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2286 articles · page 46 of 48 · The Tech front page

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Security

Hackers Exploit Critical Gitea Vulnerability in Code Injection Attacks, CISA Warns

A critical-severity vulnerability in Gitea, the self-hosted Git service, is being actively exploited by attackers in code injection attacks, according to a warning from the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). The flaw allows remote threat actors to inject malicious code into repositories, potentially compromising source code, CI/CD pipelines, and developer credentials. CISA has added the vulnerability to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, signaling an urgent need for organizations to apply patches.

Crypto

BlackRock Reportedly Slashes Bitcoin ETF Swap Minimum to $1 Million, Opening Door for Smaller Whales

BlackRock has reportedly cut the minimum size for in-kind swap transactions in its iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) from $5 million to $1 million, according to a report on Wednesday. The move lowers the barrier for bitcoin whales — large holders of the cryptocurrency — to exchange their self-custodied bitcoin directly for ETF shares, a process that could deepen liquidity and broaden institutional participation in the largest spot bitcoin ETF by assets under management.

AI

Billionaire Investor Stanley Druckenmiller Admits Using AI to Write Viral Op-Ed Criticising Treasury Secretary

Billionaire hedge fund investor Stanley Druckenmiller has disclosed that he used artificial intelligence to write a widely circulated Wall Street Journal op-ed sharply criticising US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s intervention in the bond market. Druckenmiller, a former mentor to Bessent, told reporters he was “proud of using it” – a revelation that has sparked renewed debate about transparency and authenticity in opinion journalism as AI tools become increasingly sophisticated.

Hardware & Devices

Google Unveils Eighth-Generation TPU Family at Hot Chips 2026, Splitting Training and Inference

At Hot Chips 2026, Google revealed its eighth-generation Tensor Processing Unit (TPU) family, including the TPU 8t for training and the TPU 8i for inference. The new chips mark a departure from previous unified designs, as Google continues to develop its own custom hardware for AI workloads, positioning itself as one of the few hyperscale cloud providers to build training-specific accelerators.

AI

OpenAI Infrastructure Head Departs Amid Ongoing Executive Exodus

OpenAI has lost another senior executive, with a top data center executive departing the company in the latest of a series of high-profile exits. The departure comes shortly after an internal restructuring that moved the executive's reporting line away from President Greg Brockman to Vice President Sachin Katti, signaling potential shifts in the company's strategic leadership of its critical infrastructure operations.

· 2 sources
AI

Anthropic unifies Claude and Cowork memories, letting AI assistants share what they know about you

Anthropic announced Tuesday that its Claude chatbot and Cowork assistant now share a unified memory system, meaning personal details and preferences learned through conversations with one AI are automatically available to the other. The change, which also moves memory creation to real-time during chats, is enabled by default for free, Pro, and Max tier users, with no built-in option to keep memories separate.

Hardware & Devices

Meta Unveils Ambitious Roadmap for Custom AI Inference Accelerators at Hot Chips 2026

Meta Platforms has revealed its roadmap for the next generation of its Meta Training and Inference Accelerator (MTIA) family at the Hot Chips 2026 conference, outlining plans to release four new custom AI inference accelerators over the next two years. The move signals a significant escalation in the company's efforts to reduce dependence on commercial GPU suppliers and tailor hardware to its specific workloads.

Programming

Shopify CEO’s Threat to Ban Claude Code Moot as Anthropic Had Already Closed Feature Request

New information reveals that Anthropic had already closed the feature request for AGENTS.md before Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke threatened to ban Claude Code from the platform, raising questions about whether the dispute was based on a stale issue. Separately, Anthropic this week added a native browser to Claude’s Cowork desktop app, marking the company’s latest move to reduce reliance on third-party extensions.

· 2 sources
Hardware & Devices

FDA authorizes first wearable device that continuously monitors ketones and blood sugar

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has authorized the first wearable device capable of continuously monitoring both ketone levels and blood glucose, a milestone that could expand how patients with diabetes and people on ketogenic diets track their metabolic health. The agency announced the clearance on August 25, 2026, saying the device provides real-time data that previously required separate fingerstick tests or multiple sensors.

Tech

Gamescom Opening Night Live 2026 Showcases Major Game Reveals Ahead of GTA VI Launch

Geoff Keighley's Gamescom Opening Night Live kicked off on Tuesday with a packed two-hour showcase featuring world premieres of heavily anticipated titles, including Final Fantasy VII Revelation, a new Witcher 3 expansion titled Songs of the Past, Gears of War: E-Day, and a Game of Thrones strategy game. The event arrives just weeks before Grand Theft Auto VI's November 19th release, a launch many publishers are deliberately avoiding by front-loading their fall schedules.

