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Cadence Design Systems is promoting a free webinar detailing IC-STAR, an autonomous AI system aimed at automating the silicon development lifecycle from digital design through analog. The session will cover four underlying technologies and include a case study from chipmaker Ambiq's use of the system in production.
Apple's overhauled Siri AI feature in iOS 27 works only on newer devices, including iPhone 15 Pro and later, iPad models with M1 chips or the A17 Pro, all Apple silicon Macs, Apple Watch Series 9 and later, and every Apple Vision Pro model. Apple says a more advanced version, with customizable voice pace and expressivity, requires even newer hardware such as iPhone 17 Pro models, M4 iPads with at least 12GB of memory, and M3 Macs with 12GB of memory or more.
According to the New York Post, women in the tech industry are circulating a private, informally shared spreadsheet listing more than 100 men—including prominent investors and businessmen—accused of sexual misconduct ranging from harassment to drugging and rape. The document is not public and is distributed selectively among women who know each other, functioning as a warning system rather than a formal complaint process.
Apple's upcoming macOS 27, codenamed Golden Gate, will only run on Apple silicon Macs, cutting off every Intel-based MacBook. The cutoff includes 2020 MacBooks except for the M1 chip versions of the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air, meaning most MacBooks from 2021 onward remain supported. Users can check their chip type via the Apple menu's 'About This Mac' option.
A report examines how a number of prominent technology executives describe superintelligent AI as an unavoidable outcome of current research, and suggest that humanity may need to yield ground to more capable machine systems. The framing is presented as a long-standing belief among some industry leaders rather than a new development.
Wired spoke with tech employees, including workers at Palantir and Tesla, who described dates reacting negatively once they learned where they worked. One Palantir employee said dates questioned his morals and some stopped talking to him, while a Tesla employee said people assume he shares Elon Musk's politics.
Tower Semiconductor plans to co-invest $4 billion with the Japanese government to expand its Niigata and Toyama fabs into a major hub for optical-connectivity chips. The plan, dubbed Track One and Track Two, will convert an idle 200mm fab to 300mm production, boost output at an existing 300mm fab, and eventually add a new 300mm fab, raising total capacity to the equivalent of 45,000 300mm wafers per month by 2029.
A commentary responds to a New York Times op-ed by Sharon Weinberger, tied to her book 'Valley of Death,' which argues Silicon Valley's countercultural, idealistic image was always a myth and its current embrace of defense contracts and authoritarian-friendly politics is simply market adaptation, not a shift in values. The author counters with a personal anecdote from a 2015 Founders Fund retreat, contrasting computing pioneer Alan Kay's idealistic legacy with venture capitalist Peter Thiel's dismissiveness toward him, suggesting the two cultures have long coexisted rather than one being a false front for the other.
Sources tell The Post that a private, closely guarded spreadsheet circulating among Silicon Valley women names more than 100 alleged sexual predators, including prominent investors and businessmen. One contributor, a tech worker in her 20s, said she was invited to add her own account after mentioning it privately, and that the list includes allegations of drugging, assault and rape tied to figures at major tech and AI firms. The Post notes the authenticity of individual entries has not been independently verified.
Author Paulina Borsook's 2000 book Cyberselfish, an early critique of Silicon Valley culture, has been revived after tech critics like Gil Durán circulated her work on social media, prompting five publishers to bid for reissue rights. Tin House won the rights and released a new edition in mid-September with a foreword by Durán, following renewed attention including a New York Times profile calling her 'The Writer Who Dared Criticize Silicon Valley.'
A reviewer used a modified build of 86Box 6.0 to emulate a Pentium II PC with a Voodoo 3 graphics card on Apple's M6 Mac Mini, achieving a stable emulated clock of 600MHz. A 650MHz attempt produced occasional audio underruns, so 600MHz was recorded as the reliable result, tested alongside the M4 Mac Mini using identical disk images and emulated hardware configurations.
At its Connect event, Meta announced Muse Charm, a small fingerprint-activated pendant with a screen showing the Muse AI avatar and real-time voice interaction. Mark Zuckerberg called Muse the 'centerpiece' of Meta's AI strategy and said the device would be the fastest way to talk to Muse without wearing smart glasses. Meta also added live conversation capabilities to the Muse app, which has become the most downloaded app in the US since its launch two weeks ago.