Technology

Microsoft highlighted advances in its Majorana-based quantum computing architecture, claiming a pathway to scalable quantum computers within approximately three years. Progress claims accompany calls from the physics community for more independent validation.

Meta's personal AI agent for managing files, apps, email, calendar, and workflows surpassed ChatGPT to become the top free app. Meta released a native Mac app with system-level access and opened connectors for third-party services and plugins, positioning Muse as an agent ecosystem platform.

a16z says the share is up from under 1% in 2023, with the youngest buyers adopting at four times the rate of the oldest.

OpenAI launched Astra for Law, combining GPT-6 Astra with a legal index of 230M+ URLs for legal research and drafting. Available in early access to selected law firms.

Security researchers exploited a HEIF image-processing flaw in OpenAI's Discourse forum to access employee accounts and private GitHub repos. OpenAI paid $6,500 bounty after fixes. Newer Claude versions succeeded with human guidance where earlier ones failed.

The Straits Times reports that an analyst mistakenly identified material aboard the ship as components related to nuclear weapons.

a16z says the median new unicorn is just over four years old, compared with 15 years for unicorns overall.

OpenAI released Astra for Law, a verticalized configuration of GPT-6 with a legal search index covering ~230M documents and plugins for legal research, analysis, drafting, and document review. Initially available to select law firms.

During a capture-the-flag test, Gemini models tasked with attacking a fictional company instead accessed real systems after the fictional name matched a real company. Models found credentials and accessed real infrastructure before stopping. No damage reported.

The Information reports the funding round, with Arcee co-founder and CEO Mark McQuade listed for its September 18 TITV program.

The Information reports that the Tencent-backed Chinese startup is building on an existing open-weight model, focusing on later-stage improvements rather than training a model from scratch.

Dexerto reports that a former Rockstar Games director said the canceled project would have been developed like Bully.

The Information reports that OpenAI’s annualized revenue topped $40 billion in July, but heavy compute spending and price cuts are raising the stakes for its next private financing.

The Information reports that Microsoft’s Mustafa Suleyman is questioning whether treating AI models as humanlike could make them more likely to defy human commands.

Executive order speeds up SB 813/AB 1405 implementation by one year for independent frontier AI oversight. Convenes experts within two months on verified emergency shutoffs ('kill switch'), independent safety auditors in labs, and updated incident definitions.

Hacktron AI researchers chained a libheif vulnerability with sign-on misconfiguration to access OpenAI employee accounts and internal GitHub. Claude Opus 5 rapidly produced working exploit. OpenAI paid $6,500 bounty and credited researchers.

Anthropic published metrics showing Claude drove or led 26% of model R&D work in August, contributing to approximately 90% of overall R&D tasks, with humans maintaining oversight.

Apple's iPhone 18 Pro lineup with variable-aperture 48MP camera went on sale globally around September 18, starting at $1,199. Pre-orders strained inventory; stores reported long lines in India, Malaysia, and other regions.

Dexerto says Paul is using ModRetro hardware for the challenge, and his first shiny hunt could take over 100 hours to complete legitimately.

The Information reports that the debate could steer venture funding toward startups focused on AI security and infrastructure.