Hardware & Devices

OpenAI’s First In-House Chip ‘Jalapeño’ Outperforms Nvidia GB300 in Efficiency Benchmarks

OpenAI unveiled benchmarks for its first in-house inference ASIC, Jalapeño, at the Hot Chips conference on Tuesday, claiming it outperforms Nvidia’s flagship GB300 in throughput per kilowatt and latency by significant margins. The chip, co-developed with Broadcom in a nine-month design cycle, is slated for deployment in OpenAI’s own data centers later this year, marking a strategic shift toward vertical integration amid a tight HBM memory market.

AI

Meta's AI ad delivery skews New Zealand political ads by gender, analysis finds

An analysis by Radio New Zealand has found that many political ads run on Meta's platforms in New Zealand reached almost exclusively men—or, for the Green Party, exclusively women—prompting concerns that AI-driven ad delivery, rather than deliberate party strategy, is deciding who sees political messaging. Researchers say the findings highlight an urgent need for transparency in algorithmic political advertising.

AI

Israel-Funded 'Synthetic Think Tank' Floods Internet with AI-Generated Content to Influence Chatbot Responses

A newly created think tank, the Hanover Institute for Public Policy, has published over 100 AI-generated articles in less than a month as part of a campaign funded by Israel to influence the results of AI-powered search engines and chatbots, according to a report from 404 Media. The effort, first flagged by Politico, represents a novel and concerning use of automated propaganda to exploit the way large language models (LLMs) train on web content.

Hardware & Devices

Samsung unveils LPDDR5X-PIM memory with on-chip AI processing at Hot Chips 2026

Samsung has introduced the industry's first LPDDR5X memory with processing-in-memory (PIM) capability, claiming up to 3.01x speed gains for AI inference and 8x bandwidth improvement over standard LPDDR5X. The new technology, detailed at the Hot Chips 2026 conference, embeds simple logic directly into each memory bank to perform basic calculations locally, reducing reliance on a central processor and cutting power consumption.

Hardware & Devices

Hot Chips 2026: Intel Reveals Deep Architecture of Crescent Island Inference Accelerator, Microsoft Unveils Maia 200

At this year's Hot Chips symposium, both Intel and Microsoft provided new architectural details on their respective AI inference accelerators: Intel's Crescent Island and Microsoft's Maia 200. Intel's presentation focused on the Xe3P architecture powering its 350W air-cooled PCIe card, while Microsoft detailed its second-generation server-side inference processor, signaling a growing competitive landscape in energy-efficient AI hardware.

· 2 sources
Hardware & Devices

Intel's Wildcat Lake Budget Chip Pioneers UCIe Interconnect for Cost Savings

Intel revealed at the Hot Chips 2026 conference that its budget Wildcat Lake processor, built on the advanced 18A node, uses the Universal Chiplet Interconnect Express (UCIe) standard to connect compute and I/O dies. This is the first time Intel has deployed UCIe in a low-cost part, a move the company says was essential to keep the chip affordable while still using cutting-edge IP. The processor is positioned as a competitor to Apple's MacBook Neo.

Security

Iranian Cyberattacks on US Water Systems May Escalate, Opinion Piece Warns

In a stark opinion piece published on The Hill, cybersecurity expert Tal Kollender warns that Iran is not waiting for the end of its current conflicts to probe and attack US water systems, asserting that these assaults are just the beginning of a broader campaign against American critical infrastructure. The piece, which does not cite specific new incidents, urges US officials to treat the threat as an ongoing and escalating challenge.

Security

Massive DDoS Attack Cripples Norway’s Government Digital Services

A large-scale distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack has disrupted Norway’s shared government digital infrastructure since Monday, August 25, 2026, knocking out multiple services relied upon by the public sector and potentially affecting citizens' access to government portals. Norwegian authorities are scrambling to mitigate the ongoing assault, which experts describe as one of the most disruptive cyberattacks against the country’s administrative backbone in recent years.

