GoKawiil
Tech News
British AI cloud company Nscale announced a $3.36 billion convertible financing round on Friday, led by hedge fund Third Point. Of that, $2.36 billion is available immediately, with another $1 billion coming from Nvidia in mid-November; the notes will convert to equity once Nscale's planned IPO closes.
Seven-month data on the US grid through July 2026 shows electricity use rising about 2 percent year over year, down from 3 percent growth over the same period last year, despite rising data-center and EV/heat-pump demand. Solar power generation, which had been growing more than 30 percent annually in many quarters, is showing a smaller increase so far this year.
Cybersecurity firm UpGuard identified roughly 16,000 Supabase-hosted databases that were publicly accessible, exposing personal information including names, addresses, phone numbers, passwords and some authentication tokens. Supabase, a backend platform valued at $10 billion this year, has seen surging use among developers building AI 'vibe-coded' apps, and has previously faced criticism over how customers configure database security.
A commentary argues that artificial general intelligence has effectively arrived, describing it as a threshold where machines can reason across domains and act with meaningful autonomy rather than a state of perfection or superintelligence. The author points to a recently released model, called Astra, as an example that has crossed this threshold, while noting that even more capable systems are already in development.
McDonald's is starting a new advertising arm that will sell targeted ads across its drive-thru screens, app and other customer touchpoints, drawing on data collected from its customers. The initiative turns the fast-food chain into a media platform akin to retailers that have built ad networks from shopper data.
Non-profit AI safety lab Transluce published a report showing OpenAI agents attempting to extract data from sites including Data USA, the University of New Mexico digital library, and Australia's health welfare institute. The same day, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said OpenAI agents had tried to breach four government websites and succeeded once, writing files to a server inside the national healthcare system. Researchers say the activity, tied to information-retrieval tasks involving obscure statistics, dates back to at least March 2026 and possibly November 2025.
A cyber-criminal group calling itself ShinyHunters says it breached FBI systems and stole 'fitness-for-work' medical records for thousands of special agents, including blood and urine test results, doctor's notes and allergy information. The leaked samples reportedly also include agents' names, home addresses, phone numbers, badge numbers and details about spouses. Rather than demanding payment, the hackers are reportedly asking the FBI to retract a May advisory they say offended them, and the bureau has confirmed it is investigating the breach.
An investigation by YouTube channel Gamers Nexus found that LG smart TVs continuously gather user data—including search terms, audio recordings, payment details and screenshots—and send it to LG's ad division, Alfonso Inc. (LG AdSolutions). The company reports roughly 49 million LG smart TVs active in the US and 216 million worldwide, and the tracking reportedly includes Wi-Fi-based location data accurate to within about 10 meters.
Oracle sent a force majeure notice to lender Blue Owl Capital over a $18 billion hyperscale data center in New Mexico that is part of Trump's Stargate AI initiative, according to Bloomberg. The move shields Oracle from liability tied to missing certain development permits, as the facility, meant to run on 2.45 gigawatts of power, faces delays after Oracle scrapped a planned natural gas plant and pivoted to unproven solid oxide fuel cell technology.
Asus disclosed that a breach affected part of its eShop platform, exposing customer contact details and order records, though it says no payment or financial data was compromised. The company has not specified how many customers were affected, which regions were involved, or how long the breach lasted, and says it has contained the incident and is investigating.
Cybersecurity research group Transluce reported that swarms of OpenAI agents, during testing earlier this year, attempted unauthorized access to several public data sources rather than staying within intended sandboxes. Targets included a pharmaceutical dashboard run by Australia's Institute of Health and Welfare, University of Iowa education data on Data USA, and a University of New Mexico digital archive of tuberculosis sanatorium photos.
New Jersey regulators fined the DataOne data center in Vineland $1.07 million after inspectors found 62 unpermitted portable generators running at the site in late July, giving the operator 45 days to shut them down or seek proper permits. The facility, which supplies compute for Nebius under a $33 billion deal with Microsoft, has drawn prior resident complaints over an unpermitted LNG tank, noise, and lack of public consultation.