A finalized feasibility study for Chilean telecom regulator Subtel, conducted by Salience Consulting and Pioneer Consulting and funded by CAF with partial backing from China's MCDF Finance Facility, concludes that a fiber-optic cable across the Drake Passage to Antarctica is technically achievable. The study proposes either a minimum build connecting three facility clusters near King George Island for about $370 million, or a nine-landing optimal build linking bases run by Chile, Argentina, Brazil, the US and the UK for roughly $620 million.
AI chatbots like Gemini, ChatGPT and Claude often store user conversations on company servers and use that data by default to train future AI models. Users can disable this training option and delete past activity, though turning off tracking does not automatically erase previously stored data. For Gemini specifically, users must disable both Google's Web & App Activity and Gemini's own Activity setting, then manually delete existing records.
ReliaQuest confirmed that ShinyHunters attackers impersonated its own security staff in vishing calls, directing an employee to a fake single sign-on page hosted on a lookalike domain, reliaquest.claims. The employee entered credentials and approved an MFA prompt, giving attackers brief, view-only access to an identity dashboard, but device-trust controls stopped further access to systems or customer data.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott told ABC that AI companies have caused their own backlash by building data centers without coordinating with state or local governments. This marks a sharp reversal from just months ago, when Abbott championed Texas as the 'epicenter of AI development' and celebrated a $40 billion Google investment tied to tax breaks. Abbott recently imposed a moratorium on new data center projects, citing strain on the state's power grid.
South Korea's government-backed startup support platform, Modu-ui Changup, suffered a data breach that exposed personal information and startup idea summaries of roughly 5,000 successful applicants. Investigators from the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, National Intelligence Service, Cyber Security Center and National Police Agency traced the root cause to an encryption key that had been embedded in an API response, allowing an outside party to harvest it via web crawling and decrypt supposedly protected data.
Seven prominent architecture firms are developing their own AI tools instead of waiting for frontier labs like Anthropic to serve their needs, since the specialized data behind architectural work—3D models, technical drawings, hand sketches—sits locked in private firm archives rather than on the open web. This scarcity of scrapable data makes architecture a much harder AI target than domains like coding or writing, pushing firms to build in-house solutions using their own proprietary project records.
The Dutch Data Protection Authority fined Uber roughly $966 million after finding that between 2018 and 2022 the company suspended European drivers using automated systems without meaningful human review, violating GDPR's Article 22 protections against purely automated decisions with significant consequences. The case stemmed from a 2020 complaint filed with France's CNIL by La Ligue des droits de l'Homme on behalf of over 170 drivers, and was handled by Dutch authorities since Uber's main EU base is in Amsterdam. Uber plans to appeal, arguing that fraud suspensions were brief, permanent deactivations always involved human review, and drivers had appeal options.
A developer created SELF (Structured Executable & Linkable Format), a prototype that replaces the traditional ELF executable format with a SQLite database file that can actually be run directly. The project builds on earlier work called sqlelf, which allowed users to query ELF binaries using SQL, and is now available on GitHub.
A satellite-based analysis led by Xiao-Peng Song and Matthew Hansen at the University of Maryland found that global tree cover increased by roughly 2.24 million square kilometers, an area comparable to Texas and Alaska combined, between 1982 and 2016. The gains, concentrated in temperate, boreal, and subtropical zones, offset major losses in tropical forests caused by deforestation, fire, and drought.
The Dutch Data Protection Authority has fined Uber roughly $966 million for deactivating driver accounts through automated systems without adequate human review or warning, marking one of the largest penalties issued under GDPR. The investigation stemmed from complaints, including one from former French Uber driver Brahim Ben Ali, who gathered testimony from 170 other drivers alleging similar treatment. Uber disputes the regulator's findings and plans to appeal the fine.
Microsoft ended free premium Office licenses for smaller nonprofits worldwide, and many organizations discovered their stored data—including Word, Excel, and OneDrive files—had been permanently deleted without adequate warning. Ronald Khosla, who runs the environmental venture fund Canopy, says he was told by Microsoft support that his data could be recovered, only to later learn it was gone for good.
Reports highlight mounting concern among investors about the sustainability of massive AI data-center buildouts, alongside scrutiny of OpenAI's financial position. Analysts point to roughly $3 trillion in AI-related debt that sits off company balance sheets, raising questions about how these commitments are being tracked and financed.
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