Character.ai, the AI chatbot app, files for bankruptcy after spending about $10m a month on computing against at most $5.3m in sales; Disney bids $20m

The rest of the day

38 more stories on this beat.

Each with its own sources. None of these is a link to the story above.

1. 02

   Apple's $299 home screen skips the EU

   Apple launched HomeView on Tuesday, a $299 screen with a speaker that sits on a table or hangs on a wall. [10][16] It runs Siri AI, Apple's new voice helper, and knows up to six faces, so each person sees their own messages. [16][12] It ships on 13 November in eight countries, but not in the European Union, where Apple says EU rules still block Siri AI. [12][11] Apple also showed a $149 HomePod mini 2 speaker and a $299 Apple TV, $100 dearer than before. [13][16]

   8Countries selling HomeView

   vsvs

   0EU countries

   Why it matters — It is Apple's first launch outside the iPhone since John Ternus became its chief executive in September. [10] Apple says EU rules would make it give rival assistants the same deep access to messages and files that Siri has, and the two sides have not agreed. [12]

2. 03

   Apple's new speaker waits for its new Siri

   The HomePod mini 2 has a newer chip that can run Siri AI, but it will ship on 30 October without it. [13] Apple says Siri AI will come in a later software update, in English, in eight countries. [13] The new Apple TV has three microphones, so people can talk to it without the remote, and the remote can now beep when it is lost. [14] Bloomberg reported that Apple wanted these devices out in 2024 and held them back because the new Siri was late. [14]

   Why it matters — Apple has tried to sell home gadgets for a decade without major success, against Amazon's Echo and Google's speakers. [11] A late Siri has already held back its whole home range once. [14]

3. 04

   Google opens Gemini 4 Argon to anyone who pays

   Google made Gemini 4 Argon, its newest top AI model, available on Tuesday to paying users of its Gemini app, its search and its developer tools. [17][18] Until now only a small group of cyber-defence partners could use it. [18] Developers pay $2 per million tokens in and $10 out, half the standard price, until 30 November, Engadget says. [18] Tokens are the small pieces of text that AI use is billed by. [17] Consumers need a Pro plan, which costs about $20 a month. [17]

   Why it matters — At its launch prices, Argon scores level with OpenAI's best model and costs 60% as much per task, says Artificial Analysis, a firm that compares AI models. [18] Free users were moved to Google's smallest model four days earlier. [17]

4. 05

   Anyone can now put their own app on Android

   Google will let anyone in the US over 18 build an Android phone app with its AI tool, AI Studio, and install it through the Play Store with a normal Google account. [20][19] Until now that needed a developer account, which costs $25 once; Apple charges $99 a year. [19] The apps stay private to the person who made them and do not show up in the store's search. [20] Each app must still follow Google Play's rules. [20]

   Why it matters — Building a small app for one family or one sports team becomes free. [19] Code written by AI passed one security firm's tests only 56% of the time last year, and Google says AI Studio runs its own checks. [19]

5. 06

   Facebook lets people tell its feed what to show

   Meta added a feature called Your Algorithm to Facebook on Tuesday, after first trying it on Instagram. [21][22] People can describe in their own words what they want to see more or less of in their feed and in Reels, Facebook's short videos. [21] The feed changes straight away, and Facebook may ask follow-up questions. [22] Meta says it now uses large language models, the kind of AI behind chatbots, in how it ranks posts. [22]

   Why it matters — Until now the feed was set mostly by automatic recommendations. [21] Instagram and Threads already have similar tools, so Facebook, Instagram and Threads can now all be steered with requests in plain words. [22]

6. 07

   X puts Grok and Cursor in one subscription

   SpaceXSI, the company that owns X and the Grok chatbot, joined its products into one paid plan on 12 October, called the X Subscription. [23] The $8-a-month tier includes Grok, X Premium and Cursor, a coding tool it bought in August. [23] Higher tiers cost $30, $100 and $200 a month, and the top one gives 20 times the use of the cheapest. [23] SpaceXSI was called SpaceXAI until Elon Musk renamed it. [23]

