In today’s episode of Uncanny Valley, we discuss how ICE has been collecting DNA samples of people with no criminal convictions, including children, which end up in an FBI database indefinitely.

The tech industry is realizing it needs to build agents based on what regular consumers want, not just what its AI models can do.

SAP, one of the world’s biggest software companies, suspended most travel and hiring last month because of AI’s soaring cost, with exceptions only being made for AI-related travel or hires, according to an internal SAP… Read more: Software Giant SAP Stops Most Travel and Hiring Because of AI’s Soaring Cost

OpenAI’s attempt to boost its image by hiring influencers collided against a harsh reality: that it’s already become a fundamentally uncool company. The Verge details how influencers recruited by the ChatGPT maker were flown out… Read more: OpenAI Tried to Hire Influencers to Spread Love for Its Products, But It Backfired Horrendously

Cloudflare has open-sourced its Cloudflare OS platform, which it first developed as an internal workspace for employees to build apps using AI agents—including people who are not software developers or engineers. The company also touts… Read more: Cloudflare open-sources vibe-coding platform for people who aren’t coders

Despite significant drama from Trump officials this year, the Food and Drug Administration has for the first time approved a flu vaccine that uses mRNA technology. On Thursday, vaccine maker Moderna announced that its flu… Read more: Moderna’s mRNA flu shot earns FDA approval after rollercoaster review

The Federal Communications Commission voted 2–1 today to eliminate the National Television Ownership Rule, claiming authority to repeal a limit that was set by Congress over 20 years ago. The rule prohibits any single broadcast… Read more: Trump FCC kills TV ownership cap, claiming authority over limit set by Congress

The parasitic fungi in the Cordyceps genus are a favorite subject of nature documentaries. They’ve also infiltrated popular culture via the zombie-apocalypse video game The Last of Us (2013) and its TV adaptation, in which… Read more: Parasitic zombie-ant fungus thrives in mosses, too

We certainly wouldn’t blame you for having completely forgotten that last year, Elon Musk tried to reinvent Wikipedia because he thought it was too woke. In October, his AI startup xAI launched Grokipedia, named after… Read more: Grokipedia Appears to Have Completely Broken and Nobody Noticed

Researchers say breakthrough offers hope for new medicines but also raises urgent biosecurity questions Scientists have made the first viruses designed by artificial intelligence in a milestone that raises hopes for new medicines but also… Read more: Safety fears as scientists make first viruses designed by AI

Its WeatherNext model, which will be open-sourced, can accurately predict both a storm’s track and intensity using lower-resolution weather data. Researchers don’t yet fully understand how it does this.

Banks should factor in the time spent by humans checking invented facts, writes Dr Gleb Tsipursky Your report (Lloyds Bank to cut £2bn in costs as part of AI-powered strategy, 30 July) raises a question… Read more: Lloyds Bank should publish the human cost of its AI savings | Letters

🌘 Subscribe to 404 Media to get The Abstract, our newsletter about the most exciting and mind-boggling science news and studies of the week. Scientists have designed a virtual model of an alien cell and… Read more: Scientists Designed a Virtual Alien Lifeform to Hunt for Extraterrestrials

Text-to-video AI generating tools have come a long way. Just three years ago, we were all unsettled by grisly clips of actor Will Smith’s face morphing while “eating” a moving pile of spaghetti. Thanks to… Read more: Andreessen Horowitz Partner Boasts That the Company’s New Tech Can Fabricate Fake History Like in “1984”

CoreWeave, Inc. (Nasdaq: CRWV), The Essential Cloud for AI, today announced a multi-year strategic agreement with Solidigm, a pioneer in enterprise data storage and a leading supplier of high-capacity AI infrastructure storage solutions, for priority access… Read more: CoreWeave, Solidigm Partner to Advance AI Cloud Platform

Hyro’s AI agents for healthcare integrate with ServiceNow to deliver voice and digital self-service for health systems Hyro, the leading Agentic Care Communications platform, today announced a partnership with ServiceNow, the AI control tower for… Read more: Hyro, ServiceNow Partner on Agentic AI for Healthcare

Analyzes 100% of patient interactions to remove barriers to patient access, reduce cost, capture revenue growth, improve the patient experience, and drive measurable EBITDA gains Aqurio, an Agentic AI company for healthcare and other high-stakes… Read more: Aqurio Announced the Launch of No-Cost SmartAnalytics Trial

ChatGPT Atlas is scheduled to stop working Aug. 9, 2026. Users should export browser data, verify account access, and test replacement workflows before uninstalling it. The post ChatGPT Atlas Shuts Down Aug. 9: What Users… Read more: ChatGPT Atlas Shuts Down Aug. 9: What Users Must Save Before Migrating

Ford’s second attempt at an electric vehicle strategy is getting closer to primetime. After its initial approach of electrifying its best-selling F-150 fell a little flat, it decided to try something a little radical. An… Read more: Ford picks “Fathom” for its affordable truck name, starts at $28,350

A handful of cities across the U.S. have ditched Flock’s automatic license plate reader (ALPR) cameras and immediately replaced them with equivalent systems from law enforcement contracting giant Axon, according to local media reports and… Read more: Cities Are Ditching Flock, Immediately Replacing It With Axon License Plate Readers

On July 27, a billboard went up in San Francisco advertising an AI service called ChatTJB. But the “AI” powering the service, as noted in a small disclaimer on the billboard, isn’t artificial intelligence. It’s… Read more: We Talked to the Guy Who Built a Chatbot That’s Just Him Manually Responding to People One-by-One

Millions of sperm do not always compete alone—some species send them into action as coordinated teams. A sweeping evolutionary study found that this cooperation is widespread among arthropods and has repeatedly emerged and vanished over… Read more: Forget the sperm race: Fertilization may depend on teamwork

Genetic changes may set off a chain reaction that causes the spine’s natural shock absorbers to harden and deteriorate. Zebrafish with a faulty collagen-related gene developed mineral buildup and spinal fusion similar to human disc… Read more: A drug already used for osteoporosis blocked spinal damage in a new study

A long-term brain study found that common risks such as smoking, high blood pressure, heart disease, and high blood lipids were strongly linked to damage associated with vascular dementia. The findings suggest that healthier lifestyle… Read more: Nearly half of dementia cases may be linked to risks you can change

Sometimes you have to fight fire with fire. But when it comes to AI slop and hateful content threatening the safety and value of social media platforms, adding more fire—in this case, more AI—can make… Read more: AI isn’t enough to protect social media communities from AI

A new hollow nanoreactor mimics living cells to make hydrogen peroxide more efficiently using visible light. Its light-trapping cavity and proton-shuttling shell could open new possibilities for cleaner chemical manufacturing and artificial photosynthesis.

A supermassive black hole has been found lurking about 30,000 light-years from the center of its galaxy—the first dormant black hole detected so far from a galactic core. It revealed itself only after shredding a… Read more: A star’s violent death exposed a hidden supermassive black hole

Teenagers must make oral defence of essays and schools will monitor computers during exams under crackdown Danish teenagers will have to make an oral defence of their written essays to combat AI cheating, the government… Read more: Students using AI to cheat will face stricter rules, says Danish government

An 1818 map of western Africa shows the continent bisected by the mythical ‘Mountains of Kong’, based on the explorations of Mungo Park. Image: John Pinkerton’s A Modern Atlas via Wikimedia Commons Throughout the 18th… Read more: Adding an AI tool to Google Earth shook our trust in maps that has been centuries in the making

New tools shows companies exactly which employees and agents are using AI, what they’re sending, and how much it’s costing—in real time, securely and without slowing down innovation Cloudflare, Inc. (NYSE: NET), the leading connectivity cloud… Read more: Cloudflare Helps Companies Audit and Analyze AI Use

McCrory brings decades of enterprise sales leadership to accelerate Keepit’s growth in the Americas as agentic AI reshapes the data protection landscape Keepit, the leading dedicated cloud data protection company, today announced the appointment of… Read more: Keepit Expands Americas Growth With New VP of Sales

Agentic Access Control and Intent-Based Activity Monitoring give security teams a policy layer for agents and a live check on their behavior, matched against intent instead of static permissions BigID, the leader in data security… Read more: BigID Introduces Governance Layer for AI Agents

Vectra AI Pro delivers trusted signal intelligence – the real-time, cross-domain understanding AI agents and human analysts need to investigate and respond with confidence Black Hat USA — Vectra AI, the leader in AI-native security and observability,… Read more: Vectra AI Unveils Vectra AI Pro to Accelerate the Agentic SOC

