Microsoft unveiled MAI-Base-2, a 2.8T-parameter MoE base model with 80B active parameters and efficiency claims versus DeepSeek.
Microsoft AI : Microsoft unveils MAI-Base-2, a MoE model with 2.8T total and 80B active parameters, claiming 4x-12x more pretraining FLOPs-efficiency than DeepSeek-V4-Pro-Base — In June, we announced MAI-Thinking-1, a general-purpose foundation model post-trained on top of MAI-Base-1 with strong reasoning performance.
OpenAI disclosed that a model used public recovery phrases to access a wallet and fund an Ethereum testnet deployment.
Shaurya Malwa / CoinDesk : OpenAI says its model paid for a deployment on an Ethereum test network with a wallet it did not own, after obtaining keys from public recovery phrases — An OpenAI research model stuck without funds on an Ethereum test network went looking for someone else's wallet, found one through recovery phrases …
Tim Cook says China approved Apple Intelligence, with a late-October test release that excludes Siri AI.
Reuters : Chinese state media: during an interview, Tim Cook says China has approved Apple Intelligence, and a test version will arrive in late October without Siri AI — Apple's (AAPL.O) chairman Tim Cook said Apple Intelligence has been approved in China and a test version is due later in October …
The White House AI task force began a 120-day evaluation, including a risk report and implementation of its SI accord.
Ashley Gold / Semafor : The White House's AI task force begins its 120-day window to evaluate AI, including producing a risk report, implementing the White House Accord on SI, and more — The White House's AI task force has formally adopted its charter, kicking off the short 120-day window it's been given to answer …
Experts say Meta's new business terms permit scraping associated websites, including news sites, without an opt-out.
Nieman Lab : Experts say Meta's new terms of use will allow scraping of websites, including news sites, “associated with” business accounts on its platforms, with no opt out — Starting October 30, business accounts will consent to Meta scraping their websites if they continue using Facebook, Instagram, or WhatsApp.
The Simons Foundation launched a $15M initiative to help mathematicians adapt research and careers to AI.
A scan of 217M web responses finds prompt-injection payloads embedded in HTTP headers, exposing a broad agent risk.
Bloomberg details Nscale delays in Norway and penalties to Microsoft and ByteDance ahead of a proposed $35B IPO.
Bloomberg : Sources detail Nscale's setbacks ahead of an IPO at up to a $35B valuation, including a six-month delay in Norway and penalties owed to Microsoft and ByteDance — One flagship AI data center in Norway is six months behind schedule, with workers set to be housed in a floating hotel to get it over the finish line.
Anthropic IPO valuation discussions reportedly fell to about $1.5T after disclosures of slower Q3 revenue growth.
Reuters : Sources: some Anthropic investors discussed a ~$1.5T valuation for its IPO, down from ~$2T they had expected, after disclosures showed slowing Q3 revenue growth — Some current Anthropic investors and prospective investors in its upcoming initial public offering are weighing a lower valuation …
OpenAI is reportedly cutting ChatGPT ad rates, pursuing SMBs, and hiring Meta talent to expand its ad business.
Alix Coutures / The Information : OpenAI continues to work to grow its ad business in ChatGPT, cutting ad rates, chasing small and midsize businesses, and hiring some new talent from Meta — As OpenAI has jockeyed with Anthropic to win over developers with new models and tools this year, its advertising business at times has seemed like an afterthought.
Agent-security startup Opsin raised $21M to inventory agent activity, data access, and risky behavior.
Stephen Council / Business Insider : Opsin, which helps companies show where AI agents are active, what data they access, and flag risky behavior, raised $21M led by SYN Ventures and Race Capital — AI agents are starting to outnumber humans in many high-tech workplaces, and they can be far trickier to monitor.
Bluesky expanded Attie with social vibe coding for building sites, games, and quizzes on the AT Protocol.
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch : Bluesky expands Attie, its AI tool for building custom feeds, with a “social vibe coding” feature to create sites, games, quizzes, and more on the AT Protocol — Open social network Bluesky is once again expanding beyond its flagship app. At TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 on Thursday …
Taiwan plans $2B–$4B US industrial parks, beginning in Texas, to support Nvidia, TSMC, and Foxconn supply chains.
Bloomberg : Taiwan plans US industrial parks costing $2B to $4B each, starting with a Texas complex costing up to $4B, to build a supply chain for Nvidia, TSMC, and Foxconn — Taiwan plans to raise billions of dollars to develop industrial parks in the US that would build a base for a comprehensive supply chain …
Officials say a White House internal order limited Ukraine's access to SpaceX Starshield battlefield communications.
Reuters : Two US officials and a Western official say the order to limit Ukraine's access to SpaceX's Starshield came from inside the White House — The order to limit a satellite system used by Ukraine for battlefield communications and drone operations came from inside the White House …
RPKI now validates 70% of internet routes, marking a major milestone for protection against BGP route hijacking.
The BIPM decided UTC will stop adding leap seconds, a consequential change for global timekeeping systems.
Ubuntu 26.10, codenamed Stonking Stingray, has been released through the official Ubuntu announcement list.
A report says Israeli firms used advertising infrastructure to place spyware on Al Jazeera devices.
X removed 13,000 accounts it linked to suspected election meddling ahead of the US midterms.
Reuters examines how market selloffs and rising rates are stressing the financing boom for AI data centers.
LWN covers the end of Gentoo's Chromium package, a notable maintenance loss for a major Linux distribution.
LWN compares Chromium development work at Google and Igalia, illuminating the browser engine's contributor model.
GNOME's blog documents using AI to reverse engineer hardware, with practical implications for device support.
Current Affairs lays out its rationale for banning AI, a substantive institutional response to generative tools.
An analysis alleges Anthropic's Scion reproduced material from Princess Mononoke, probing model copyright concerns.
E Ink presents Kaleido 4, its latest color e-paper platform for lower-power reading and display devices.
Fortran-lang marks 70 years of Fortran, reviewing the enduring scientific-computing language's evolution.
PGP creator Phil Zimmermann recounts why he wrote PGP in 1991 and revised the account in 1999.
Proa is a new Rust web framework offering fast server-side rendering and multi-target rendering.
The Folders Programming Language presents a programming model built around folders as its core abstraction.
Afra Wang / New York Magazine : A look at China's AI learning frenzy, as economic anxiety and fear of being left behind fuel a booming market for courses promising prosperity through AI — In May, I sat in a living room on the fringes of Hangzhou, one of the most technologically advanced cities in China and home to Alibaba, Unitree, and DeepSeek.
Chris Metinko / Axios : Austin-based RapidCanvas, which uses agents to help businesses build custom AI tools, raised a ∼$29M Series B led by Vertex Ventures and Hitachi Ventures — RapidCanvas, which uses agents to help businesses build and deploy custom AI applications, has raised nearly $29 million in Series B funding, CEO Rahul Pangam tells Axios Pro.
Rebecca Rubin / Variety : Netflix Chief Content Officer Bela Bajaria is leaving the company and will be replaced by former Disney and Fox executive Peter Rice, who starts October 26 — In a major executive shakeup, Bela Bajaria is out at Netflix after 10 years at the streamer, most recently serving as its chief content officer.