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AI's Hacking Skills Are Approaching an 'Inflection Point'

WIRED

AI's Hacking Skills Are Approaching an'Inflection Point' AI models are getting so good at finding vulnerabilities that some experts say the tech industry might need to rethink how software is built. Vlad Ionescu and Ariel Herbert-Voss, cofounders of the cybersecurity startup RunSybil, were momentarily confused when their AI tool, Sybil, alerted them to a weakness in a customer's systems last November. Sybil uses a mix of different AI models --as well as a few proprietary technical tricks--to scan computer systems for issues that hackers might exploit, like an unpatched server or a misconfigured database. In this case, Sybil flagged a problem with the customer's deployment of federated GraphQL, a language used to specify how data is accessed over the web through application programming interfaces (APIs). The issue meant that the customer was inadvertently exposing confidential information.


Verizon Outage Knocks Out US Mobile Service, Including Some 911 Calls

WIRED

A major Verizon outage appeared to impact customers across the United States starting around noon ET on Wednesday. Calls to Verizon customers from other carriers may also be impacted. Customers of the telecom giant Verizon began reporting cellular outages around the United States beginning around noon ET on Wednesday, saying they could not complete calls and did not have access to mobile data. Verizon broadband internet customers are also reporting issues. AT&T and T-Mobile customers also began reporting service outages in the same timeframe, however these reports may be linked to the Verizon outage.


2026 May Be the Year of the Mega I.P.O.

NYT > Economy

"We're going to get into a period of potentially unprecedented I.P.O. "But we are confident they're executable given the scale of these companies and the investor interest." These listings could create an enormous bonanza for Wall Street and Silicon Valley after years of lackluster offerings. They could set off a feeding frenzy among public market investors who have been waiting to get a piece of the A.I. boom, and Wall Street banks stand to make hundreds of millions facilitating the listings. That is stoking more excitement for the A.I. boom as it enters its fourth year, even as the question of a bubble intensifies.


Verizon outage: Voice and data services down for many customers

Engadget

Apple's Siri AI will be powered by Gemini Issues appear to be concentrated in the eastern United States. Verizon's network appears to be having technical issues that are impacting calls and wireless data. Users on X have reported seeing "SOS" rather than the traditional network bars on their smartphones, and even Verizon's own network status page is struggling to load. Based on the experience of Verizon users on Engadget's staff, the services that are impacted appear to be calls and wireless data. Text messages continue to be delivered normally.


California launches investigation into child porn on Elon Musk's AI site

Los Angeles Times

Things to Do in L.A. Tap to enable a layout that focuses on the article. California launches investigation into child porn on Elon Musk's AI site This is read by an automated voice. Please report any issues or inconsistencies here . California opened an investigation into Elon Musk's xAI company, alleging its Grok chatbot creates sexually explicit deepfakes of real people and child pornography. The AI tool allows users to morph photos into explicit images and post them publicly on X.


PS Plus Game Catalog additions for January include Resident Evil Village and Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth

Engadget

Apple's Siri AI will be powered by Gemini Subscribers will also be able to play A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead and Expeditions: A MudRunner Game. Sony just announced January's Game Catalog and it's a fantastic lineup. All of these titles will be ready to play on January 20. It's a full game with plenty of jump scares and an engrossing narrative. It's set in a spooky village, thus the name, and a nearby castle.


He could just turn it off

Engadget

Apple's Siri AI will be powered by Gemini There's no good reason Grok should still be able to generate images. Generative AI, we are repeatedly told, is a transformative and complicated technology. So complicated that its own creators are unable to explain why it acts the way it does, and so transformative that we'd be fools to stand in the way of progress. Even when progress resembles a machine for undressing strangers without their consent on an unprecedented scale, as has been the case of late with Elon Musk's Grok chatbot. I have been informed this morning that X is acting to ensure full compliance with UK law.


AI is promising to revolutionise how we diagnose mental illness

New Scientist

As rates of mental health conditions like depression spike, we desperately need new ways of identifying and treating people in distress. The last big breakthrough in treating depression was all the way back in the 1980s. That was when Prozac, the first SSRI antidepressant, was released. It and its subsequent copycats soon swept the globe, and hundreds of millions of people have now taken this kind of medication. But while three-quarters of people say the pills have helped them feel better, they don't work for everyone.


We're getting intimate with chatbots. A new book asks what this means

New Scientist

AI chatbots can take on many roles in our lives. James Muldoon's Love Machines looks into the relationships we're forging with them Artificial intelligence is now unavoidable - although there are those among us who try. Even if you don't seek out a chatbot, you will see new icons in your current apps to bring them within a single click: WhatsApp, Google Drive, even Microsoft Notepad, the simplest program imaginable. The tech industry is making an enormous and costly bet on AI, and, in turn, is forcing it on users to make good on this investment. Many are embracing it to take over writing, admin or planning, and a minority are going a step further and forming intimate relationships with it.


Musk denies knowledge of Grok producing sexualised images of minors

Al Jazeera

X CEO Elon Musk has said he was not aware of any "naked underage images" generated by xAI's Grok chatbot, as scrutiny of the AI tool intensifies worldwide. "I [am] not aware of any naked underage images generated by Grok. Literally zero," Musk said in an X post on Wednesday. Musk reiterated that Grok is programmed to refuse illegal requests and must comply with the laws of any given country or state. "Obviously, Grok does not spontaneously generate images, it does so only according to user requests," Musk said.