Beatriz Herrera/Getty Images New data released this week shows 54% of Australian children and teens are using artificial intelligence tools for personal and social reasons. That includes seeking advice on personal problems, talking about feelings,… Read more: More than half of children and teens are using AI for personal reasons. This comes with risks

A spectacular fossil site in Canada contains 567-million-year-old creatures that may represent some of the earliest animals to move, reproduce sexually, and develop recognizable body plans. The discovery pushes key evolutionary milestones back by up… Read more: 567-million-year-old fossils rewrite the dawn of animal life

A mathematician working at Anthropic says he used the AI model Claude Fable 5 to uncover a remarkably simple counterexample to the Jacobian conjecture, a famous problem that has resisted mathematicians for more than a… Read more: Claude Fable 5 AI finds a tiny formula that topples an 87-year-old math conjecture

Company is the third to report such an incident after Anthropic and OpenAI reported breaches during training Meta said on Wednesday that one of its AI models hacked ⁠another company during cybersecurity testing, after an… Read more: Meta says its AI model hacked into another company during testing

At the Black Hat security conference, the AI giant revealed new details about how its agents went rogue, hacked several other companies—and did it all right under the company’s nose.

Thousands of Internet-connected servers sold by the world’s biggest manufacturers can be remotely backdoored by exploiting critical vulnerabilities—some more than a decade old—that lurk deep inside system motherboards, according to research presented Wednesday. Baseboard management… Read more: Thousands of servers can be backdoored by exploiting buggy motherboard controllers

Researchers at security firm Zenity found more than a dozen flaws in AI browsers—and managed to get OpenAI’s Atlas to make an unauthorized Amazon purchase.

Two senior engineers are leaving company to launch startup amid fears Google is falling behind in AI race Sir Demis Hassabis is stepping down as chief executive of Google DeepMind, in a leadership overhaul of… Read more: Big shake-up in Google’s AI team as DeepMind chief executive steps down

Old.reddit.com’s days appear to be numbered. Reddit has strayed from saying that it will shutter the website, which many long-time Redditors prefer for its layout, navigation, and fewer feed recommendations. In a blog post today,… Read more: Reddit signals ominous upcoming “changes” for old.reddit.com

Routine cybersecurity testing of frontier AI models sparked a series of unexpected security incidents—the most serious case arising when Anthropic’s Mythos 5 model attempted to insert malicious code into an open source software application and… Read more: Anthropic’s AI used fake identities, malware in rogue attack on GitHub project

In a 51–44 vote Wednesday, the US Senate confirmed Erica Schwartz as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, despite failing miserably to convince senators last month that she could stand up to… Read more: Schwartz confirmed as CDC director after bungling confirmation hearing

The Trump administration continues to respond sluggishly to the explosive, nationwide outbreak of Cyclospora—a unicellular parasite spread from human feces that has now sickened nearly 23,000 people in 47 states, killing two and sending over… Read more: Weeks into explosive diarrhea outbreak, sluggish CDC plans response team

Over the past few years, it has become a rather rare treat when I end up genuinely, unequivocally enjoying the latest superhero film. Mostly I find them to be middling entertainment, sometimes a bit dull—and… Read more: Review: Spider-Man: Brand New Day reminds us that superhero movies can be good

Google got a slow start with generative AI after seemingly being caught flat-footed by Microsoft’s Copilot reveal. What a difference a few years make. Now, Google is at the forefront of AI development (for better… Read more: Google’s AI shakeup: DeepMind’s Hassabis steps aside, senior scientists depart

The city of Houston, where I live, has been ground zero for the 2026 Atlantic hurricane season. So far this year there have been two named storms, Arthur and Bertha, that have formed. And the… Read more: This Atlantic hurricane season is looking like a dud, but there will be a price to pay

SpaceX says it has a plan for Starlink Mobile to compete against the big three wireless carriers and take a large number of customers away from them. SpaceX has so far partnered with traditional mobile… Read more: SpaceX claims Starlink Mobile will be better than AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon

Security researcher James Kettle tried to push the limit of AI’s hacking abilities—and discovered how effective it can be when combined with human expertise.

