'Whatever claims the labs are making, they are not warning us enough. We need to understand that nobody can stop the AI storm.' 'Whatever claims the labs are making, they are not warning us enough. We need to understand that nobody can stop the AI storm.' What are self-replicating'AI worms', and why is Anthropic worried about them? Warnings about what artificial intelligence might do in the future - together with alarming reports of what it has gotten up to already - are being issued so quickly that even security experts have difficulty triaging what to worry about. Yet a report this week from Anthropic's offensive research team grabbed attention by describing a new, practical threat, one devoid of human characteristics or apocalyptic musings.

'Nightmare Scenario': Zero-Click Spyware Is Infecting Phones via Targeted Ads Researchers at The Citizen Lab have for the first time released technical evidence of sophisticated mercenary spyware being distributed via online advertising. On Thursday, researchers from The Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto revealed a worst-case scenario found in the wild: spyware silently infecting targets as they browse past ads in their daily digital lives. Dubbing the attacks "AdFection," the researchers documented a campaign in which an Israeli-registered advertising firm allegedly connected to the servers linked to a spyware company and infected dozens of devices with its invasive malware. Citizen Lab believes this to be the first detailed technical evidence made publicly available of sophisticated spyware infecting devices via digital ads. Zero-click hacks are a holy grail for attackers and catastrophic for victims, because they can automatically install malware on devices without requiring any interaction or missteps from the target. When sophisticated hackers have deployed rare zero-click attacks in recent years, they have often exploited vulnerabilities in mobile messaging and communication apps to infect victims.

A group of more than 300 scientists from around the world is calling for urgent changes to how artificial intelligence is developed and deployed amid growing concerns about its unpredictable behaviour. The letter, released on Tuesday and signed by researchers representing universities and research institutes in 32 countries, warned that failures to follow basic cybersecurity practices could lead to damage to critical infrastructure. They recommended that organisations developing and testing advanced AI systems capable of carrying out cyberattacks do so in more tightly controlled environments, including "air-gapped" systems that are not connected to the internet. The letter comes amid growing concerns about AI's capabilities and its potential impact on everyday users. On Monday, Anthropic warned that its AI models could soon be capable of creating self-spreading malware that could affect everyday internet-connected devices, including smart TVs, security cameras and smart appliances such as ovens.

'We're creating alien beings and the reality is we only have a couple of years to adapt to that' computer scientist Geoffrey Hinton in Toronto, Ontario. AI godfather Geoffrey Hinton: Trump is'corrupt, senile felon' who knows nothing about AI'We're creating alien beings and the reality is we only have a couple of years to adapt to that' computer scientist Geoffrey Hinton in Toronto, Ontario. Pioneering computer scientist on why Trump is using'superintelligence' wrong, whether AI could wipe out humanity - and how our biggest challenge will be accepting we're not the only intelligent beings Donald Trump is a "corrupt, senile felon" whose fixation on the term superintelligence proves he knows nothing about AI, said Geoffrey Hinton, "godfather" of the technology, in a wide-ranging interview where he doubled down on recent warnings that AI models pose an existential threat to humanity and scoffed at claims the industry could regulate itself. The pioneering computer scientist, whose work helped lay the foundations of modern AI, has since become one of the technology's most vocal critics. His latest remarks come after a tumultuous month during which a growing list of senior AI scientists and researchers have joined Hinton in ringing the alarm about how the technology he helped create could ultimately escape human control, sparking an industry crisis, the hasty assembly of congressional meetings and a rare global consensus that something must be done.

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Bestselling author and former politician Jeffrey Archer has died at the age of 86. Archer sold more than 300 million books in his five-decade writing career, including the Clifton Chronicles and Kane and Abel, and often set the novels in his home town of Wellington, Somerset. In a statement, Archer's publisher HarperCollins said the author died suddenly and peacefully at home on Monday between writing sessions. The former Conservative MP was jailed for perjury in 2001 after being found guilty of lying and cheating in his 1987 libel case against the Daily Star. Archer was born in north London on 15 April 1940 but would quickly move to Weston-super-Mare in Somerset, where his family bought a house from John Cleese's mother.

As many have observed, Jeffrey Archer, who has died aged 86, led a life as colourful as the plot in one of his novels. He was, at one time or other, a senior Conservative politician, a best-selling author, a peer of the realm, and a convicted perjurer. Possessed of huge drive, vast wealth and immense personal charm, Archer bounced back from disaster and, more than once, rebuilt a shattered life. But for all his talents, he will be remembered as a man affected by a defective moral compass, whose public humiliation was entirely self-inflicted. Jeffrey Howard Archer was born in north London on 15 April 1940. Within two weeks, his parents moved to Weston-super-Mare in Somerset, where they bought a house from John Cleese's mother.

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In an exclusive interview with WIRED, Paragon Solutions CEO Andrew Boyd reveals the limits of the company's promise to keep bad actors from abusing its powerful espionage tool. Spyware maker Paragon Solutions has long positioned itself as the good guy in an industry seemingly filled with bad ones, vowing to never sell its mobile spyware to authoritarian regimes or ones with poor human rights records. It also promises to cut off any customer caught misusing its products against journalists, dissidents, or other non-legitimate targets. Yet weeks after Paragon, then Israeli-owned, was acquired by the US equity firm AE Industrial Partners in December 2024 and merged with REDLattice--an American offensive cyber firm owned by AE that this week announced plans to go public --WhatsApp alleged that Paragon's Graphite spyware was used to infect the phones of more than 60 individuals in more than 20 countries, including journalists and activists. Most of the targets were not identified, but the University of Toronto's Citizen Lab named two journalists and two activists in Italy. Italian authorities denied misuse . Paragon and its new US owners, despite their zero-tolerance policy for customer abuse of their software, initially declined to comment on the allegations, and reportedly was exploring potential legal action against WhatsApp after the company sent a cease-and-desist letter to Paragon.

U.K. accuses China of using academics to spy on AI and other tech research Policemen stand guard outside the Chinese Embassy in London on Oct. 18, 2015. LONDON - Britain's MI5 spy agency issued an unprecedented alert on Wednesday to warn that a Chinese organization was involved in funding academic research into topics such as AI on behalf of Beijing's state security service. In its "Espionage Alert," MI5 said more than 100 U.K.-based academics had contributed to projects funded by the China General Technology Research Institute (CGTRI), which had "very strong ties" to the Chinese Ministry of State Security (MSS), Beijing's civilian intelligence service. "MI5 has identified that the primary purpose of CGTRI is to fund academic research that directly improves MSS technical capability for espionage," the alert said. In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever.