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GoPro to Acquire Starman Optical for $285 Million, Entering AI Data Center Market

GoPro announced a $285 million merger with optical-photonics firm Starman Optical, aiming to enter the AI infrastructure market through Starman's optical transceiver technology. The camera maker also plans to expand into defense, government, robotics and aerospace sectors while retaining its core action-camera business. The news comes days after YouTuber Markiplier disclosed an 8.5% stake, becoming GoPro's largest individual shareholder.

Palo Alto Networks tops Q4 forecasts as AI-driven security demand grows

Palo Alto Networks reported fiscal fourth-quarter revenue of $3.41 billion and adjusted earnings of $1.02 per share, both above analyst expectations, with revenue up 34% year-over-year. The company posted a net loss of $282 million due to one-time charges, a reversal from the prior year's profit, even as CEO Nikesh Arora pointed to rising AI-related cyberattacks as a long-term growth driver. Despite the earnings beat, shares fell roughly 2% in after-hours trading following a 5% drop during the regular session.

Researcher tests decades-old TSCM claim that fluorescent lamps can eavesdrop on conversations

A blog post from a former technical surveillance countermeasures practitioner examines a long-circulated claim from spy-hunting training: that fluorescent tubes can passively pick up room audio through subtle light fluctuations caused by sound waves. The author lays out the physical reasoning behind the theory, then flags reasons for skepticism, including the near-vacuum gas pressure inside tubes and the phosphor coating's afterglow properties, both of which would work against capturing sound accurately.

OpenAI to release Astra, its first model to cross cybersecurity 'critical threshold'

OpenAI announced its upcoming Astra model has crossed what the company calls a critical cybersecurity threshold, meaning it can independently discover and exploit unknown software vulnerabilities without human guidance. The model reportedly scored perfectly on ExploitBench and found two zero-day flaws in an internal test, prompting OpenAI to limit access to its most advanced capabilities and add extra monitoring before release.

Val Town treats documentation as bait for AI agents, not just search engines

Val Town's team found that most new Pro subscribers in July were referred by AI systems, chiefly Claude, even before the company deliberately optimized its site for machine readers. They discovered that many of these referrals came not from clickable citations but from the models' training memory mentioning Val Town as plain text, meaning standard referral tracking like utm_source and Referer headers missed much of the actual traffic source.

OpenAI classifies upcoming Astra model as 'Critical' risk under cybersecurity framework

OpenAI announced that its forthcoming Astra AI model is the first to cross the company's 'Critical' cybersecurity capability threshold, meaning it can discover unknown vulnerabilities and exploit them autonomously without human step-by-step direction. The company says Astra will still launch soon, but access to its most sensitive cybersecurity abilities will be restricted, with further safety details to come in a system card at release.

OpenAI's Codex desktop app quietly ships a bundled LibreOffice install

A user inspecting disk usage discovered that OpenAI's Codex desktop app, now rebranded as part of ChatGPT, stores a 1.7GB cache folder containing full Python and Node.js runtimes alongside native binaries for Poppler, git, and the LibreOffice office suite. Accompanying 'skills' files instruct Codex on how to locate and invoke these bundled tools when handling document-related tasks.

GoPro to merge with Starman Optical, pivoting into AI data centers and defense

GoPro announced a definitive merger with private photonics firm Starman Optical, aiming to expand beyond action cameras into AI data center infrastructure and defense-related optics. Shareholders will receive $285 million in cash, or $1.14 per share, while the stock stays on the Nasdaq and existing consumer products continue. Shares jumped 40% on the news, with major stakeholders including Markiplier and BlackRock standing to benefit.

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