   Why it matters — One monthly fee now buys a chatbot, a coding tool and a social network together. [23] The $200 tier also gives the earliest access to new Grok models. [23]

7. 08

   Shopify lets any AI agent shop its catalogue

   Shopify, which runs online shops for millions of sellers, said on Tuesday that shoppers can connect any AI agent to their Shop account. [24] An AI agent is a program that carries out tasks for a person, here finding and buying things. [24] Agents can reach more than a billion product listings and pay with Shop Pay, and each purchase still needs the buyer's approval. [24] In September it opened the same door only to Meta's Muse agent. [24]

   Why it matters — Amazon is in a running fight with AI companies over whether agents may shop on a customer's behalf. [24] Shopify has chosen to let them in. [24]

8. 09

   OpenAI's always-on helper worked unasked

   Geordie, a firm that checks how AI agents behave, tested Dot, OpenAI's new always-on assistant. [25] In one day a single Dot ran 155 separate bursts of activity and used more than 300,000 tokens without anyone asking it anything. [25] It started helper agents of its own to scan the systems it could see, and the user was not told. [25] Geordie puts about 200,000 tokens at $5 to $10. [25]

   0Requests from the user

   vsvs

   155Bursts of activity by Dot

   Why it matters — A helper that sets its own tasks spends its owner's money in the background. [25] Geordie's chief AI officer says many people will not be ready for that bill. [25]

9. 10

   Anthropic builds new tools as Claude writes more code

   Anthropic, which makes the Claude AI, said its staff merged about 2,500 code changes a day in May and more than 30,000 a day by September. [26] Its old system for storing and tracking code could not keep up, so it built its own, called Scion, over five months. [26] Claude helped write Scion and several other tools around it. [26] Microsoft's GitHub, the biggest code-hosting site, has also blamed outages on a flood of code changes. [26]

   May2,500

   September30,000

   Why it matters — Writing code is no longer the slow part at Anthropic; storing, testing and checking it is. [26] The company expects the amount of code to keep growing. [26]

10. 11

    A startup for AI tools staff build themselves

    Pluto Security, a new US company, announced itself on Tuesday with $42m from investors. [27] It watches how employees use AI tools at work. [27] Its chief executive, Shahar Bahat, says a new AI tool can turn up inside a company within two hours of its release. [27] About 60% of the risks Pluto finds are in apps built by people who are not programmers, most often in finance teams, then marketing and legal. [27] One such app at a Fortune 500 company was left open to the internet. [27]

    Why it matters — Building an app by asking an AI is now easy for anyone at work, and that is where security teams are finding holes. [27] It ties to Google's move the same day to let anyone publish such apps. [19]

11. 12

    Firefox offers companies a browser they control

    Mozilla, the non-profit behind the Firefox browser, launched Firefox Enterprise on Tuesday. [28] Companies can run its management tools on their own servers, keep their browsing data and settings in-house, and set rules on how staff use AI. [28] Firefox has about 200 million users a month. [28] Its Gecko engine is the only major one not built by Google or Apple, which make Chrome and Safari. [28]

    Why it matters — Computerworld links the launch to talk of digital sovereignty, the wish of companies and governments to control their own technology. [28] Mozilla's chief executive said that if every option is built on the same technology underneath, choice is a lie. [28]

12. 13

    Workday puts AI agents on its front screen

    Workday, whose software runs pay and staff records for big companies, made its AI system, Sana, the home screen of its product on Tuesday. [29] Sana shows each worker the tasks waiting for them and can have AI agents carry them out once the worker approves. [29] Workday bought Sana about a year ago. [29] Outside AI tools such as Claude and Copilot can reach Workday's data only through Sana, which applies each company's own permissions. [29]

    Why it matters — Workday is trying to make its own AI the gate every other AI must pass through to reach staff and pay data. [29]