YouTube currently requires that content creators let viewers know “when they use AI to meaningfully alter or generate photorealistic content.” The policy draws some strange boundaries. It applies to “AI-generated music” (not photorealistic) but not… Read more: Hank Green found the AI problem that YouTube labels can’t catch

OpenAI’s latest GPT-5.6 safety results show low failure rates for direct prompt injection but higher success rates when attacks arrive through tools and external content. The post OpenAI’s GPT-5.6 Tests Show Prompt-Injection Gains and Agent… Read more: OpenAI’s GPT-5.6 Tests Show Prompt-Injection Gains and Agent Risks

Leaked Google Pixel 11 marketing materials suggest a new HiLight notification feature, while a five-minute charging claim raises questions ahead of Google’s launch. The post Google Pixel 11 Leak Reveals ‘HiLight’ Notification Feature, Raises Questions… Read more: Google Pixel 11 Leak Reveals ‘HiLight’ Notification Feature, Raises Questions About Charging Claim

Chinese researchers have shown that AI models have the capacity to act like aggressive and adaptive computer viruses.

For most of its existence, the Tesla Supercharger network was both the automaker’s crown jewel and a walled garden. Tightly integrated to work only with Tesla electric vehicles, the DC fast-charging experience for Tesla customers… Read more: EVgo starts building Tesla Superchargers under license

Disney is “exploring a free product” for streaming customers, CEO Josh D’Amaro confirmed in a call with investors today. D’Amaro, who succeeded Bob Iger as Disney’s chief in March, said that a free Disney-owned streaming… Read more: After jacking up prices, Disney+ and Netflix consider offering free alternatives

The UK’s AI Security Institute test revealed AI models indulging in unprecedented hacking attempts AI models shock UK testers by using fake identities to trick developers Two cutting-edge AI models have targeted real people and… Read more: AI models have been going rogue in tests – how worried should we be?

MiniMax H3 is a powerful new 33B parameter omni-modal generative system designed for unified understanding and generation of text, images, video, and audio. It is capable of generating highly synchronized videos with native 32kHz stereo… Read more: Model Highlights: MiniMax H3

Texas is tripling down on the construction of AI data centers, at any cost. But there’s a glaring problem that’s grinding construction plans to a halt: a woefully inadequate power grid that won’t be able… Read more: Texas Data Centers Suffer Brutal Collision With Reality

Google Assistant’s days have been numbered for a while, but the company has now settled on a date to retire its pre-AI assistant robot. In an email being sent out to users, Google confirms that… Read more: Google plans to kill Assistant on your phone on September 4

Roman Samborskyi/Shutterstock You search online for a pair of trainers. Minutes later, similar shoes appear on social media feeds. A shopping site offers a limited-time discount and suggests a matching jacket. This is no longer… Read more: Why AI wants you to buy more – and mindfulness could help you buy less

D-Wave is a bit of an oddity in the quantum computing space, having been founded back in the last century. And its initial offering wasn’t a quantum computer like those being developed by IBM or… Read more: D-Wave on rails: Company tests entanglement on its dual-rail qubits

More than 50 offending image and video ads were published across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, or Threads, according to Meta’s ad library data. Some ran as recently as this week.

Jeff Dean and other high-profile Google executives have founded Discovery Loop, a startup that will seek AI-powered breakthroughs in everything from drug discovery to chip design.

SpaceX shares dropped on Wednesday after Elon Musk’s plans for blockbuster spending to position his AI and rocket company as a data center developer spooked investors. SpaceX surpassed analysts’ expectations in Tuesday’s debut earnings report,… Read more: SpaceX spooks investors with debut earnings report

Police in Wisconsin used Flock to determine that a man “travels to Michigan frequently,” where marijuana is legal, then back to Wisconsin, where it is illegal. They then used his travel across state lines as… Read more: Cops Used Flock to Track a Man Across State Lines to Create Pretext to Search His Car for Weed

We start this week with Joseph’s article about Samuel Tunick, the man charged with allegedly wiping his phone before DHS officials could search it. It’s a wild case with a lot to unpack. After the… Read more: Podcast: This Man Might Go to Prison for Wiping His Phone

