  is liable for fake advertisements posted by third parties on its Instagram and Facebook platforms, and ordered the &zwnj;U.S. tech giant to remove such content and pay damages, the court said on Thursday. The lawsuit was brought by the operator of a German financial portal and its founder, whose trademarked logo and image were ⁠used without consent in posts recommending investments allegedly with fraudulent intent. The portal operator reported nearly 260 violations to Meta in August 2024 alone; however, Meta took up to 62 days to remove some content, the court said. It ruled Meta could not rely on the Digital Services Act's lack-of-knowledge defence, because unlike purely chronological feeds, it exercises control over &zwnj;the ⁠content through its algorithms and advertising practices Read More: EU to ban social media for un...

US Senate blocks AI ‘kill switch’ bill amid debate over superintelligence risks

US Senate blocks AI ‘kill switch’ bill amid debate over superintelligence risks The US Senate on Wednesday blocked an effort by Senator John Kennedy to fast-track legislation requiring developers of advanced artificial intelligence systems to install an emergency “kill switch,” amid growing debate in Washington over the potential risks posed by increasingly autonomous AI. Kennedy, a Republican from Louisiana, sought unanimous consent to advance his AI Emergency Button Act, arguing that humans must retain the ability to shut down an AI system if it becomes uncontrollable, according to The Hill. “Well, I’ve got a bill, and it basically says that if you’re going to sell an advanced AI model in the United States of America, it has got to have a kill switch,” Kennedy said. He said the legislation would leave responsibility for activating the switch with the companies developing the systems rather than th...

Amazon's AWS is unable to restore access to Bahrain, one UAE cloud data zone after war damage

September 16, 2026

Amazon's AWS is unable to restore access to Bahrain, one UAE cloud data zone after war damage Amazon Web Services (AWS) cannot restore access to its cloud-computing facility in Bahrain and &zwnj;one of three data-hosting zones in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) following damage during the Iran war, according to a status update seen by Reuters on Tuesday. Amazon's cloud computing unit AWS said the damage in Bahrain spanned multiple so-called availability zones, which are clusters of one or more data centres in the same geographic region. "The damage to our infrastructure spanned multiple Availability Zones and exceeded what our regional and multi-AZ services are designed to withstand," AWS said in the status update, which Reuters was ⁠first to report. AWS said it was helping Bahrain-based customers to re-establish operations in other regions. In the UAE, AWS said it was unable to restore access to resources and data hosted exclusive...

EU to ban social media for under 13s, curb access until 15

September 16, 2026

EU to ban social media for under 13s, curb access until 15 The European Union will ban social media for children under 13 and allow only limited, supervised access until the age of 15 under plans unveiled Wednesday by EU chief Ursula von der Leyen. A global backlash against social media has piled pressure on policymakers, with a rising body of evidence showing negative impacts on children's physical and mental health. Australia last year became the first country to ban social media for under-16s, triggering a wave of similar moves elsewhere. The 27-country bloc would take a "gradual" approach, von der Leyen confirmed during her annual keynote address to the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France. "Each age has its own sensitivities. And therefore, each will have its own tailored protection level," she said. "No social media under the age of 13. No personal account under the age of 15," she said. &q...

OpenAI, Anthropic and Google are working to create an AI standards body

OpenAI, Anthropic and Google are working to create an AI standards body The world's biggest AI companies are working on creating a standards body, ChatGPT-maker OpenAI said on Tuesday, as fears rise about the dangers of AI and pressure is on to create a safer version of the technology. OpenAI said it was working with Anthropic and Google on an idea that originated from a proposal by Google DeepMind's Demis Hassabis for a self-regulatory body modeled after the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority that oversees US brokers and investment firms. In July, Hassibis called for the United States to create an organization that would test the most powerful AI systems before they are released to the public. "Funding would need to be substantial and likely mostly come from industry, in order to attract world-class technical talent and provide the necessary compute resources for large-scale testing," Hassabis wrote. There is no consensus on h...

