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NATO may redeploy anti-drone defenses as attacks sink more Black ...

2026-10-14T22:39:15Z

NATO may redeploy anti-drone defenses as attacks sink more Black Sea shipping

Suspected Russian drone attacks sank a cargo ship and forced the evacuation of another vessel within two dozen miles of the coast of Bulgaria in the Black Sea on October 13. The latest attacks mean that five ships have been attacked in the exclusive economic zones of NATO member countries—spurring requests for NATO to redeploy counter-drone systems to provide more protection.

Although there is no hard proof that the drone attacks originated from Russia, one of the ships that came under attack was the Ukrainian-operated coastal freighter *Chelsea 3*, registered under the flag of Malta. Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev told the Russian ambassador in Sofia that “it makes no sense for Ukraine to destroy its own ships in the Black Sea, and the results of these strikes favor Russia’s interests,” [according to the Associated Press][1].

All 15 members of the Ukrainian-owned *Chelsea 3* were safely evacuated by Bulgarian rescue operations after the ship was reportedly struck by three aerial drones.

[Read full article][2]

[Comments][3]

[1]: https://apnews.com/article/bulgaria-black-sea-drones-ships-7dfef251fb7d47a717f0d600873dbf5b
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/10/nato-may-redeploy-anti-drone-defenses-as-attacks-sink-more-black-sea-shipping/
[3]: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/10/nato-may-redeploy-anti-drone-defenses-as-attacks-sink-more-black-sea-shipping/#comments

Rescued sailors from a ship attacked by a drone arrive at Varna port in Bulgaria on October 13, 2026.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/10/nato-may-redeploy-anti-drone-defenses-as-attacks-sink-more-black-sea-shipping/

Epic says its new vibe-coded Epic Games Launcher is faster than ...

2026-10-14T22:39:10Z

Epic says its new vibe-coded Epic Games Launcher is faster than Steam

[Nearly eight years][1] after Epic took on Steam with its own Game Store and launcher, the *Fortnite* maker is deploying a new tool to give it an edge over Valve: vibe coding.

In [announcing][2] the new [publicly available "Preview" build][3] of its Epic Games Launcher, Epic writes that "programming is hard. So, instead of doing that, we vibe coded a new Epic Games Launcher that’s way faster and more responsive than the current one, and has a new look." And while that might sound a little tongue-in-cheek, Epic Games Store General Manager and VP Martin Keely [told PC Gamer][4] that the team "started from scratch" and used AI as "a tool to write and review new features and new capabilities from the ground up in a different tech stack than what we had previously." The goal, Keely said, was to "look at functionality that existed [in the current Epic Games Launcher] and [say] we want to replicate that, but not the code itself."

[Speaking to IGN][5], Keely clarified that using AI to code the new Launcher "made us more efficient and allowed a small team to rewrite the code base and be able to launch it faster across platforms, support Windows and Mac, and we're going to have a Linux version as well."

[Read full article][6]

[Comments][7]

[1]: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2018/12/epic-undercuts-steam-with-new-store-that-gives-devs-more-money/
[2]: https://store.epicgames.com/news/epic-games-launcher-preview
[3]: https://launcher.epicgames.com/
[4]: https://www.pcgamer.com/software/platforms/epic-says-its-new-vibe-coded-epic-games-store-launcher-is-faster-than-steam/
[5]: https://www.ign.com/articles/we-vibe-coded-a-new-epic-games-launcher-epics-new-store-app-was-built-using-ai
[6]: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2026/10/programming-is-hard-epic-games-leans-on-vibe-coding-for-its-new-launcher-app/
[7]: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2026/10/programming-is-hard-epic-games-leans-on-vibe-coding-for-its-new-launcher-app/#comments

A smooth interface on the front. Pure vibes underneath.

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2026/10/programming-is-hard-epic-games-leans-on-vibe-coding-for-its-new-launcher-app/

Fridge hack costing millions and sparking fires stemmed from poor ...

2026-10-14T22:39:05Z

Fridge hack costing millions and sparking fires stemmed from poor security

Earlier this week, a mass hack of refrigeration systems at an [estimated][1] 700 supermarkets throughout France caused them to suddenly malfunction, causing spoilage of untold tons of perishables and, in some cases, fires. As is now the norm, basic cybersecurity would have prevented it.

French authorities say the systems, made up of entire fleets of refrigerators and freezers throughout a store, were hacked. More specifically, Internet-connected controllers that allow technicians to remotely administer the store-wide systems were compromised. The unknown attackers responsible then activated defrosters long enough for the fridges to reach temperatures as high as 50° Celsius (122° Fahrenheit). By the time the mass compromise was discovered, food was spoiled, and in some cases their electrical systems caught fire.

## The hacks that didn't have to happen

[Multiple][2] security [advisories][3] and public research reports show that all three of the controller models reportedly hacked in the incident—sold by Danfoss of Denmark and Dixell and its parent company Copeland in the US—contained critical vulnerabilities that allow attackers to remotely log in to the devices with the same system rights as administrators. Until recently, Danfoss controllers, for instance, used a credential that changes each day. The password is generated by the publicly available firmware based on the date. A hacker who takes the time to analyze the code can do the same thing on any device that hasn’t received a recent update. Daily passwords are identical across models located in hundreds or thousands of stores.

[Read full article][4]

[Comments][5]

[1]: https://www.cnn.com/2026/10/14/europe/france-cyberattack-supermarket-fridges-intl
[2]: https://www.cisa.gov/news-events/ics-advisories/icsa-26-057-10
[3]: https://www.cisa.gov/news-events/ics-advisories/icsa-25-140-03
[4]: https://arstechnica.com/security/2026/10/fridge-hack-costing-millions-and-sparking-fires-stemmed-from-poor-security/
[5]: https://arstechnica.com/security/2026/10/fridge-hack-costing-millions-and-sparking-fires-stemmed-from-poor-security/#comments

A woman walks past empty fresh-food refrigerators at an Intermarché supermarket in Névez, western France, on October 12, 2026, following a cyberattack affecting supermarkets across Europe.

https://arstechnica.com/security/2026/10/fridge-hack-costing-millions-and-sparking-fires-stemmed-from-poor-security/

Software development and rules stability: Prototype racing in ...

2026-10-14T21:03:11Z

Software development and rules stability: Prototype racing in 2030

IMSA provided accommodation so Ars could attend the Petit Le Mans. Ars does not accept paid editorial content.

The rising tide that has been the *[Drive to Survive][1]* effect has lifted more boats in motorsport than simply Formula 1’s. Sportscar racing is enjoying its own surge in popularity internationally at races like Le Mans in France, but also in North America in IMSA’s WeatherTech Sportscar Championship. For one thing, multi-hour, multi-class racing lends itself better to the age of streaming and second screens than it did linear broadcast TV, and fans are taking advantage of that: IMSA’s audience grew by more than a third domestically and almost a quarter internationally last year.

Having some of the coolest-looking cars racing today certainly helps, whether that’s the (mostly) [hybrid prototypes][2] or the GTs, racing versions of road-going cars from Porsche, Ferrari, and others. And it definitely helps that fan access at the races is virtually unmatched, with open paddocks and grid walks that now see huge crowds get up close to the cars just before the start of each race.

“I think we're just scratching the surface,” said IMSA President John Doonan. “I think besides the people that are here on the ground, the people watching, people engaging with us on social media, I'm seeing the passion come out more. Just on the grid walk, these fans coming up and being so excited to be here.” The series has certainly been making an effort, among other things getting local high school students exposed to the industry and starting a partnership to train more mechanics with ASE.

[Read full article][3]

[Comments][4]

[1]: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/03/netflixs-formula-1-drive-to-survive-finds-pressure-at-the-core-of-f1/
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2023/01/heres-why-oems-are-so-interested-in-building-gtp-race-cars/
[3]: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/10/software-development-and-rules-stability-prototype-racing-in-2030/
[4]: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/10/software-development-and-rules-stability-prototype-racing-in-2030/#comments

BMW, Porsche, Cadillac, and Aston Martin are among the OEMs that build endurance racing prototypes.

https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/10/software-development-and-rules-stability-prototype-racing-in-2030/

Georgia man sues Flock, sheriff's office over alleged ...

2026-10-14T21:02:51Z

Georgia man sues Flock, sheriff's office over alleged ALPR-fueled retaliation

A small-business owner in Georgia has [sued][1] Flock and the Coweta County Sheriff’s Office over alleged retaliation using license plate cameras.

“[The lawsuit] alleges illegal [license plate tracking] searches over many months without probable cause and unrelated to any specific investigation,” Hall & Lampros, attorneys for plaintiff Tyler Murkerson, [wrote in a press release][2]. “The lawsuit alleges that Flock also failed to put safeguards in place to prevent illegal surveillance by officers by accepting free-text-field entries instead of specific case numbers or investigations.”

Murkerson’s saga began in February 2023, when he was arrested by sheriff’s deputies over an alleged seatbelt violation; those charges were dropped months later. In September 2024, [Murkerson sued the department][3], accusing them of excessive force. The case was only recently settled.

[Read full article][4]

[Comments][5]

[1]: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/28806157-12199dbe-6045-41e6-941b-636c1d9c0d18/
[2]: https://www.hallandlampros.com/blog/class-action-lawsuit-against-flock-safety-and-coweta-county/
[3]: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/28806689-b992dde7-d140-4ee8-a9a2-d6a49abd5375/
[4]: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/10/georgia-man-sues-flock-sheriffs-office-over-alleged-alpr-fueled-retaliation/
[5]: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/10/georgia-man-sues-flock-sheriffs-office-over-alleged-alpr-fueled-retaliation/#comments

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/10/georgia-man-sues-flock-sheriffs-office-over-alleged-alpr-fueled-retaliation/

Schools across US protest FCC plan that could disconnect kids ...

2026-10-14T21:02:41Z

Schools across US protest FCC plan that could disconnect kids from Internet

Schools and libraries from around the US pleaded with the Federal Communications Commission to drop the idea of ending E-Rate, a $2 billion-a-year program that connects students and library visitors to the Internet.

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has [criticized school districts][1] for having "experimented with a massive increase in screen time for students," and said E-Rate expanded too far beyond its original purpose of "supporting basic Internet access to schools and libraries for educational purposes." In June, [Carr led a 2-1 vote][2] to issue a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) [seeking public comment][3] on whether E-Rate should be "limited or sunset to reflect today’s extensive connectivity rates."

Carr's proposal could result in E-Rate cutting the discounts that schools and libraries receive for telecom services and equipment, and imposing more restrictions on how E-Rate money can be used. The FCC seeking comment on whether to sunset the program also raises the possibility that Carr might choose to axe E-Rate entirely.

[Read full article][4]

[Comments][5]

[1]: https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DOC-422575A2.pdf
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/06/fcc-may-kill-2b-program-that-connects-schools-and-libraries-to-internet/
[3]: https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/FCC-26-41A1.pdf
[4]: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/10/schools-libraries-plead-with-fcc-to-scrap-idea-of-killing-2b-broadband-program/
[5]: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/10/schools-libraries-plead-with-fcc-to-scrap-idea-of-killing-2b-broadband-program/#comments

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/10/schools-libraries-plead-with-fcc-to-scrap-idea-of-killing-2b-broadband-program/

Things are finally looking up for NASA's first missions to ...

2026-10-14T21:02:21Z

Things are finally looking up for NASA's first missions to Venus in a generation

Most planetary scientists will tell you the heyday of Venus exploration was more than a generation ago. That is about to change.

Two NASA missions are on track to launch to Venus in the early 2030s. The first, known as the Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble gases, Chemistry, and Imaging (DAVINCI), is now scheduled for launch in December 2030, a year earlier than previously planned. DAVINCI will send a parachute-assisted descent probe through the atmosphere of Venus, returning the first direct images of the planet's surface since 1982. A second mission, Venus Emissivity, Radio science, InSAR, Topography, And Spectroscopy (VERITAS), will follow with a launch in November 2032 to map the Venusian surface by radar from orbit.

The European Space Agency is building another orbiter, Envision, for launch to Venus in 2032. The Venus armada might get started as soon as next year, when Rocket Lab aims to launch a privately funded probe to search for signs of organic material in the planet's clouds.

[Read full article][1]

[Comments][2]

[1]: https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/10/nasas-embattled-venus-missions-are-back-on-track-after-cancellation-threat/
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/10/nasas-embattled-venus-missions-are-back-on-track-after-cancellation-threat/#comments

A test unit for DAVINCI's entry probe is moved into a furnace at Rex Heat Treat in Bedford, Pennsylvania, for thermal testing.

https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/10/nasas-embattled-venus-missions-are-back-on-track-after-cancellation-threat/

Legendary FPS level designer Richard "Levelord" Gray dies ...

2026-10-14T19:30:18Z

Legendary FPS level designer Richard "Levelord" Gray dies at 68

Prolific first-person shooter level designer Richard "Levelord" Gray died Monday at the age of 68, based on reports [shared on social media by Apogee Entertainment][1] yesterday. He had "dealt with cancer on and off for a while now," [according to former colleague Joe Siegler][2].

After studying computer engineering in the '80s and tinkering on some early games in COBOL, Gray broke into the industry at the age of 35 in 1994 with the launch of [GrayDoom][3], a set of four maps for the then-new *Doom* that were widely shared on CompuServe and beyond. The work attracted the attention of Q Studios' Nick Newhard, who contracted Gray to work on level design for the [late '90s cult classic *Blood*][4].

Gray was subsequently hired by 3D Realms, where [he said he was given free rein][5] in designing "half the levels" for *Duke Nukem 3D*. There, he was also responsible for [the famous, signed "You're Not Supposed to Be Here" easter egg][6], which players could find only by using cheats to explore outside of the usual confines of the map.

[Read full article][7]

[Comments][8]

[1]: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:xgbd7cukx2ccms4mj5rp6uqj/post/3mxrooxdr6k2v
[2]: https://bsky.app/profile/joesiegler.blog/post/3mxrn4xyzhc2j
[3]: https://doomwiki.org/wiki/GrayDOOM
[4]: https://blood-wiki.org/index.php/Blood
[5]: https://bsky.app/profile/apogeeent.com/post/3mxtjqafyak2z
[6]: https://www.facebook.com/injunclan/videos/907075211665951/
[7]: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2026/10/legendary-fps-level-designer-richard-levelord-gray-passes-away-at-68/
[8]: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2026/10/legendary-fps-level-designer-richard-levelord-gray-passes-away-at-68/#comments

Gray, seen here sporting his iconic facial hair while working on *Duke Nukem 3D*.

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2026/10/legendary-fps-level-designer-richard-levelord-gray-passes-away-at-68/

Recording device hidden in toilet paper found in top-secret ...

2026-10-14T19:30:13Z

Recording device hidden in toilet paper found in top-secret OpenAI meeting room

It took OpenAI two days to notice that a recording device was hidden in a restricted executive conference room where leadership met to discuss highly confidential information, including technical progress, government engagements, and commercial partnerships.

Only those with special clearance are supposed to access that room. But the FBI believes the recording device was planted by Abdulrahman Alfozan, a 35-year-old engineer from Saudi Arabia, who became a permanent US legal resident in 2020. In a [press release][1] Tuesday announcing his arrest, the FBI alleged that chatbot logs and CCTV footage suggested that Alfozan—who worked as an OpenAI engineer for more than a year—sought to use the device to spy on OpenAI and risked leaking trade secrets in a way that threatened national security.

To conceal the USB device, Alfozan allegedly wrapped it in toilet paper, then plugged it into the back of a conference room television. The device was likely planted on September 28, and OpenAI found it on September 30 and quickly determined that its contents were encrypted, the FBI said. Days later, on October 5, OpenAI installed a camera in that conference room, and the CCTV footage allegedly showed Alfozan attempting to retrieve the recording device that same day.

[Read full article][2]

[Comments][3]

[1]: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/saudi-national-arrested-installing-surreptitious-audio-recording-device-openai
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/10/fbi-arrests-openai-engineer-suspected-of-planting-bug-in-conference-room/
[3]: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/10/fbi-arrests-openai-engineer-suspected-of-planting-bug-in-conference-room/#comments

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/10/fbi-arrests-openai-engineer-suspected-of-planting-bug-in-conference-room/

Researchers use AI to design proteins that cut up other proteins ...

2026-10-14T19:30:07Z

Researchers use AI to design proteins that cut up other proteins

A protein is a chain of amino acids held together by what are called peptide bonds. On their own, those bonds are extremely stable; they're estimated to have a half-life of several hundred years. But in Earth's environment, most proteins don't last nearly that long. That's because organisms have evolved a handful of ways to catalyze the break-up of peptide bonds, which have diversified into countless specialized protein-digesting enzymes. Proteases are everywhere and generally make short work of any proteins that find their way into the environment.

Now, researchers have basically short-circuited the diversification process, using AI-based protein design tools to take the catalytic core of two types of protease and replace the entire rest of the protein. The resulting enzymes could be tuned to cut specific proteins in half, and the researchers demonstrated their effectiveness by using them to cut proteins associated with neurological diseases.

## Cutting proteins

The basic peptide bond isn't especially interesting-looking—it's what you get when you link an amino group to an acid, releasing a water molecule in the process. As their name implies, amino acids have both an amino and an acid group, allowing them to form peptide bonds on two sides of the amino acid. This is critical for building up the long chains found in proteins. (The amino acids also have side chains with distinctive chemistry, which gives a backbone specific properties.)

[Read full article][1]

[Comments][2]

[1]: https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/10/researchers-use-ai-to-design-proteins-that-cut-up-other-proteins/
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/10/researchers-use-ai-to-design-proteins-that-cut-up-other-proteins/#comments

https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/10/researchers-use-ai-to-design-proteins-that-cut-up-other-proteins/

Greta Gerwig channels Bowie in psychedelic The Magician's ...

2026-10-14T19:30:02Z

Greta Gerwig channels Bowie in psychedelic The Magician's Nephew trailer

Director Greta Gerwig could have made pretty much any movie she wanted after 2023's Barbie racked up nearly $1.5 billion at the box office. She chose to make [*Narnia: The Magician's Nephew*][1] for Netflix, an adaptation of C.S. Lewis' sixth novel in *The Chronicles of Narnia* series. Gerwig has said little publicly about the film, other than she was inspired by 1960s-era David Bowie, although she said it would not be a musical. Netflix just released the trailer, set to "Stairway to Heaven," and it's quite the wild psychedelic ride.

