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Tech News
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and City Council Speaker Julie Menin announced a deal on Tuesday to ban horse-drawn carriages from operating in the city, including Central Park. The move would end a practice that has drawn controversy for more than a century and that previous mayors failed to eliminate despite repeated attempts.
New York City's school system, serving nearly 600,000 pre-K through middle school students, began a one-year pause on generative AI use starting September 2. Los Angeles Unified followed with a similar restriction, blocking AI tools on all district-issued devices for its students.
Citizen Lab says it has confirmed the first publicly documented case of zero-click mercenary spyware spread through targeted online advertising, a method it calls 'AdFection.' The researchers say dozens of Al Jazeera devices were compromised via ads run by Discover-Tech, whose Controlium platform can profile and deanonymize internet users before silently infecting selected targets with no interaction required.
Apple has formally responded to OpenAI's claim that a former employee who moved to Apple took over a hundred confidential files about an unreleased OpenAI device. Apple's court filing states the employee had previously left Apple for OpenAI before returning, and that Apple investigated after OpenAI raised the issue on October 9, finding no evidence of OpenAI confidential information on its systems by October 12.
Speaking at TechCrunch Disrupt, Amazon devices chief Panos Panay described a shift from app-driven smartphone use toward ambient AI devices that work passively in the background. He tied this vision to Amazon's newly launched Bee wearables, which record and process audio in real time to surface reminders and insights without storing raw conversations, using encryption keys controlled by the user's device.
A new research analysis estimates that worldwide dementia diagnoses could more than double by 2050, reaching nearly 25 million new cases per year. The researchers identified two population groups facing disproportionately high rates of the condition.
A new analysis of NASA lunar imagery has identified more than 10,000 relatively young geological faults scattered across the Moon's surface. Unlike Earth, whose crust is broken into multiple tectonic plates, the Moon's surface is described as a single continuous shell, meaning these faults can still trigger moonquakes.
Nvidia and Cisco have confirmed making multimillion-dollar donations to the renovation of a White House ballroom championed by President Trump, joining a donor list reported by The Washington Post to exceed $330 million. Nvidia and Apple each reportedly gave $25 million, while Cisco confirmed a $5 million contribution; Amazon, Palantir, ServiceNow, Meta and Microsoft were also named as major donors, funneled through a nonprofit trust.
Military retirement checks and VA disability benefits will increase by 3.6% effective December 1, matching the latest cost-of-living adjustment. Stars and Stripes reports veterans will likely not see the higher payments until December 31 or early January 2027 due to processing timing.
Bluesky executives CEO Toni Schneider and COO Rose Wang said at TechCrunch Disrupt that the company will roll out payment tools in coming months, letting users financially support posts and activity they see on the network. The feature is intended to work across Bluesky and other apps built on its underlying protocol, not just within Bluesky's own app.
The Federal Trade Commission has issued civil subpoenas to OpenAI and Anthropic seeking documents on recent security incidents, safety safeguards, marketing materials and privacy policy disclosures, according to Axios and confirmed by the FTC to CBS News. The agency is reportedly also seeking testimony from top executives at both companies and plans to send similar demands to other AI firms later.
Apple held a smart home event introducing the HomeView smart display, a fourth-generation Apple TV 4K, and a refreshed HomePod mini, according to discussion on 9to5Mac's Happy Hour podcast. Hosts Benjamin Mayo and Chance Miller also noted the new Apple TV's high price and shared their first impressions of the devices.