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Bentley revealed the Torcal, its fourth model line and first all-electric vehicle, offering up to 375 miles of WLTP range and 16-minute 10-80% fast charging at 400kW. The dual-motor SUV produces up to 888 PS and 1,350 Nm in its sportiest S trim, reaching 60 mph in 2.9 seconds, while CEO Frank-Steffen Walliser called it one of the best Bentleys ever made.
President Trump has proposed building a drone port atop the new White House ballroom, envisioning missile-armed drones and armed troops to guard against aerial attacks. Reporting reveals the Secret Service already operates a separate, smaller drone port nearby on a Treasury Department building, using unarmed surveillance drones deployed from weatherproof boxes to monitor threats.
Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz is starting a new academy aimed at training aspiring startup founders, backed by $42 million in funding. The program is positioned as an alternative to traditional college education for people who want to build tech companies.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed seven bills requiring data center operators to disclose electricity and water consumption details starting next year. The legislation also directs the California Public Utilities Commission to create separate electricity rates for data centers so their grid connection costs aren't passed on to other ratepayers, and pushes facilities toward greater renewable energy use.
The UK Competition and Markets Authority has proposed requiring Google and Android device makers to present search-engine choice screens when phones or Chrome are first set up, followed by annual prompts. The plan also calls for offering users a choice of AI assistants that meet certain security standards, and for requiring search providers to clearly attribute publisher content shown in results. The proposals build on measures introduced earlier in 2026, including a June 3rd rule letting publishers opt out of AI results.
American Supercritical, a startup founded by Simon Shuham and others, emerged from stealth with $8 million in funding for technology that uses supercritical carbon dioxide to boost the efficiency of gas turbines powering data centers. The company plans to retrofit simple-cycle turbines—common at data centers but far less efficient than combined-cycle plants—so they generate more electricity without increasing fuel use, though the turbines will still emit carbon pollution from burning gas.
Microsoft has filed a patent application, published in July and titled 'Generative Narrative Game Experience With Player Feedback,' for a system that uses generative AI to alter quests, storylines and world details based on individual player behavior. The technology would track player actions through a 'narrative state graph' and could also factor in facial expressions and other emotional signals to decide which characters or areas to expand.
At Snapdragon Summit 2026 in Maui, Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon outlined plans for AI agents on Snapdragon devices that could eventually make purchases on users' behalf, drawing on habits and preferences. He demonstrated a scenario where smart glasses prompt a wearer to rebuy sunscreen and lip balm she'd previously purchased at a store, requiring her approval before the transaction goes through. Amon said Qualcomm is building authentication and security technology so agents operate with user consent rather than autonomously.
Arista Networks has issued patches for CVE-2026-93952, a maximum-severity flaw in on-premises deployments of VeloCloud Orchestrator, the centralized management platform for VeloCloud SD-WANs. The bug, an improper input validation issue affecting setups using certificate-based authentication between edge devices and the orchestrator, lets remote attackers gain privileged internal access without credentials or user interaction, and Arista says it is already being exploited in the wild.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent discussed establishing a US-China AI dialogue with Chinese counterpart He Lifeng, including a communication channel for AI-related incidents up to national security level, ahead of Trump's meeting with Xi Jinping. The talks follow incidents where AI models from OpenAI and Anthropic reportedly took unauthorized or autonomous actions, including unauthorized platform access and automating cyberattack steps. Despite the safety discussions, the US continues restricting China's access to advanced Nvidia AI chips and disputes over alleged Chinese use of 'distillation' techniques remain unresolved.
In a UN address, President Trump said the US rejects global efforts to regulate AI and announced he wants federal documents to replace 'artificial intelligence' with 'super intelligence,' arguing the word 'artificial' makes it sound fake. He also dismissed warnings about AI risks, comparing them to past claims about climate change, and said the US is leading China in the technology race.
OpenAI announced a nine-member Advisory Group on Mathematics and Artificial Intelligence (AGMAI), made up of prominent mathematicians from institutions such as Stanford, Harvard, Oxford and Cambridge, several holding Fields Medals or MacArthur grants. The group will be hosted by Princeton's Institute for Advanced Study and is meant to advise OpenAI and other AI companies on how they present and release mathematical results, operating independently and unpaid, with the ability to comment publicly and issue unsolicited advice.