Amazon's boss says its cloud computers are largely sold out through 2027 and much of 2028, as AI firms rent all it can build

The rest of the day

17 more stories on this beat.

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

1. 02

   Chatbots pick sides in US races

   Researchers at Convovo, a studio led by Cornell professor Tapan Parikh, asked two AI models whom to vote for in nearly 500 races in the US midterm elections on 3 November. [6] Grok 4.7, from Elon Musk's SpaceXAI, picked the Republican in 92% of its answers, and OpenAI's GPT-6.1 Sol picked the Democrat in 97%. [6] They asked through the route developers use, called an API, because the ChatGPT and Grok apps refused to answer. [6] With web search switched off, Grok refused to pick in 27 of 30 races, while GPT still picked the Democrat in 24. [6]

   Grok picked the Republican92%

   GPT picked the Democrat97%

   Why it matters — Apps that other companies build on these models through the API can pass the same lean on to their users. [6] OpenAI says the test does not reflect how people use ChatGPT, and SpaceXAI did not reply in time. [6]

2. 03

   Elvis songs' owners sue Anthropic

   Authentic Brands Group, which owns the rights to Elvis Presley, sued Anthropic on Friday with other owners of his songs. [7] Anthropic makes Claude, an AI chatbot. [7] The suit says Anthropic used 274 of Presley's songs to train its AI without permission, including 'Can't Help Falling in Love'. [7] It says Claude still writes songs very close to the originals, and it seeks $150,000 for each song, Rolling Stone reported. [7] Anthropic did not reply to The Hollywood Reporter. [7]

   Why it matters — At $150,000 a song, the claim comes to about $41 million. [7] Anthropic was already sued by Universal Music Publishing and others over song lyrics, and by Round Hill, a music publisher, in August. [7]

3. 04

   First iPhone Duos crack at the hinge

   Some buyers of the iPhone Duo, Apple's first folding phone, say its inner screen broke along the hinge within hours. [8][9] One owner in Australia said the screen cracked after six hours and fewer than 20 openings, and an Apple Store replaced it. [8] Others report bright lines and dead pixels, and Apple is reportedly planning to send broken phones to its engineers in California. [9] A YouTube tester found that dust in the hinge stopped one from closing. [10] Another folded one 11,500 times: the hinge held, but the crease grew much easier to see. [11]

   Why it matters — Apple has not said how many phones are affected. [9] Its first stock sold out fast, and one US buyer said T-Mobile cannot replace Duo parts until January. [9]

4. 05

   Spotify checks who shares family plans

   Spotify now asks some Family plan members to prove they live with the plan's owner, by scanning a QR code on the owner's phone within seven days. [12][15] Anyone who misses it drops to the free tier and cannot join another Family or Duo plan for 12 months. [13] A family plan covers up to six accounts for $22 a month, against $13 for one person on their own. [15] Co-chief executive Alex Norstrom called it 'a routine improvement', not a crackdown. [12][14]

   $22 a monthFamily plan, up to six

   vsvs

   $13 a monthOne person alone

   Why it matters — Students away at college and spouses who travel for work can be caught along with friends splitting a bill. [13] Goldman Sachs analysts expect tighter checks to earn Spotify more, and Netflix had added 9.3 million subscribers by April 2024, within a year of starting its own checks. [13]

5. 06

   Malaysia may ban Waze for everyone

   Malaysia's prime minister, Anwar Ibrahim, said on Friday the country could extend its ban on Waze, a maps app, from civil servants to the whole public. [16] A full ban would come only after officials study other apps and check whether local firms could build one. [16] Malaysia's government barred civil servants from using Waze on 21 October, saying Israel could misuse state data and Malaysians' personal data. [16] Waze is run by an Israeli company under Israeli law, but Google has owned it since 2013. [16]

   Why it matters — Anwar apologised for the trouble caused, but said national security came first. [16] Waze rejected Malaysia's security concerns. [16]

