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34 more stories on this beat.

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

1. 02

   A Chinese spy got close to Nvidia's boss, report says

   US officials believe a suspected Chinese spy got close to Nvidia's boss, Jensen Huang. [9] Nvidia's chips are a cornerstone of the AI boom, the Guardian notes. [10] The suspect, Alice Huang, no relation, was a top executive at Megaspeed, a Singapore data-centre firm. [10] Megaspeed builds data centres and rents out computing to Chinese firms like Alibaba. [12] US officials already suspected it of passing restricted Nvidia chips to Chinese firms. [11] Its Malaysian sister company bought at least $4.8 billion of Nvidia-based equipment in under two years. [15] The Times says President Trump was told a year ago and chose to do nothing. [9] Nvidia says the meetings were ordinary customer business, with no secrets shared. [13] China's embassy in Washington called the claims groundless smears. [14]

   Why it matters — The report lands while Nvidia presses to sell more advanced chips to China. [11] Trump visits China next month, where the chip question is likely to come up. [9]

2. 03

   Intel sells out of its cheap laptop chips

   Intel, the US chipmaker, says its cheapest new laptop chips, called Wildcat Lake, are sold out. [16] They power cheaper Windows laptops like the Dell XPS 13, often with only 8GB of memory. [16] Memory chips have grown scarce and dear as AI data centres buy them up. [16] Intel's finance chief said he does not expect memory supply to improve in 2027. [16] Intel expects 12% fewer PCs to sell this year, and 10% fewer in 2027. [18] It will move some laptop-chip factory capacity to processors for data centres. [18] Intel's boss, Lip-Bu Tan, says AI agents will need far more data-centre processors. [17] Even so, Intel says it will likely not make all the chips customers want. [17]

   Why it matters — Buyers of cheap laptops face fewer chips and dearer memory as a result. [16] Intel will show its next desktop chips, Nova Lake, at the CES trade show in January. [18]

3. 04

   AI leaves PC makers short of circuit boards

   PC makers cannot get enough circuit boards, Nikkei Asia reports. [19] A printed circuit board is the flat board that a device's chips are mounted on. [19] Board makers are serving AI hardware makers first, because they demand more and pay more. [19] Some board orders now take as long as 30 months to fill. [19] One supplier says an order placed today would arrive in late 2028. [19] Costs for one key board material have risen at least 12 times since July. [19] A leading maker of that material has orders filling its books to 2030. [19] Wages in the board industry have risen 20% to 30% to keep skilled staff. [19]

   Why it matters — Even if fewer PCs sell next year, PC makers still struggle to find boards. [19]

4. 05

   Mistral gives away its biggest AI model

   Mistral, a French AI company, released its biggest model for anyone to download on Thursday. [20] Its weights, the trained numbers that make the model work, are now public. [20] The model, Mistral Large 4, is nicknamed Le Chonk for its trillion-parameter size. [22] Mistral says it matches GLM-5.3, a leading Chinese open model, on cyber and coding work. [20] On one overall coding score it trails GLM-5.3 by a point, 48 to 49. [22] Mistral says it needs 47% less work per task, so it is cheaper to run. [20] Mistral pitches it for cyber defence that no outside company can switch off. [21] "It's clearly a dual-use technology," said Rafe Pilling of Sophos, a security company. [21]

   Why it matters — That means attackers can download and change the model too. [21] Firms and governments can now run a top model on their own computers. [20]

5. 06

   Canada buys into its own AI company

   Cohere, a Toronto AI company, is raising up to C$7bn in new money. [23] Cohere says it is the biggest private funding round in Canadian tech history. [23] Canada's government is among the investors and agreed to put in up to $1.14bn. [23] The round would value Cohere at C$35.7bn, the company says. [23] Schwarz Group, a large European retailer, leads the round and wants Cohere's AI on its cloud. [23] Cohere will keep its headquarters in Canada, Prime Minister Mark Carney said. [23] It will also spend about $1.2bn on computing in Canada by 2030. [23]

   Why it matters — Carney said the strongest AI sits with very few companies in very few countries. [23] Within a year Cohere plans to finish combining with Aleph Alpha, a German AI firm. [23]

6. 07

   Korea backs a rival to Nvidia's chips

   FuriosaAI, a Seoul chip designer, raised $620m, valuing it at about $2.9bn. [24] South Korea's National Growth Fund put in $280m, the most of any investor. [24] Its value has roughly quadrupled since last year's round. [24] Its chips do inference, the work of running an AI model after it is trained. [24] Its second-generation chip, RNGD, went into mass production in January. [24] TSMC, the Taiwanese chip factory, is making 20,000 of them this year. [24] FuriosaAI says it has memory and factory space to make over 40,000 in 2027. [24]

