AI assistants

Google is pushing back against a European Union effort that would require it to open Android to rival AI assistants. The dispute forms part of ongoing enforcement of the EU's Digital Markets Act, under which Brussels has pressed the company to give competitors greater access to its dominant mobile platform. Google argues the changes would harm user security and privacy, while regulators see them as key to fair competition in the fast-moving AI market.

The US military is changing how it uses artificial intelligence in lethal targeting decisions following a strike that hit a school in Minab, Iran. The modifications to the AI-assisted targeting process follow scrutiny of the incident, which has raised questions about the safeguards governing automated systems in combat and accountability for civilian harm.

GitHub says its AI agent identified 24 vulnerabilities in Android applications, adding to growing evidence that autonomous coding assistants can take on security research tasks. The finding, reported by Help Net Security, highlights both the potential of AI-driven bug hunting and the questions it raises about verifying machine-discovered flaws. Security teams are watching closely as AI agents move into vulnerability discovery.

GitHub researchers report that an open source AI security agent they built uncovered 24 vulnerabilities in Android. The company says the tool was used to scan Android code at scale, flagging security flaws automatically. The disclosure highlights a growing trend of using AI agents to find real bugs in widely used software, and the work is being discussed as an example of AI-assisted security research.

Stephen Wolfram has published a long essay asking what role human mathematicians will play as AI systems grow more capable at pure mathematics. He explores whether machine-assisted proof and computation will change how mathematical research is done and what remains distinctively human in the field.

A report asks whether Anthropic's celebrated biology breakthrough was drawn from another scientist's prior research rather than being entirely original. The question has sparked debate about attribution in AI-assisted science and how credit should be assigned when machine learning tools build on existing discoveries. Details of the specific finding and the scientist involved remain limited in the available reporting.

A new research paper, 'Prompt Like a Butterfly, Sting Like a Tracker,' presents a privacy analysis of web and mobile conversational AI agents. It examines how these tools handle user data, including what information is collected and shared during conversations. Readers are discussing the findings and their implications for anyone using chatbots and AI assistants in daily life.

Anthropic is facing pushback over a claimed biology breakthrough made using its Claude AI system, after a scientist said he had already achieved the same result. The dispute raises questions over whether the AI truly produced something novel or merely rediscovered existing work, a recurring issue in AI-assisted scientific claims.

Users migrating from Linux to NetBSD are noting that the operating system's package collection offers a current version of rsync, one reportedly developed by Andrew Tridgell with help from Claude AI. Discussion in the Fediverse is asking which rsync version or alternative people rely on, as free software developers weigh AI-assisted tooling and what it means for classic Unix utilities.

Claude, the AI chatbot developed by Anthropic, suffered a significant outage, leaving many users unable to access the service. Anthropic acknowledged the problem and said it was working on a fix. The incident drew widespread attention, with the topic trending across searches in Europe and Australia as users reported disruption to their workflows.

JetBrains has introduced Air, described by the company as a system of products built around agentic software development, where AI agents take on coding tasks alongside developers. The announcement is drawing attention from developers debating what it means for the future of IDEs and how JetBrains plans to compete in the fast-moving market for AI-assisted programming tools.

Kroger, Giant Eagle and DoorDash are each developing agentic AI assistants for their retail and delivery operations. Modern Retail reports on how the grocery chains and delivery platform are building these tools, which can act on a customer's behalf rather than simply answer questions. The companies' approaches and goals for the technology are the focus of coverage.

Anthropic's Claude chatbot suffered a significant outage, prompting the company to work on a fix while users reported being unable to access the AI assistant. The disruption drew widespread attention, with searches about Claude spiking across Europe, Australia and the UK. Anthropic acknowledged the problem and said it was investigating as users waited for service to be restored.

OpenAI introduced Dots, a new family of always-on AI agents, at its annual DevDay developer conference. The agents are designed to run continuously in the background, handling ongoing tasks rather than responding one prompt at a time. The announcement is drawing attention from developers and tech commentators, with many debating what persistent, proactive AI assistants could mean for software workflows and everyday computing.

Anthropic's AI assistant Claude suffered an outage on Tuesday the 29th, with users unable to access the service. Reports of instability spread quickly in Brazil, where many rely on the tool for work and study. The company has not detailed the cause, and access appears to have been restored gradually. Outages of major AI platforms increasingly draw wide attention given how embedded they have become in daily routines.

Anthropic's Claude chatbot is displaying an "at capacity" message, telling users the service cannot handle more requests at the moment. The outage or overload is drawing attention on Hacker News, where users are discussing what it says about demand for AI assistants and Anthropic's infrastructure limits. No timeline for restored access has been announced.

South Korean robotics company Angel Robotics has launched PHAI-X1, a wearable robot platform aimed at physical AI research. The system is intended to give researchers a hardware base for developing and testing AI that interacts with the physical world, such as exoskeleton control and human-assistance applications. Details on pricing and availability were not included in the initial announcement.

OpenAI has introduced "dots," a new AI assistant positioned as a direct competitor to Meta's Muse. The announcement is drawing attention in the tech press as the race among major AI companies to field consumer assistants intensifies, with observers weighing how OpenAI's latest offering will stack up against Meta's rival product.

Dassault Aviation is testing artificial intelligence algorithms aboard its Rafale fighter jet, Reuters reports. The news has drawn attention in France and the Netherlands, with the topic also trending on Google in France. The trials point to growing interest in AI-assisted capabilities for combat aircraft, a sensitive area given Europe's defence ambitions and Dassault's central role in French military aviation.

Anthropic's Claude chatbot is suffering an outage, with the company confirming an active issue affecting users. TechRadar is running live updates as people report problems accessing the AI assistant. Users have taken to social media to share error messages and check whether others are experiencing the same disruption. Anthropic has not yet said what caused the problem or when full service will be restored.

General Compute has deployed Cerebras' wafer-scale chips to speed up AI coding workloads, according to company announcements. The move pairs General Compute's infrastructure with Cerebras' large-format processors, which are designed to deliver faster inference than conventional GPUs. Details on deal size, rollout scale and customers have not been disclosed, but the deployment underscores growing demand for specialised hardware serving AI development tools.

Meta is broadening access to its AI agent, Muse, to serve small businesses. The rollout means smaller companies can use the assistant for customer-facing and operational tasks that were previously limited to larger clients. The move signals Meta's push to make its AI tools a standard part of business tooling and to compete in the fast-growing market for business AI assistants.

Anthropic's Claude AI assistant is experiencing a partial outage, confirmed on its official status page. Users are reporting degraded availability or failures in some services while the company investigates and works on a fix. The incident is drawing attention from developers who rely on Claude for coding, writing and customer-facing tools, with many checking the status page for updates on restoration times.

Google has completed a full rollout of voice chat in Gemini Notebook for Google AI Pro subscribers, according to a Japanese tech blog covering Android and Gemini news. The feature lets users hold spoken conversations with the AI notebook assistant, and it is now available across both Android and iOS platforms.

OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman has announced "dots," a personal AI agent from the company. Details about the product's capabilities and availability were not immediately provided in the announcement. The news adds to the growing competition among tech firms to build AI assistants that can act on users' behalf, and commentators are watching closely to see how it compares with rivals' offerings.

OpenAI has introduced Dots, a set of always-on AI agents designed to work continuously in the background on users' behalf. The product is being framed as OpenAI's direct answer to Meta's Muse agent offering. The move signals escalating competition between the two companies over persistent, proactive AI assistants rather than chat-on-demand tools.