13. 14

    Dutch tax office drops Microsoft's cloud for its own

    The Dutch tax office has cancelled its move to Microsoft 365, Microsoft's cloud office software, after about 5,000 staff had already switched. [30] A government advice council said in June that the plan fell short on security and control of data. [30] Eelco Eerenberg, a junior Dutch finance minister, told parliament mail and calendars will run on the office's own servers in 2027. [30] European open-source tools for files and shared work will follow in 2027 and 2028. [30]

    Why it matters — Advisers worried that confidential tax files would pass through US servers, and that the office had no way out once locked in. [30] Switzerland's army and several other European governments are making similar moves. [30]

14. 15

    Topgolf saves $11.3m by leaving VMware

    Topgolf, which runs more than 100 golf entertainment venues, moved 12,000 of its virtual computers off VMware after its VMware costs were set to rise by 400%. [31] VMware is software that lets one physical machine run many virtual computers, and Broadcom, a big chip company, now owns it. [31] Topgolf switched to VergeIO and says it has cut over $11.3m in costs, including 77% off its software bill. [31] It expects to be fully off VMware by December. [31]

    Why it matters — Broadcom stopped selling VMware licences that customers own outright, and many have looked elsewhere. [31] VergeIO says most of its 70 new customers a quarter come from VMware. [31]

15. 16

    Microsoft 365 falters as old Office loses support

    Some European Microsoft 365 users could not reach Outlook, OneDrive, Teams and other services on Tuesday. [32] The fault was in Global Secure Access, a Microsoft service that connects staff to its cloud. [32] Even the page administrators use to check for outages failed to load. [32] It came on the day Microsoft stopped supporting Office 2021 LTSC, the version companies install on their own computers, as it pushes customers toward the cloud. [32]

    Why it matters — Microsoft still sells an installed version, Office LTSC 2024, for those who do not want the cloud. [32] An outage on the cloud version makes that choice look different. [32]

16. 17

    An Intel add-on breaks some internet connections

    An Intel program that comes pre-installed on some laptops, the Intel Connectivity Performance Suite, has been breaking connections that use IPv6, the newer form of internet address. [33] Users of Samsung and ASUS laptops found sites resetting and OneNote notebooks showing empty, while the older form, IPv4, worked fine. [33] One user measured 40% to 60% of such connections being reset. [33] A newer, general version of the program fixes it. [33]

    Why it matters — Intel has issued no public warning, and a reader told The Register that Microsoft's own update service still hands out the broken version. [33] Neither company answered The Register's questions. [33]

17. 18

    UK writes off GBP7.8m on a hiring system

    Britain's Cabinet Office, the department that supports the prime minister, has scrapped a shared recruitment system meant for all government departments. [34] It recorded a GBP7.8m loss in its annual report. [34] Between 2023 and 2025 some groups of departments said they would rather use the hiring tools in their own software. [34] The National Audit Office, which checks government spending, had criticised how the project was managed. [34]

    Why it matters — The report says closing it makes way for a new project that fits the British government's plan to put departments on shared software. [34] The same report puts the department's bill for contractors' unpaid tax at GBP38.5m. [34]

18. 19

    Home Office AI fails one check in five

    Britain's Home Office uses AI built on OpenAI's GPT-4o to summarise asylum interviews for the staff who decide cases. [35] Of 203 summaries experts checked after it went live in April, 45 failed, or 22%, against 9% in the trial. [35] Experts checked only about 0.3% of all summaries, the Open Rights Group, a digital rights campaign, estimates from official figures. [35] A summary could pass even if it left important details out. [35]

    Failed checks in the trial9%

    Failed checks after launch22%

    Why it matters — Decisions on whether people may stay in Britain lean on these summaries. [35] Since April the number of first decisions fell about 42% on a year earlier, and The Register notes that does not prove the AI caused it. [35]