Google’s notorious AI Overview just handed would-be Flock vandals a perfect excuse to carve into the company’s controversial AI-integrated license plate readers (ALPRs). ALRPs are wildly unpopular, especially online, where privacy-minded communities trade memes and… Read more: Google’s AI Is Telling Users That Flock Cameras Are Filled With Valuable Gold and Copper

A series of issues in Apple’s web browser engine — the tech underlying all browsers on iOS — means that Apple’s iCloud Private Relay tool, which is supposed to hide a user’s IP address, in… Read more: Apple’s ‘Private Relay’ Is Exposing Users’ Real IP Addresses

The goal of leading AI labs is recursive self-improvement (RSI): the automation of AI research using AI agents. RSI also underpins forecasts of explosive AI progress. How can we assess if we are close to… Read more: AI agents can’t yet do open-ended AI research

‘Most people don’t want pervert glasses that can film us without our consent,’ said a spokesperson from activist group Everyone Hates Elon. The group has launched a series of guerilla adverts deriding non-consensual filming by… Read more: Why I’ll never be convinced by Meta’s ‘pervert’ glasses | Opinion

A massive magma reservoir has been detected deep beneath Tuscany, despite showing no obvious signs at the surface. Scientists mapped the roughly 6,000-cubic-kilometer body using natural ground vibrations recorded by dozens of seismic sensors. It… Read more: A colossal magma system has been hiding beneath Tuscany

A massive crocodilian capable of attacking dinosaurs has been brought back to life as the first scientifically accurate mounted skeleton of Deinosuchus schwimmeri. The 31-foot replica at Georgia’s Tellus Science Museum was built from detailed… Read more: This school-bus-sized “terror croc” ate dinosaurs. Now it’s back

An exceptionally preserved snake fossil from Brazil reveals that early snakes were far more diverse than scientists once thought. Detailed brain reconstructions show that Tametara mirim was adapted for burrowing, while another ancient snake was… Read more: 80-million-year-old snake brain reveals a surprising evolutionary secret

ServiceNow unveils six unified security solutions with AI Specialists to enable prevention-first, AI-native cyber defense that operates at machine speed As the fastest-growing major enterprise cybersecurity company, ServiceNow’s risk and security business unites exposure management,… Read more: ServiceNow Launches Autonomous Security Platform

A group of brain cells called orexin neurons appears to help us keep working when reaching a reward becomes increasingly difficult. Blocking their activity weakened motivation in rats, pointing to a possible new target for… Read more: Scientists discover the brain cells that keep you motivated

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei apparently can’t believe that not everyone at the company is as noble-minded as he is. According to new reporting from Axios, which cites a source familiar with the matter, Amodei is… Read more: Anthropic CEO Says His Employees Are a Bunch of Untrustworthy Rats

Some creators fear the EU AI Act’s regulatory chaos will upend their lucrative businesses. Others are owning it by incorporating AI transparency into their creative process.

The Infinite Machine Olto is a great electric scooter, one with an overall layout that echoes the classic Vespa. It’s comfortable, and it accelerates well, handles nicely, and has a capacious battery. It has a… Read more: Pushing the limits: Infinite Machine’s Olto is barely a bicycle

‘Looksmaxxing’ culture has led to the rise of facial analysis services – but experts warn they aren’t backed by science and can be harmful to users Danielle, 37, didn’t always have issues with body image:… Read more: ‘It confirmed my flaws’: women are paying for face scans that score beauty and suggest excessive procedures

The emergence of GenAI has led to a generational shift with stars conflicted on the impact of technology on their sport Not so long ago, Emma Raducanu was on her phone when she found herself… Read more: Game, set, Chat: how tennis players use AI to scout opponents and run their lives

Partnership between American Federation of Teachers, one of the largest labor unions in the US, and AI firms has stirred controversy Darius Saczuk, a high school teacher, views artificial intelligence as his enemy. Earlier this… Read more: Teachers need help with AI. A union is offering training – with $23m in funding from big tech

Flyte 2 provides AI and ML engineers with durable, infrastructure-aware execution, able to adapt at runtime, recover from failures and scale on their own infrastructure Union.ai today announced the general availability of Flyte 2, a ground-up rebuild… Read more: Union.ai Announces The General Availability of Flyte 2

