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Why Britain should reject the lure of cheap – and scary – Chinese AI

The Guardian

Models such as DeepSeek allow users to take the core software and use it without paying an expensive ongoing licence. Models such as DeepSeek allow users to take the core software and use it without paying an expensive ongoing licence. There is much to fear from artificial intelligence developed in China and handed to businesses and governments in the west almost free of charge. Every month Chinese AI developers such as DeepSeek and Xiaomi dispatch the latest versions of their "open-weight" models that allow users to take the core software and use it without paying an expensive ongoing licence. In Britain, we love cheap Chinese kit, usually setting aside any concerns about how it was made and who by.


Alibaba AI models cleared for use in Apple Intelligence in China just in time for the iPhone Duo launch

Engadget

Apple Intelligence will soon be making its way to supported iPhone models in China, as the country reportedly rubber stamps the use of Alibaba AI models to power the technology. As reported by the South China Morning Post, which is owned by the Alibaba Group, China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has given regulatory approval for Tongyi Qianwen, the group of LLMs better known as Qwen, as well as the Tongyi Wanxiang AI-generated image and video tool. Apple had already received clearance to roll out Apple Intelligence on the Chinese mainland back in July, but the South China Morning Post's report says it has not yet done so. The updated filings include network access permits for the iPhone Duo and 18 Pro, with the former set to launch in China next week with the new and improved Siri AI as one of its flagship software features. Much of Apple Intelligence's feature set is already available in Hong Kong, but the mainland's complex AI and privacy laws have required Apple to be patient about bringing what is now a core feature to one of its fastest-growing markets.


cool kids are writing in all lowercase now. does that make you mad?

WIRED

"i got a lot of intellectual enrichment and influence from early 2010s feminist tumblr," fisher-quann tells me. "lower case? it started with single-case tty model 33. "the more senior you get, the less formal your emails are," michelle liang, a tech growth investor, tells me. "reading my posts should be like scrubbing your eyeballs with sandpaper. I let an AI agent hack all my gadgets --and I'd do it again Tiffany Ng is a tech and culture writer based in Hong Kong. Her work has appeared in publications including Vox, MIT Tech Review, Vice, Insider, and Vogue.


Humanoid robots can sprint and box – but the real test is doing the laundry

Robohub

At the recent World Humanoid Robot Games 2026 in Beijing, robots sprinted, boxed, played football and tackled tasks inspired by factories, restaurants and emergency situations. The robot Tiangong Ultra even completed the 100 metres in 8.64 seconds, quicker than Usain Bolt's 9.58-second world record. But if we really want to know whether humanoid robots are ready for everyday life, a far less glamorous challenge may tell us more: doing the laundry. Can a robot take a crumpled T-shirt from a laundry basket, work out which way round it is, fold it neatly and recover when the sleeve slips from its hand? No robot system can yet reliably handle the whole laundry process, from carrying a basket to the washing machine and sorting clothes for different programmes to taking them out, hanging them to dry, folding and ironing them.


South Korea bank hack suspect may be 26-year-old in China, U.S. firm says

The Japan Times

South Korea bank hack suspect may be 26-year-old in China, U.S. firm says Authorities in Seoul are investigating cyberattacks that affected multiple financial institutions after banks, including Shinhan Bank and KB Kookmin Bank, reported data breaches. SEOUL - The suspect behind recent cyberattacks targeting South Korea's financial sector may be a 26-year-old based in China's Guangdong province, U.S. cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike has said. In a report published on its website on Wednesday, CrowdStrike said it uncovered personal details linked to the suspected attacker while analyzing AI coding-tool sessions and infrastructure associated with a campaign targeting South Korean financial institutions from late September to early October. CrowdStrike said the attacker used ARTEX, a recently released Chinese-developed open-source penetration testing tool, alongside large language models and assessed with "moderate confidence" that the actor was a Chinese speaker and likely financially motivated. The firm said one Claude Code session contained a request to create a security researcher resume describing results from the hacking activity.


The world's first nuclear clocks are ticking

Popular Science

Technology Engineering The world's first nuclear clocks are ticking Nuclear clocks may surpass their atomic forebears and help solve the universe's most difficult mysteries. More information Adding us as a Preferred Source in Google by using this link indicates that you would like to see more of our content in Google News results. Timekeeping has officially entered its nuclear age. Two independent teams, one in Vienna, Austria and another in Beijing, China have built working thorium-229 nuclear clock prototypes . Rather than track changes in an atom's electrons the way that current atomic clocks do, these nuclear versions use a laser that's tuned to the frequency where a thorium nucleus flips between two energy states for potentially even more accurate time keeping.


Privacy watchdog launches investigation into China-based company behind Kmart 'pervert glasses' app

The Guardian

Australia's privacy regulator launched an investigation into the China-based company behind the HeyCyan app in Kmart's Anko-branded discount version of Meta's smartglasses. Australia's privacy regulator launched an investigation into the China-based company behind the HeyCyan app in Kmart's Anko-branded discount version of Meta's smartglasses. Privacy watchdog launches investigation into China-based company behind Kmart'pervert glasses' app Tue 6 Oct 2026 22.00 EDTFirst published on Tue 6 Oct 2026 19.02 EDT The Australian privacy regulator has opened an investigation into the China-based software company behind the HeyCyan app in Kmart's $89 smartglasses, following public outrage over the covert use of the devices. In August, Guardian Australia reported Kmart had sold out of the Anko-branded discount version of Meta's smartglasses that can capture images and record high-definition video, which led to widespread concern and calls to ban or restrict their use. The glasses were removed from Kmart's website as of Wednesday.


Mistral Says Its New AI Model 'Le Chonk' Is the Best Open-Weight Offering Outside of China

WIRED

Mistral Says Its New AI Model'Le Chonk' Is the Best Open-Weight Offering Outside of China With the release of its new trillion-parameter model, Mistral is hoping to demonstrate it's "still in the race" to build frontier-level artificial intelligence. As tensions mount over who gets access to top-end artificial intelligence, French company Mistral has released a new freely-available model that it claims can compete with the very best from the US and China. The new one trillion-parameter model, Mistral Large 4--nicknamed Le Chonk--can be used and customized by anyone. It's currently available in preview, with a final version to follow by the end of the month. Though Le Chonk is built to compete with leading general purpose models, it's optimized specifically for coding and cyberdefense, as well as tasks particular to manufacturing, finance, electrical engineering, and other niches.


California man's smuggling scheme sent 300 million in AI hardware to China, feds say

Los Angeles Times

Things to Do in L.A. Tap to enable a layout that focuses on the article. California man's smuggling scheme sent $300 million in AI hardware to China, feds say This is read by an automated voice. Please report any issues or inconsistencies here . See more from the L.A. Times in Google Search. The owner of a San Gabriel Valley technology company was arrested Thursday after federal prosecutors charged him with smuggling more than $300 million of restricted computer hardware to China.


US arrests California man for allegedly smuggling 300m worth of computer servers to China

The Guardian

Officials say Lui used his company to buy and send items to China without the licenses required by the Department of Commerce. Officials say Lui used his company to buy and send items to China without the licenses required by the Department of Commerce. US authorities have arrested a man accused of smuggling more than $300m worth of computer servers to China, the Department of Justice announced. Greg Lui, 38, of California, also known as "Yiu Kong Lui", allegedly used false paperwork and shipments through third countries to smuggle the export-controlled computer servers to China, the justice department said in a statement on Thursday. The servers contained "US-manufactured graphics processing units (GPUs) commonly used for Super Intelligence (SI)", it added, using the Trump administration's new name for artificial intelligence (AI).