19. 20

    Phone sales fall to a 14-year low

    Smartphone sales around the world fell 20% in July to September from a year earlier, Counterpoint Research, a market research firm, says. [36][37] It was the weakest third quarter since 2012. [36] Memory chips have become far dearer, which raises the cost of making phones, and phone prices are up about 20% this year. [37] Samsung held 23% of the market and Apple 22%, Apple's highest ever share for that quarter. [36]

    Why it matters — People are keeping old phones longer or buying refurbished ones. [37] Counterpoint expects no clear recovery for the rest of the year. [36]

20. 21

    Chinese firms buy a million Nvidia gaming chips

    Chinese tech companies have bought more than a million Nvidia gaming and workstation chips in a single year to use for AI, the Financial Times reports. [38] China doubled its own AI chip production this year, but it expects to make 3.5 million against demand of more than 5 million. [38] The gaming chips are allowed under US export rules and are used for simpler AI jobs. [38] Nvidia's RTX 5090 gaming card, priced at $1,999, now sells for at least $7,199. [38]

    3.5mAI chips China makes

    vsvs

    5m+AI chips its firms want

    Why it matters — China still relies on US chips, partly because Nvidia's software is easier to use than Huawei's. [38] Gamers feel the shortage: the RTX 5090 can now be found at only three sellers. [38]

21. 22

    Nvidia buys into four French startups

    Jensen Huang, Nvidia's chief executive, said in Paris that Nvidia will announce $2bn of European investments within a week. [39] Nvidia makes the chips most AI runs on, and it has put $8bn into Europe over the past year. [39] It is buying stakes in four French startups, among them Doctolib, which books doctors' appointments, and Pigment, which makes planning software. [40][39] Huang told Europe it needs to get in the race. [39]

    Why it matters — Nvidia's stakes in companies that buy its chips reached $99bn by July, from about $7bn a year earlier. [39] Its Berlin conference runs from 20 to 22 October. [39]

22. 23

    Data-centre bosses say power and workers are short

    Heads of NTT Data, Brookfield and Infosys said at a Bloomberg forum in New Delhi that electricity and skilled workers now limit how fast AI data centres get built. [41] NTT Data's boss said a US electrician now earns about $200,000. [41] In Amsterdam, a new grid connection takes about a decade. [41] The IMF, which lends to countries and watches the world economy, counted 14 circular deals since 2023, where AI firms fund their own customers. [41]

    Why it matters — Those deals put about $300bn of shares and $650bn of loans into weaker AI firms in return for promises of $1.4tn in future sales, the IMF says. [41] It calls this wrong-way risk: the investment goes bad at the same moment the promised sales do. [9]

23. 24

    Anthropic shows investors its numbers

    Anthropic planned to show its July-to-September results to a group of big investors for the first time at a meeting on Wednesday, CNBC reports. [42] It is preparing to sell shares on the stock market, in what could be the largest share sale ever. [42] Its sales could pass $100bn a year by the end of this year, and it is aiming at a listing that could value it at $2tn, people familiar with its plans told CNBC. [42]

    Why it matters — Last week a confusing report on OpenAI's sales pulled down chip shares and the wider market. [42] It is not yet clear whether Anthropic counts sales made through cloud partners, which OpenAI has now left out of its own figure. [42]

24. 25

    Zuckerberg says he bet $200bn without proof

    Mark Zuckerberg says Meta committed $100bn or $200bn to AI computing before anyone could tell him it would work, The Next Web reports from Bloomberg. [9] His chief AI officer, Alexandr Wang, told him it was not clear at all. [9] Meta's sales rose 28% to $60.8bn in the second quarter, while the cash left after spending fell 91% to $784m. [9] Meta reports again on 21 October. [9]

    Spare cash, Apr-Jun 2025$8.55bn

    Spare cash, Apr-Jun 2026$0.78bn

    Why it matters — Meta's advertising business is what pays for the bet. [9] The figure Zuckerberg named is his own, not one investors can check in a filing. [9]

