Chinese developers are climbing the firewall to pay more for GPT-5.6, and doing the maths on why

OpenAI’s new GPT-5.6 models are winning praise from an unlikely group. Users in mainland China, where the service is blocked and reachable only by VPN or third-party proxy, told the South China Mor [...]

Cure cancer, cage the chatbots: Congress’s contradictory week on AI

In the space of about ten days, US lawmakers introduced a small mountain of artificial-intelligence legislation. The bills, rounded up by Nextgov/FCW, pull in two opposite directions at once. One set [...]

Home robots already walk. 1X’s new hands try to solve the part that actually matters

Humanoid robots learned to walk years ago. The thing still tripping them up is the hand. 1X has given its NEO home robot new hands, and they are the most interesting thing about it. A robot can stride [...]

From powerboat records to a $1bn war chest: meet Europe’s newest defence unicorn

First the Royal Navy shoved a robot boat out of a transport plane at 1,300 feet. Then its maker became Europe’s newest defence unicorn. Kraken Technology Group, a British maker of uncrewed surface v [...]

Tencent in talks to become Manus’ largest shareholder

Manus was, briefly, one of the most valuable exits in Chinese AI. Meta agreed to buy the agentic AI startup for more than $2bn late last year, then watched Beijing block the deal on national-securit [...]

A single Messi moment pushed Google Search to its busiest second ever

Google Search recorded its highest usage ever this week, driven by a World Cup goal. The company says the most queries per second in Search’s near-28-year history landed right after Argentina’s w [...]

China weighs curbing overseas access to its top AI models

China’s open AI models have been a gift to developers everywhere. Now Beijing may pull them back in. Chinese officials have discussed limiting who outside the country can use the nation’s best AI [...]

Why hackers are targeting your digital supply chain, not just your systems

Hackers are constantly looking for new ways to gain access to businesses and it’s rare that it’s through the front door. For most organisations cybersecurity still focuses on protecting internal [...]

Axos buys AI fintech Arc Technologies to bolt modern software onto a bank

Axos is buying Arc Technologies, an AI-native fintech that banks tech startups, and bolting its software onto a chartered bank. Axos Financial, a US digital bank with about $29bn in assets, has agreed [...]