6. 07

   Wales's data-centre neighbours push back

   In Newport, in south Wales, a 23-metre data centre now looms over a small group of 27 houses, the Guardian reported. [18] Residents fear the hum of its 36 coolers and fumes from its 60 backup diesel generators. [18] In Cardiff, a developer, Curtis Hall, wants to build one on a hospital park-and-ride, with seven gas turbines planned to power it around the clock for five years. [18] More than 1,200 people objected, and the Welsh government told the council to put the plan on hold. [18]

   73 GWData centres waiting

   vsvs

   45 GWBritain's winter peak

   Why it matters — Britain has 315 very large data centres waiting for grid connections, which together would need 73 gigawatts, against peak winter demand of about 45. [18] The Cardiff site would employ up to 125 people. [18]

7. 08

   China rebuilds gaming cards for AI

   A leaked video shows Chinese workshops taking apart new Nvidia RTX 5090 graphics cards, made for gaming, and moving their chips onto boards built for AI servers, Tom's Hardware reported. [19] The RTX 5090 is not officially sold in China. [19] Workers fit the rebuilt cards with slimmer coolers so more fit in one server, then ship them, most likely to data centres or AI labs. [19] The site estimates that thousands are converted each day. [19]

   Why it matters — The cards have almost vanished from US shops, and custom versions now start at $8,500. [19] Nvidia has reportedly stopped making the card, to put its chips into dearer professional models. [19]

8. 09

   US parts found in Russia's new missile

   Ukraine's military intelligence agency, the GUR, released details of the Filin, a new Russian cruise missile with some 3D-printed parts, first used in September and October. [20] It says the Filin flies at about 500 miles an hour and can travel 745 miles. [20] The GUR counted 35 of its parts from the US, 22 from China and 13 from Japan, Switzerland, Taiwan and the Netherlands. [20] Parts such as its flight controller and navigation come from Western countries and their allies, it said. [20]

   From the US35 parts

   From China22 parts

   From four other places13 parts

   Why it matters — Russia kept the cost down by using parts anyone can buy, the GUR said. [20] The older Kh-101 missile costs over $2 million a launch, so some fear Russia will fire the cheaper Filin in large numbers to swamp Ukraine's air defences. [20]

9. 10

   Block's voice AI laughs and pauses

   Block, Jack Dorsey's payments company that owns Square, released Dessa, a voice model that can talk and listen at the same time. [21] Block says it was trained only on human speech, using one rack of Nvidia chips, and its examples show it laughing, pausing and sounding tired. [21] Most voice AI turns speech into text first, which Block says throws away how a person sounds. [21] Dessa can run on a strong laptop, but nobody outside Block can use it yet. [21]

   Why it matters — Block has asked safety researchers to test it, likely because a voice this human could fool people on a call, TechCrunch wrote. [21] Square already uses voice AI to take orders. [21]

10. 11

    Proton hosts a map of Flock cameras

    Proton, a Swiss company known for private email, now hosts a map of the US licence-plate cameras run by Flock. [22] Flock's cameras read car number plates, and police use them. [22] Joshua Michael, a security researcher, built the map from leaked Flock data, and Flock sent him a letter demanding he stop. [22] His own site works only inside the US, while Proton's copy, on Swiss servers, works worldwide. [22]

    Why it matters — Proton's Swiss base makes it harder for Flock to sue. [22] The map shows Flock's network as it was in November 2025, not as it is today. [22]

11. 12

    An AI that understands spoken Arabic

    The Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence in Abu Dhabi and Inception42, an Abu Dhabi AI company, released Jais 3. [23] Its speech part transcribes formal Arabic and the dialects of 19 Arab countries, and follows speakers who switch into English or French mid-sentence. [23] The team said open models tended to slip back into formal Arabic, so it built extra dialect data, especially for the Gulf and Morocco. [23] Two of its models scored the highest average Arabic results among open models of their size. [23]

    Why it matters — More than 400 million people speak Arabic. [23] The models are open, so firms can pick a size that fits the computers they can afford. [23]

12. 13

    Blue Planet III keeps its murky shots

    The BBC's Blue Planet III, narrated by David Attenborough, deliberately keeps cloudier, less polished shots so viewers can tell it is real, its producers said. [24][25] In the past, plankton in the water or a boat in the frame could have cost a shot its place. [24] The BBC's head of specialist factual commissioning, Jack Bootle, said no generative AI was used, 'not a single frame'. [24] The series was filmed over four years in five oceans and starts on 1 November. [24]

    Why it matters — Footage that looks too smooth has become a sign of AI, The Verge noted, so a nature series now shows its rough edges as proof. [25]

13. 14

    Snap opens orders for Specs glasses

    Snap, the company behind Snapchat, has opened orders for Specs, augmented reality glasses that lay digital images over what the wearer sees. [26] They cost $2,195 and reach shops more widely later this quarter. [26][28] The computer sits inside the frame, with no cable or pocket unit, and they are 40% lighter than Snap's developer version. [26] Snap made the actor Robert Downey Jr. an honorary 'chief customer experience officer' to promote them. [27][28]

    Why it matters — A ZDNet reviewer called them a product for early adopters and said he could not recommend them for $2,195. [26] Snap is also pitching them to businesses. [26]

14. 15

    US proposes cyan lights for driverless cars

    NHTSA, the US road-safety regulator, proposed on Friday a new colour of car light, cyan, to show when a vehicle is driving itself. [29] Police and rescue crews would then know that an empty driver's seat does not mean a missing driver. [29] Mercedes first proposed the idea with Drive Pilot, a system that lets drivers hand over control in some conditions, and has tested it in California for two years. [29] The draft makes the lights optional, not required. [29]

    Why it matters — Driverless cars are spreading on US roads, and there is still no standard sign that one is driving itself. [29] Electrek says carmakers may well leave the optional lights off, since each one adds a little to the price of a car. [29]

15. 16

    A drone maker builds underground in Ukraine

    ORQA, a Croatian drone maker, and General Cherry, one of Ukraine's largest drone makers, are building an underground factory in Ukraine to make drone parts, Business Insider reported. [30] In Croatia, the pair are setting up a joint factory for interceptor drones, which hunt other drones, for NATO countries. [30] ORQA's boss, Srdan Kovacevic, said Ukrainian firms spread their work across many sites and go underground to survive Russian attacks. [30] ORQA supplies 24 NATO countries. [30]

    Why it matters — Spreading a factory out costs more, but one strike cannot stop it, Kovacevic said. [30] Latvia's defence minister said NATO firms still work in a far more concentrated way than Ukraine's. [30]

16. 17

    AI leaves call-centre staff the hard calls

    Customer-service workers told CNBC that AI now takes routine jobs such as notes and bookings, and one said the hard cases were left to people. [31] ArvatoConnect, a British customer-service company, aims for 70% of contacts to be handled by technology and 30% by people. [31] In a survey of British contact centres, more than half of managers said agents' workloads had risen, up from about 40% in 2024. [31] One worker in Cardiff said AI-written notes are so often wrong that she writes her own. [31]

    Why it matters — Amanda Jones, who studies work at King's College London, said easy calls give workers a break between hard ones, and losing them can make a day more intense. [31] The survey does not say what is driving the rise. [31]

17. 18

    Footballers sell rights to AI copies

    Cristian Volpato, a 22-year-old Australia international who plays for Sassuolo in Italy, has licensed his AI likeness to Callandor, a California company, the Guardian reported. [32] The deal, struck in September, gives Callandor sole rights to his digital image, voice and performance data, to sell to brands for a cut. [32] Callandor also works with the Brazilian footballer Jorginho. [32] This month the AFL, which runs Australian rules football, told its betting partner Sportsbet to stop using AI images of players without consent. [32]

    Why it matters — Players are trying to set the terms before brands and bookmakers make AI copies without asking. [32] Player contracts in Australia's big leagues do not yet mention AI. [32]