GoKawiil
Tech News
Microsoft researchers published a study in Nature describing a machine learning system that corrects bias in existing physics-based and AI weather models, improving forecast accuracy two to six weeks ahead. The tool, now available as open-source software, can run on standard CPUs rather than requiring supercomputers or powerful GPUs.
Apple, Amazon and Microsoft each announced new AI-focused hardware within the past week, including Apple's wall-mountable HomeView device with an upgraded Siri assistant and a Microsoft Windows laptop built around an Nvidia AI chip starting at $2,599. The companies are pushing faster on-device AI chips and smarter assistants across laptops, tablets, phones and smart home devices ahead of the holiday shopping season.
ArtCraft, the startup behind free Adobe Creative Cloud alternatives built using Anthropic's Claude AI, has released open-source clones of Microsoft Office apps called GridCraft, DeckCraft and WordCraft. The tools are available as free downloads on ArtCraft's website, with optional paid AI image and video generation credits powered by Google's Nano Banana Pro.
Microsoft released cumulative updates KB5127648 and KB5127646 fixing a bug that broke Always On VPN connections on Windows 11 24H2 and later systems after installing September 2026 security updates. The issue affected devices using automatic protocol selection between IKEv2 and SSTP, causing connections to hang or fail with a port-in-use error when an initial attempt didn't succeed.
Microsoft and Japan's National Police Agency disrupted a cybercrime ecosystem that sent over a billion phishing messages to more than 75,000 organizations in 150 countries, including over 750 million targeting Microsoft customers this year. The investigation traced the activity to a marketplace called YAM Store, linked to phishing kits CoGUI, Haozi and Iron Man System, which sold compromised Microsoft and Google accounts and hijacked domains to impersonate real organizations.
Microsoft released updates addressing more than 1,400 security vulnerabilities across Windows and other software, far exceeding September's previous record of about 1,000 fixes. One flaw, CVE-2026-96951, a Windows Shell security feature bypass, is already being exploited in the wild, while another, CVE-2026-108398 in the .NET Framework, was publicly disclosed before patching though not yet seen exploited. At least 78 of the fixes are rated critical, mostly allowing remote code execution.
Software engineer Brandon Thomas, known on Reddit as u/ai_art_is_art, released 13 free, open-source apps through his site ArtCraft that mimic core features of Adobe and Microsoft programs. The apps include PhotoCraft, WordCraft and DeckCraft, built to replace Photoshop, Word and PowerPoint respectively.
Microsoft released its largest-ever Patch Tuesday update in October, addressing a record number of vulnerabilities across its product line. The update includes fixes for security bypasses and unauthenticated remote code execution flaws, some of which are reported as actively exploited zero-days.
KPMG's 2025 American Worker Survey found 87% of U.S. employees use AI at least weekly and 51% daily. A separate KPMG and University of Melbourne study of over 48,000 people across 47 countries found 44% had used AI in ways that violated company policy, and 66% relied on AI output without checking its accuracy.
Microsoft released its October 2026 Patch Tuesday update, fixing 1,411 vulnerabilities across its product line, including three zero-day flaws. The bulk of the disclosed issues affect .NET and related components, spanning remote code execution, elevation of privilege, denial of service, and information disclosure bugs rated mostly Important severity.
Microsoft confirmed that Windows 11 version 24H2 Home and Pro editions stopped receiving monthly security and preview updates as of October 13, 2026, with the October update being the final one issued. Enterprise and Education editions of 24H2 remain supported until October 2027, and Microsoft is urging affected users to move to the newer Windows 11 26H2 release.
Microsoft has disclosed details of its Maia 300 AI chip, a custom processor designed for data center workloads. The chip is part of Microsoft's ongoing effort to develop in-house silicon for AI computing tasks.