China's laser tech leaps from vintage sci-fi film to worldwide industry

China's laser tech leaps from vintage sci-fi film to worldwide industry Many Chinese first learned the power of lasers in "Death Ray on Coral Island," China's first science-fiction feature after 1949. Released in 1980, the movie depicted Chinese scientists wielding a powerful laser to thwart a ruthless foreign syndicate attempting to steal their breakthrough energy technology and weaponize it to threaten the world. Now, laser launchers in China are deployed for a fresh battle: targeting weeds that threaten crops in the fields. In Heilongjiang, China's top grain-producing province in the northeast, tractors tow sets of laser modules across the plains. Employing an AI-powered system to identify and target weeds, the blade-like modules fire laser beams to kill unwanted plants without damaging crops or polluting soil. The all-weather intelligent equipment, China's first of its kind, was developed by HGTECH, a leading global...

Astrophysics study suggests Venus may have swallowed its moon

Astrophysics study suggests Venus may have swallowed its moon A California-based astrophysicist presented a new theory on Monday to explain why Venus, the planet most like Earth in size, mass and structure, lacks its own moon. Call it a case of celestial cannibalism. The extremely slow speed at which Venus rotates on its axis would have doomed any natural satellite that may once have orbited that planet to gradually spiral closer to its parent and ultimately be consumed in a cataclysmic smash-up. So goes the theory offered by scientists at the University of California, Riverside, and published on Monday in The Astrophysical Journal, marking a departure from past explanations for why Venus, the second planet from the sun, is without a lunar companion. "If it had a moon, and it likely did at some point, it could not have kept it," astrophysicist Stephen Krane, lead author of the study, told Reuters on Monday. "That moon would have crashed do...

US Space Force confirms weapons deployed in space for first time

US Space Force confirms weapons deployed in space for first time The United States (US) has weapons deployed in space, the US Space Force said on Monday, confirming the presence of such capabilities in orbit for the first time. "The US has on-orbit space control weapons capable of defending the Joint Force against hostile adversary action," a US Space Force spokesperson said in a statement that did not provide specifics on the weapons. "Space control encapsulates the mission areas required to contest and control the space domain – employing kinetic and non-kinetic means to affect adversary capabilities," the statement said, adding that "these capabilities can be employed for offensive and defensive purposes". Both Russia and China — the two main geopolitical rivals of the United States — pose potential threats to US interests in space. Read: China urges US to halt m...

Ex-Google DeepMind researcher adds to warnings that AI could 'kill all humans'

Ex-Google DeepMind researcher adds to warnings that AI could 'kill all humans' A former Google DeepMind employee on Monday became the latest AI researcher to warn that the technology could "kill all humans", saying time could be running out to avoid the outcome. Public alarm about the potential danger posed by AI is growing, after Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon said last week he had resigned, in part because the "people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade." Anthropic scientist Evan Hubinger then responded to Coxon's comments, saying he was correct and that he believed there was a greater than 10% chance that AI could kill all humans within the next decade. "I recently resigned from Google DeepMind, where I worked on AGI safety and alignment research," Bilal Chughtai wrote on X. "I earnestly believe that AI h...

Anthropic faces scrutiny over AI rules, data practices

September 14, 2026

Anthropic faces scrutiny over AI rules, data practices China has criticised calls by leading US technology executives to slow the development of artificial intelligence (AI), rejecting claims that rapid Chinese advances in the technology pose a grave security threat to the world. “Fearmongering, confrontation and vicious competition will only disrupt the process of global AI governance and serve the interests of no one,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said at a regular briefing in Beijing on Monday. “The development of artificial intelligence bears on the common well-being of all humanity,” he added, responding to questions about calls to slow the development of frontier AI models and warnings that a Chinese advantage in the field could pose a danger to the world. “Fomenting various threats, engaging in confrontation and malicious competition will only disrupt the process of global governance of artificial inte...

China's Xi pitches open-source AI zone for BRICS

September 14, 2026

China's Xi pitches open-source AI zone for BRICS China will lead the creation of an open-source artificial intelligence zone for BRICS countries, President Xi Jinping has proposed, placing access to AI technology, large language models and digital skills at the heart of Beijing’s broader push to reshape global technology governance. Addressing the BRICS summit in New Delhi, Xi unveiled an “open-source and inclusive AI initiative” under which China would pioneer a BRICS AI open-source community, support cooperation in developing and applying large language models, and organise specialised AI seminars and training courses. The objective is to build an “open ecosystem” in which BRICS members can cooperate on AI development and applications rather than remain dependent on technology controlled by a handful of companies and countries. China is turning open-weight models into an international technological public good. ...

