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Tech News
Google is highlighting that many persistent Android Auto connectivity problems stem not from the phone but from outdated software running on a car's infotainment system. The company recommends restarting the infotainment unit and, for aftermarket head units like Pioneer or Kenwood, checking the manufacturer's website for firmware updates.
A Morning Risk Report roundup describes efforts by Chinese AI firms to reproduce American AI models, alongside items on crypto scam victims battling the U.S. government to recover lost funds and ABC host Jimmy Kimmel criticizing the FCC. The compilation touches on cloning practices in AI, consumer financial recovery disputes, and regulatory friction in broadcasting.
Nintendo has enabled variable refresh rate output for Switch 2's TV mode through a new firmware update, requiring an updated dock to work. The feature was originally promised at launch, then quietly removed, before a job listing hinted Nintendo was still developing it for TV play. The same update also adds a handheld boost toggle, Mii editor changes, and full system transfer between Switch 2 consoles.
Nintendo has released firmware update 23.0.0 for the Switch 2, finally enabling variable refresh rate support when the console is docked and running in TV mode, a feature promised before launch but missing at release. The update also adds a handheld boost mode toggle in quick settings, nostalgic music options in the Mii editor, and full system transfer between two Switch 2 consoles.
A hobbyist took apart an Egret GT electric scooter, examined its Bluetooth app and firmware update mechanism, and discovered a way to bypass its PIN lock via a hidden firmware update mode. He also found the scooter silently transmits unlisted telemetry data, including driving-mode duration, motor current, battery voltage and charge history, and went on to write custom Rust firmware for the scooter's display unit.
The NSA, CISA, and FBI jointly identified six Chinese AI companies—DeepSeek, Moonshot AI, Alibaba, MiniMax, StepFun, and Z.AI—as running large-scale campaigns since late 2024 to extract the underlying capabilities of leading US AI systems like Claude, GPT, Gemini, and Grok. The agencies said these firms likely operated with the Chinese government's awareness and used tactics such as mass fake-account API abuse and prompt injection to expose hidden reasoning processes.
US federal agencies issued a joint advisory on Sept. 8 alleging that Chinese AI companies including Alibaba, DeepSeek, MiniMax, Moonshot AI, StepFun and Z.AI have run large-scale operations to pull outputs from US models like Claude, GPT, Gemini and Grok since late 2024. The advisory says these firms extracted billions of tokens through millions of queries, using techniques such as chain-of-thought extraction and automated evasion to dodge blocking measures, in order to train their own competing systems.
Payments firm Ramp's survey of 70,000 businesses found only 56% paid for AI tools in August, up just 0.4% from July, marking a sharp deceleration in adoption. Spending per employee among the top 1% of firms fell nearly 10% to $7,205, which Ramp economist Ara Kharazian attributes partly to seasonal vacation effects and partly to falling token prices, now averaging $0.68 per million tokens versus a March peak of $1.15.
Senators Ron Wyden and Sheldon Whitehouse, joined by Republican Rep. Pat Harrigan, sent a letter to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick asking that BellTroX, CyberRoot, and Sunkissed Organic Farms (formerly Appin) be added to the department's entity list. They allege these Indian firms have spent over a decade hacking Americans and using foreign courts to suppress reporting on their activities. The Commerce Department has not indicated whether it will act on the request.
CISA, the NSA, and the FBI issued a joint advisory naming DeepSeek, Moonshot AI, Alibaba, MiniMax, StepFun, and Z.AI as having harvested billions of tokens from Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, and xAI models since late 2024. The firms allegedly used fraudulent accounts, proxy networks, and automated failover systems to bypass rate limits and extract restricted reasoning data at industrial scale.
LG issued a statement to Tom's Hardware rejecting claims from a Gamers Nexus investigation that its smart TVs constantly log data and record ambient audio even in standby mode. LG confirmed its TVs scan local networks for other devices, a common smart-TV feature, but insisted voice data is only processed when a remote button is pressed or a wake word like 'Hi LG' is detected. The company said no audio is transmitted unless that wake word is recognized, and wake-word detection itself happens on-device rather than being sent to servers.
Brian Kelly, who previously ran a cryptocurrency hedge fund, has launched a new trading firm called Bracket22 that operates entirely through agentic AI rather than human staff. He told CNBC that his prior operation cost roughly $5 million annually in payroll, benefits and office expenses for seven or eight employees, while Bracket22 now runs on just $30,000 to $40,000 a year covering all AI agents and computing needs.