Research & Development news

• Rogue OpenAI agent 'infiltrated' Australian government website in world first

  24-09-2026 17:42 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Australia criticised OpenAI for taking "too long" to tell them about the breach which happened in June.
  
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• Why Australia chose the world's biggest political stage to reveal OpenAI hack

  24-09-2026 20:06 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Australia, which has strict social media restrictions and has proposed controls on algorithms and smart glasses, announced the breach at the UN.
  
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• Why did an OpenAI system hack Australia's health system - and can it be stopped in the future?

  24-09-2026 16:08 via bbc.co.uk
  
  News that an automated AI agent hacked a government IT system raises big questions about regulating the tech.
  
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• FBI investigating claim hackers have stolen details of all its agents

  24-09-2026 14:23 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The hackers claim they have every agent's name, role, badge number and personal details including home address, phone numbers and spouse information.
  
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• The Download: a bid to scrap the virtual wall and AI hits Climate Week

  24-09-2026 14:10 via technologyreview.com
  
  This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology.A congressional representative just proposed killing America’s border tower programDelia Ramirez, a Democratic US representative from Illinois, has announced plans to introduce legislation to terminate the surveillance tower program along the country’s southern border.The announcement comes just days after publication of an MIT Technolog
  
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• Are we back in big tech's 'move fast and break things' era?

  24-09-2026 13:29 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Despite promises to make safe AI, examples of bots behaving badly are now coming at us thick and fast.
  
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• AI is dominating the conversation at Climate Week

  24-09-2026 12:00 via technologyreview.com
  
  This week, world leaders descended on Manhattan for the UN General Assembly. It’s also New York Climate Week—investors, policymakers, advocates, and journalists are colliding at panels, talks, and fancy dinners.With so many climate voices in one place, the discourse can feel a little louder than usual. This year, the unavoidable topic is artificial intelligence.There’s been a growing tension bubbling up about AI’s impacts on climate and climate tech. Depending on where y
  
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• What you need to know about the OpenAI Australian government hack

  24-09-2026 07:18 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The BBC’s North America technology correspondent Lily Jamali explains how the Medicare breach happened, and why it matters.
  
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• Indians are discovering the thrill of shopping without paying

  24-09-2026 01:14 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Dopamine sites mimic shopping’s thrill without the spending, turning the ritual of consumption into a digital game.
  
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• US rejects pleas from OpenAI, Anthropic for global AI standards

  24-09-2026 00:35 via bbc.co.uk
  
  OpenAI's Sam Altman has called for risk evaluation standards, as have Anthropic's Dario Amodei and Hugging Face's Clement Delangue.
  
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• A congressional representative just proposed killing America’s border tower program

  23-09-2026 19:10 via technologyreview.com
  
  Delia Ramirez, a Democratic US representative from Illinois, has announced a plan to introduce new legislation to terminate the surveillance tower program along the US southern border. The announcement comes just days after publication of an MIT Technology Review investigation, “Dying on Camera,” in which we looked at deaths along the border that took place close to one or more of these towers. MIT Technology Review found that nearly one in four deaths we analyzed between 2015 a
  
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• Pornhub investigated over its age checks

  23-09-2026 17:56 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The regulator says it has concerns over how the site is relying on third party checks provided by Apple for some users.
  
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• The Download: India’s smart glasses menace and AI’s trillion-dollar gamble

  23-09-2026 14:10 via technologyreview.com
  
  This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology.Smart glasses are already causing havoc in IndiaWhen Shubnam saw an Instagram video of a Delhi protest they had attended, they realized a content creator wearing Meta smart glasses had recorded them surreptitiously. The mocking reel drew millions of views, along with transphobic abuse and AI-generated memes.Experts warn that many others will experie
  
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• OpenAI gives cyber defence tools to Ukraine

  23-09-2026 14:01 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Ukraine will get access to OpenAI's advanced GPT 5.6 Sol model under the deal - a rival to Anthropic's Mythos and Fable
  
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• The AI Hype Index: AI loves cheating

  23-09-2026 11:00 via technologyreview.com
  
  Brace yourself: It turns out AI is being optimized for cheating. OpenAI’s agents hacked into Hugging Face to get the answers to a cybersecurity test. Next, they solved a prestigious math problem (or just stole from two top mathematicians’ answer sheets). Anthropic’s models have also hacked into other companies’ systems four times already. And that’s only what we’ve caught so far. Freaking out? You’re not alone. AI lab researchers are quitting their
  
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• Smart glasses are already causing havoc in India

  23-09-2026 11:00 via technologyreview.com
  
  Shubnam was packing boxes for a move into a new home when their friend sent them an Instagram video. The footage had only been up for a few hours, but it was days old, recorded at a Delhi protest this spring against a bill that would have narrowed the legal recognition for transgender people in India. There, a content creator known for rage-bait videos had approached Shubnam, a 38-year-old transfeminine graphic designer and educator. Shubnam, who uses a single chosen name, was dressed in a
  
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• US criticises Australia's proposed algorithm opt-out laws as 'censorship'

  23-09-2026 03:35 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Under the draft laws, tech firms face fines if they do not give users the option to switch off algorithms.
  