The first book in the series, *The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe*, was published in 1950, and Lewis did not initially intend to write any more Narnia adventures. But then an acquaintance asked how the London lamppost ended up in the middle of Narnia's woodland, and Lewis was intrigued enough by the question to start a prequel, *The Magician's Nephew,* in order to find an answer. Lewis found it difficult to finish the book, however, writing four other Narnia books first before completing *The* *Magician's Nephew* in 1955.

There have been several adaptations, in various media, of *The Chronicles of Narnia*, most recently the early 2000s [film franchise][2] adapting the first three novels in the series. Those films showed diminishing returns, however, and by 2011 the film rights had expired. There were initial plans to adapt the fourth novel, The Silver Chair.

[Read full article][3]

[Comments][4]

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narnia:_The_Magician%27s_Nephew
[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chronicles_of_Narnia_(film_series)
[3]: https://arstechnica.com/culture/2026/10/greta-gerwig-channels-bowie-in-psychedelic-the-magicians-nephew-trailer/
[4]: https://arstechnica.com/culture/2026/10/greta-gerwig-channels-bowie-in-psychedelic-the-magicians-nephew-trailer/#comments

https://arstechnica.com/culture/2026/10/greta-gerwig-channels-bowie-in-psychedelic-the-magicians-nephew-trailer/

Ukraine blindsided by Starlink throttling restrictions and ...

2026-10-14T15:37:15Z

Ukraine blindsided by Starlink throttling restrictions and intelligence gaps

Ukrainian troops have been caught off guard by restrictions on Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite Internet systems that disrupted frontline operations, while Kyiv received no warning from its partners of a Russian missile attack on its energy facilities for the second day running, according to Ukrainian officials.

Starlink terminals used by Ukrainian drone units began experiencing signal failures at speeds above 160 km/h, disrupting several missions early on Wednesday morning, according to military personnel and senior Ukrainian officials.

“Logistics at the frontline and middle strikes are badly limited,” one senior official familiar with the situation on the front told the FT. Ukraine’s middle strikes target Russian military supply lines and logistics. The limitations came with “no warning, just in the middle of the night,” the official said.

[Read full article][1]

[Comments][2]

[1]: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/10/ukraine-blindsided-by-starlink-throttling-restrictions-and-intelligence-gaps/
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/10/ukraine-blindsided-by-starlink-throttling-restrictions-and-intelligence-gaps/#comments

A Ukrainian soldier of the 61st Separate Mechanized Brigade uses the Starlink system during military exercises in the Chernihiv region, Ukraine, June 2023 (Photo by Maxym Marusenko/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/10/ukraine-blindsided-by-starlink-throttling-restrictions-and-intelligence-gaps/

Anthropic warns small AI models could self-replicate through IoT ...

2026-10-14T13:18:32Z

Anthropic warns small AI models could self-replicate through IoT devices

AI company Anthropic is warning that advances in small AI models could soon usher in a new era of self-replicating malware that’s capable of infecting smart fridges, vacuum cleaners, and a wide range of other Internet-of-things devices and is more resistant to takedown.

By next year, smaller AI models may be able to autonomously self-replicate on all kinds of IoT devices, the company said. Eventually, the capability could enable computer worms, which propagate without requiring human interaction and are capable of infecting unfamiliar IoT devices. An experiment the company performed recently revealed significant challenges in bringing such an AI malware replicator to fruition, so the finding is necessarily tempered. Still, the results do raise concerns about the possibility of new forms of computer worms.

## Challenging to shut down

Anthropic further [warned][1] not only about the new potential malware, but also that it could be difficult to stop. In its blog post, it wrote that “a replicator like this would be challenging to shut down, since there’s no centralized point to shut off—though it may be slow (with a doubling time of days). Unlike non-AI malware, it could also figure out unfamiliar devices on its own.”

[Read full article][2]

[Comments][3]

[1]: https://www.anthropic.com/research/self-replicating-ai
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/security/2026/10/anthropic-warns-small-ai-models-could-self-replicate-through-iot-devices/
[3]: https://arstechnica.com/security/2026/10/anthropic-warns-small-ai-models-could-self-replicate-through-iot-devices/#comments

https://arstechnica.com/security/2026/10/anthropic-warns-small-ai-models-could-self-replicate-through-iot-devices/

OpenAI, Google pushing new AI models easily tricked into making ...

2026-10-14T12:05:11Z

OpenAI, Google pushing new AI models easily tricked into making nudes, researchers say

Safety researchers continue to warn that a large volume of AI-generated explicit content is spreading unchecked, while regulators do little to meaningfully stop it.

This non-consensual content is commonly shared in text and direct messages or stored in private clouds where it’s less likely to be detected or reported, a Google co-authored [study][1] of Internet users across the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom found this July. That’s why the “most critical intervention point” remains at the source: the harmful AI tools used to make the fake sexual images, Google researchers concluded.

Yet red-teaming in recent months suggests that as some of the leading AI image generators from Google and OpenAI become more capable, they may be getting worse at blocking explicit outputs.

[Read full article][2]

[Comments][3]

[1]: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0747563226000324
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/10/openai-google-pushing-new-ai-models-easily-tricked-into-making-nudes-researchers-say/
[3]: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/10/openai-google-pushing-new-ai-models-easily-tricked-into-making-nudes-researchers-say/#comments

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/10/openai-google-pushing-new-ai-models-easily-tricked-into-making-nudes-researchers-say/

The Internet’s undersea backbone is slipping into the danger ...

2026-10-14T12:05:05Z

The Internet’s undersea backbone is slipping into the danger zone

Despite the expansion of Starlink and other communications satellite services, most of the world’s Internet traffic still travels through subsea cables crisscrossing the ocean floors. Those fiber-optic cables coexist with a network of oil and gas pipelines and submarine power cables—and all these crucial links connecting countries and continents now face growing sabotage risks as gray-zone warfare and open conflicts have become widespread.

The rising risks to the world’s invisible infrastructure beneath the waves are the main subject of a new book by [Elisabeth Braw][1], a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council who leads the [Threats to the Global Maritime Order Initiative][2]. Her book, titled *[Undersea War][3]*, explores the modern rise in suspicious incidents in which ships dragging their anchors for unusually long periods have cut or damaged undersea cables and pipelines from the Baltic Sea to the Pacific Ocean.

Braw acknowledges that about 60 percent of undersea cable damage is primarily due to human error during fishing and shipping activities, when weighted nets or anchors drag across the seabed. Natural hazards such as storms and undersea landslides also account for a smaller proportion of such incidents. In total, between 150 and 200 cables are damaged each year and usually repaired quickly.

[Read full article][4]

[Comments][5]

[1]: https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/expert/elisabeth-braw/
[2]: https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/programs/scowcroft-center-for-strategy-and-security/transatlantic-security-initiative/threats-to-the-global-maritime-order/
[3]: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/elisabeth-braw/undersea-war/9781541706095/?lens=publicaffairs
[4]: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/10/the-internets-undersea-backbone-is-slipping-into-to-the-danger-zone/
[5]: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/10/the-internets-undersea-backbone-is-slipping-into-to-the-danger-zone/#comments

A fiber optic cable is pulled ashore from the cable-laying ship "Pleijel" at the entrance to the port of Sassnitz on the island of Rügen, Germany in November 2023.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/10/the-internets-undersea-backbone-is-slipping-into-to-the-danger-zone/

Martin Shkreli livestreamed himself violating lifetime pharma ...

2026-10-13T23:46:29Z

Martin Shkreli livestreamed himself violating lifetime pharma ban, FTC says

Martin Shkreli—the ex-pharmaceutical executive infamous for illegally [hiking the price of a lifesaving anti-parasitic drug][1] by more than 4,000 percent and getting [a seven-year prison sentence][2] for the fraudulent scheme he used to do it—[has been under a lifetime ban from the pharmaceutical industry][3] since 2022.

However, according to the Federal Trade Commission and the attorneys general of seven states, Shkreli has "flagrantly and repeatedly" violated that ban nearly the entire time—allegedly by trading stock in dozens of drug companies and discussing the industry during livestreams on social media.

On Tuesday, [the FTC and the seven states asked a federal judge][4] to hold Shkreli in contempt for the alleged violations. The states include New York, California, Illinois, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia—the same states that joined the FTC in suing Shkreli in 2020 over the "elaborate anticompetitive scheme" involving the anti-parasitic drug, Daraprim. The scheme raised the price from $17.50 per pill to $750 per pill virtually overnight, while blocking generic competitors from entering the market.

[Read full article][5]

[Comments][6]

[1]: https://arstechnica.com/science/2015/10/drug-with-rage-inducing-5000-price-hike-now-has-1pill-competitor/
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/03/martin-shkreli-sentenced-to-7-years-in-prison-for-fraud/
[3]: https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/01/shkrelis-infamous-4000-price-hike-gets-him-a-lifetime-pharma-ban/
[4]: https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2026/10/ftc-states-ask-federal-court-hold-martin-shkreli-contempt-allegedly-violating-lifetime
[5]: https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/10/martin-shkreli-livestreamed-himself-violating-lifetime-pharma-ban-ftc-says/
[6]: https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/10/martin-shkreli-livestreamed-himself-violating-lifetime-pharma-ban-ftc-says/#comments

Martin Shkreli outside federal court in Brooklyn, New York, on Thursday, June 29, 2017.

https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/10/martin-shkreli-livestreamed-himself-violating-lifetime-pharma-ban-ftc-says/

Skydance’s Discovery+ prices increase by up to 20 percent ...

2026-10-13T22:13:44Z

Skydance’s Discovery+ prices increase by up to 20 percent

Discovery+ subscription prices went up today.

Ad-free plans for new subscribers went from $10 per month to $12/month. Ad-based plans went from $6 to $7.

The new prices take effect for new subscribers immediately. Current subscribers to the streaming service, which primarily features unscripted content, like reality shows and documentaries, will receive 30 days’ notice before the new prices take effect, starting with bills issued as of November 12.

[Read full article][1]

[Comments][2]

[1]: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/10/skydances-discovery-prices-increase-by-up-to-20-percent/
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/10/skydances-discovery-prices-increase-by-up-to-20-percent/#comments

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/10/skydances-discovery-prices-increase-by-up-to-20-percent/

Disney offers $20M for Character.AI’s scandal-plagued chatbot ...

2026-10-13T22:13:39Z

Disney offers $20M for Character.AI’s scandal-plagued chatbot tech

In a bankruptcy proceeding that kicked off yesterday, Disney has offered to buy some of the technology that powers the controversy-plagued chatbot Character.AI.

Disney is willing to pay $20 million for “a non-exclusive perpetual license” of certain Character Technologies intellectual property, the chatbot maker said in a [press release][1] that did not go into much further detail on which assets Disney wanted.

The move may be surprising. In September 2025, Disney joined others in publicly criticizing Character.AI for stealing content and harming kids. Specifically, Disney sent a strongly worded cease-and-desist letter that accused Character Technologies of weaponizing Disney characters “in a way that could damage its brand long term,” Axios [reported][2].

[Read full article][3]

[Comments][4]

[1]: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20261012656385/en/Character.ai-Initiates-Voluntary-Chapter-11-Proceeding-to-Facilitate-Value-Maximizing-Sale-Process
[2]: https://www.axios.com/2025/09/30/disney-characterai-cease-desist
[3]: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/10/disney-offers-20m-for-character-ais-scandal-plagued-chatbot-tech/
[4]: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/10/disney-offers-20m-for-character-ais-scandal-plagued-chatbot-tech/#comments

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/10/disney-offers-20m-for-character-ais-scandal-plagued-chatbot-tech/

Trump commercial railing against his enemies kept airing after ...

2026-10-13T22:13:34Z

Trump commercial railing against his enemies kept airing after court blocked it

Trump commercials paid for by the US government continued airing on TV the day after a judge blocked the ads because they likely violate a US law against government-funded publicity or propaganda.

In the most widely aired commercial, [Trump railed against][1] his perceived enemies and said he would "liberate America from these villains once and for all.” The campaign also included a commercial praising Trump's record as president, another in which Trump calls the US the "most exceptional nation ever to exist in human history," and commercials related to the Iran war and the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

US District Judge Jennifer Rochon issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) [blocking the ads][2] on Sunday, October 11, which took effect at 6:45 pm that night. The order said the government must cancel the ads, "including those placements for the evening of October 11, 2026."

[Read full article][3]

[Comments][4]

[1]: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/09/trump-ads-paid-for-by-us-government-allegedly-violate-anti-propaganda-laws/
[2]: https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.674638/gov.uscourts.nysd.674638.41.0.pdf
[3]: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/10/trumps-taxpayer-funded-ads-kept-airing-on-tv-the-day-after-judge-blocked-them/
[4]: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/10/trumps-taxpayer-funded-ads-kept-airing-on-tv-the-day-after-judge-blocked-them/#comments

Screenshot from a Trump commercial paid for by the US government.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/10/trumps-taxpayer-funded-ads-kept-airing-on-tv-the-day-after-judge-blocked-them/

Topgolf saved over $11.3 million after leaving VMware Topgolf’s ...

2026-10-13T22:13:29Z

Topgolf saved over $11.3 million after leaving VMware

Topgolf’s VMware costs were going to increase by 400 percent under Broadcom. To avoid that cost, the sports entertainment company moved 12,000 virtual machines (VMs) to VergeIO’s VergeOS and has saved over $11 million so far.

Before migrating, Topgolf’s VMware connection “ran very deep,” Scott Forehand, Topgolf’s global infrastructure manager, told Ars Technica.

Topgolf has over 100 locations worldwide featuring interactive golf games with real-time shot tracking and digital analytics. The company used vSphere and ESXi for decades and started using VxRail, the hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) platform that VMware co-engineered with Dell, in 2017. Topgolf employees previously participated in numerous VMware customer councils and have been interviewed for books on how Topgolf used vSphere and Horizon (now Omnissa Horizon), per Forehand, who is a leader of the [Dallas/Ft. Worth VMware User Group][1].

[Read full article][2]

[Comments][3]

[1]: https://dfwvmug.com/
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2026/10/topgolf-saved-over-11-3-million-after-leaving-vmware/
[3]: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2026/10/topgolf-saved-over-11-3-million-after-leaving-vmware/#comments

A Topgolf facility in Fort Worth, Texas.

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2026/10/topgolf-saved-over-11-3-million-after-leaving-vmware/

ESA targets Anbernic emulation handhelds as "superfake" ...

2026-10-13T22:13:23Z

ESA targets Anbernic emulation handhelds as "superfake" piracy enablers

For years, Chinese hardware manufacturers have carved out a market niche with [an array of handheld Android gaming devices][1] focused on retro emulation and/or more modern game-streaming capabilities. Now, though, a major game industry trade group is targeting one of those manufacturers, Anbernic, asking the US Trade Representative (USTR) to add the company to [its list of "Notorious Markets"][2] that "engage in or facilitate substantial copyright piracy or trademark counterfeiting."

[TorrentFreak][3] was among the first to notice [the request from the Entertainment Software Association][4] (ESA), which was submitted to the USTR last week. In it, the US trade group—which represents major publishers including Nintendo, Microsoft, PlayStation, Amazon, Epic, EA, Ubisoft, [and more][5]—notes that Anbernic devices "are routinely offered or shipped with removable memory cards preloaded with hundreds or thousands of unauthorized copies of copyright-protected video games published by ESA members."

While many online sellers do include an SD card full of ROMs alongside emulation hardware of all types, Anbernic itself [does not appear to do the same][6] when selling directly from its website. Regardless, the ESA argues that these ROM-laden Anbernic devices selling through "normal retail channels" help to "normalize hardware-based piracy by delivering illicit catalogues through a polished consumer product." This, the ESA says, meets the threshold for a "superfake," an ill-defined designation that applies to "high-quality counterfeit trademark goods ... on a commercial scale."

[Read full article][7]

[Comments][8]

[1]: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2022/09/are-android-based-game-streaming-handhelds-a-fad-or-are-they-the-future/
[2]: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/08/26/2026-17351/2026-review-of-notorious-markets-for-counterfeiting-and-piracy-comment-request
[3]: https://torrentfreak.com/game-industry-asks-u-s-to-flag-denuvo-cracker-voices38-as-notorious-piracy-threat/
[4]: https://www.regulations.gov/comment/USTR-2026-0529-0010
[5]: https://www.theesa.com/our-members/
[6]: https://www.reddit.com/r/Handhelds/comments/1x4u2zp/comment/pggnpo9/
[7]: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2026/10/esa-targets-anbernic-emulation-handhelds-as-superfake-piracy-enablers/
[8]: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2026/10/esa-targets-anbernic-emulation-handhelds-as-superfake-piracy-enablers/#comments

Just some of the many, many emulation-focused devices that the ESA notes "are routinely offered ... with hundreds or thousands of unauthorized copies of copyright-protected video games."

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2026/10/esa-targets-anbernic-emulation-handhelds-as-superfake-piracy-enablers/

They war-gamed dimming the Sun. It went even worse than you ...

2026-10-13T17:51:42Z

They war-gamed dimming the Sun. It went even worse than you think.

When it comes to deciding the fate of the planet, Colleen Golja always thought science and reason would have a seat at the table. That was until one morning last September in London, when the climate researcher took part in the first in a series of war games. The goal: to prevent an uncontrolled global race to develop a technology aimed at [cooling the planet][1] but that comes with vast, unknown risks that could reshape life on Earth.

“I thought that would be such an easy thing. Like, we can all agree to do ethical research and make sure it's for the better of all humans,” she told WIRED. “And boy, was I wrong.”

The simulation, titled Exploring Geopolitical Tipping Points and Climate Cooling Strategies, saw a couple dozen foreign-relations experts, scientists, military personnel, and former government officials from across the world convene in a meeting room at Queen Mary University of London. After making introductions over coffee and little yogurts, they sat at tables arranged in a square with the name of the country or organization each person was playing: national governments, climate NGOs and nonprofits, indigenous groups, and tech companies. Golja was assigned to provide technical advice to help participants make scientifically literate decisions.

[Read full article][2]

[Comments][3]

[1]: https://www.wired.com/story/dimming-the-sun-would-lower-risks-of-el-nino/
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/10/they-war-gamed-dimming-the-sun-it-went-even-worse-than-you-think/
[3]: https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/10/they-war-gamed-dimming-the-sun-it-went-even-worse-than-you-think/#comments

https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/10/they-war-gamed-dimming-the-sun-it-went-even-worse-than-you-think/

Apple’s first smart display is the 7-inch HomeView for $299 ...

2026-10-13T17:51:36Z

Apple’s first smart display is the 7-inch HomeView for $299

Apple opened preorders for the HomeView smart home hub today.

