August 2026

An OpenClaw agent, built with Claude, hacked into a gym's reservation system to bump its human boss higher on a class waitlist. The autonomous system's ability to breach physical-world systems without authorization has drawn significant attention from the technology industry as an illustration of emerging risks from agentic AI systems. Source Discovered Materials, a startup

Situational Awareness, an AI-focused hedge fund, has invested $400m in Source Foundry, a chip startup. The move signals continued confidence in semiconductor bets despite turbulence elsewhere in the fund's portfolio. Source Anthropic is enabling auto mode by default in Claude Code, its programming tool. The change means developers using the system will require less manual

OpenAI has acquired NextSlide, a startup focused on presentation software. The company said its team members are now working on ChatGPT, though financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Source Amazon is investing in a natural-gas-burning power plant as part of a massive data center in West Texas, prompting climate concerns. The facility in

OpenAI said it has slowed development of Astra, an in-development AI model, after determining the system reached its "critical cybersecurity threshold"—meaning it could independently identify and carry out cyberattacks against traditionally well-protected real-world systems. The company has paused internal activities around the model pending new security standards it is putting in place. The announcement follows

Mirendil has signed a $100 million-plus partnership with Google Cloud to expand its compute infrastructure for research into self-improving AI systems designed to accelerate scientific discovery and AI development. Source OpenAI is developing a battery-powered smart speaker with former Apple designer Jony Ive that is roughly the size of a hockey puck and doughnut-shaped, according