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• Will a switch to light speed cut power use at data centres?

  23-09-2026 01:03 via bbc.co.uk
  
  To save power and add capacity,data centres are switching from copper wires to tech using light.
  
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• Huge data centres rise at 'China speed' to power its AI ambitions

  23-09-2026 00:04 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The BBC visits Inner Mongolia, an unlikely frontier in Beijing's AI race with Washington.
  
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• Roundtables: The Deadly Failures of The Virtual Border Wall

  22-09-2026 15:42 via technologyreview.com
  
  The US has spent billions building a “virtual wall” of surveillance towers along its southern border over the past 25 years, promising they will help detect and apprehend border crossers and save lives. But a groundbreaking investigation by MIT Technology Reviewhas documented hundreds of people who moved through areas watched by these towers without being reached or apprehended, and who ultimately died there. Some were even under the watch of newly installed AI-powered towers designe
  
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• The Download: why AI’s latest breakthroughs and fears may be more hype than reality

  22-09-2026 14:10 via technologyreview.com
  
  This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology.Don’t be fooled by this summer of AI hype —Timnit Gebru, executive director of the Distributed AI Research Institute (DAIR), and Emily M. Bender, professor of linguistics at the University of WashingtonIt’s been a busy few months for AI hype, with companies making breathless claims about hacking, mathematical breakthroughs, an
  
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• Don’t be fooled by this summer of AI hype 

  22-09-2026 13:04 via technologyreview.com
  
  It’s been a busy few months for AI hype. At the end of April, Anthropic claimed that its model Claude Mythos is better at finding software vulnerabilities than most security experts. Then we had the OpenAI–Hugging Face hacking incident, after which Anthropic (proudly) and Meta (reluctantly) disclosed similar incidents involving their models. This was followed by Anthropic’s claim that one of its models had made a mathematical breakthrough; soon OpenAI claimed a mathematical bre
  
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• The Download: investigating deaths at the US border’s “virtual wall”

  21-09-2026 14:20 via technologyreview.com
  
  This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology.The US spent billions on border surveillance. Why can’t it catch people before they die?When José Morales Bernal crossed the border into the US in April 2024, the day before his 32nd birthday, he was within range of three surveillance towers equipped with cameras and AI to automatically detect and track people.If the system worked as in
  
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• The US spent billions on border surveillance. Why can’t it catch people before they die?

  21-09-2026 14:00 via technologyreview.com
  
  When José Morales Bernal crossed the border into the United States on April 8, 2024, the day before his 32nd birthday, it should have triggered a chain of technological alerts and human responses. As he walked through the desert in southern New Mexico that morning, he was within range of three surveillance towers. Newly installed by US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), they were built by the defense tech company Anduril and equipped with cameras and AI to automatically detect and
  
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• She died at the San Diego border. A surveillance camera was in plain sight

  21-09-2026 14:00 via technologyreview.com
  
  She had only walked for a couple of hours, and already she was lost. It was early afternoon on Sept. 14, 2025, when 30-year-old Graciela Gómez Hernández crossed the border from the eastern edge of Tijuana into Southern California, sending voice messages to her mother and sister as she walked. 
  This story is part of Dying on Camera, a collaboration between MIT Technology Review and Times of San Diego. Journalists in both newsrooms spent the past year ex
  
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• How we made the first comprehensive map of deaths along the US border’s “virtual wall”

  21-09-2026 14:00 via technologyreview.com
  
  Our 15-month investigation into death and surveillance along the US-Mexico border began with a simple question: Why did so many people die near government surveillance towers meant to help track and apprehend them?
  This story is part of Dying on Camera, a collaboration between MIT Technology Review and Times of San Diego. Journalists in both newsrooms spent the past year examining the failures of border surveillance technology and uncovering the stories of the people who die
  
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• 4 ways to address the failures we found along the US border’s “virtual wall”

  21-09-2026 14:00 via technologyreview.com
  
  MIT Technology Review today published our investigation into how many people have died near the “virtual wall” of surveillance towers that the US government has installed along the US-Mexico border.We found cases of people who walked undetected through areas surveilled by advanced, AI-enabled towers and later died nearby, where their bodies remained unnoticed for weeks or months. These cases reflect systemic flaws in the virtual wall: broken towers, algorithms that failed to detect p
  
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• Not all AI workers think the tech could kill everyone

  20-09-2026 01:01 via bbc.co.uk
  
  In text exchanges and conversations, multiple people who have worked for leading companies are sceptical of the warnings.
  
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• Google's Gemini AI hacked three companies in security test

  19-09-2026 15:39 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The AI model accessed the internet and guessed credentials to three websites, a Google official told the BBC.
  
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• Would Australians support a smart glasses ban?

  19-09-2026 01:15 via bbc.co.uk
  
  As Australia considers barring the use of smart glasses in government offices, the BBC asks people in Sydney what they think.
  
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