   Why it matters — LG and Samsung's cloud arm already run AI on its chips, the company says. [24] Investors want alternatives to Nvidia that use less power, Bloomberg reported. [24]

7. 08

   Oracle will charge for AI work, not just users

   Oracle, a big business-software maker, will charge customers for each piece of work its AI does. [25] Its business apps are sold by subscription, priced by seats, one for each user. [25] The new charge is counted in AI units, used up as the work gets done. [25] "We don't have to add more seats," said Oracle's Chris Leone. [25] Leone runs Oracle's app development and spoke at its investor day on Wednesday. [25] The AI runs through Fusion Claw, Oracle's tool for controlling AI agents in finance apps. [25]

   Why it matters — The Register says Oracle's promise of more revenue also means higher bills for customers. [25] So the more work a customer's AI does, the more Oracle earns. [25]

8. 09

   OpenAI drops a cut to its paid plan

   OpenAI, which makes ChatGPT, doubled the usage limits on its Pro plans on Thursday. [26] It had planned to cut how much use the $200-a-month Pro plan includes. [26] Customers objected, and OpenAI reversed the plan. [26] The doubling covers Pro plans at $100, $200 and $500 a month, and Business Premium. [26] The limits cap how much work ChatGPT and Codex, its coding tool, do for each user. [26] OpenAI does not publish the exact limit for each plan. [26]

   Why it matters — Pro subscribers can now use more without paying for a dearer plan. [26] Dots, OpenAI's always-on assistants, keep their own separate allowance for now. [26]

9. 10

   A tiny AI model answers yes or no for a penny

   Baseten, which runs AI models for companies, released a small open model called joey-1. [27] It answers yes-or-no and multiple-choice questions instead of writing text. [27] It costs $0.01 per million tokens of text, Baseten says. [27] It answers a typical request in about 20 milliseconds, Baseten says. [27] Sorting 10 million support tickets a month would cost $50, against $500 on a bigger model. [27] Such jobs include routing help requests and spotting spam. [27] Microsoft's similar model is priced at $0.042 per million tokens. [27]

   Why it matters — Baseten has not yet published the tests behind its claim to be the best small model. [27] Cheap, fast models like this suit sorting jobs done millions of times. [27]

10. 11

    More lawyers use AI, but few bills fall

    55% of lawyers in Victoria, Australia, now use AI, up from 37% a year ago. [28] The figures come from the state legal regulator's 2026 census of 2,221 lawyers. [28] Only 26% said using AI had led to lower fees for clients. [28] Business clients were likelier to get cuts: 34%, against 23% for individual clients. [28] The lead researcher said business clients may use AI themselves and push for lower prices. [28] Checking AI's answers for errors may have eaten into the time saved, she said. [28] 79% of lawyers use general chatbots like ChatGPT rather than legal tools. [28]

    Why it matters — Clients also bring chatbot advice that lawyers must then correct, adding work. [28] So for most clients, their lawyer's use of AI has not meant a smaller bill. [28]

11. 12

    AI is used to prove code has no bugs

    &Truth, a Palo Alto start-up, launched on Thursday to prove software has no bugs. [30] It has raised $70 million from investors. [29] Its method, formal verification, uses maths to check code against exact rules. [29] It is slow and costly, so most companies rarely pay for it. [29] A Stanford team's AI tool did one such job in under half a day. [29] The same job had taken three skilled experts 5 months. [29]

    Why it matters — AI can now find and exploit software flaws fast, the New York Times notes. [30] Proving code correct is one way to remove those flaws first. [30] Antithesis, a bug-hunting firm, still found bugs in code its customers had verified. [29]

12. 13

    A worker wins the right not to use AI

    David Durman, a University of Kentucky administrator, won a religious exemption from using AI at work. [31] He is a humanist, someone whose beliefs centre on human life without a god. [31] US courts have ruled that humanism counts as a religion under job law. [32] The exemption comes under Title VII, a 1964 US law against job discrimination. [32] He argued that handing his thinking to AI undercuts his ability to be a moral person. [32] The American Humanist Association, which helped him, calls it the first case of its kind. [32] He was inspired by Erin Maus, a software engineer who won a similar exemption. [31]

    Why it matters — He must still attend meetings with colleagues who use AI. [32] Under the law, an employer can say no when an exemption would cost it too much. [32]