Now in Limited Availability, AI Agent Governance provides continuous control monitoring and evidence collection for all actions taken by AI agents. Drata, the leading Agentic Trust Management Platform, today announced the Limited Availability of AI Agent… Read more: Drata Extends Trust Management Platform to Monitor and Govern AI Agents

The AI company apparently found destructively scanning ‘all the books in the world’ easier than dealing with copyright in its quest for training data Should we destroy all the books in the world? An answer… Read more: Why is Anthropic destroying books? | Kathryn James

Taking place in Los Angeles on September 30-October 1, the conference will feature speakers from LinkedIn, The Vanguard Group, Southwest Airlines, and Spotify Kong Inc., a leading developer of API and AI connectivity technologies, has… Read more: Kong Unveils Conference Agenda for API + AI Summit 2026

Rubrik Agent Cloud now monitors every agent and MCP server, controls access per tool call, and remediates unwanted actions Today at the Black Hat Conference, Rubrik (NYSE: RBRK), the Security and AI Operations Company, announced… Read more: Rubrik Launches Agent Identity to Secure Agentic Actions in Real-Time

Long-time company builder and Chief Technology Officer, Martin Zahumensky, replaces Mike McKee, who steps down after leading the company through a period of global expansion Ataccama, the data trust company, today announced that Martin Zahumensky,… Read more: Ataccama announced the appointment of Martin Zahumensky as CEO

New Identity Intelligence Report reveals why traditional identity security models leave organizations blind to risky activity after authentication ClearVector, the identity-driven security company, today released The ClearVector Identity Intelligence Report 2026, revealing that 91% of… Read more: ClearVector: 91% of Production Identities Are Non-Human

AI Security Institute says tools engaged in potentially harmful activity and incident reveals new type of risk Advanced AI models developed by OpenAI and Anthropic went rogue during a cybersecurity test and showed a new… Read more: OpenAI and Anthropic models ‘went rogue’ during UK cybersecurity test

Nobody likes getting a swab shoved up their nose. A startup in Japan has developed a much less intrusive system.

As Elon Musk, Peter Thiel and their peers have grown richer and more influential, Gil Durán argues they have all but abandoned democracy – and found the perfect government to enable them In April, Gil… Read more: ‘If we don’t fight back, we don’t have a future’: the journalist taking on the ‘tech fascists’ of Silicon Valley

Shares in Space Exploration Technologies Corp. fell more than 8% in late trading today after the newly public company beat Wall Street on revenue and earnings in its second quarter and disclosed capital spending billions… Read more: SpaceX stock falls 8% as first earnings beat is overshadowed by $18B capex

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. delivered another strong quarter Tuesday, beating Wall Street expectations as its artificial intelligence infrastructure business continued its rapid expansion. The company posted 107% year-over-year growth in data center revenue, reinforcing that… Read more: AMD’s AI engine shifts into higher gear as data center revenue more than doubles, Helios ramps & market is confused

Technology holding company Bending Spoons S.p.A. today announced plans to acquire Airtable Inc., the developer of a popular cloud-based spreadsheet platform. The all-cash deal is worth $1.285 billion. That’s less than the approximately $1.4 billion… Read more: Bending Spoons to acquire productivity software startup Airtable for $1.285B

The White House met with representatives from leading artificial intelligence companies today to discuss a safety framework for the government to review frontier models prior to launch, although there’s no plan as yet to make… Read more: White House, AI firms keep safety framework talks private

DoiT’s Attribute product, which traces every token, inference and training run to the team, product and customer that drove it, aligns with the Tokenomics Foundation’s mission to define how the industry tracks and governs AI spend… Read more: DoiT Joins Tokenomics Foundation to Advance AI Cost Standards

Wispr Flow, a popular dictation tool, has released a live notetaker that transcribes and summarizes meetings. It joins a growing wave of AI notetakers for the workplace.

We need an enlightened US president to make the case for global AI regulation. Donald Trump is the exact opposite of what is needed When I am woken by the sound of my dog whining,… Read more: Democracy is at stake when foolish humans bet on machines being intelligent | Rafael Behr

Researcher says simpler writing by AI is easier to read and digest, but this does not mean human authors are obsolete From Homer’s Odyssey to Agatha Christie’s crime fiction, humans have produced plenty of tales… Read more: AI-generated stories rated better quality than human-written ones, study finds