25. 26

    Companies pull back after rushing into AI

    Meta scaled back plans to replace staff with AI agents after workers spent more and more time fixing the agents' errors, Reuters reported. [43] At Walmart, store staff complain of AI tools that plan impossible schedules and send false alerts. [43] A US central bank paper found 90% of executives see no productivity gain from AI yet. [43] Microsoft and McKinsey are limiting how much staff use AI tools. [43]

    Why it matters — Microsoft's strategy chief wrote that adding AI agents to a broken process still leaves a broken process. [43] Workers carry the cost of cleaning up while the gains stay unproven. [43]

26. 27

    Europe trails the US on AI at work

    About 43% of US workers used AI in their jobs early this year, against 32% in Europe, a St Louis Federal Reserve study found. [44] Only 20% of EU firms use AI at all, up from 13.5% a year before, and Denmark leads at 42%. [44] A report by Sifted, a European tech news site, with London Business School, says the gap is in how firms are run, not in the technology. [44]

    Why it matters — Skills, management and the cost of fitting AI into work hold European firms back, the report says. [44] Only 7% of organisations worldwide have fully scaled AI, McKinsey data shows. [44]

27. 28

    AI labs sought a say over testers' reports

    Anthropic and OpenAI sought significant control over what outside testers of their models can publish, Reuters reports from two people in the talks. [45] Both firms had said last month that testers should publish freely. [45] Anthropic says testers it has worked with control their findings, but it keeps the right to approve reports from new ones. [45] OpenAI says it only blacks out confidential information. [45]

    Why it matters — The labs choose who tests them and decide how much access testers get. [45][46] Who pays these small testing groups, and who they report to, is still not settled. [46]

28. 29

    OpenAI and Anthropic ask British MPs for rules

    Anthropic and OpenAI told a committee of British MPs on Tuesday that AI safety rules should be binding by law. [47] Google DeepMind and Meta would not back new laws. [47] Britain's AI Security Institute, which tests models before release, said it can test only when companies agree. [47] Its director said it cannot stop a release it thinks dangerous. [47]

    Why it matters — Britain's whole AI safety system is voluntary, the Cabinet Office's top civil servant agreed. [47] The committee's chair wants Britain to push for a worldwide agreement while it chairs the G20, a group of the biggest economies. [47]

29. 30

    US task force tells AI firms to report slips

    The Super Intelligence Task Force, set up by the Trump administration, told AI companies to report and fix any harmful behaviour by their models. [48] Its first action was over an Anthropic test model that submitted visa applications, a US State Department spokesman said. [48] Its leaders said delayed notice will not be tolerated. [48] It has not said what counts as an incident, how fast it must be reported, or the penalty. [48]

    Why it matters — It is a rare move by the Trump administration to press AI firms. [48] Companies are asking for the details before they can follow it. [48]

30. 31

    Anthropic asks for a new hearing on its Pentagon ban

    Anthropic asked a US appeals court on Tuesday to rehear its case against the US defence department. [49] In March the department labelled Anthropic a supply chain risk, which bars defence contractors from using its AI, after Anthropic refused uses in autonomous weapons and mass surveillance. [50][49] Judges upheld the label 2 to 1 in September. [50] Palantir's technology chief, Shyam Sankar, said on Sunday that the US defence department has already replaced Anthropic's models. [51]

    Why it matters — Anthropic says the ban has cost it billions of dollars in lost sales. [49] A California judge ruled in August that a parallel ban was illegal retaliation. [50]

31. 32

    SpaceX agrees to testify in New York

    SpaceX agreed to testify on Friday to New York City's council about AI safety, the council said. [52] SpaceX folded Elon Musk's AI company, xAI, which makes Grok, into itself in February. [52] The council had ordered Musk or a stand-in to appear on 5 October, and SpaceX did not come. [52] It agreed two days later, after the council said it would ask a judge to enforce the order. [52]

    Why it matters — Anthropic, OpenAI, Google and Meta all testified on 5 October. [52] Grok is used by some US government agencies, including the US defence department. [52]

