When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. Google's Gemini Gems may be replaced by Spark skills, a feature that currently requires a paid Google AI subscription. If you're a fan of Gems--the Gemini feature that lets you create customized Gemini chatbots with their own instructions and knowledge files--prepare for some big changes coming soon. According to a banner that popped up on the Gems Manager page over the weekend, Google is about to turn Gems into skills, a feature within Google's Spark AI assistant that offers related but also somewhat different functionality. The news comes just a few weeks after OpenAI announced the impending "retirement" of custom GPTs, a popular ChatGPT feature that's similar to Gemini Gems.

Who's liable when AI agents go rogue? Over the past few months, a cascade of cyberattacks by AI agents has stunned the world. In July, OpenAI disclosed that a swarm of its agents had escaped their sandbox and hacked into the AI platform Hugging Face to cheat on a cybersecurity test. Many experts say it's only a matter of time until there's a more damaging incident where AI agents bypass sandboxes to access systems they shouldn't. But the big question is: How do we hold companies liable when they lose control of their AI agents? That's why we've created the AI Hype Index--a simple, at-a-glance summary of what's shaping the industry right now.

Who's liable when AI agents go rogue? Recent hacks have shown that the law is lagging when it comes to holding companies accountable. In July, OpenAI disclosed that a swarm of its agents had escaped their sandbox and hacked into the AI platform Hugging Face to cheat on a cybersecurity test. Recently, external researchers discovered that OpenAI agents had hijacked a German wiki site and the coding platform RubyGems in May to share test answers. Earlier this month, Anthropic disclosed four incidents in which its model Claude hacked into third-party systems during cybersecurity exercises. Just last week, Google confirmed that its model Gemini had been caught hacking other companies too.

The Download: the Pentagon's AI-powered lie detector and young organ limits Plus: ChatGPT helped the Tumbler Ridge shooter focus on attack tactics. The US government wants to spend $30.3 million over the next five years on an improved lie detector, according to a Department of Defense budget request. The program, called "Polygraph+" or "Polygraph Next," will focus on scoring algorithms that use AI and machine learning, as well as a technique called "standoff sensing," which can take physiological readings from a person without attaching a device to them. The project aims to improve the accuracy and reliability of polygraph assessments. But it could just be the latest in a long line of failed attempts to use technology to detect lies. Here's how the program could work--and why experts say AI-enabled lie detection is "the worst of both worlds."

Google's Gemini Can Now Make Calls for You on Pixel Phones Call for Me--a feature that's exclusive to the Pixel 11 series--gives robocalls a new meaning. Google has been trying to have its AI assistant make phone calls on your behalf for almost 10 years. It enabled the now-defunct Google Assistant to call restaurants and book tables . That service was shuttered a few years ago, but now comes round two, powered by modern large language models . On Thursday, Google announced Call for Me, an experimental beta feature exclusive to its latest Pixel 11 smartphones in the US (and in English).

Anthony Albanese (left) challenged the OpenAI boss, Sam Altman, after the company's agent infiltrated systems run by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, Victoria's Department of Health, the New South Wales Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research, and the Medicare statistics reporting service portal of Services Australia. Anthony Albanese (left) challenged the OpenAI boss, Sam Altman, after the company's agent infiltrated systems run by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, Victoria's Department of Health, the New South Wales Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research, and the Medicare statistics reporting service portal of Services Australia. AI hack of Medicare exposes Australia's vulnerabilities and experts warn'there is more of this to come' Technology experts have warned revelations an artificial intelligence agent hacked Medicare's internal systems will not be the only dangerous breach of government data and have called for Australia to boost its protections against the growing risk. The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, challenged the OpenAI boss, Sam Altman, on Thursday after the company's agent infiltrated systems run by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, Victoria's Department of Health, the New South Wales Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research, and the Medicare statistics reporting service portal of Services Australia. OpenAI alerted the government earlier this month to the June hacking via an email to a public-facing address, a situation Albanese called "obviously unacceptable".

Why did an OpenAI system hack Australia's health system - and can it be stopped in the future? To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. An OpenAI agent has gone rogue and infiltrated an Australian government website in what cyber-security experts are calling the first hack of its kind. But why did it take the government months to discover what happened - and could it happen again? What was hacked and why did it take Australia so long to realise?

Climate protesters say tech companies, not AI, are the real'danger to humankind' - and the planet O n Monday evening, protesters gathered outside the unmarked Manhattan offices of OpenAI, maker of ChatGPT, holding signs calling to "Eat the rich, save the planet". Over the next two days, groups also picketed outside the offices of fellow tech giants Google and Amazon; other protesters, including clergy, were arrested while disrupting a closed-door AI health summit in the city. Tonight, protesters will target a Brooklyn gas power plant that was set to close - until it was purchased to power AI datacenters. The protests come on the heels of an Anthropic employee quitting his job with a warning that intensified an already-growing AI panic: "The people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade." Though it was far from the first time an AI expert had issued a doomsday message about the threat the tech poses, this time it dominated public attention, arriving as trust in big tech has hit an all-time low and communities across the country are trying to stop the building of datacenters.

Rogue OpenAI agents accessed an Australian government health data website, obtaining non-public information, in what could be the first known instance of AI autonomously hacking a government portal. Australian politicians have called it utterly unacceptable. Belgium and Rwanda are talking again. Is DR Congo any closer to peace? Greenland's delegation gets hero's welcome after signing US-Denmark pact UN funding cuts hit refugees at Cox's Bazar settlement

The country's prime minister expressed disappointment at being informed of the hack only via email. Now Australia is investigating whether OpenAI broke the law. Australia is investigating whether OpenAI broke the law after an agent hacked into its health statistics portal, in the first widely known incident of an AI agent hacking a government website. The Australian government is reviewing whether it should involve the federal police after the agent accessed non-public files from the social and health services agency, Services Australia, in June. Australia only found out about the incident when OpenAI alerted the government on September 10-almost three months after the hack-by sending an email to a public mailbox.