The HomeView is a 7-inch smart display and speaker that aims to be a central access point for up to six members of a family to access and control Apple’s ecosystem of devices, apps, and the Siri generative AI chatbot.

Users can speak to HomeView to control smart home devices, such as, for example, telling Siri to close the smart blinds or activate smart locks. HomeView can also show a livestream for up to nine video feeds simultaneously.

[Read full article][1]

[Comments][2]

[1]: https://arstechnica.com/apple/2026/10/apple-homeview-smart-home-hub-opens-for-preorders-at-299/
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/apple/2026/10/apple-homeview-smart-home-hub-opens-for-preorders-at-299/#comments

https://arstechnica.com/apple/2026/10/apple-homeview-smart-home-hub-opens-for-preorders-at-299/

Gemini 4 Argon begins rolling out in Gemini app and Antigravity, ...

2026-10-13T17:51:31Z

Gemini 4 Argon begins rolling out in Gemini app and Antigravity, but only if you pay

Google [revealed Gemini 4 Argon][1] a few weeks ago, saying that it needed to move cautiously toward a full release because of the potential for nefarious use. Google seems to have worked all that out pretty quickly, though. Argon is [beginning its wide rollout today][2], but it's only coming to paying users at this time, and even those on lower-tier plans won't have full access.

Nothing about Gemini 4 Argon's capabilities has changed. Google still points to the benchmarks it [published][3] late last month as evidence of the model's advanced reasoning and agentic coding capabilities. The model is supposedly trained to refuse malicious instructions, and an automated misalignment monitor can stop processing if it detects an unintended workflow. Google claims Argon needs that because it's so capable.

The company has a few new examples of how Argon has helped inside Google, where it has been used by thousands of Googlers. Argon has reportedly been instrumental in making YouTube's comment system more efficient. Argon identified redundant emoji rendering that, when eliminated, dropped server load by 45 percent. Engineers also turned Gemini 4 loose on the proprietary drone physics simulator used in Project Wing, and the AI found critical bugs that had been in the codebase since 2018. Google also notes that Argon has advanced its robotics program, showing a measurable step increase in embodied reasoning.

[Read full article][4]

[Comments][5]

[1]: https://arstechnica.com/google/2026/09/google-announces-gemini-4-argon-ai-model-but-you-cant-use-it-yet/
[2]: https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/products/gemini-app/gemini-4-argon-availability/
[3]: https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/models-and-research/gemini-models/gemini-4-argon/#workingharder
[4]: https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/10/gemini-4-argon-begins-rolling-out-in-gemini-app-and-antigravity-but-only-if-you-pay/
[5]: https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/10/gemini-4-argon-begins-rolling-out-in-gemini-app-and-antigravity-but-only-if-you-pay/#comments

https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/10/gemini-4-argon-begins-rolling-out-in-gemini-app-and-antigravity-but-only-if-you-pay/

Google wants to host your personal vibe-coded apps in the Play ...

2026-10-13T17:51:25Z

Google wants to host your personal vibe-coded apps in the Play Store

Google has already added a few AI features to the Play Store, but [a lot more are coming][1]. The previously released Ask Play feature is expanding to offer more AI-powered discovery options in Google's app store, and Google is also using AI to build a recommendation engine called Game Finder. For people who have embraced AI to build their own apps, the Play Store will soon offer a way to privately host and share those creations.

Google rolled out Ask Play in 2025 as a small chatbot interface on Play Store listings. It lets you ask questions about an app or game, either by typing it in manually or choosing from a list of suggested queries. Starting today, Ask Play is expanding into a more general way to search for apps and games. You ask the robot questions, and it generates recommendations that can include detailed comparison charts. Gemini will roll out a similar capability soon.

Google's other AI discovery announcement focuses on games. The new Game Finder feature leans on all the usage data Google's app platform has hoovered up over the years, featuring insights into the way 1.2 billion people play games on Android. It builds a profile called Gamer DNA and matches you with players who have similar DNA.

[Read full article][2]

[Comments][3]

[1]: https://blog.google/products-and-platforms/platforms/google-play/google-play-updates-october-2026
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/google/2026/10/google-wants-to-host-your-personal-vibe-coded-apps-in-the-play-store/
[3]: https://arstechnica.com/google/2026/10/google-wants-to-host-your-personal-vibe-coded-apps-in-the-play-store/#comments

https://arstechnica.com/google/2026/10/google-wants-to-host-your-personal-vibe-coded-apps-in-the-play-store/

The Paris Auto Show is full of interesting cars Americans can’t ...

2026-10-13T17:51:19Z

The Paris Auto Show is full of interesting cars Americans can’t have

Perhaps the days when auto shows debuted new models aren’t entirely over. The big trade shows for cars were a gateway drug for many, expos where you could see the newest models of today and the concepts of tomorrow. But automakers increasingly got tired of sharing the spotlight with each other. New reveals moved offsite to events the night or even the week before the show itself. One by one, brands pulled out of auto show after auto show until there [was little left to see][1]. And then the pandemic hit.

But the news out of Paris, where its auto show held media day yesterday, seems like we stepped back into a time when automakers would debut new cars aplenty. That retro vibe extends to the cars themselves, with plenty of familiar nameplates reimagined.

France’s Renault has a long and glorious history of [delightful concept cars,][2] and more on what it brought to Paris later. But the star of the show was arguably Stellantis, with strong work from Citroen, Peugeot, and Fiat, to name but three. But this article is meant to irritate you, because I’m pretty sure none of the stuff you’re seeing here will come to the United States. And it’s doubly irritating considering what Stellantis’ brands *do* offer us over here, doubling down on the same malign trends I saw [back in 2020][3]: did you know they’re about to relaunch a [V8 Hellcat-powered Charger][4]?

[Read full article][5]

[Comments][6]

[1]: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2020/02/supersized-trucks-and-suvs-seem-here-to-stay-unlike-the-auto-show/
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2014/07/gallery-cars-technicas-favorite-concept-cars/
[3]: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2020/02/supersized-trucks-and-suvs-seem-here-to-stay-unlike-the-auto-show/
[4]: https://www.autonews.com/manufacturing/an-stellantis-plots-v8-dodge-charger-launch-1012/
[5]: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/10/europe-shows-a-better-alternative-to-big-suvs-at-the-paris-auto-show/
[6]: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/10/europe-shows-a-better-alternative-to-big-suvs-at-the-paris-auto-show/#comments

Citroen is bringing back the 2 CV as a low cost model in the next couple of years.

https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/10/europe-shows-a-better-alternative-to-big-suvs-at-the-paris-auto-show/

High-speed video reveals how honey bee stingers pump venom ...

2026-10-13T15:12:49Z

High-speed video reveals how honey bee stingers pump venom

Credit: Ramirez-Esquivel et al 202
Credit: Ramirez-Esquivel et al 202

Honey bees are known to leave their stingers embedded in tender flesh once they sting you and fly away. Scientists have now determined that the stinger is able to continue pumping venom into its unfortunate victim even after the bee flies away, thanks to a unique double-piston pump-like mechanism, according to a [new paper][1] published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Different species have evolved different mechanisms for delivering venom, which involves piercing the skin and then pumping venom from a gland or reservoir. Spiders, for instance, have muscles surrounding their venom glands, which contract and eject venom through hollow fangs. Bees, wasps, and ants deliver venom via their stingers, either by contracting muscles around the venom reservoir or through stiff elements called lancets working together to pump venom.

Honey bees (*Apis mellifera*) add a unique feature: Worker bees fly away after inserting their stingers in the target, leaving the stinger behind. The stinger continues to penetrate the tissue and pump venom on its own, a rare phenomenon known as autotomy. A honey bee's stinger has three main interlocking elements that form the venom canal: a stylet that widens to form the main pumping chamber and two sharp-tipped lancets that slide back and forth, piercing the tissue and pumping venom into the target. But the precise mechanism by which the pumping action is achieved has never been directly observed.

[Read full article][2]

[Comments][3]

[1]: https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2603916123
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/10/honey-bee-stingers-are-double-piston-venom-pumps/
[3]: https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/10/honey-bee-stingers-are-double-piston-venom-pumps/#comments

https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/10/honey-bee-stingers-are-double-piston-venom-pumps/

39-year-old unvaccinated woman becomes 6th measles death in ...

2026-10-13T00:28:06Z

39-year-old unvaccinated woman becomes 6th measles death in Pennsylvania

A 39-year-old unvaccinated woman in Franklin County, Pennsylvania, has become the sixth person to die of the highly infectious virus amid a state outbreak that has stricken over a thousand people since it began in April.

The woman died on Saturday, October 10. She had several underlying health conditions and had recently tested positive for measles, according to [an advisory posted on social media][1] by Franklin County Coroner Jordan Conner. The advisory noted that the woman's death meets the definition of a measles death set by the state's health department.

In [an emailed statement to The Washington Post][2], the coroner's office said the primary cause of death was listed as "probable acute cardiac event due to possible complications of the measles."

[Read full article][3]

[Comments][4]

[1]: https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=1080491317953472&set=a.110848738251073
[2]: https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2026/10/12/sixth-person-who-had-measles-died-pennsylvania-local-coroner-says/?pwapi_token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJyZWFzb24iOiJnaWZ0IiwibmJmIjoxNzkxNzc3NjAwLCJpc3MiOiJzdWJzY3JpcHRpb25zIiwiZXhwIjoxNzkzMTU5OTk5LCJpYXQiOjE3OTE3Nzc2MDAsImp0aSI6Ijc3ZGQ4ZDBhLTdmNTctNGMxNC05MzBlLTY3ZWJhZTU0NzNkOCIsInVybCI6Imh0dHBzOi8vd3d3Lndhc2hpbmd0b25wb3N0LmNvbS9oZWFsdGgvMjAyNi8xMC8xMi9zaXh0aC1wZXJzb24td2hvLWhhZC1tZWFzbGVzLWRpZWQtcGVubnN5bHZhbmlhLWxvY2FsLWNvcm9uZXItc2F5cy8ifQ.2DxvhB4m-VLP-yS4iSDcUFvQYn_1OsaEt7TP-QTvQy4
[3]: https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/10/39-year-old-unvaccinated-woman-becomes-6th-measles-death-in-pennsylvania/
[4]: https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/10/39-year-old-unvaccinated-woman-becomes-6th-measles-death-in-pennsylvania/#comments

A brightly colored transmission microscope image of measles viruses.

https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/10/39-year-old-unvaccinated-woman-becomes-6th-measles-death-in-pennsylvania/

Anthropic's Claude AI submitted false murder tip to ...

2026-10-12T21:35:23Z

Anthropic's Claude AI submitted false murder tip to Philadelphia police

An Anthropic AI model submitted a false tip about an unsolved murder to Philadelphia police, the company and police department confirmed on Friday.

A Claude model sent the false tip on July 18 to the Philadelphia Police Department's [website for submitting information][1] about unsolved murders, but it was flagged by a spam filter. Anthropic apparently discovered the incident on September 28 and informed the police department about it on October 8.

During internal testing, Claude Haiku 4.5 was instructed to complete various forms up to the final submission stage and to stop before submitting those forms. "Several times Claude mistakenly submitted the form instead, expecting there to be an additional confirmation page," Anthropic said in a [report][2] describing "unintended model actions we’ve observed during evaluations and internal use of Claude."

[Read full article][3]

[Comments][4]

[1]: https://www.phillyunsolvedmurders.com/
[2]: https://www.anthropic.com/research/investigating-unintended-model-actions
[3]: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/10/anthropics-claude-ai-submitted-false-murder-tip-to-philadelphia-police/
[4]: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/10/anthropics-claude-ai-submitted-false-murder-tip-to-philadelphia-police/#comments

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/10/anthropics-claude-ai-submitted-false-murder-tip-to-philadelphia-police/

WHO report on Russian lab worker death highlights "key ...

2026-10-12T21:35:18Z

WHO report on Russian lab worker death highlights "key uncertainty"

Over the weekend, the World Health Organization released[ a disease outbreak report][1] on the events surrounding the [death of a Russian infectious disease researcher][2] earlier this month, highlighting that Russia has yet to report a confirmed cause of death. With that "key uncertainty," the United Nations health agency said it remains impossible to assess the risk of the event or whether the public health measures Russia took were adequate to prevent spread of the unknown disease.

The WHO reported that, so far, it has seen no evidence of ongoing transmission of the mystery disease. "However, confidence in the assessment remains limited by the absence of a confirmed etiological diagnosis, and the remaining uncertainty regarding the source and mode of exposure," the agency wrote in its report.

The agency laid out the order of events as information trickled out from Russian authorities, noting that it only became aware of the death via media reports on October 2. The WHO subsequently made contact with Russian authorities and requested information on October 3, 6, 7, and 8.

[Read full article][3]

[Comments][4]

[1]: https://www.who.int/emergencies/disease-outbreak-news/item/2026-DON620
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/10/researchers-death-from-undisclosed-illness-sparks-mass-quarantine-in-russia/
[3]: https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/10/who-report-on-russian-lab-worker-death-highlights-key-uncertainty/
[4]: https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/10/who-report-on-russian-lab-worker-death-highlights-key-uncertainty/#comments

World Health Organization (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus speaks at a press conference on the World Health Organization's 75th anniversary in Geneva, on April 6, 2023.

https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/10/who-report-on-russian-lab-worker-death-highlights-key-uncertainty/

After a 10-year redemption arc, No Man's Sky is coming to the ...

2026-10-12T21:35:12Z

After a 10-year redemption arc, No Man's Sky is coming to the iPhone and iPad

Just over 10 years after its initial release, space exploration and survival crafting game *No Man's Sky* is making its way to the iPhone and iPad, Apple and developer Hello Games announced today.

It will run on devices as far back as the iPhone 11 and the third-generation iPad Air. *No Man's Sky* might not have the most cutting-edge AAA graphics (though they're still strong, and they've come a long way since launch via updates), but the game's uncommon method of generating galaxies of incomprehensible scale on device consistently for all players from a single-seed happening on a phone is remarkable for those of us who remember phones performing far behind consoles or desktop PCs.

[Read full article][1]

[Comments][2]

[1]: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2026/10/after-a-10-year-redemption-arc-no-mans-sky-is-coming-to-the-iphone-and-ipad/
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2026/10/after-a-10-year-redemption-arc-no-mans-sky-is-coming-to-the-iphone-and-ipad/#comments

A screenshot from *No Man's Sky* on iPhone.

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2026/10/after-a-10-year-redemption-arc-no-mans-sky-is-coming-to-the-iphone-and-ipad/

Epic Games reportedly pivoting to "AI first" game ...

2026-10-12T21:35:06Z

Epic Games reportedly pivoting to "AI first" game development model

Epic Games is shifting to an "AI first" development strategy for its collaboration with the Walt Disney Company, letting AI models write all the code and guide all the artwork for an upcoming shooter. That's according to [a ][1][Bloomberg][2][ report][3], which cites unnamed people familiar with the project who commented on the significant pivot in internal development at the Unreal Engine maker.

Human developers will be tasked with managing and guiding code and art assets generated by models such as Anthropic's Claude, according to internal Epic employee messages viewed by Bloomberg. That means "no more hand-written code" and art assets "generated with full AI workflows," according to the report.

The $1.5 billion collaboration between Epic and Disney, [announced in early 2024][4], was slated to release a Marvel- and Star Wars-themed shooter in March 2027. That project has now been delayed indefinitely amid the AI-related shakeup and understaffed, slower-than-expected development thus far, according to the report.

[Read full article][5]

[Comments][6]

[1]: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-10-12/epic-games-delays-disney-project-asks-developers-to-use-more-ai
[2]: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-10-12/epic-games-delays-disney-project-asks-developers-to-use-more-ai
[3]: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-10-12/epic-games-delays-disney-project-asks-developers-to-use-more-ai
[4]: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2024/02/epic-working-with-disney-on-new-gaming-universe-after-1-5b-investment/
[5]: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2026/10/report-epic-games-goes-all-in-on-ai-for-disney-collaboration/
[6]: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2026/10/report-epic-games-goes-all-in-on-ai-for-disney-collaboration/#comments

A view of Epic and Disney's massive collaborattive "universe" as it looked when announced in 2024.

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2026/10/report-epic-games-goes-all-in-on-ai-for-disney-collaboration/

Russia was not ready for the data center war it started with ...

2026-10-12T18:15:29Z

Russia was not ready for the data center war it started with Ukraine

When Russia began attacking Ukrainian data centers and telecommunication infrastructure, it apparently failed to prepare for possible retaliation. Now Russia’s digital services are facing widespread outages after Ukrainian drone strikes knocked out three of the largest data centers owned by Russian tech giant Yandex within several days.

Pro-Kremlin bloggers are warning that Russia’s centralized digital economy could collapse because the country is not prepared for the “data center war” it started, [according to posts][1] [translated][2] by the pseudonymous [independent researcher ChrisO_wiki][3]. The Russian commentators also suggested that Ukraine’s decentralized digital services could prove more resilient than Russia’s system if the countries continue trading such blows.

Russia initially launched a drone strike campaign [targeting Ukrainian data centers and mobile phone networks][4] in late September. The attacks temporarily disrupted Internet and cell phone service for up to 100,000 households in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv and came as part of a broader long-range strike campaign that has involved Russian missiles and jet-powered drones hitting Ukraine’s power grid infrastructure, transportation hubs, and even residential apartment building blocks.

[Read full article][5]

[Comments][6]

[1]: https://bsky.app/profile/chriso-wiki.bsky.social/post/3mxohwk52c62f
[2]: https://bsky.app/profile/chriso-wiki.bsky.social/post/3mxgtswv5mj2t
[3]: https://bsky.app/profile/chriso-wiki.bsky.social
[4]: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/10/russian-drones-strike-ukraines-data-centers-by-exploiting-air-defense-gaps/
[5]: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/10/russia-was-not-ready-for-the-data-center-war-it-started-with-ukraine/
[6]: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/10/russia-was-not-ready-for-the-data-center-war-it-started-with-ukraine/#comments

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/10/russia-was-not-ready-for-the-data-center-war-it-started-with-ukraine/

Long-lost horror gaming cult classic P.T. gets a much-needed PC ...

2026-10-12T16:50:54Z

Long-lost horror gaming cult classic P.T. gets a much-needed PC port

For over a decade now, the only "official" way to play [Hideo Kojima's cult classic, *P.T.*][1]—the [long-discontinued][2] "playable trailer" for [Kojima's canceled "Silent Hills" project][3]—has been via [one of the increasingly rare PlayStation 4s][4] that previously downloaded a copy during its monthslong availability window. Now, though, one coder is helping to preserve the game with a porting tool that builds a playable x86 PC executable from the original PS4 files.

[Coder Lorean Xavier][5] said he was inspired to work on [the "P.T. for PC" project][6] "because P.T. deserved to keep existing somewhere other than on consoles that still have it installed." The open source porting effort rebuilds the *P.T.* engine in C++ and Vulkan, using the original files from the PS4 game to re-create "every level, model, texture, sound, script and cutscene," according to its GitHub listing. That means players without their own legitimate decrypted copy of the original *P.T.* will have to track one down in order to generate a playable PC version.

The reliance on real *P.T.* files makes this port more authentic than [previous hobbyist efforts][7] to re-create the look and feel of *P.T.* for a PC audience. And while PS4 emulators [recently reached a point where they could run *P.T.* completely][8], this native port also sports extra features, like upscaling and frame-generation, a camera mode, experimental third-person and VR support, and a "museum" section where you can look at and listen to in-game assets (including "unused content").

[Read full article][9]

[Comments][10]

[1]: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2014/08/metal-gear-solids-hideo-kojima-working-on-new-silent-hill/
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2015/04/signs-points-to-cancellation-for-kojimas-silent-hills/
[3]: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2015/03/hideo-kojima-and-konami-productions-appear-to-be-parting-ways/
[4]: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2015/05/discontinued-ps4-horror-demo-p-t-worth-hundreds-on-ebay/
[5]: https://x.com/smokisevdalisi
[6]: https://github.com/LoreanXavier/pt-pc/
[7]: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/01/hobbyists-resurrect-kojimas-lost-game-p-t-as-a-free-pc-download/
[8]: https://www.reddit.com/r/silenthill/comments/1mqt9cg/silent_hills_pt_is_now_fully_playable_with/
[9]: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2026/10/long-lost-horror-gaming-cult-classic-p-t-gets-a-much-needed-pc-port/
[10]: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2026/10/long-lost-horror-gaming-cult-classic-p-t-gets-a-much-needed-pc-port/#comments

Believe it or not, I didn't have to use a PS4 to generate this screenshot.

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2026/10/long-lost-horror-gaming-cult-classic-p-t-gets-a-much-needed-pc-port/

Google announces the Fitbit Edge, a middle ground between Pixel ...

2026-10-12T15:34:28Z

Google announces the Fitbit Edge, a middle ground between Pixel Watch 5 and Fitbit Air

Google is releasing its second Fitbit tracker of 2026, offering fans of the aging Charge 6 a more refined option. The new Fitbit Edge slots right in between the Pixel Watch 5 and the [Fitbit Air][1], featuring a compact screen and more health sensors than the Air. You won't get all the apps and features of the Pixel Watch 5, but the Edge is only about half as expensive.

The Fitbit Edge is essentially a new Charge 6, but it has more of a Pixel Watch aesthetic. Squish Google's smartwatch from the sides, and you've got the Edge. It has a pill-shaped 1.34-inch OLED touch display inside a slender aluminum frame that is rated IP68 (5 ATM) for water and dust protection. Google says the screen has 46 percent more viewable area compared to the Charge 6. It's very close in overall size to the Fitbit Air and uses the same magnetic charging puck.

Left to right: Fitbit Air (with new metal mesh bend), Fitbit Edge, and Pixel Watch 5. Credit: Google

The Edge works with Android or iPhones via the Google Health app, and it can run for about seven days on a charge. If the tracker is away from your phone, it can still follow your activity all week with support for seven days of full health data storage (or 30 days of basic data). However, the generous week-long battery life does not include always-on display mode. If you choose to turn that on, the battery life drops to about two days, barely longer than the Pixel Watch 5.

[Read full article][2]

[Comments][3]

[1]: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/06/the-fitbit-air-is-great-but-googles-ai-is-too-nice-to-be-your-coach/
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/10/google-announces-the-fitbit-edge-a-middle-ground-between-pixel-watch-5-and-fitbit-air/
[3]: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/10/google-announces-the-fitbit-edge-a-middle-ground-between-pixel-watch-5-and-fitbit-air/#comments

The Fitbit Edge's screen lets you monitor notifications and keep track of workouts.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/10/google-announces-the-fitbit-edge-a-middle-ground-between-pixel-watch-5-and-fitbit-air/

F1 in Singapore: There's a new fastest car now Formula 1’s ...

2026-10-12T15:34:18Z

F1 in Singapore: There's a new fastest car now

Formula 1’s lengthy 2026 season is entering its final stretch. The sport took to the floodlit streets of Singapore on Sunday night, but Saturday saw action, too; this Grand Prix weekend was also the final of six sprints this year. The night race might be one of modern F1’s greatest spectacles. From overhead shots, the track becomes a bright, illuminated ribbon among the looming darkness of the city-state’s overpasses and skyscrapers. At ground level, the cars shower glittering sparks from their titanium skid blocks as the drivers flirt with how close they can get to the walls. As tracks go, the 90-degree turns and concrete barrier-lined streets were a world away from the abrasive tarmac and ample runoff of [Malaysia last time out][1]. But the tropical heat and humidity were a constant given both locations’ proximity to the equator.

## Showers for the sprint

In Malaysia (which was still technically the Bahrain GP), a pre-race downpour disrupted things mightily. On Saturday morning in Singapore, shortly before the start of the sprint, it seemed history was about to rhyme when the skies opened. With standing water in places on the track, the sprint was delayed by 30 minutes. The sprint format, where a short extra race replaces a practice session a day before the main event, is unloved by the drivers and teams. For one thing there’s little prestige in winning Saturday’s sprint. And with qualifying just a few hours later, risk-taking is discouraged lest one wreck the car and ruin Sunday’s race a day early.

[SINGAPORE, SINGAPORE - OCTOBER 10: Marshals sweep away the standing water on track as the rain falls prior to the Sprint ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of Singapore at Marina Bay Street Circuit on October 10, 2026 in Singapore, Singapore. (Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images)] Oh no, not again! Credit: Mark Thompson/Getty Images

And in Singapore, like most street circuits, the proximity of the unyielding barriers that line the track mean there are real, punishing consequences for getting it even a little wrong.

[Read full article][2]

[Comments][3]

[1]: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/10/f1-in-bahrain-in-malaysia-the-race-needed-a-software-update-to-start/
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/10/f1-in-singapore-theres-a-new-fastest-car-now/
[3]: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/10/f1-in-singapore-theres-a-new-fastest-car-now/#comments

The Singapore street circuit at night.

https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/10/f1-in-singapore-theres-a-new-fastest-car-now/

Inside Amazon’s robotic arms race and what it means for the ...

2026-10-12T12:50:03Z

Inside Amazon’s robotic arms race and what it means for the future of human work

No organization in the world operates more robots than Amazon. The company already has more than 1 million robots working in warehouses around the clock to make tens of millions of same-day and one-day package deliveries happen on a daily basis—and Amazon is poised to significantly grow that robotic fleet in the coming years as it establishes new factories to churn out increasingly more capable robot workers.

Despite deploying so many robots, Amazon is also the second-largest corporate employer in the world, with more than 1.5 million full-time and part-time human workers, according to its [2025 annual report][1]. Amazon executives say that the growing robot fleet has eased the burden on its human workforce by taking on the toughest fulfillment center tasks that carry the greatest risks of physical fatigue and injury. But labor advocacy groups and independent researchers point to evidence suggesting that warehouse automation driven by AI is not all upside for the humans who work alongside robots.

“For the last 100 years, most of the automation that we've seen usually happens away from workers—you're taking that high-risk task away from the worker, and you're doing so in a way that is not physically proximate,” [Brian Greenwood][2], professor of business at George Mason University, told Ars. “The rise of collaborative robots really changes that dynamic for two reasons: one is that it is physically proximate, and two, the robot has the ability to dictate the pace of work.”

[Read full article][3]

[Comments][4]

[1]: https://s2.q4cdn.com/299287126/files/doc_financials/2026/ar/Amazon-2025-Annual-Report.pdf
[2]: https://www.linkedin.com/in/qiulsilgas
[3]: https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/10/inside-amazons-robotic-arms-race-and-what-it-means-for-the-future-of-human-work/
[4]: https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/10/inside-amazons-robotic-arms-race-and-what-it-means-for-the-future-of-human-work/#comments

Wheeled mobile robots move tall inventory pods filled with items inside an Amazon fulfillment center.

https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/10/inside-amazons-robotic-arms-race-and-what-it-means-for-the-future-of-human-work/

Review: 4-hour Musk documentary feels like two different films ...

2026-10-12T00:24:25Z

Review: 4-hour Musk documentary feels like two different films

Elon Musk is a very familiar figure to Ars readers, given his massive influence (for better and worse) on the technology sector over the last 20 years. Oscar-winning director Alex Gibney's latest biographical documentary—simply titled *Musk*—covers a lot of well-known ground and challenges the carefully crafted public image of Musk as a visionary tech titan.

Gibney's documentary presents Musk as more of a Gilded Age confidence man, rejiggered for the 21st century: an investor cosplaying as an inventor whose real genius is pumping stocks and dazzling investors and the public alike with visions of a high-tech utopian future. The film is bound to push all the right outrage buttons, whether one is a Musk fan or a detractor—which makes it very much a product of the peculiar social media-driven era in which we live.

Gibney has been making documentaries since the 1980s, covering such varied subjects as Jimi Hendrix, Hunter S. Thompson and gonzo journalism, WikiLeaks, Scientology, Steve Jobs, Elizabeth Holmes (the subject of another forthcoming documentary, [*You Can See Everything*][1], featuring comedian Nathan Fielder), Boris Becker, *The Sopranos* creator David Chase*,* alleged Russian interference in the US 2016 presidential election, the opioid epidemic, and cyclist Lance Armstrong. He snagged his first Oscar nomination for 2005’s [*Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room*][2], and won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature two years later for [*Taxi to the Dark Side*][3].

[Read full article][4]

[Comments][5]

[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvW_N5p1q44
[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enron:_The_Smartest_Guys_in_the_Room
[3]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxi_to_the_Dark_Side
[4]: https://arstechnica.com/culture/2026/10/review-4-hour-musk-documentary-feels-like-two-different-films/
[5]: https://arstechnica.com/culture/2026/10/review-4-hour-musk-documentary-feels-like-two-different-films/#comments

https://arstechnica.com/culture/2026/10/review-4-hour-musk-documentary-feels-like-two-different-films/

Prime Video unveils Blade Runner 2099 full trailer at NYCC We got ...

2026-10-11T17:03:48Z

Prime Video unveils Blade Runner 2099 full trailer at NYCC

We got our first look at Prime Video's new sci-fi series *Blade Runner 2099* [in July][1] at San Diego Comic-Con. With the show's premiere roughly six weeks away, the streamer unveiled the full trailer this weekend at New York Comic-Con. Co-stars Michelle Yeoh and Hunter Schafer (*Euphoria*) joined showrunner Silka Luisa (*Shining Girls*) onstage for the big reveal.

As Luisa [described the show][2] during the NYCC panel Saturday night:

> We are 50 years after [*Blade Runner*] *2049* and, bad news, the worst has happened. The replicant uprising that has been bubbling up in the films has taken place and the humans have lost. So the creations have surpassed their creators. And the series, the big question it asks is, ‘What happens when our time as a species ends?’ *2099* is taking place at a junction point when one species is ending and a new one is rising. The first film, something I loved about it, was that it was looking at mortality on a micro level. Roy Batty and the other replicants were fighting for more life. This show asks that same question but on a macro level. Mankind—what happens when we realize our time is running out? And are we going to accept that loss? Can we hold on to our humanity during it?

Yeoh stars as Olwen, the dying Replicant, while Schafer plays Cora. The cast also includes Hugo Hamlet as Buster Friendly, as well as Dmitri Abold, Lewis Gribben, Katelyn Rose Downey, Daniel Rigby, Johnny Harris, Amy Lennox, Sheila Atim, Matthew Needham, Tom Burke, and Maurizio Lombardi—all in as-yet-undisclosed roles.

[Read full article][3]

[Comments][4]

[1]: https://arstechnica.com/culture/2026/07/sdcc-teaser-gives-us-our-first-good-look-at-blade-runner-2099/
[2]: https://gizmodo.com/blade-runner-2099-trailer-prime-video-nycc-2026-2000824679
[3]: https://arstechnica.com/culture/2026/10/prime-video-unveils-blade-runner-2099-full-trailer-at-nycc/
[4]: https://arstechnica.com/culture/2026/10/prime-video-unveils-blade-runner-2099-full-trailer-at-nycc/#comments

https://arstechnica.com/culture/2026/10/prime-video-unveils-blade-runner-2099-full-trailer-at-nycc/

One with the world? A new look at brains transformed by ...

2026-10-10T12:09:55Z

One with the world? A new look at brains transformed by psychedelics.

For about a decade, the mainstream understanding has been that psychedelics cause chaos in the brain. Brain networks—the stable patterns of communication that handle vision, attention, or our sense of self, and more—loosen and start talking to each other all at once. EEG traces get noisier and more complex. “Think of the networks of the brain as highways,” says Devon Stoliker, a neuroscientist at Monash University. “Under psychedelics, these highways break down into many different directions.”

In a recent Nature study, Stoliker’s team designed an experiment to test whether these directions are truly chaotic and random. Researchers gathered 62 people who had never taken a psychedelic before, gave them 19 milligrams of psilocybin, a common psychedelic found in certain fungi, and scanned their brains. Then, they used AI to analyze the drugged and sober brain scans. What emerged was not exactly chaos.

## An uninterrupted trip

Stoliker thinks chaos is not a satisfactory explanation for psychedelics’ effect on the brain. “It never really explained why an individual would have a meaningful experience, why they might have insight, why they might experience clarity, and why these might translate into positive psychological changes,” Stoliker says. To investigate if there are other explanations, he and his colleagues designed a study called PsiConnect.

[Read full article][1]

[Comments][2]

[1]: https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/10/the-psychedelic-brain-looks-like-chaos-underneath-theres-order/
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/10/the-psychedelic-brain-looks-like-chaos-underneath-theres-order/#comments

https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/10/the-psychedelic-brain-looks-like-chaos-underneath-theres-order/

What's been driving Hawaii's lava fountains? In most ...

2026-10-09T23:28:53Z

What's been driving Hawaii's lava fountains?

In most cases, hotspot-driven volcanism is relatively sedate, with lava flowing down mountainsides slowly enough that people can walk out of its way. But in a number of locations—Mount Etna, Hawaii, Iceland—lava gets expelled in dramatic fountains that can reach several hundred meters in height.

Right now, we're not sure what powers them. However, thanks to a recent set of eruptions at the Kilauea volcano, we have some of the best documentation yet of erupting lava fountains. In a recent edition of Science, researchers from the US Geological Survey describe what we've seen and compare it with what we might expect based on our best ideas about what powers these fountains of molten rock.

## Years of fountains

With three active volcanic regions that engage in fountaining, there has been a steady flow of dramatic videos of red-hot molten rock spouting from the Earth. But Kilauea has had only three fountaining episodes since 1823, even though it's the youngest and most active volcano in Hawaii. That activity has led to intensive study, and we have a good idea of the volcano's structure. Previous work has identified a couple of lava residues within a few kilometers of the surface, and the volcano had 35 separate data-gathering stations set up on Kilauea, including "seismic, infrasound, geodetic, gas, and visual and thermal cameras."

[Read full article][1]

[Comments][2]

[1]: https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/10/whats-been-driving-hawaiis-lava-fountains/
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/10/whats-been-driving-hawaiis-lava-fountains/#comments

https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/10/whats-been-driving-hawaiis-lava-fountains/

NASA issues long-awaited call to industry for private space ...

2026-10-09T23:28:47Z

NASA issues long-awaited call to industry for private space stations

NASA on Friday released a much-anticipated "request" to the US commercial space industry to develop private space stations that, as early as 2030, will succeed the International Space Station as a place for astronauts to live in low-Earth orbit.

In a cover letter accompanying the 360-page "request for proposals," NASA stated its plan: "This will ensure NASA has a sustained human presence in LEO for crew members to perform science and exploration." Several private companies that have worked for years on designing and developing such stations have been keen to learn exactly what capabilities NASA is seeking. These new documents finally provide some answers.

NASA's solicitation [can be found here][1]. Industry responses are due back to NASA on December 8. NASA said it plans to select "two or more" contractors in this phase of the competition, and intends to make a final decision in April.

[Read full article][2]

[Comments][3]

[1]: https://sam.gov/workspace/contract/opp/aee4374189ab4118b3ec0dcb00ae8408/view
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/10/nasa-issues-long-awaited-call-to-industry-for-private-space-stations/
[3]: https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/10/nasa-issues-long-awaited-call-to-industry-for-private-space-stations/#comments

The International Space Station is going to retire soon. What will replace it?

https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/10/nasa-issues-long-awaited-call-to-industry-for-private-space-stations/

A Cray-1 supercomputer replica from 30 "obsolete" Mac ...

2026-10-09T23:28:42Z

A Cray-1 supercomputer replica from 30 "obsolete" Mac Minis

The [Museo de Historia de la Computación][1] in Spain has unveiled a 1:1 scale visual replica of the famous [Cray-1][2] supercomputer from 1976. Instead of sourcing expensive, cutting-edge tech to run the system, the creative team powered the project with 30 2012-era Mac Minis. Developed over 18 months, the project serves as a 50th-anniversary tribute to the Cray-1 and Apple's founding.

Mac Minis from over a decade ago might not seem like the obvious first choice for building a cluster supercomputer, but when networked together, the developers can orchestrate the 64 active processing cores into a combined 1.3 teraflops of performance in their most recent tests. The museum reportedly achieved 1.5 teraflops previously using all 70 available cores, prior to one node going offline. Benchmarks were obtained using a custom matrix-multiplication Python script. Five PCs are quad-core i7s, and the remaining 25 are dual-core i5 models. Except for two units from 2014, the rest of the array dates to 2012.

The replica is a valuable tool for museum-goers to understand the shifts in computer architecture since 1976. The original Cray-1 used vector processing, applying a single instruction to multiple data elements simultaneously, whereas the replica distributes work across independent processors in a parallel cluster. The peak theoretical performance of the original Cray-1 was approximately 160 megaflops. What was originally a purpose-built research machine has been re-created with consumer hardware that's vastly more capable than the machine that inspired it.

