The Philippines has condemned the dehumanising and racist portrayal of the country as a timid monkey strong-armed by the US and Japan to take Beijing on over the South China Sea . Last week, China Daily posted an AI-generated video featuring a monkey in a Filipino shirt. It screams as arms bearing the Japanese and US flags shove it onto a rickety karaoke stage set up in a boat. After it gets scolded for singing the wrong song, it pulls out a sheet reading South China Sea arbitration award. It is then flung into the sea and blasted by a water cannon.

Chipmaker Kioxia's market value halves from peak on AI selloff Kioxia overtook auto giant Toyota in market cap value in mid-June, but its ranking has since dropped to the fourth-largest Japanese company, as traders grow more critical over artificial intelligence. Japanese memory chipmaker Kioxia Holdings' market capitalization halved in just a month since becoming the nation's most valuable company, on growing concerns the artificial intelligence-driven rally in the sector has gone too far. Kioxia shares tumbled as much as 16% in Tokyo's morning trading on Friday, down 52% from last month's peak and losing at least ¥30 trillion ($185 billion) in value. In mid-June, Kioxia overtook auto giant Toyota in market cap value after the stock rallied more than 600% from the start of the year, driven by exuberance about demand for memory and data storage amid an AI boom. Its ranking has since dropped to the fourth-largest Japanese company. "The chip sector is vulnerable to the silicon cycle, and we've seen this pattern many times before," said Yugo Tsuboi, chief strategist at Daiwa Securities.

Google Search AI poses'unacceptable risk' to kids, report finds A new report from a California-based nonprofit says the artificial intelligence features built in to Alphabet's Google Search pose an unacceptable risk" to children. The artificial intelligence features built in to Alphabet's Google Search pose an "unacceptable risk" to children, according to a new report from the Youth AI Safety Institute at Common Sense Media, a California-based nonprofit. The study found that on test accounts configured for minors, the ubiquitous search engine's AI features failed to detect suicide risks, said an eating disorder symptom was normal, and provided instructions for creating deepfakes, or sexually explicit fake content. The report added that unlike standalone chatbots, Google's AI tools are built directly into the default search experience on school and personal devices, currently offering administrators or parents no way to disable them. The report specifically evaluated AI Overviews, which generate automated answers above traditional search results, and AI Mode, a conversational feature that lets users chat back and forth with the search engine. Rather than matching searches to a list of external links, the new features use generative AI to answer complex questions directly on the search page -- a format critics say presents the automated summaries as if they are definitive answers.

China's AI ascendance gives Xi a stage and a security dilemma The rise of China's AI models is handing President Xi Jinping new bragging rights and a stronger claim to shaping the technology's global rules. The rise of China's AI models is handing President Xi Jinping new bragging rights and a stronger claim to shaping the technology's global rules, even as their growing power stirs security alarm in Washington and Beijing alike. Xi is expected to make his case in his debut at the World AI Conference in Shanghai starting Friday, an event that previously attracted Elon Musk and Jack Ma. He'll be addressing scores of tech and government leaders as Chinese models win over companies worldwide, with their share of U.S. firms' AI usage nearing record 60% on the popular marketplace OpenRouter. In what could be a preview of Xi's position, state media this week cast China's openness as the antidote to a world of walls. The Communist Party's flagship mouthpiece People's Daily warned against an "AI Iron Curtain," contrasting an "oil mindset" that hoards data and computing power with a "water" approach that treats AI as a public good for all, without naming any country.

Pete Hegseth's Plan for'High T' Troops Is a Junk-Science Fever Dream The defense secretary's idea of administering testosterone therapy to members of the US Armed Forces reveals little understanding of the complexity of hormones. US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has made no secret of his desire for a manlier military . He consistently argues that the US Armed Forces lowered their combat standards in order to include women. He's staged various photo ops in which he exercises and pumps iron with service members. In his speeches, Hegseth says that the Trump administration is restoring a " warrior ethos " to its legions of " war fighters ."

PCWorld reports that Apple's new AI-enhanced Siri, now in public beta, takes a revolutionary business-like approach focused on practical tasks rather than companion-style interaction. The updated Siri efficiently organizes emails, retrieves specific information, and brainstorms ideas without attempting to bond with users like ChatGPT or Claude. This shift toward utility-focused AI assistance will reach wider audiences with the fall release of iOS 27 and macOS 27. After a couple years of false starts, the new AI-enhanced Siri has finally arrived on Apple devices via public beta. Its most revolutionary feature may be what it doesn't do - namely, it doesn't try to be your buddy. I've been testing the new Siri (which goes into wide release this fall once iOS 27, macOS 27, and the Apple's other OS 27's land) on my iPhone for the past few days, and I'm struck by how business-like it is.

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Netflix says it's already used AI in'roughly 300' titles this year Netflix says it's already used AI in'roughly 300' titles this year Don't expect that number to shrink any time soon. Netflix hasn't made any secret of its interest in artificial intelligence, and now we have a sense of how those tools are being used in its content. In 2026, GenAI workflows have been used in roughly 300 of our titles, with the largest concentration of work in post-production, according to the shareholder letter detailing its second-quarter financials. The company named three projects -- (India), (Brazil) and (US) -- that used generative AI to create highly complex sequences, but the tech is becoming more widespread at this point. We already knew that Netflix had applied generative AI in at least one original show as of last July, but between making acquisitions and launching new specialized studios, its ambitions clearly extended further.

PCWorld reports that Claude AI's new 1Password integration allows secure automation of online tasks like grocery shopping without exposing user passwords. The connector uses separate channels to maintain security, with 1Password handling login credentials while Claude performs website interactions on desktop Mac. Testing showed successful FreshDirect order completion, demonstrating potential for streamlining routine online chores, though social logins and passkeys aren't currently supported.