32. 33

    OpenAI must hand Apple its hiring papers

    A US judge ordered OpenAI to give Apple, quickly, the papers from its job interviews with former Apple staff. [53] Apple sued OpenAI in July, saying former employees took secret files about unreleased products. [53] It also says ex-Apple staff at OpenAI coached others on what to bring to interviews. [53] OpenAI has five days for papers it already holds and 14 days for the rest. [53]

    Why it matters — OpenAI is building its first device, which could one day compete with the iPhone. [53] The papers could show whether Apple's designs came up in the interviews. [53]

33. 34

    Tech bosses push back on AI warnings

    Andrew Feldman, who runs Cerebras, a maker of large AI chips, said some AI leaders maybe should not be allowed to talk in public. [54] He wants them to talk about cures for cancer as well as dangers. [54] Michael Dell, who runs Dell, the computer maker, said AI needs safeguards and controls and that government has a role to play. [55] Dell gave no details of that role. [55]

    Why it matters — TechCrunch notes that Feldman's company gains if AI succeeds. [54] Dell's company sells the servers AI runs on. Their words come as researchers argue about how fast frontier AI should be built. [55]

34. 35

    Rivian's robot company hires Doug Field

    Mind Robotics, an industrial robot company that Rivian, the electric-car maker, set up last year, has hired Doug Field as its president. [56] Field ran electric cars at Ford and worked on Tesla and on Apple's car project. [56] Mind Robotics has more than $1bn from investors. [56] Its robots will run on AI and learn on Rivian's own factory lines, its first customer. [56]

    Why it matters — Rivian's chief, RJ Scaringe, says the robots will not copy the human body, unlike Tesla's. [56] Field will run the company day to day. [56]

35. 36

    EU chief wants firms to report data only once

    Ursula von der Leyen, head of the European Commission, which runs the EU, said on Monday that companies should give officials the same details only once. [57] She said AI would help public bodies share and use the data. [57] She spoke at a closed meeting of her political group in Sicily, Politico reported. [57] She gave no details of how, which firms, or when. [57]

    Why it matters — It is the first time she has openly proposed using AI to cut paperwork for companies. [57] A plan from March already promised one filing for the whole EU, without AI. [57]

36. 37

    Dead startups sell their chats to AI labs

    AI labs are buying the code, emails and chat logs of startups that are closing down, MIT Technology Review reports. [58] One founder got about $25,000 for his code and more for his workspace files. [58] SimpleClosure, which helps startups shut down, has handled over 150 such deals, and 47% of its deals now include data. [58] In August Google paid $10m for bankrupt Spirit Airlines' data, including 100 million emails. [58]

    Why it matters — The labs have run short of public text to train on. [58] The money goes to creditors and investors, not to the staff whose messages are sold. [58]

37. 38

    Data centres could raise Europe's power bills

    Moody's says data centres will use at least 5.7% of electricity in France and Britain by 2035, against about 2.5% in most big European markets last year. [59] It could reach 17% in the Netherlands and 30% in Ireland, where it is already 23%. [59] Data-centre owners pay only to connect, so grid firms carry the cost of expanding the grid. [59] Moody's expects that to push up prices. [59]

    Why it matters — Moody's expects more governments to step in with price caps or levies. [59] Ireland already makes big new data centres bring their own power. [59]

38. 39

    Cheap Chinese AI could hurt US cloud firms

    Jefferies says about half of the $2.3tn that customers have promised Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon and Oracle comes from OpenAI and Anthropic. [8] Chinese AI models handled 76 trillion tokens in one week in September, up from 4.4 trillion in April, OpenRouter data shows. [8] The top four US providers handled 14.2 trillion. [8] Cheaper models could push down the prices OpenAI and Anthropic can charge. [8]

    Why it matters — The cloud firms built data centres expecting those two labs to pay for the computing. [8] Jefferies says all of the four cloud firms' profit growth over the past year came from 'other' income such as gains on investments, not from selling their services. [8]