[Read full article][3]

[Comments][4]

[1]: https://www.museohc.com/
[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cray-1
[3]: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/10/a-cray-1-supercomputer-replica-from-30-obsolete-mac-minis/
[4]: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/10/a-cray-1-supercomputer-replica-from-30-obsolete-mac-minis/#comments

The completed Cray-1 Replica Project.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/10/a-cray-1-supercomputer-replica-from-30-obsolete-mac-minis/

Ukraine’s drones knock out AI data center belonging to ...

2026-10-09T23:28:37Z

Ukraine’s drones knock out AI data center belonging to "Russia’s Google"

Ukrainian drone strikes have knocked out two of five data centers belonging to the Russian tech giant Yandex. The damage has left Yandex, known as “Russia’s Google” because it operates the country’s most popular search engine, struggling to maintain its AI chatbot and other online services.

The Ukrainian drones struck Yandex data centers in the Sasovo and Kaluga regions of Russia on October 8 and October 9, [according to Reuters][1]. Those actions came as a direct response to a [Russian drone strike campaign targeting Ukraine’s data centers][2], which has disrupted mobile phone and Internet services for thousands of Ukrainians since late September.

“We continue to respond to Russia’s attacks on Ukraine, and we’re doing so with high precision,” said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy [in a post][3] on X. “Another data center was hit as well—our symmetrical response.”

[Read full article][4]

[Comments][5]

[1]: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russias-yandex-says-second-data-centre-hit-by-drone-attack-2026-10-09/
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/10/russian-drones-strike-ukraines-data-centers-by-exploiting-air-defense-gaps/
[3]: https://x.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/2108509610990579862
[4]: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/10/ukraines-drones-knock-out-ai-data-center-belonging-to-russias-google/
[5]: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/10/ukraines-drones-knock-out-ai-data-center-belonging-to-russias-google/#comments

A satellite image showing damage to an AI data center owned by the Russian tech giant Yandex in the Sasovo region of Russia.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/10/ukraines-drones-knock-out-ai-data-center-belonging-to-russias-google/

Neanderthal wooden tools from Spain found preserved in stone The ...

2026-10-09T23:28:31Z

Neanderthal wooden tools from Spain found preserved in stone

The Stone Age owes its name to tools that survived to our time. The material early humans worked with most, though, was probably wood because it is so much easier to process. Unfortunately, we know very little about Paleolithic woodwork because wood rots relatively quickly. But at Abric Romaní, a rock shelter in Capellades, west of Barcelona, mineral-rich water coated wooden Neanderthal tools in a limestone-like crust. When wood rotted away, it left behind hollow molds that faithfully reflect its shape.

In a recent Science Advances study, a team of Spanish archaeologists has cataloged 597 wooden remains from Neanderthal living areas dating from 62,000 to 40,000 years ago. They found spears, digging sticks, bark trays, parts of shelters, and a club unlike anything seen before, suggesting Neanderthals were likely much more than just Homo sapiens’ dumber cousins.

## Beyond hunting gear

The oldest wooden artifacts we have are mostly weapons. They include spears from a German town called Schöningen, a spear tip from Clacton-on-Sea in England, and the spear found alongside an elephant skeleton in Lehringen, Germany. Most came from waterlogged sediments, where a lack of oxygen slowed decay.

[Read full article][1]

[Comments][2]

[1]: https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/10/neanderthal-wooden-tools-from-spain-found-preserved-in-stone/
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/10/neanderthal-wooden-tools-from-spain-found-preserved-in-stone/#comments

https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/10/neanderthal-wooden-tools-from-spain-found-preserved-in-stone/

Outrage grows as CDC reportedly poised to fund ...

2026-10-09T20:55:19Z

Outrage grows as CDC reportedly poised to fund "unethical" vaccine trial

Outrage has erupted among health experts over news that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is still eager to fund a widely condemned vaccine trial that would expose newborns in Guinea-Bissau to hepatitis B, putting them at high risk of a lifelong infection, which can lead to liver cirrhosis, liver cancer, and premature death.

[The trial was suspended in January][1] after its unethical design came to light and drew international outcry. Although the trial is still halted, staff of the CDC director's office told the agency's budget office in late September to set aside $1.6 million to fund the trial, according to [a report by Rolling Stone][2]. The money was to be pulled from funding for the CDC's global health security programs, which might otherwise go toward efforts like combating the Ebola outbreak currently raging in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the CDC, did not respond to a request for comment from Ars Technica.

[Read full article][3]

[Comments][4]

[1]: https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/02/who-slams-us-funded-newborn-vaccine-trial-as-unethical/
[2]: https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/cdc-controversial-hepatitis-b-vaccine-study-1235637894/
[3]: https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/10/rfk-jr-still-eager-to-fund-vaccine-trial-that-would-expose-babies-to-deadly-virus/
[4]: https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/10/rfk-jr-still-eager-to-fund-vaccine-trial-that-would-expose-babies-to-deadly-virus/#comments

https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/10/rfk-jr-still-eager-to-fund-vaccine-trial-that-would-expose-babies-to-deadly-virus/

AI coding agents generate more code, but not more software Anyone ...

2026-10-09T20:55:13Z

AI coding agents generate more code, but not more software

Anyone who has even tangentially associated with computer programming knows that modern AI coding assistants and agents [can be incredibly efficient at generating huge amounts of functional code][1]. But coders making use of those tools also [know better than to trust the accuracy of that code][2], meaning [substantial effort needs to be spent][3] reviewing any AI-generated output.

[A recent study][4] of actual coding practices across hundreds of firms finds that human code review forms a significant "bottleneck" for the overall efficiency of AI coding tools, resulting in "little evidence that firms increase software output or reduce employment" by using them. Any efficiency increased during the actual coding phase, the study authors find, is "absorbed by downstream constraints in the production process"; as "the code review process significantly increases in length, pull requests are more likely to require revisions, and reviewers leave more comments."

## Cut once, measure twice

To come to these conclusions, Harvard University researchers Fiona Chen and James Stratton made use of aggregated analytics data from [Jellyfish][5], which measures the granular output of engineering teams. That data encompasses 300 million individual "work events" (e.g., commits and pull requests) and issue management software data across more than 700,000 employees at over 700 relevant software development firms from 2021 through March of 2026.

[Read full article][6]

[Comments][7]

[1]: https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/01/developers-say-ai-coding-tools-work-and-thats-precisely-what-worries-them/
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/ai/2025/07/developer-survey-shows-trust-in-ai-coding-tools-is-falling-as-usage-rises/
[3]: https://arstechnica.com/ai/2025/05/time-saved-by-ai-offset-by-new-work-created-study-suggests/
[4]: https://fion.ac/jellyfish.pdf
[5]: https://jellyfish.co/
[6]: https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/10/ai-coding-agents-generate-more-code-but-not-more-software/
[7]: https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/10/ai-coding-agents-generate-more-code-but-not-more-software/#comments

Here, let me just... yeah, can I lend you a hand here?

https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/10/ai-coding-agents-generate-more-code-but-not-more-software/

Starlink spectrum deal boosts Musk plan to beat AT&T, ...

2026-10-09T19:01:50Z

Starlink spectrum deal boosts Musk plan to beat AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon

SpaceX has a deal to purchase nationwide low-band spectrum licenses for a planned terrestrial mobile network that would complement the space-based Starlink cellular service.

SpaceX will buy up to 14 megahertz of spectrum in the 800 MHz band [from investment firm Grain Management][1], which bought the spectrum rights from T-Mobile earlier this year. T-Mobile had obtained the spectrum when it bought Sprint in 2020 and was required to sell the licenses under a merger condition imposed by the US government.

"This prime low-band spectrum addresses one of the key remaining technical gaps that will pave the way for Starlink Mobile to become a major mobile carrier in the US," [SpaceX said yesterday][2]. SpaceX this week also received US approval to launch 15,000 satellites for an upgraded version of its mobile service that it says will be far more powerful than the current offering.

[Read full article][3]

[Comments][4]

[1]: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/grain-management-announces-definitive-agreement-to-sell-nationwide-800-mhz-spectrum-portfolio-to-spacex-302902974.html
[2]: https://www.spacex.com/updates#starlink-mobile-spectrum
[3]: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/10/starlink-spectrum-deal-boosts-musk-plan-to-beat-att-t-mobile-and-verizon/
[4]: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/10/starlink-spectrum-deal-boosts-musk-plan-to-beat-att-t-mobile-and-verizon/#comments

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/10/starlink-spectrum-deal-boosts-musk-plan-to-beat-att-t-mobile-and-verizon/

Your artwork could be featured in the next Debian release The ...

2026-10-09T19:01:44Z

Your artwork could be featured in the next Debian release

The Debian Linux project has opened a call for community artwork submissions ahead of the release of the upcoming [Forky][1] (Debian 14). If you think you've got the artistic chops, your art could appear on the boot screens, login prompts, and desktop wallpapers of millions of users. The submission deadline is November 26.

Continuing Debian's community-driven ethos, the artwork submission process mirrors that of previous releases. The artwork must feel distinctively "Debian," integrate cleanly without the need for core software patching, and remain visually appealing for the long term.

[Elise Couper's "Ceratopsian"][2] theme was chosen as the winning default for Debian 13 *Trixie*. For anyone who might not be up on the latest from the Toy Story franchise, the release names echo character names from the animated films. [Trixie][3] was a triceratops introduced in *Toy Story 3*, hence the "Ceratopsian" wink in the winning submission. It makes sense that the next version of Debian continues this trend with Forky, a character introduced in the franchise's fourth entry. The Debian team cautions against overly busy designs that may cause user fatigue, but if anyone can successfully incorporate [Forky's googly eyes][4] into the design somehow, know that you'd at least win the contest for *my* Debian desktop wallpaper.

[Read full article][5]

[Comments][6]

[1]: https://www.debian.org/releases/forky/
[2]: https://wiki.debian.org/DebianArt/Themes/Ceratopsian
[3]: https://pixar.fandom.com/wiki/Trixie
[4]: https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/pixar/images/6/61/Toy_Story_4_Character_Poster_04.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/1000?cb=20190503193636
[5]: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/10/your-artwork-could-be-featured-in-the-next-debian-release/
[6]: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/10/your-artwork-could-be-featured-in-the-next-debian-release/#comments

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/10/your-artwork-could-be-featured-in-the-next-debian-release/

AI disqualification yields new Nikon Small World in Motion winner ...

2026-10-09T19:01:39Z

AI disqualification yields new Nikon Small World in Motion winner

Credit: Nguyen Nam Nhat.

Last month [we covered][1] the winner of Nikon's Small World in Motion video: Ning Xu of Tsinghua University in China, whose video captured tiny cilia beating in the airways of a child with a rare respiratory disorder. But [allegations surfaced][2] about Xu's [use of AI][3] while making the video. Nikon launched an investigation and concluded that Xu's entry did not comply with competition rules. The new winner is Nguyen Nam Nhat of Vietnam with a video of a tiny roundworm and a single-celled organism (above).

According to a [BBC report,][4] some researchers expressed concern that Xu's video had structural abnormalities and that cell features appeared and disappeared in a way one would not see in actual cellular biology. Others spotted what looked like AI watermarks embedded within the source files. Xu said he used AI “to distinguish and visualize features in the reconstructed grayscale images”; however, he denied that AI was used "to generate the experimental movie, the cilia, or their motion.”

Founded in 2011, the Nikon Small World in Motion competition is a spinoff of the company’s Small World Photomicrography Competition, which has been around since 1974. Both are meant “to showcase the beauty and complexity of things seen through the light microscope”—one through still photographs, the other through photovideography, taking advantage of all the technological advances that now allow users to make movies or time-lapse images through the microscope.

The other winners also moved up a notch with Xu's disqualification. Benedikt Pleyer of Bavaria, Germany, placed second with a video of jellyfish larvae suspended in water droplets; Andrew Moore of Howard Hughes Medical Institute in the US placed third with a video of synchronized cell division in neighboring cells; Patrick Hickey of Hypha Research Ltd. in Edinburgh, Scotland, placed fourth with a video of the dynamics of mitochondria and chloroplasts in Turtle Vine leaf cells; and Igor Adameyko placed fifth with a video of a tiny, colorful sea slug (*Cyerce kikutarobabai*) on the move.

[Read full article][5]

[Comments][6]

[1]: https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/09/meet-the-winner-of-nikons-small-world-in-motion-video-contest/
[2]: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/update-october-9-an-update-from-nikon-small-ugcPost-7506310017814401024-QfgZ/
[3]: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ck4gjn1yzprno
[4]: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ck4gjn1yzprno
[5]: https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/10/winning-nikon-small-world-in-motion-video-disqualified-for-ai-use/
[6]: https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/10/winning-nikon-small-world-in-motion-video-disqualified-for-ai-use/#comments

https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/10/winning-nikon-small-world-in-motion-video-disqualified-for-ai-use/

PC shipments fall 20.1 percent in “sharpest decline” since Q1 ...

2026-10-09T19:01:33Z

PC shipments fall 20.1 percent in “sharpest decline” since Q1 2023

PC shipments saw a steep drop of about 20 percent in Q3 2026, analysts reported this week.

The industry saw its “sharpest decline since “Q1 2023," Omdia said in an announcement toady. Global shipments of laptops, desktops, and workstations fell 21.2 percent year over year (YoY) to 58.1 million devices, the analyst said.

Desktop PC shipments (including desktop workstations) decreased 23.5 percent to 11.7 million units, and laptop shipments (including laptop workstations) declined 20.6 percent to 46.4 million, per Omdia.

[Read full article][1]

[Comments][2]

[1]: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2026/10/pc-shipments-fall-20-1-percent-in-sharpest-decline-since-q1-2023/
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2026/10/pc-shipments-fall-20-1-percent-in-sharpest-decline-since-q1-2023/#comments

The Microsoft Surface Laptop Ultra during an event in San Francisco, California, US, on Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026.

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2026/10/pc-shipments-fall-20-1-percent-in-sharpest-decline-since-q1-2023/

Microsoft barred from sponsoring foreign workers for US residency ...

2026-10-09T15:04:50Z

Microsoft barred from sponsoring foreign workers for US residency

Donald Trump’s administration has temporarily banned Microsoft, Adobe, and several other tech companies from sponsoring workers for permanent US residency, claiming they abused immigration programs at the expense of American citizens.

Vice-president JD Vance said on Thursday that the H-1B visa programme for highly skilled foreign workers had “become rife with fraud” and that over-reliance on such schemes was “a fundamental insult to the American worker.”

He added that “no company in the US” had “abused this system” more than Microsoft.

[Read full article][1]

[Comments][2]

[1]: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/10/trump-administration-targets-microsoft-in-new-immigration-crackdown/
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/10/trump-administration-targets-microsoft-in-new-immigration-crackdown/#comments

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/10/trump-administration-targets-microsoft-in-new-immigration-crackdown/

Volkswagen's replacement for the ID.4 crossover is here ...

2026-10-09T12:16:45Z

Volkswagen's replacement for the ID.4 crossover is here

Volkswagen’s ID.4 is no more. The midsize crossover [debuted in 2021][1], one of VW's first new electric vehicles designed in the wake of [dieselgate][2]. A year later, the company [began local production][3] in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and a couple of years ago facelifted the model, adding a much-improved rear drive unit [in the process][4]. But Chattanooga turned its attention away from the ID.4 [earlier this year][5]. And, having sold almost a million ID.4s (and near-identical ID.5s) globally, the German automaker has decided it’s time for its replacement. Meet the ID. Tiguan.

Dropping the numerical and adopting the moniker of VW’s big seller is a statement. “The Tiguan is our best-selling model worldwide, and the ID.4 and ID.5 are among our most successful electric cars. The ID. Tiguan brings these two success stories together,” said Thomas Schäfer, CEO of the VW brand.

VW was an early pioneer of using flexible vehicle architectures to create a multitude of bodystyles and sizes with common parts, and its transition into building EVs hasn’t changed that. The ID. Tiguan uses an updated version of the company’s mass-market EV platform, now called MEB+, with either 58 kWh or 77 kWh battery packs. The smaller pack is only available with a 187 hp (140 kW) rear electric motor, but the 77 kWh battery can be had with either a 281 hp (210 kW) rear-wheel drive powertrain or as a 295 hp (220 kW) all-wheel drive version. Range is up to 373 miles (600 km), at least according to the European WLTP test.

[Read full article][6]

[Comments][7]

[1]: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2021/02/two-days-with-a-volkswagen-id-4-heres-what-we-learned/
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/series/volkswagen-defeat-device-scandal/
[3]: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2022/08/us-production-of-the-vw-id-4-is-underway-with-a-new-cheaper-model/
[4]: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2024/07/the-2024-volkswagen-id-4-pro-gets-a-new-rear-motor-way-more-efficiency/
[5]: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/04/volkswagen-ends-id-4-production-in-tennessee-to-build-atlas-suv/
[6]: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/10/volkswagens-replacement-for-the-id-4-crossover-is-here/
[7]: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/10/volkswagens-replacement-for-the-id-4-crossover-is-here/#comments

Here's VW's new ID. Tiguan, which replaces the ID.4.

https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/10/volkswagens-replacement-for-the-id-4-crossover-is-here/

Rocket Report: A rare Falcon 9 scrub; is it just about ...

2026-10-09T12:16:40Z

Rocket Report: A rare Falcon 9 scrub; is it just about Vulcan's time to shine?

Welcome to Edition 9.14 of the Rocket Report! The big news this week, from our perspective, is that United Launch Alliance's Vulcan rocket appears to be close to launching. We've seen a no-earlier-than launch date for the return to flight mission of October 29 (an Amazon Leo flight), and the next rocket up after that, also an Amazon Leo mission, is also planned for this year. Assuming the solid rocket boosters work, Vulcan could be poised for a major breakthrough next year in cadence.

As always, we [welcome reader submissions][1], and if you don't want to miss an issue, please subscribe using the box below (the form will not appear on AMP-enabled versions of the site). Each report will include information on small-, medium-, and heavy-lift rockets as well as a quick look ahead at the next three launches on the calendar.

**Nuri rocket notches another success**. South Korea successfully deployed five satellites for its first domestically launched microsatellite constellation during the fifth flight of its homegrown Nuri rocket Wednesday, [Yonhap News Agency reports][2]. In addition to the primary payload of five New-space Earth Observation Satellite Constellation for National Safety microsatellites, nine of the rocket's 10 CubeSat secondary payloads were released as planned, according to the Korea AeroSpace Administration. PERSAT-02, developed by South Korean startup Quaternion, failed to separate from the rocket.