OpenAI's Altman won't do IPO this year, calls AI extinction risk 'unacceptable'

September 13, 2026

OpenAI's Altman won't do IPO this year, calls AI extinction risk 'unacceptable' OpenAI will not go public in 2026, Chief Executive Sam Altman said in remarks published &zwnj;on Saturday, citing safety concerns over artificial intelligence that render "unacceptable" even a 10% risk that AI could cause human extinction by decade's end. The comments come as more U.S. lawmakers urge new rules to govern AI systems after dire warnings from two researchers from OpenAI rival Anthropic that rapidly progressing AI could lead to the extinction of the human race in the not-too-distant future. "I actually think that, given everything happening with safety, right now would be an ill-advised moment to go public, and we don't feel pressure on that," Altman told business magazine Fortune. Asked if there ⁠was a 10% chance of AI-driven extinction, Altman said he did not know how such an estimate could be made, bu...

China's Z.AI raises $5 billion from new share, convertible bond sales, filing shows

September 13, 2026

China's Z.AI raises $5 billion from new share, convertible bond sales, filing shows Beijing-based artificial intelligence company Z.AI Co Ltd raised a total of $5 billion from a Hong Kong share placement of about $2 billion and a concurrent convertible &zwnj;bond sale of about $3 billion, the company said in a Hong Kong stock exchange filing on Sunday. Z.AI launched the sales on Friday, offering 21.97 million new Hong Kong shares at HK$714 ($91.05) each, a 10% discount to Friday's closing price of HK$793. The company also raised 20.14 billion ⁠yuan ($3 billion) of zero-coupon bonds due in September 2027, the filing showed. The yuan-denominated bonds will be settled in US dollars. The bonds were issued at 100.5% of their face value, the filing showed. The initial conversion price is HK$892.50, a 25% premium to the HK$714 share placement price. Z.AI can redeem all, but not part, of the bonds from February 18, 2027, if its shares trade at or abov...

New iPhone Duo gives the internet a new reason to make memes

New iPhone Duo gives the internet a new reason to make memes Apple may have unveiled what it called one of the biggest changes in iPhone history, but the internet had already found a more important use for the new device: making fun of it. With the iPhone Duo set to hit stores on October 23, social media wasted little time reviving an annual tradition that arrived almost as reliably as the new iPhone itself: memes about our old phones suddenly becoming ancient, questionable spending decisions and the eternal question of whether we actually needed the upgrade in the first place. This time, however, Apple had given the internet something new to work with after launching the $1,999 passport-shaped foldable phone, called Duo. The iPhone Duo was the company’s first iPhone designed to open in half, marking a major departure from the familiar smartphone design. Apple called it “the biggest change in iPhone history since the original model”. An...

Anthropic says Yemen fighters used AI to seek guided weapons

Anthropic says Yemen fighters used AI to seek guided weapons A group in Yemen attempted to use Anthropic's Claude chatbot to build guided rockets and missiles, the US firm has revealed, as Iran-backed Houthi rebels are on the offensive in the country. In a report published Thursday on how it had prevented illegal uses of Claude in several countries, Anthropic said it had "identified a cell of threat actors based in northern Yemen running three weapons development programs". Those were "a guided rocket that used a commodity phone-class flight computer with final-phase homing guidance; a multi-stage ballistic missile with a stated range goal above 2,000 kilometres (1,250 miles); and a multi-variant missile... that included a hypersonic glide vehicle variant". The cell used Claude to develop guidance, navigation and control software for the airborne weapons that would have otherwise required a team of engineers. "We ...

More US lawmakers seek new AI rules after Anthropic researchers warn of human extinction

More US lawmakers seek new AI rules after Anthropic researchers warn of human extinction Growing numbers of US lawmakers are calling for new rules to govern AI systems after dire warnings from two Anthropic researchers that rapidly progressing artificial intelligence could lead to the extinction of the human race in the not-too-distant future. Alarm about the potential harm from AI grew this week when Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon said he had resigned, and that the "people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade." Anthropic scientist Evan Hubinger chimed in, saying Coxon was correct. "We really do earnestly believe AI could kill all humans," Hubinger wrote on X. "I personally think it is >10% within the next decade." Jacob is correct here—we really do earnestly believe AI could kill all humans! I personally think it is >10% within the next deca...

China, Iran among countries that have used AI to aid spying, Anthropic says