13. 14

    Proton's boss pushes staff hard onto AI

    Proton, a Swiss maker of encrypted email, is pushing staff onto AI, 404 Media reports. [33] Its boss, Andy Yen, told staff to "use AI more." [33] Yen said this is the last year Proton will hire engineers at all. [33] Proton installed software that tracks how much of its code AI writes. [33] This week it said it would re-interview staff about their use of AI. [33] Staff told 404 Media those interviews could decide who keeps their job. [33] An internal document calls Proton "an underperforming company." [33]

    Why it matters — Some staff worry about building security products fast with AI, the reporting found. [33] Proton said "many people are anxious" and that it will explain itself better. [33]

14. 15

    A start-up with ten AI agents per person

    Anything, an AI start-up, has 15 human staff and about 150 AI agents. [34] AI agents are programs that carry out tasks without a person stepping in. [34] Its boss, Dhruv Amin, names them, like Gwen for scheduling and Cody for code. [34] About 40% of large firms used AI agents last year, up from 27%, McKinsey found. [34] Boston Consulting Group says firms expect 10% to 15% smaller workforces from AI. [34]

    Why it matters — Agents still make mistakes, so staff become their managers overnight. [34] MIT research finds firms are not yet seeing big productivity gains from AI. [34]

15. 16

    Psychics push back against AI readings

    Apps now sell psychic readings from AI chatbots, the Guardian reports. [35] One app, Your AI Psychic, charges 4.06 coins a question, with coin packs from $9.99. [35] AI horoscopes and spells are flooding Etsy, an online craft market, practitioners say. [35] Human psychics now add "no AI" to their adverts. [35] They say AI readings lack the human connection their clients pay for. [35]

    Why it matters — "Our industry has, unfortunately, been associated with scams for hundreds of years," said Lauryn Kellett. [35] The trade is lightly regulated, which makes AI's arrival more fraught, the Guardian says. [35]

16. 17

    Altman wants robots to build data centres

    OpenAI's boss, Sam Altman, says the company will point its robots at building data centres. [36] He spoke on Cheeky Pint, a podcast by Stripe co-founder John Collison, out Thursday. [36] He said data centres that help build more of themselves are within grasp. [36] Altman put the cost of a gigawatt of AI computing at $70bn over five years. [36] He said $20bn would make him much happier. [36]

    Why it matters — He said memory makers stay careful because overbuilding once nearly bankrupted them. [36] TNW, which reported the interview, has not checked his cost figures. [36]

17. 18

    Meta tests an AI wardrobe app

    Meta quietly launched Style Sketch, an AI app that suggests outfits from clothes people own. [37] It builds a virtual wardrobe from photos a user has posted on Instagram. [37] Users can try outfits on a model matched to their body shape and skin tone. [37] It can plan a trip's outfits using the weather forecast. [37] For now it is only in Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand. [37]

    Why it matters — Apps like Alta, and Google Photos, already offer digital closets. [37] It is one of many small AI apps Meta has launched lately, like Vibes. [37]

18. 19

    Threads tests posts for close friends only

    Threads, Meta's text-post app, is testing posts shared with only up to 50 friends. [38] The test is running in Ireland, Italy and Japan. [38] Meta suggests friends from the people a user interacts with most. [38] Twitter tried a similar feature, Circles, for groups of up to 150 people. [38] Twitter launched Circles in 2022 and dropped it about a year later. [38]

    Why it matters — Meta has given no date for a wider launch. [38] Users outside the test can still see friends-only posts if added to a list. [38]

19. 20

    Gemini can now edit files inside a chat

    Google's Gemini chatbot can now create and edit documents inside the chat. [39] That covers PDFs, Google Docs, Sheets, slides, text and code files. [39] It is open to all Gemini users from Thursday. [39] Only PDFs can be edited on phones for now; other files need the web. [39] Users can highlight a table and ask Gemini to turn it into a graph. [39]

    Why it matters — Anthropic's Claude added a similar feature earlier this year. [39] People no longer need to leave the chat to change a file. [39]

20. 21

    Granola adds free voice typing

    Granola, an app known for writing meeting notes, now types what users say in any app. [40] Users press one key and speak, and it tidies and formats the text. [40] It is free with no word limit, and works on Macs first. [40] Versions for iPhone and Windows are coming soon. [40] Wispr, a rival worth $2 billion, did the reverse and added meeting notes. [40] Granola is valued at $1.5 billion. [40]

    Why it matters — Voice apps are piling features into one app to capture more of users' speech. [40]

