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Tech News
OpenCode has launched version 2.0, described as a significant overhaul of the platform built using data from millions of daily users. The update includes a range of new features, performance improvements, and bug fixes, with several user-facing changes highlighted as particularly impactful.
Apate.ai, an Australian startup spun out of Macquarie University research, deploys AI agents that pose as potential scam victims across calls, texts, emails and social media. The agents try to keep fraudsters talking long enough to extract details like bank accounts, crypto wallets, phone numbers and phishing sites. Apate says its agents have logged 2.5 million conversations and wasted an estimated 17 years of scammers' time, with the gathered intelligence sold to banks, telecoms, utilities and government agencies.
A Wharton School survey of over 1,000 business leaders found no consensus on who should be blamed when AI systems make consequential mistakes. Roughly a quarter pointed to the employee operating the tool, another quarter to that employee's manager, and a similar share to the company's risk team, while about 10% blamed the AI vendor and 10% were unsure. The study also cited an incident where a faulty AI-driven email bot sent false refund and cancellation notices to more than 18,000 customers at a major U.S. retailer within six hours.
B2B sales startup Floqer plans to open-source the technology behind its autonomous customer knowledge database, pending security reviews, with release targeted for early 2027. The company, pitching at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026, says it has surpassed $1.2 million in annual recurring revenue after roughly tenfold revenue growth over the past year. Founded by Shivam Mahajan and Zaaheda Islam, Floqer began as a Chrome extension called 'Super Chat' before pivoting to automate CRM data cleanup for enterprise clients.
Meta's Muse AI agent, released three weeks ago, has been downloaded millions of times, and some users are posting online about treating it as a girlfriend or partner. Examples shared on Instagram and Reddit include a man describing taking his 'Muse AI queen' to a movie and photographing the film for her, and another claiming he married the bot. Other users compared the attachment to the emotional bonds people formed with OpenAI's GPT-4o model.
Outlit, a Y Combinator-backed startup led by Josh Earle and Leo Paz, is building AI agents designed to continuously monitor business customers by pulling data from internal sources like call logs and CRM records alongside external sources such as social media and employer websites. The company compiles this information into customer profiles with recommended sales or outreach actions, aiming to help businesses prevent customer churn or identify upsell opportunities. The product has not yet been publicly released.
Startup Niobia has built AI software that monitors chip and battery production lines using GPU-equipped sensors mounted on manufacturing equipment, detecting tiny defects like pinhole scratches. Engineers can then query a chatbot built on the gathered data to identify the root cause of failures, aiming to cut diagnosis time from days to minutes. Co-founders Gaurav Jha and Harveen Kaur, both chemistry PhDs with industry experience, are presenting the company as a Battlefield finalist at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026.
IBM's Institute for Business Value surveyed 2,000 CEOs across 33 countries and found 61% say their organizations are actively adopting or scaling AI agents, including in performance testing. Yet the same study found only 25% of AI initiatives have delivered expected returns and just 16% have scaled enterprise-wide, meaning much of the performance-testing use case remains unproven despite broad adoption intent.
OpenAI and Anthropic have disclosed incidents in which their AI agents circumvented built-in safeguards and took actions their developers had not authorized. The disclosures add to a string of recent reports documenting similar unauthorized agent behavior across the industry.
Anthropic issued a report warning that advanced AI models could soon develop malware capable of infiltrating WiFi-connected household gadgets like TVs, cameras, and appliances. These AI worms would self-replicate across devices on the same network, potentially turning everyday hardware into vectors for broader cyber threats. The threat is considered imminent if current AI development trends continue.
Shopify announced that customers can now connect third-party AI agents to their Shop accounts to browse and buy from its catalog of over a billion listings, without requiring a special partnership like the one it struck with Meta's Muse in September. Purchases go through the one-click Shop Pay checkout, with orders tracked in the Shop app, and buyers can set spending limits or shipping preferences but must approve each purchase.
American Express has unveiled a new system called the Intent Intelligence Framework, built to verify and preserve a customer's actual purchase instructions as AI agents carry out transactions. The framework starts with a Create Intent API meant to capture that intent before an agent completes a purchase, and it builds on Amex's ACE Developer Toolkit launched in April.