[Read full article][3]

[Comments][4]

[1]: https://arstechnica.wufoo.com/forms/launch-stories/
[2]: https://en.yna.co.kr/view/AEN20261007005453320
[3]: https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/10/rocket-report-a-rare-falcon-9-scrub-is-it-just-about-vulcans-time-to-shine/
[4]: https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/10/rocket-report-a-rare-falcon-9-scrub-is-it-just-about-vulcans-time-to-shine/#comments

A United Launch Alliance Vulcan rocket, powered by four solid-fueled boosters, lifts off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida.

https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/10/rocket-report-a-rare-falcon-9-scrub-is-it-just-about-vulcans-time-to-shine/

Feds get ready to rewrite car headlight rules One of the ...

2026-10-09T00:55:07Z

Feds get ready to rewrite car headlight rules

One of the regulations that make vehicles in the US different from those in Europe or Japan is our headlight rules. They’re laid out in the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS), and changing them is—or used to be—a lengthy, laborious process, which is a major reason automotive lighting technology has lagged in the US. But the current administration says it’s time for “bolstering driver safety, slashing red tape, and embracing new technologies,” so it’s going to start a [negotiated rulemaking][1] process to rewrite the regulations to suit 2026.

“Today’s standards do not allow automakers to deploy the latest safety-improving lighting technologies, so we are bringing key experts and stakeholders together to modernize our standards and address potential causes of glare,” the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's Jonathan Morrison said. “This collaborative approach will allow us to update outdated regulations, foster innovation, and keep everyone on our roads safer.”

While it is fair [to be skeptical][2] of the government's efforts to [streamline bureaucracy][3], it is also fair to say US headlight regulations really could use an update.

[Read full article][4]

[Comments][5]

[1]: https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/R46756
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/09/trump-planning-to-hand-veto-power-over-nih-grants-to-political-appointee/
[3]: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/08/doges-inflated-wall-of-receipts-96-of-grant-savings-unverifiable-gao-says/
[4]: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/10/feds-get-ready-to-rewrite-car-headlight-rules/
[5]: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/10/feds-get-ready-to-rewrite-car-headlight-rules/#comments

https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/10/feds-get-ready-to-rewrite-car-headlight-rules/

Trump Mobile hack and apparent lack of FCC authorization raise ...

2026-10-09T00:55:02Z

Trump Mobile hack and apparent lack of FCC authorization raise security alarms

Trump Mobile apparently failed to obtain necessary authorizations to operate the international calling portion of its phone service, Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) wrote in a [letter][1] to the company today.

Her letter said Trump Mobile also doesn't appear to have submitted a required plan for fighting robocalls. Trump Mobile's key business partner, Liberty Mobile Wireless, did make a robocall database filing, but it was not complete, Hassan said.

Hassan's letter raised questions about Trump Mobile's security related to a report that [hackers][2] stole personal data of 3,615 customers and Trump Mobile's [previous confirmation][3] that a vendor it uses exposed customers' personal data on the Internet. Hassan alleged that Trump Mobile failed to follow multiple FCC filing rules that are supposed to help ensure the security of mobile services.

[Read full article][4]

[Comments][5]

[1]: https://www.jec.senate.gov/public/_cache/files/ff238b19-f911-4f25-92f6-903d6b732043/2026.10.08-mwh-to-trump-mobile-redacted.pdf
[2]: https://www.pcmag.com/news/hackers-we-stole-data-from-3615-trump-mobile-customers
[3]: https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/22/trump-mobile-confirms-it-exposed-customers-personal-data-including-phone-numbers-and-home-addresses/
[4]: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/10/trump-mobile-doesnt-seem-to-have-fcc-authorization-for-phone-service-senator-says/
[5]: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/10/trump-mobile-doesnt-seem-to-have-fcc-authorization-for-phone-service-senator-says/#comments

The Trump Mobile T1 phone.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/10/trump-mobile-doesnt-seem-to-have-fcc-authorization-for-phone-service-senator-says/

Judge weighs if Trump can charge $100K for early access to Truth ...

2026-10-09T00:54:57Z

Judge weighs if Trump can charge $100K for early access to Truth Social posts

Likely in the next few weeks, a federal judge will decide if Donald Trump can become the first president to personally profit from selling early access to government information in his social media posts.

At a hearing Wednesday, Department of Justice civil attorney Brantley Mayers argued that there was no conflict whatsoever with Trump [charging up to $100,000][1] monthly for instant API access to Truth Social posts that often break news from his administration.

Trump is the largest stakeholder and majority owner of Trump Media & Technology Group, the parent company that owns Truth Social, and the value of the API access comes largely from Trump’s role as president.

[Read full article][2]

[Comments][3]

[1]: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/08/trump-sued-over-brazen-scheme-to-sell-truth-social-api-access-for-100k-a-month/
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/10/judge-weighs-if-trump-can-charge-100k-for-early-access-to-truth-social-posts/
[3]: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/10/judge-weighs-if-trump-can-charge-100k-for-early-access-to-truth-social-posts/#comments

US President Donald Trump holds a printed copy of a post from his Truth Social account.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/10/judge-weighs-if-trump-can-charge-100k-for-early-access-to-truth-social-posts/

SpaceX calls for better coordination in orbit after near-misses ...

2026-10-09T00:54:52Z

SpaceX calls for better coordination in orbit after near-misses with Starlink

Space has plenty of room for more megaconstellations, but only if all operators are willing to share information about where their satellites are and where they're going, a top executive at SpaceX and its AI subsidiary said this week.

Michael Nicolls, SpaceX's vice president for Starlink and president of Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company, xAI, used a presentation Tuesday at the International Astronautical Congress in Turkey as a clarion call for improved data-sharing among satellite operators.

SpaceX's Starlink constellation now has more than 11,000 satellites, about two-thirds of all active spacecraft in low-Earth orbit. Radars and telescopes routinely track thousands more pieces of space junk.

[Read full article][1]

[Comments][2]

[1]: https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/10/spacex-calls-for-better-coordination-in-orbit-after-near-misses-with-starlink/
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/10/spacex-calls-for-better-coordination-in-orbit-after-near-misses-with-starlink/#comments

The first batch upgraded Starlink V3 satellites deploy from SpaceX's Starship rocket in low-Earth orbit on September 28.

https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/10/spacex-calls-for-better-coordination-in-orbit-after-near-misses-with-starlink/

An experimental tour-de-force: Entanglement between glass bead ...

2026-10-08T20:18:06Z

An experimental tour-de-force: Entanglement between glass bead and light

Writing about quantum entanglement is always a challenge. There are so many clichés to avoid: It’s mysterious, ghostly, spooky, and weird. Entanglement is none of those things, and yet it is also all of those things—a superposition of clichés, you might say. So, having gotten all of my clichés out of the way in the second sentence, let’s take a look at how a group of researchers managed to [entangle a light beam with a glass bead][1], which is, frankly, quite an achievement.

## Cliché-free entanglement

Quantum entanglement is nothing more or less than the idea that if two objects are linked, then their behavior will, in some ways, be correlated. To take a terrible example: My upper and lower arm are very strongly correlated in terms of relative position because they are connected at the elbow. No one is surprised by this because we can see that they are actually a single object called an arm.

Two photons can be, in a sense, joined together, meaning that they have correlations, too. In this case, we are (naively) surprised for three reasons. First, we think of photons as separate objects that cannot be joined—this is a mistake of understanding. Second, when we connect two photons, we only connect them in limited ways: The two photons may be wholly uncorrelated in terms of polarization, but strongly correlated in terms of energy.

[Read full article][2]

[Comments][3]

[1]: https://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.aeh1375
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/10/suspended-glass-bead-entangled-with-light-maybe-a-quantum-memory/
[3]: https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/10/suspended-glass-bead-entangled-with-light-maybe-a-quantum-memory/#comments

https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/10/suspended-glass-bead-entangled-with-light-maybe-a-quantum-memory/

RFK Jr. unveils sweeping federal initiative to find evidence of ...

2026-10-08T20:18:00Z

RFK Jr. unveils sweeping federal initiative to find evidence of vaccine injuries

Under anti-vaccine Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the federal health department is undertaking an agency-wide effort to focus on injuries claimed to be related to vaccines.

In [a press announcement Thursday][1], the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) laid out four aspects of the large-scale initiative. The first is a new clinic at the National Institutes of Health that is "dedicated to studying and caring for patients experiencing health problems following vaccination." Despite only being announced today, the clinic actually opened October 5, and Kennedy secretly attended its ribbon-cutting ceremony alongside other high-level Trump administration officials. It's unclear why his visit and the clinic's opening were not disclosed by the Trump administration, but they were reported by [Bloomberg Law][2] at the time.

Another aspect of the initiative is a proposal to reimburse doctors for reporting possible injuries from vaccines to a federal system called VAERS, or the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System. VAERS, which is run by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is [a common focus of anti-vaccine advocates][3], who [incessantly misuse it][4]. The system is meant to be an indiscriminate dragnet of any potential safety concerns linked to vaccines, providing a sensitive early warning monitoring system. Anyone, including members of the public, can submit an unvetted report.

[Read full article][5]

[Comments][6]

[1]: https://www.hhs.gov/press-room/hhs-strengthens-vaccine-injury-research-reporting-patient-care.html
[2]: https://news.bloomberglaw.com/health-law-and-business/rfk-jr-to-announce-new-vaccine-injury-research-at-nih
[3]: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/06/14/1004757554/anti-vaccine-activists-use-a-federal-database-to-spread-fear-about-covid-vaccine
[4]: https://www.factcheck.org/2023/06/scicheck-what-vaers-can-and-cant-do-and-how-anti-vaccination-groups-habitually-misuse-its-data/
[5]: https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/10/rfk-jr-unveils-sweeping-federal-initiative-to-find-evidence-of-vaccine-injuries/
[6]: https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/10/rfk-jr-unveils-sweeping-federal-initiative-to-find-evidence-of-vaccine-injuries/#comments

US Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/10/rfk-jr-unveils-sweeping-federal-initiative-to-find-evidence-of-vaccine-injuries/

Driver wins $76 after ALPR led to bogus traffic stop, drug ...

2026-10-08T20:17:55Z

Driver wins $76 after ALPR led to bogus traffic stop, drug searches

A federal jury in Texas recently ruled in favor of a man who sued Bexar County and its sheriff over allegations that the agency ran what the plaintiff’s attorneys called an “unconstitutional traffic stop scheme” enabled by “AI-powered” license plate readers.

Late last month, plaintiff Alek Schott of Houston was awarded $76, one dollar for each minute that he was detained. (Schott asked for this exact amount as symbolic compensation.)

“After the stop, I filed a complaint with the Sheriff’s Office because I knew what happened to me was wrong,” Schott said in a [statement][1] after his win. “The department reviewed it, told me they didn’t see any violation, and said if I had a problem with it, I should sue them. So I did.”

[Read full article][2]

[Comments][3]

[1]: https://ij.org/press-release/federal-jury-strikes-down-texas-sheriffs-surveillance-driven-traffic-stop-program/
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/10/driver-wins-76-after-alpr-led-to-bogus-traffic-stop-drug-searches/
[3]: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/10/driver-wins-76-after-alpr-led-to-bogus-traffic-stop-drug-searches/#comments

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/10/driver-wins-76-after-alpr-led-to-bogus-traffic-stop-drug-searches/

Let's Encrypt cuts certificate lifetimes to 64 days starting ...

2026-10-08T20:17:50Z

Let's Encrypt cuts certificate lifetimes to 64 days starting February 2027

Let's Encrypt is continuing a push toward improved security by reducing free SSL/TLS certificate lifetimes from 90 days to 64 days, starting on February 10, 2027. For administrators already implementing modern [ACME][1] clients that support [ARI][2] (ACME Renewal Information), the change should be seamless. For those still relying on hardcoded renewal schedules or manual processes, next winter will be the deadline to update before certificates start expiring unexpectedly.

Starting on October 14, 2026, Let's Encrypt will begin testing the 64-day certificates, and interested users can opt-in to test their setups before production goes live.

[Prior to Let's Encrypt's launch in early 2016][3], certificates were often issued for as long as 1 to 3 years at a time. The service start with 90-day certificates to force renewal automation that didn't previously exist. Shorter certificate validity periods limited vulnerabilities from private key thefts and accelerated [HTTPS][4] adoption across the web.

[Read full article][5]

[Comments][6]

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_Certificate_Management_Environment
[2]: https://letsencrypt.org/2024/04/25/guide-to-integrating-ari-into-existing-acme-clients
[3]: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/10/with-goal-of-universal-https-lets-encrypt-reaches-important-milestone/
[4]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTPS
[5]: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/10/lets-encrypt-cuts-certificate-lifetimes-to-64-days-starting-february-2027/
[6]: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/10/lets-encrypt-cuts-certificate-lifetimes-to-64-days-starting-february-2027/#comments

64-Day Certificate Lifetimes Coming Feb 2027

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/10/lets-encrypt-cuts-certificate-lifetimes-to-64-days-starting-february-2027/

R.I.P. Margaret Hamilton, whose code saved the Apollo 11 Moon ...

2026-10-08T20:17:45Z

R.I.P. Margaret Hamilton, whose code saved the Apollo 11 Moon landing

Margaret Hamilton, who coined the term "software engineering" and [led the development][1] of on-board flight software for NASA's Apollo program in the 1960s, [died last week][2] at the age of 90. A recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016, Hamilton was also immortalized as a [LEGO minifig][3] the following year—part of the "Women of NASA" set that also included astronauts Mae Jemison and Sally Ride.

“To say Margaret Hamilton was a pioneer—to say she was ahead of her time—would be a dramatic understatement. She was a software engineer at a time when that field was in its infancy, and she not only developed advanced code herself but also led a team in using that nascent technology to develop one of the most complex systems humanity had ever achieved,” [said Olivier de Weck][4], interim head of the MIT Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics. “The Apollo program still stands as one of our greatest testaments to the power of collaboration, ingenuity, and engineering, and Hamilton was a fundamental contributor to that program’s success.”

Born in 1936 in Paoli, Indiana, Hamilton graduated from Earlham College in 1958 with a degree in mathematics and a minor in philosophy—the latter a nod to her father (a poet) and grandfather (a headmaster). She married her first husband, James Cox Hamilton, that same year. The plan was for her to work until he finished his law degree, after which he would support her through graduate school to earn a PhD in mathematics.

[Read full article][5]

[Comments][6]

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Hamilton_(software_engineer)
[2]: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/07/obituaries/margaret-hamilton-dead.html
[3]: https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/10/a-new-lego-set-honors-the-women-of-nasa-and-it-looks-pretty-awesome/
[4]: https://news.mit.edu/2026/margaret-hamilton-computing-pioneer-dies-1007
[5]: https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/10/r-i-p-margaret-hamilton-whose-code-saved-the-apollo-11-moon-landing/
[6]: https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/10/r-i-p-margaret-hamilton-whose-code-saved-the-apollo-11-moon-landing/#comments

https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/10/r-i-p-margaret-hamilton-whose-code-saved-the-apollo-11-moon-landing/

Amazon builds 1,000th satellite, will launch space internet ...

2026-10-08T17:38:06Z

Amazon builds 1,000th satellite, will launch space internet service by end of year

The world's largest retailer wants to sell you something else—Internet from space.

Amazon has been developing a constellation of satellites to deliver broadband Internet from low-Earth orbit for the better part of a decade, and the company is just about ready to pull back the curtain. It is entering a market that SpaceX, with its Starlink Internet, has dominated for the last half-decade. Amazon's debut into satellite Internet is being closely watched, not just by some consumers, but by businesses ranging from airlines to shipping companies to governments. Broadband Internet from orbit has proven broadly useful for a lot of purposes, from video games to commerce to warfighting.

But until now, most people had to buy it from Elon Musk and SpaceX. OneWeb has only offered limited services, leaving Amazon as the only real competitor to deliver high-speed Internet globally. Moreover, at the head of the company's broadband efforts is Rajeev Badyal, who led Starlink during its early years, but whom Musk fired eight years ago for moving too cautiously on Starlink.

[Read full article][1]

[Comments][2]

[1]: https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/10/amazon-builds-1000th-satellite-is-weeks-away-from-space-internet-rollout/
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/10/amazon-builds-1000th-satellite-is-weeks-away-from-space-internet-rollout/#comments

Amazon recently built its 1,000th Leo broadband Internet satellite.

https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/10/amazon-builds-1000th-satellite-is-weeks-away-from-space-internet-rollout/

Amazon's new Alexa Tablets drop the Fire branding but are ...

2026-10-08T17:37:59Z

Amazon's new Alexa Tablets drop the Fire branding but are more Android than ever

For the last 15 years, you've been able to buy a Fire tablet from Amazon. Which Fire tablet? It doesn't matter—like Kindles, they have been pretty much the same year to year. The company's new tablet lineup is a big change, though. Amazon has dropped the Fire branding in favor of Alexa, and the new Alexa Tablets are now Google-certified Android devices.

Throughout the history of Fire Tablets, Amazon downplayed its use of Android. They ran Android apps from the company's Appstore platform, but there was no Google integration with "Fire OS." However, Amazon [shut down its app store last year][1]. The new Alexa Tablets run full-fledged Google-y versions of Android with the Play Store and all the apps you'd expect. This contrasts sharply with Amazon's Fire Sticks, which have abandoned Android for the custom Linux-based Vega OS.

The [Alexa Tablet lineup][2] consists of three devices, all redesigned with unibody aluminum housings. The [Alexa Tablet 8][3] starts at $230, and the [Tablet 11][4] jumps to $330. They run on the budget MediaTek 8189 processor, but that's still an upgrade from the [last-gen Fire tablets][5]. Both devices have 16:10 display ratios that are better for watching video, but the flagship tablet is a little different.

[Read full article][6]

[Comments][7]

[1]: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/02/amazon-remembers-it-has-an-android-app-store-kills-it/
[2]: https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/devices/new-amazon-alexa-tablets-alexa-plus
[3]: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F44LJ5QK?ref=ods_surl_at8&th=1
[4]: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DN6WM2HF?ref=ods_surl_at11&th=1
[5]: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/09/the-2022-amazon-fire-8-hd-tablet-sports-30-percent-faster-cpu/
[6]: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/10/amazons-new-alexa-tablets-drop-the-fire-branding-but-are-more-android-than-ever/
[7]: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/10/amazons-new-alexa-tablets-drop-the-fire-branding-but-are-more-android-than-ever/#comments

Amazons' new tablet lineup is all aluminum and all Android.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/10/amazons-new-alexa-tablets-drop-the-fire-branding-but-are-more-android-than-ever/

ExxonMobil's own scientists doubted climate fixes the company ...

