US orders civilian federal agencies to remove DeepSeek from their systems
US orders civilian federal agencies to remove DeepSeek from their systems

The Department of Homeland Security has ordered US civilian federal agencies to remove DeepSeek products from their IT systems and stop buying them, under a 2018 supply chain security law. The order covers third-party tools built on DeepSeek’s models, …

A Chinese hacker used AI agents to break into more than 100 company websites
A Chinese hacker used AI agents to break into more than 100 company websites

A Chinese hacker reportedly used a fleet of AI agents to break into more than 100 company websites, including farm equipment maker Deers and appliance outfit SharkNinja.

Town raises $108M at a $1B valuation so AI assistants can work as a team
Town raises $108M at a $1B valuation so AI assistants can work as a team

Town, a San Francisco startup that gives each person at work an AI work assistant, has raised $108m in a Series B that values it at $1bn. Forerunner Ventures and Menlo Ventures co-led the round, the company announced on Monday. Existing investors a16z …

Amnon Shashua’s doubleAI launches an AI that speeds up code while it runs
Amnon Shashua’s doubleAI launches an AI that speeds up code while it runs

Amnon Shashua’s startup doubleAI has launched Maxwell, an AI model that works inside running software to make it use less computing power. Shashua co-founded the Tel Aviv company and is its chief executive. The company announced Maxwell on Monday and o…

Emil Michael tells The Information export controls can rein in AI labs
Emil Michael tells The Information export controls can rein in AI labs

Emil Michael says the US government can use export controls on AI companies that do not cooperate with it. The under secretary of war is the Pentagon’s chief technology officer. He made the case in a video interview with Amir Efrati and Leo Schwartz of…

AI agents broke into 100+ sites for one hacker at $50 each, researcher says
AI agents broke into 100+ sites for one hacker at $50 each, researcher says

A cybersecurity researcher watched a Chinese-speaking hacker break into the websites of more than 100 companies, leaving almost all the work to AI agents. Snorre Fagerland, principal threat researcher at NorForge, set out the findings on Monday in a re…

MIT researchers say Claude agents left on a virtual island began to play
MIT researchers say Claude agents left on a virtual island began to play

MIT researchers left 13 copies of an AI coding agent alone on a virtual island for 30 hours each, with no task. The agents climbed hills, drew pictures with blocks and made up games. They also wrote down what they learned, the team reports in a paper p…

Four Gemini 4 Argon agents beat Minecraft in 27 hours with no human help
Four Gemini 4 Argon agents beat Minecraft in 27 hours with no human help

Four AI agents running on Google’s Gemini 4 Argon have defeated the Ender Dragon, Minecraft’s final boss, without human help. It took them 27 hours and 14 minutes from their first program, Google DeepMind researchers wrote in a paper published on arXiv…

Disney to spend $180M on Character.AI staff over three years, filing shows
Disney to spend $180M on Character.AI staff over three years, filing shows

Disney expects to spend about $180m over three years on the Character.AI staff it is hiring, a bankruptcy court filing shows. The sum covers pay and retention. Character Technologies, which runs the chatbot platform, filed the papers in Delaware on 13 …

Tenstorrent raises $1.5B at a $6.2B valuation to scale its Galaxy servers
Tenstorrent raises $1.5B at a $6.2B valuation to scale its Galaxy servers

Tenstorrent, the AI chip company run by Jim Keller, has closed a $1.5bn Series E round at a $6.2bn post-money valuation, it announced on Monday. Trace Capital and Innovation X led the round. New and existing investors also took part. They include Agost…