Security

Oracle Patch Overload: 1,449 Fixes Missed Critical Flaw — Attack Exploited Legitimate Database Feature

A cyberattack exploiting an Oracle database's legitimate Java functionality has exposed a critical security gap that even all 1,449 patches released in late July would not have prevented. Security firm Huntress documented the credential theft incident, highlighting that attackers used a 'simple' SQL injection on a public-facing web application to upload a post-exploitation toolkit called khunt directly into the database engine via its embedded Java Virtual Machine. Experts say the breach, while not an Oracle vulnerability, underscores the dangers of misconfigured database features and an over-reliance on patching over basic security hygiene.

Hardware & Devices

OpenAI Unveils Jalapeño Chip, Claims AI-Redesigned Architecture Achieves Major Performance Gains

OpenAI has published the first benchmarks for its custom Jalapeño chip, revealing significant improvements in throughput and latency specifically designed to address the compounding delays that occur when AI agents operate in sequence. The chip, developed in just nine months, was reportedly built with code partly rewritten by AI systems, marking a milestone in both hardware engineering and automated design.

AI

OpenAI’s Custom ‘Jalapeño’ Chip Outperforms Current AI Hardware in Inference Benchmarks

OpenAI’s custom-designed inference chip, codenamed ‘Jalapeño,’ has posted leading results on the independent InferenceX benchmark, delivering more tokens per user and higher throughput per kilowatt than any currently available state-of-the-art hardware, the company revealed this week. The benchmark, run by the analyst firm SemiAnalysis, positions Jalapeño as a potential disruptor in the increasingly competitive AI chip market, though critics caution that real-world deployment and integration remain untested.

· 2 sources
Hardware & Devices

Apple Unveils M5 Ultra and M6 Chips, Touting 'Most Powerful Chip Ever'

Apple has introduced the M5 Ultra and M6 processors, calling them its most powerful chips to date, alongside refreshed versions of the Mac Mini and Mac Studio. The August 25 announcement, first reported by TechCrunch, continues Apple’s strategy of designing custom silicon for its Mac lineup, aiming to deliver significant performance gains for professional and consumer users alike. Specific performance benchmarks and pricing details have not yet been released.

AI

GPT-5.6 Sol Designs Custom CPU and Runs Doom Inside Game 'Turing Complete'

An AI computing enthusiast known as Angel (@Angaisb_) has used OpenAI's GPT-5.6 Sol model to design a custom CPU, dubbed Codex-R32, entirely from primitive logic components within the sandbox game Turing Complete, and successfully booted a port of the original 1993 Doom on it. The feat, shared on X (formerly Twitter) on August 23, 2026, showcases the model's ability to construct a virtual computer system accurate enough to run real software, though at a non-playable frame rate.

Crypto

Chainalysis-Led ‘Operation Lighthouse’ Flags 7,700 Crypto Accounts in Child Abuse Probe

A public-private initiative coordinated by blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis has identified more than 7,700 suspect accounts tied to child sexual abuse material (CSAM) after combing through transactions on 11 cryptocurrency exchanges and payment services, the company announced Tuesday. Dubbed Operation Lighthouse, the effort produced 14,300 investigative leads that have been shared with law enforcement agencies globally.

Security

Thousands of Enterprise Servers at Risk From Hardware-Level BMC Vulnerabilities

Security researchers have identified vulnerabilities in Baseboard Management Controllers (BMCs) — specialized processors embedded in server motherboards that enable remote, out-of-band management — potentially exposing thousands of enterprise servers to hardware-level compromise. The flaws could allow attackers to gain persistent control over affected systems, bypassing traditional operating system defenses.

Hardware & Devices

Asus Xbox Ally X20 Standalone OLED Handheld Now Available for Pre-Order at $1,300

Asus has officially launched the standalone version of its Xbox Ally X20 handheld gaming PC, priced at $1,300, with pre-orders open now and shipping on October 15. The device, which features a larger OLED screen and a 20th-anniversary translucent gold-trim design, was previously announced only as part of a bundle with expensive AR glasses, a requirement the company has now dropped following customer feedback.

Hardware & Devices

Nvidia Details Vera CPU at Hot Chips: 88-Core Chip Targets Agentic AI, Outpaces AMD EPYC in Early Benchmarks

Nvidia has disclosed new performance benchmarks and architectural details for its Vera CPU at the Hot Chips 2026 conference, positioning the 88-core chip as a purpose-built processor for agentic AI workloads. The company claims Vera runs a headless browser workflow 24% faster and compiles the Linux kernel 22% faster than AMD's top-end 96-core EPYC 9655P, while revealing that AMD's own executives were 'very happy' to see the results — suggesting the competitive landscape is far from settled.

· 2 sources