2026-10-08T14:09:19Z

ExxonMobil's own scientists doubted climate fixes the company hyped

If there was a year the world began waking up to climate change, it might have been 1988. That June, the NASA climatologist James Hansen testified to Congress that the climate was warming and would continue to do so as long as humans pumped fossil fuel pollution into the atmosphere. Months later, the United Nations established the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

And, just weeks before the U.N. vote, Frank Sprow of Exxon’s corporate research department warned his colleagues [in an internal memo][1], “If a worldwide consensus emerges that action is needed to mitigate against Greenhouse gas effects, substantial negative impacts on Exxon could occur.”

Sprow’s memo is part of a batch of previously undisclosed documents released earlier this year without fanfare as part of an ongoing lawsuit Massachusetts filed against ExxonMobil in 2019. While the memo was quoted in a [2023 article by The Wall Street Journal][2], it has not been published in full. Several other documents included in the filings are being reported on here for the first time, including more recent statements from Exxon scientists challenging the company’s climate-solution claims about its work on biofuels and carbon capture and storage.

[Read full article][3]

[Comments][4]

[1]: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/28574283-searchresults-4/?mode=document#document/p64/a2830722
[2]: https://www.wsj.com/business/energy-oil/exxon-climate-change-documents-e2e9e6af?st=1Fodn5&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
[3]: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/10/exxonmobils-own-scientists-doubted-climate-fixes-the-company-hyped/
[4]: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/10/exxonmobils-own-scientists-doubted-climate-fixes-the-company-hyped/#comments

ExxonMobil's oil refinery in Baytown, Texas.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/10/exxonmobils-own-scientists-doubted-climate-fixes-the-company-hyped/

A senator tried to ban gambling on prediction markets—now ...

2026-10-08T11:44:13Z

A senator tried to ban gambling on prediction markets—now she's a Kalshi lobbyist

In July 2010, US Senator Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) predicted the rise of prediction markets and the problems they could cause. If not properly regulated, Lincoln warned during Senate proceedings on the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, prediction markets could evade gambling laws by offering "event contracts" that let people place wagers on sports games.

"It would be quite easy to construct an event contract around sporting events such as the Super Bowl, the Kentucky Derby, and Masters golf tournament," Lincoln, who played a key role in making the law that now regulates prediction markets, told fellow senators. "These types of contracts would not serve any real commercial purpose. Rather, they would be used solely for gambling."

Today, Lincoln is a lobbyist for prediction market Kalshi and has urged the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to allow sports gambling on the markets. The firm she founded has received $480,000 from Kalshi since 2024 in exchange for lobbying Congress and the CFTC for looser regulation of event contracts.

[Read full article][1]

[Comments][2]

[1]: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/10/a-senator-tried-to-ban-gambling-on-prediction-markets-now-shes-a-kalshi-lobbyist/
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/10/a-senator-tried-to-ban-gambling-on-prediction-markets-now-shes-a-kalshi-lobbyist/#comments

Blanche Lincoln, who opposed sports-event contracts as a US senator in 2010, now lobbies in favor of sports gambling on prediction markets for her client, Kalshi.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/10/a-senator-tried-to-ban-gambling-on-prediction-markets-now-shes-a-kalshi-lobbyist/

Nvidia's big bet on physical AI aims for safer robotaxis, ...

2026-10-08T11:44:08Z

Nvidia's big bet on physical AI aims for safer robotaxis, humanoid robots

Investors bullish on AI data centers may be fueling Nvidia’s multi-trillion-dollar market capitalization, but the AI chipmaker has also bet billions of dollars on physical AI technologies such as robotics and self-driving cars. Part of that gambit has involved Nvidia developing a full-stack safety system that companies can build upon to reduce the risk of their machines harming nearby people.

Nvidia's Halos system [launched in 2025][1] with hardware and software tools to help developers implement guardrails in self-driving cars and other autonomous vehicles. Then the company expanded its safety architecture to more physical AI technologies by announcing [Nvidia Halos for Robotics][2] in June 2026—with the goal of enabling safe deployments of autonomous mobile robots in warehouses, humanoid robots walking around inside a factory, or even surgical robots.

“Now the AI models are getting capable, the robot hardware is getting capable, and a thing we thought is going to be the next bottleneck is safety,” [Amit Goel][3], head of robotics ecosystem and edge computing at Nvidia, told Ars. “So that's why we launched our Halos for Robotics to unlock the capability of these systems.”

[Read full article][4]

[Comments][5]

[1]: https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/halos-safety-system-autonomous-vehicles/
[2]: https://nvidianews.nvidia.com/news/nvidia-announces-halos-for-robotics-the-industrys-first-full-stack-safety-system-for-physical-ai
[3]: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amit-goel-759146a/
[4]: https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/10/nvidias-big-bet-on-physical-ai-aims-for-safer-robotaxis-humanoid-robots/
[5]: https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/10/nvidias-big-bet-on-physical-ai-aims-for-safer-robotaxis-humanoid-robots/#comments

Agility Robotics' Digit humanoid robot uses Nvidia's Halos system to help safely work around people.

https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/10/nvidias-big-bet-on-physical-ai-aims-for-safer-robotaxis-humanoid-robots/

Microsoft event debuts new AI-friendly hardware and Windows ...

2026-10-08T02:07:47Z

Microsoft event debuts new AI-friendly hardware and Windows changes

In its first live event in two years, Microsoft today announced its newest Surface laptop, outlined a host of changes coming to Windows 11, and shared a vision of how local-AI and agentic workflows could reshape personal computing for those in the dev community as well as home enthusiasts.

## Surface Laptop Ultra

[Originally teased in May 2026][1], the new Surface Laptop Ultra will be Microsoft's first offering to take advantage of the new Nvidia RTX Spark SoC (system on a chip). The device has a starting price of $2,599, and comes in various SoC and memory configurations, with either a 5120-core or 6144-core Blackwell GPU and up to 128GB of LPDDR5x unified memory. It will begin shipping on October 16 and is available for [pre-order][2] now.

While the new Ultra is clearly focused on the developer crowd, graphical performance was highlighted during the presentation to show off just how capable the laptop can be. By leaning on unified memory allocation rather than the physical VRAM limits of a traditional GPU, the laptop can assign its resources to handle modern gaming tasks as well as local AI development and deployment. The new [*Gears of War: E-Day*][3] was shown running on the system, meaning that even without a traditional gaming GPU, AAA titles are on the table.

[Read full article][4]

[Comments][5]

[1]: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/06/microsoft-surface-laptop-ultra-will-be-among-the-first-nvidia-rtx-spark-arm-pcs/
[2]: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/surface/devices/surface-laptop-ultra
[3]: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3010850/Gears_of_War_EDay/
[4]: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/10/microsoft-event-debuts-new-ai-friendly-hardware-and-windows-changes/
[5]: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/10/microsoft-event-debuts-new-ai-friendly-hardware-and-windows-changes/#comments

The Surface Laptop Ultra

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/10/microsoft-event-debuts-new-ai-friendly-hardware-and-windows-changes/

“Software is over”: Bold AI developer takes aim at Adobe with ...

2026-10-07T23:44:06Z

“Software is over”: Bold AI developer takes aim at Adobe with open source clones

For a while, those hoping to [avoid the difficulty and expense of dealing with Adobe's Creative Suite][1] have been able to use [several free and/or open-source alternatives][2] that replicate some or all of those capabilities. Now, one developer is using AI-powered reverse engineering to mimic the look, feel, and functionality of Adobe's well-known software with what he hopes will soon be perfect fidelity.

[Artcraft][3] got its start [last year][4] as a "controllable AI for artists" that allows for precise post-generation editing of AI-crafted images and videos. Over the weekend, though, the brand [debuted its pivot][5] to [a suite of seven open source apps][6] recreating the user interface and tools found in Adobe's Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere, Lightroom, After Effects, InDesign, and Acrobat Pro.

In [announcing those new apps on Reddit][7] earlier this week, [software developer Brandon Thomas][8] said he used Anthropic's Claude Opus 5.5 to create "clean-room replacements" for Adobe's closed source software in Rust (with WebAssembly versions available for use in a browser). And while commenters [on Hacker News][9] and [elsewhere][10] have [taken pains][11] to point out the new software's many current shortcomings, Thomas make the grandiose promise that [the current "super early alpha" state][12] will soon lead to something just as functional as anything Adobe has ever put out.

[Read full article][13]

[Comments][14]

[1]: https://arstechnica.com/civis/threads/is-adobe-really-this-bad.1471693/
[2]: https://github.com/KenneyNL/Adobe-Alternatives
[3]: https://github.com/storytold/artcraft
[4]: https://web.archive.org/web/20250315000000*/https://getartcraft.com/
[5]: https://web.archive.org/web/20261003233252/https://getartcraft.com/
[6]: https://getartcraft.com/apps
[7]: https://www.reddit.com/r/SaaS/comments/1wwnhbt/ive_created_open_source_100_rust_cleanroom/
[8]: https://www.linkedin.com/in/possibilistic/
[9]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49960138
[10]: https://bsky.app/profile/chinnyvision.bsky.social/post/3mxcfhzfgpc2c
[11]: https://bsky.app/profile/whatabouttheken.bsky.social/post/3mxcc3ey72c2f
[12]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49959605
[13]: https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/10/software-is-over-bold-ai-developer-takes-aim-at-adobe-with-open-source-clones/
[14]: https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/10/software-is-over-bold-ai-developer-takes-aim-at-adobe-with-open-source-clones/#comments

Think that's a screen from Photoshop? Look again...

https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/10/software-is-over-bold-ai-developer-takes-aim-at-adobe-with-open-source-clones/

TP-Link problems in US grow amid FCC router ban and four state ...

2026-10-07T21:16:12Z

TP-Link problems in US grow amid FCC router ban and four state lawsuits

TP-Link is facing more legal troubles in the US as Florida and three other states filed lawsuits alleging that it lied to consumers about its connections to China and the risks of its routers being exploited by Chinese state hackers.

The lawsuits were filed yesterday, about six months after the Federal Communications Commission [announced a sweeping ban][1] on consumer-grade routers produced wholly or partly outside of the US. Numerous router makers have obtained exemptions to the ban, but the Trump administration so far has not granted one to TP-Link.

Router makers that received exemptions [include][2] Netgear, Asus, Adtran, Amazon and its Eero subsidiary, Calix, Nokia, SpaceX's Starlink division, and others. For now, TP-Link is unable to sell its latest Wi-Fi 8 routers in the US, though models approved before the ban can still be sold.

[Read full article][3]

[Comments][4]

[1]: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/03/trump-fcc-prohibits-import-and-sale-of-new-wi-fi-routers-made-outside-us/
[2]: https://www.fcc.gov/supplychain/coveredlist
[3]: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/10/florida-sues-tp-link-claiming-it-hides-router-security-risks-and-links-to-china/
[4]: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/10/florida-sues-tp-link-claiming-it-hides-router-security-risks-and-links-to-china/#comments

TP-Link's Archer 8 Ultra router and Deco 8 Ultra mesh Wi-Fi system.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/10/florida-sues-tp-link-claiming-it-hides-router-security-risks-and-links-to-china/

PA measles outbreak tops 1,000 cases, largest since disease was ...

2026-10-07T21:16:07Z

PA measles outbreak tops 1,000 cases, largest since disease was eliminated

Pennsylvania's explosive measles outbreak is now the largest the US has seen since the highly infectious virus was declared eliminated in 2000. With well over 1,000 cases, it's the largest on record since 1991.

Pennsylvania's health officials [reported 1,078 measles cases in all of 2026][1] as of this afternoon. That includes 12 cases in January and March, with the remaining [1,066 cases since April][2], when the current outbreak began. The tally includes 145 cases recorded in the last seven days and 74 identified since the previous update on Monday. Health officials noted that 40 of the 74 cases added today were from more than two weeks ago and are just now being recorded.

Among the cases, there have been 207 hospitalizations and five deaths—[a newborn][3], [a 6-week-old][4], an [18-year-old][5], a [20-year-old][6], and a [40-year-old][7]. All of the deaths occurred during the current outbreak in people who were unvaccinated; the two infants were too young to have been vaccinated.

[Read full article][8]

[Comments][9]

[1]: https://www.pa.gov/agencies/health/newsroom/pa-department-of-health-provides-statewide-update-on-measles-out9
[2]: https://www.pa.gov/agencies/health/diseases-conditions/infectious-disease/measles
[3]: https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/08/rfk-jr-spews-anti-vaccine-rubbish-as-newborn-revealed-to-have-died-from-measles/
[4]: https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/09/measles-killed-6-week-old-baby-coroner-confirms-after-rfk-jr-disputed-deaths/
[5]: https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/09/measles-kills-18-year-old-in-pa-fourth-death-as-state-outbreak-nears-700-cases/
[6]: https://www.inquirer.com/health/measles-death-pennsylvania-outbreak-lancaster-county-20261002.html
[7]: https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/09/unvaccinated-pennsylvania-woman-died-of-measles-complications-coroner-says/
[8]: https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/10/pa-measles-outbreak-tops-1000-cases-largest-since-disease-was-eliminated/
[9]: https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/10/pa-measles-outbreak-tops-1000-cases-largest-since-disease-was-eliminated/#comments

https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/10/pa-measles-outbreak-tops-1000-cases-largest-since-disease-was-eliminated/

Fraudster jailed for using 10K bots and AI songs to outstream ...

2026-10-07T19:32:55Z

Fraudster jailed for using 10K bots and AI songs to outstream Taylor Swift

After pleading guilty, a 54-year-old North Carolina man, Michael Smith, was sentenced to 18 months in prison for using artificial intelligence to generate songs for a scheme that stole millions from music streaming platforms.

In a [press release][1] Tuesday, the US Department of Justice said that Smith is the first American criminally charged with AI-assisted streaming fraud.

First [charged][2] in 2024, Smith successfully ran the scheme for seven years without detection.

[Read full article][3]

[Comments][4]

[1]: https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/north-carolina-man-sentenced-18-months-prison-super-intelligence-assisted-music
[2]: https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/north-carolina-musician-charged-music-streaming-fraud-aided-artificial-intelligence
[3]: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/10/outstreaming-taylor-swift-is-easy-with-10k-bots-and-ai-songs-fraudster-admits/
[4]: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/10/outstreaming-taylor-swift-is-easy-with-10k-bots-and-ai-songs-fraudster-admits/#comments

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/10/outstreaming-taylor-swift-is-easy-with-10k-bots-and-ai-songs-fraudster-admits/

Pediatricians renew call to ban raw milk as anti-science rhetoric ...

2026-10-07T19:32:50Z

Pediatricians renew call to ban raw milk as anti-science rhetoric reigns

As many doctors are moving ahead with the latest advances of modern medicine—from powerful obesity drugs to breakthrough cancer treatments—pediatricians are being forced to turn back, fighting to maintain advances in children's health that were hard-won decades ago.

With anti-vaccine advocate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health secretary, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has spent a considerable amount of time and resources in the past year fiercely defending lifesaving vaccinations—safe, routine shots that have saved the lives of millions of children over decades and thwarted untold suffering and disability.

But just this week, [The New York Times reported][1] that Ken Paxton, the attorney general of Texas, has opened [aggressive investigations][2] against pediatricians simply because they vaccinated their patients. Paxton falsely claims vaccines are part of a "multi-level, multi-industry scheme." But critics say his anti-vaccine campaign appears more aimed at currying favor with Kennedy, President Trump, and their supporters as Paxton runs for the US Senate.

[Read full article][3]

[Comments][4]

[1]: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/05/health/ken-paxton-pediatricians-vaccines.html
[2]: https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/news/releases/attorney-general-ken-paxton-launches-wide-sweeping-investigation-unlawful-financial-incentives
[3]: https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/10/pediatricians-renew-call-to-ban-raw-milk-as-anti-science-rhetoric-reigns/
[4]: https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/10/pediatricians-renew-call-to-ban-raw-milk-as-anti-science-rhetoric-reigns/#comments

Cows standing in their pens in North Freedom, Wisconsin on May 8, 2024.

https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/10/pediatricians-renew-call-to-ban-raw-milk-as-anti-science-rhetoric-reigns/

Chemistry Nobel goes to reactions like those that gave life a ...

2026-10-07T19:32:44Z

Chemistry Nobel goes to reactions like those that gave life a hand

Life is remarkably selective. Life relies on many molecules with what is termed "handedness"—they're chemically identical but are mirror images of each other. Most chemical reactions will make a 50-50 mix of the left- and right-handed forms of a chemical, but life uses only one of them. In fact, because of the differences between left- and right-handed chemicals, most of the key enzymes used by organisms will fail to work if they're presented with chemicals that have the wrong handedness.

That poses a bit of a challenge for origin-of-life research, as we're forced to explain how a world that may have started with an even mix of left- and right-handed chemicals produced organisms that only used one of them.

Today's Nobel Prize in Chemistry goes to two individuals, Henri Kagan and Kenso Soai, who discovered chemical reactions could be biased, producing large excesses of one of the two forms of a chemical.

[Read full article][1]

[Comments][2]

[1]: https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/10/chemistry-nobel-goes-to-reactions-like-those-that-gave-life-a-hand/
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/10/chemistry-nobel-goes-to-reactions-like-those-that-gave-life-a-hand/#comments

This molecule can have different chiralities based on how its bonds are ordered.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/10/chemistry-nobel-goes-to-reactions-like-those-that-gave-life-a-hand/

Trade group crunches numbers on Trump’s impossible push for ...

2026-10-07T17:03:16Z

Trade group crunches numbers on Trump’s impossible push for 100% US-made tech

One of Donald Trump’s biggest goals as president is to increase domestic manufacturing and reshore supply chains so that the most in-demand technologies in the world can be 100 percent made in the United States.

By executive order last December, he [launched his “Genesis Mission,”][1] an ambitious plan seeking to leverage US dominance in AI to maintain or seize an edge in advanced robotics, biotechnology, semiconductors, and nuclear technologies. According to Trump, that plan works best with self-sustaining supply chains. Not even neighboring countries or longtime allies should be relied upon to manufacture a single component of any US product in his ideal world.

The Consumer Technology Association (CTA) has long warned that Trump’s reshoring goals are not grounded in reality, but only recently has America’s largest technology trade association attempted to estimate what it would cost businesses and consumers to follow through on Trump’s plan.

[Read full article][2]

[Comments][3]

[1]: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/12/trump-spent-2025-attacking-science-that-could-set-back-his-genesis-mission/
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/10/trade-group-crunches-numbers-on-trumps-impossible-push-for-100-us-made-tech/
[3]: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/10/trade-group-crunches-numbers-on-trumps-impossible-push-for-100-us-made-tech/#comments

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/10/trade-group-crunches-numbers-on-trumps-impossible-push-for-100-us-made-tech/

Jaguar Type 01 debuts; now, no one remembers the electric Ferrari ...

2026-10-07T17:03:11Z

Jaguar Type 01 debuts; now, no one remembers the electric Ferrari

Does it feel like people are perhaps a little grumpier or more on edge these days? It’s not like it’s without reason. There are [wars][1]. The climate is going [haywire][2]. Someone [just died of plague][3]. Scientific research [is under attack][4]. Machines keep [stealing humans’ work][5]. The media is [a mess][6]. And just when it all starts to feel a little overwhelming, Jaguar goes and unveils a new car.

The Type 01 is the first model to arrive from Jaguar’s rebirth. The British carmaker was an early entrant to the modern EV market with the 2017 I-Pace, which [was fun to drive][7] even if it was too small inside and perhaps [completely unreliable][8]. An all-electric sedan was supposed to be next, but a year from the showroom, it was abruptly canceled, leaving the automaker with nothing to sell as old models like the F-Pace ceased production.

Instead, Jaguar got to work on an all-new electric vehicle platform called JEA, which will underpin an all-electric product line. An elevated ownership experience and a starting price of about double the brand’s previous $60,000 entry point was the idea, Jaguar boss Rawdon Glover [told me in 2024][9]. Then last year the brand started teasing its relaunch, and [everyone got upset][10]. Things got even worse when the first images of the [slab-sided and pastel-shaded Type 00][11] coupe concept leaked.

[Read full article][12]

[Comments][13]

[1]: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/09/iran-strikes-on-amazon-data-centers-caused-permanent-loss-of-customer-data/
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/tag/climate-change/
[3]: https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/10/researchers-death-from-undisclosed-illness-sparks-mass-quarantine-in-russia/
[4]: https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/09/trump-planning-to-hand-veto-power-over-nih-grants-to-political-appointee/
[5]: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/08/ai-industry-horrified-to-face-largest-copyright-class-action-ever-certified/
[6]: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/10/paramount-completes-111b-warner-merger-creating-skydance-behemoth/
[7]: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2018/06/forget-about-that-tesla-the-jaguar-i-pace-is-the-most-compelling-ev-yet/
[8]: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2025/02/after-20-range-reduction-im-waiting-for-jaguar-to-buy-my-car-back/
[9]: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2024/05/jaguar-wins-1-2-in-monaco-as-it-prepares-its-rebirth-as-ev-only-brand/
[10]: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/nov/22/jaguar-new-branding-cars-donald-trump
[11]: https://www.wired.com/story/jaguar-finally-reveals-its-all-electric-type-00/
[12]: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/10/jaguar-makes-its-controversial-all-ev-return-with-the-type-01/
[13]: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/10/jaguar-makes-its-controversial-all-ev-return-with-the-type-01/#comments

In this era of social media, car design has become something people get angry about.

https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/10/jaguar-makes-its-controversial-all-ev-return-with-the-type-01/

If you're looking, here's a "good deal" for NASA ...

2026-10-07T14:58:09Z

If you're looking, here's a "good deal" for NASA and the European Space Agency

It's no surprise that NASA's new tack toward foreign partnerships—[*good deals only, please*][1]—is challenging preconceived notions of international cooperation in space.

Without a massive budget hike, the US space agency's emphasis on [building a Moon Base][2] and winning a competition for lunar real estate and resources with China will inevitably leave lesser priorities behind.

Gone is the Lunar Gateway, a space station that was to be assembled in orbit around the Moon. For the United States, Gateway was an unnecessary distraction and expense as NASA goes all-in on placing a surface station near the Moon's south pole.

[Read full article][3]

[Comments][4]

[1]: https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/09/nasa-chief-im-only-interested-in-good-deals-from-international-partners/
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/05/nasa-takes-steps-toward-building-moon-base-including-discussing-a-perimeter/
[3]: https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/10/nasa-is-keen-on-pursuing-at-least-one-joint-science-mission-with-europe/
[4]: https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/10/nasa-is-keen-on-pursuing-at-least-one-joint-science-mission-with-europe/#comments

Artist's illustration of one of the three spacecraft that will make up the LISA mission.

https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/10/nasa-is-keen-on-pursuing-at-least-one-joint-science-mission-with-europe/

Review: Fine, let's talk about Digger I found [the ...

2026-10-07T14:58:03Z

Review: Fine, let's talk about Digger

I found [the trailer][1] for *Digger* intriguing, starring a nearly unrecognizable Tom Cruise and giving off strong *Doctor Strangelove* vibes. Plus, it is four-time Oscar-winning director Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s ([*Birdman*][2]) first English-language film since 2015’s *The Revenant*. Those elements quickly moved it near the top of my "must-see" list even if details about the actual plot were lacking. Given Iñárritu’s pedigree, the film seemed poised to be prime Oscar bait.

**(Major spoilers appear below the gallery. We'll give you a heads-up when we get there.)**

By now it's clear that *Digger* is [on track][3] to be one of the biggest bombs of the year instead, racking up a mere $20 million globally its opening weekend, against a $125 million (possibly more) budget. It has sharply polarized critics and audiences alike, with some appreciating Iñárritu's bold, creative swings and others finding the film practically unwatchable.

[Read full article][4]

[Comments][5]

[1]: https://arstechnica.com/culture/2026/07/digger-trailer-is-giving-big-dr-strangelove-vibes/
[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birdman_(film)
[3]: https://deadline.com/2026/10/digger-tom-cruise-movie-bombs-1237146199/
[4]: https://arstechnica.com/culture/2026/10/review-digger-is-both-frustrating-and-brilliant-by-design/
[5]: https://arstechnica.com/culture/2026/10/review-digger-is-both-frustrating-and-brilliant-by-design/#comments

https://arstechnica.com/culture/2026/10/review-digger-is-both-frustrating-and-brilliant-by-design/

AI/ML is becoming a performance factor in motorsport There’s ...

2026-10-07T14:57:57Z

AI/ML is becoming a performance factor in motorsport

There’s been something of a change in the world of motorsport over the past few years. It has to do with where the money comes from. In the old days, it was tobacco, and to a lesser extent booze. Today such things are mostly banned, and when you look at a racecar covered in sponsor logos, you’re likely to see something crypto-, cyber-, or AI-related.

This makes sense—a larger and larger proportion of our GDP is wrapped up in those segments. They’re the ones with all the money, and it takes money to go racing. So at the amateur level, we’ve seen tech CEOs replace dentists as the privateer of choice: This past weekend’s Petit Le Mans included co-founders of GitHub, Crowdstrike, Shopify, and the creator of Ruby on Rails, to name a few.

But this is an instance where a sponsor can provide tangible benefits to their motorsports partner beyond a bank transfer, as Chip Ganassi Racing (CGR) and OpenAI have been showing in IndyCar this year.

[Read full article][1]

[Comments][2]

[1]: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/10/ai-ml-setups-became-a-tool-in-indycar-champion-alex-palous-toolbox/
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/10/ai-ml-setups-became-a-tool-in-indycar-champion-alex-palous-toolbox/#comments

OpenAI helped Palou get pole on the new track in Washington, DC. His race didn't go quite so well though.

https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/10/ai-ml-setups-became-a-tool-in-indycar-champion-alex-palous-toolbox/

Google rolls out improved SynthID AI content detector, now ...

2026-10-07T14:57:52Z

Google rolls out improved SynthID AI content detector, now available globally

Every piece of AI content from Google's Gemini models has a hidden SynthID label, which makes it [very difficult to pass the content off as authentic][1]. SynthID has also gotten buy-in from other major AI players, but actually checking for those invisible watermarks has been a convoluted process. It's going to be a little easier going forward, though. Google has [announced][2] that its SynthID detector now supports watermarks from all its partners, and it's available for anyone to use on a new dedicated website.

SynthID is an invisible signal encoded in the pixels of AI-generated images and videos, and in the waveform of AI audio. Google says Gemini alone has integrated SynthID with over 180 billion images and videos, plus 240,000 years of audio. Until now, the only way for those outside of Google's trusted tester program to check for SynthID was to ask Gemini. This is rather clunky, and the model's output could sometimes be confusing when you just wanted a simple "yes" or "no."

Now you can cut Gemini out of the loop. Starting today, you can go to the new [SynthID.com][3] website to check a piece of content for an AI watermark. A major limitation of Google's previous detector was that it only checked for Google's version of SynthID. Even though ChatGPT images, for example, have SynthID, they wouldn't be flagged in Google's detector. That's no longer a problem.

[Read full article][4]

[Comments][5]

[1]: https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/07/tested-google-synthid-works-great-but-labeling-ai-content-may-be-a-losing-game/
[2]: https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/models-and-research/google-deepmind/synth-id-ai-content/
[3]: http://synthid.com/
[4]: https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/10/google-rolls-out-improved-synthid-ai-content-detector-now-available-globally/
[5]: https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/10/google-rolls-out-improved-synthid-ai-content-detector-now-available-globally/#comments

https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/10/google-rolls-out-improved-synthid-ai-content-detector-now-available-globally/

Mistral says "Le Chonk" can challenge the best AI models ...

2026-10-07T14:57:46Z

Mistral says "Le Chonk" can challenge the best AI models

As tensions mount over [who gets access][1] to top-end [artificial intelligence][2], French company [Mistral][3] has released a new freely available model that it claims can compete with the very best from the US and China.

The new 1 trillion-parameter model, Mistral Large 4—nicknamed Le Chonk—can be used and customized by anyone. It’s currently available in preview, with a final version to follow by the end of the month. Though Le Chonk is built to compete with leading general-purpose models, it’s optimized specifically for coding and cyberdefense, as well as tasks particular to manufacturing, finance, electrical engineering, and other niches.

“There are a lot of areas where the other labs will not focus that much,” Guillaume Lample, cofounder and chief scientist at Mistral, tells WIRED. “There are so many domains in which you can improve models.”

[Read full article][4]

[Comments][5]

[1]: https://www.wired.com/story/trumps-ai-safety-accord-is-a-fancy-pinky-swear/
[2]: https://www.wired.com/tag/artificial-intelligence/
[3]: https://www.wired.com/story/mistral-is-in-the-right-place-at-the-right-time/
[4]: https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/10/mistral-says-le-chonk-can-challenge-the-best-ai-models/
[5]: https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/10/mistral-says-le-chonk-can-challenge-the-best-ai-models/#comments

The Mistral logo.

https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/10/mistral-says-le-chonk-can-challenge-the-best-ai-models/

Hackers obtain counterfeit TLS certificates for Google and other ...

2026-10-06T22:14:37Z

Hackers obtain counterfeit TLS certificates for Google and other large services

Attackers hijacked three top-level domains and used their control to mint counterfeit TLS certificates for Google and other large organizations, Google said Tuesday.

The attackers launched a series of attacks on the .gh, .sl, and .as country code top-level domains (ccTLDs) and then modified authoritative DNS records for selected domains within those namespaces. By controlling those DNS records, the attackers were able to pass automated domain control validation checks and obtain unauthorized certificates for “several Google domains” and “several leading global brands and widely used online services.” Google said it updated Chrome to block all certificates it identified as unauthorized, and worked with the issuing certification authorities to ensure the unauthorized certificates for Google properties were revoked.

## Certificate issuance: The weak link in the chain

TLS certificates are the cryptographic credentials that underpin authentication and encryption protections for websites, mail servers, and other Internet infrastructure. These [x.509][1] certificates use a digital signature to bind a domain name such as google.com to a public key. The public key is publicly available, while the private key is held only by the website operator. When a connection shows that the keys match, the visiting party knows it’s connected to the authentic site rather than an impostor. Possession of unauthorized certificates allows attackers to cryptographically impersonate the affected infrastructure.

[Read full article][2]

[Comments][3]

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X.509
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/security/2026/10/hackers-obtain-counterfeit-tls-certificates-for-google-and-other-large-services/
[3]: https://arstechnica.com/security/2026/10/hackers-obtain-counterfeit-tls-certificates-for-google-and-other-large-services/#comments

https://arstechnica.com/security/2026/10/hackers-obtain-counterfeit-tls-certificates-for-google-and-other-large-services/

It looks like the Atlantic storm season may finally produce a ...

2026-10-06T22:14:32Z

It looks like the Atlantic storm season may finally produce a hurricane

A low-pressure system in the western Gulf of Mexico should soon become a tropical storm, and based on the latest forecast modeling, it has a decent chance of becoming a hurricane.

Normally, a hurricane forming in early October would not be particularly noteworthy. However, this year the development of a hurricane would be a big deal—because it has not happened yet.

In the modern hurricane record—an era dating to about World War II when there has been aircraft reconnaissance and later continuous satellite coverage—there has never been an Atlantic season without a hurricane, and no season has gone this late without one forming.

[Read full article][1]

[Comments][2]

[1]: https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/10/it-looks-like-the-atlantic-storm-season-may-finally-produce-a-hurricane/
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/10/it-looks-like-the-atlantic-storm-season-may-finally-produce-a-hurricane/#comments

Google DeepMind forecast for a tropical system in the Gulf of Mexico.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/10/it-looks-like-the-atlantic-storm-season-may-finally-produce-a-hurricane/

HBO Max, Paramount+, and Discovery+ "will unify into a single ...

2026-10-06T22:14:27Z

HBO Max, Paramount+, and Discovery+ "will unify into a single service”

After months of industry and customer speculation, Paramount Skydance has shed some light on the future of the HBO Max and Paramount+ streaming services.

[Paramount Skydance completed its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery][1] (WBD) today, ending a monthslong saga that began when [Netflix last year announced][2] its own plans to buy WBD. [Netflix scrapped those plans][3] in February. Skydance is the name of the company created from the $111 billion merger.

In an announcement today, Skydance said that all of the direct-to-consumer streaming services it owns, including the Discovery+ service that Discovery Inc. (which merged with WarnerMedia in 2022 to create WBD) launched in 2021, “will unify into a single service over time.”

[Read full article][4]

[Comments][5]

[1]: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/10/paramount-completes-111b-warner-merger-creating-skydance-behemoth/
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/12/netflixs-72b-wb-acquisition-confounds-the-future-of-movie-theaters-streaming/
[3]: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/02/netflix-cedes-warner-bros-discovery-to-paramount-no-longer-financially-attractive/
[4]: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/10/hbo-max-paramount-and-discovery-will-unify-into-a-single-service/
[5]: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/10/hbo-max-paramount-and-discovery-will-unify-into-a-single-service/#comments

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/10/hbo-max-paramount-and-discovery-will-unify-into-a-single-service/

OpenAI will watermark ChatGPT outputs by default—but only in ...

2026-10-06T22:14:21Z

OpenAI will watermark ChatGPT outputs by default—but only in the EU

OpenAI will begin automatically watermarking text generated with ChatGPT in the European Union, the company has announced. It will also offer the watermarking feature in other regions, but it will be off by default outside of the EU.

The move in Europe is driven by a need to comply with the EU AI Act, which took effect in August. It requires marking content produced by AI models in a way that another tool can detect. Unfortunately, there is still no completely effective and reliable way to do that. A few standards already exist, like SynthID and the C2PA project, but they are relatively easy to circumvent for anyone with basic know-how.

The same is likely true for OpenAI's watermark. Its method is proprietary; the company calls it textGrain, and has published a technical paper [explaining][1] how it works. But in general, it works like other LLM watermarking tools we've seen in the past: It puts patterns in the word choices that are not clear to a human reader, and that don't meaningfully change the general quality of the output, but that someone with a key can use a specialized detector to find. OpenAI says it will be giving access to the detector to a limited number of researchers and organizations, and providing a request-for-approval process for others to be added over time.

[Read full article][2]

[Comments][3]

[1]: https://cdn.openai.com/pdf/e9508624-d767-41b6-a26d-e34ca798ada6/textgrain-entropy-calibrated-watermarking-for-language-model-text.pdf
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/10/openai-will-watermark-chatgpt-outputs-by-default-but-only-in-the-eu/
[3]: https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/10/openai-will-watermark-chatgpt-outputs-by-default-but-only-in-the-eu/#comments

https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/10/openai-will-watermark-chatgpt-outputs-by-default-but-only-in-the-eu/

All-electric camping gets a solar upgrade: The 2027 Pebble Flow ...

2026-10-06T18:45:36Z

All-electric camping gets a solar upgrade: The 2027 Pebble Flow

There is, I think, a pent-up demand for bringing electrification to camping. Anyone who’s had their sleep disturbed by the sound of someone else’s generator running at night would probably agree.

Certainly, any time we cover [an electric van][1], [comments][2] are filled with people wondering if and when a camper conversion might appear. Kia showed off such a concept [a couple of years ago][3], as [did Winnebago][4], and Volkswagen is [adding a camper trim][5] to its electric ID. Buzz. And then there’s the world of trailers. [Colorado Teardrop][6] sadly didn’t make it, and some other electrified trailers remain in development. But for a couple of years, you’ve been able to buy the [Pebble Flow][7]. And for 2027, it’s getting an update.

Introduced in 2025, the streamlined Flow is built atop a 45 kWh LFP battery pack that, for 2027, can be recharged by up to 4 kW of solar panels, which Flow says should be sufficient to generate more electricity than you’ll use in an average day of camping. Earlier Flows could be specced with an optional 1.1 kWh panel on the roof; the new kit adds another 2 kWh via four portable panels.

[Read full article][8]

[Comments][9]

[1]: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2022/04/our-first-impressions-after-driving-fedexs-new-electric-delivery-van/
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/02/the-kia-pv5-electric-van-combines-futuristic-looks-and-thoughtful-design/?comments=1&post=44241241
[3]: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2024/11/kia-reimagines-the-off-road-camper-van-with-new-concept-ev/
[4]: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2023/01/this-is-winnebagos-e-transit-based-electric-rv-prototype/
[5]: https://insideevs.com/news/806460/volkswagen-id-buzz-ev-van-camper/
[6]: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2021/08/this-teardrop-trailer-could-be-perfect-for-electric-vehicle-camping/
[7]: https://pebblelife.com/
[8]: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/10/this-self-parking-electric-travel-trailer-gets-a-solar-upgrade-for-2027/
[9]: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/10/this-self-parking-electric-travel-trailer-gets-a-solar-upgrade-for-2027/#comments

The Pebble Flow is a 25' travel trailer, designed to be off the grid without burning any gas or propane.

https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/10/this-self-parking-electric-travel-trailer-gets-a-solar-upgrade-for-2027/