21. 22

    Ex-Palantir pair build AI for building design

    Dream, a start-up by two former Palantir executives, raised $17 million in seed money. [41] Palantir is a US data-software firm that works for defence and spy agencies. [41] Andreessen Horowitz, a big US venture firm, led the round. [41] Dream's AI designs buildings that can stand up, using real physics and building rules. [41] It learned from over 100 million square feet of building plans in US permit records. [41] It aims to replace older design tools like Autodesk's AutoCAD and Revit. [41] It is already in use on 10 projects in Texas and California. [41]

    Why it matters — The founders say the US builds fewer buildings than decades ago, as costs rise. [41]

22. 23

    AI copies of experts answer questions

    SuperMe, which builds AI profiles of real experts, is raising $20 million. [42] A question pulls the best-matched expert profiles into one group chat. [42] It learns from public sites like LinkedIn and YouTube. [42] It also draws on apps experts connect, like Gmail and Google Drive. [42] It says personal details and trade secrets from those apps never appear in answers. [42] Forerunner leads the round, with Greylock, another venture firm. [42]

    Why it matters — It is free now but plans to cap the number of questions. [42] Advice that once needed a personal contact is being turned into a chatbot. [42]

23. 24

    A start-up gives AI agents their own IDs

    Mintive, which helps companies manage AI agents, raised a $7 million seed round. [43] Its tools let IT staff decide which services an agent may reach and use. [43] Agents get identities of their own, separate from the staff they serve. [43] It also caps spending on AI models and tracks every agent in a company. [43] Co-founder Vijay Vasudevan helped create TensorFlow, an early Google tool for building AI. [43] Investors include Jeff Dean, Google's former chief scientist, and Andrej Karpathy, an OpenAI co-founder. [43]

    Why it matters — Amazon, Microsoft, OpenAI and Anthropic already sell similar tools. [43] Over 40 start-ups from Y Combinator, a start-up programme, chase the same idea. [43]

24. 25

    A test shows AI agents fumble cloud chores

    Vera Platforms, a University of Michigan spin-out, tests AI agents on running live computer systems. [44] That work, called DevOps, covers putting software live and keeping it running. [44] Claude and Codex pass only about 50% of its tasks, its founder says. [44] Asked to shut down unused cloud resources, they looked in only one region. [44] So resources in other regions were left running. [44] Mistakes on live systems can take down services or erase data, its boss Ang Chen says. [44]

    Why it matters — The models saw lots of public code but little real operations work, Chen says. [44] Vera sells a practice space where agents learn before touching real systems. [44]

25. 26

    Rivian sells its AI voice helper to VW

    Rivian, a US electric-car maker, is licensing its AI voice assistant to Volkswagen. [45] It is part of their joint venture, worth up to $5.8 billion. [45] The assistant lets people control parts of the car by talking to it. [45] It may first appear in VW's low-cost electric car, the ID EVERY1. [45] Rivian spent two years building the assistant before showing it last year. [45] It reached Rivian's own cars in May 2026, and the new R2 in October. [45] Rivian launched the R2, a lower-cost SUV, in June. [46] Its boss, RJ Scaringe, says it could one day run other firms' AI agents. [45]

    Why it matters — Rivian calls the deal proof that its own software works in other cars. [45]

26. 27

    LibreOffice's AI-free claim is tested

    LibreOffice is a free office suite made by The Document Foundation. [47] The foundation sells it as having no AI features. [47] A critic found 3 code changes this year made with AI coding help. [47] 2 credited Claude, and 1 used GitHub Copilot. [47] The foundation says none of its core developers use AI tools. [47] Outside helpers must say when they use AI, and are discouraged from it. [47]

    Why it matters — It reports 9.4 million downloads in eight weeks, and cannot say why. [47] Being AI-free is now a selling point for the suite. [47]

27. 28

    Governments move their chat onto Matrix

    Matrix is an open system for chat and calls that no single company controls. [48] It is an alternative to Microsoft Teams. [48] Governments use it more as they fear the US could switch off American services. [48] France's Tchap and Germany's BundesMessenger, used by public staff, run on Matrix. [48] At its Malmo event, messages passed between French, Swedish and NATO users. [48] Attendance at the event grew 30% on last year. [48]

    Why it matters — More attention has brought Element, the main company funding Matrix, new scrutiny. [48] Element's boss, Matthew Hodgson, calls Matrix the poster child of digital sovereignty. [48]

28. 29

    Linux's start-up program accepts Rust

    systemd, a widely used program that starts Linux computers, now accepts code in Rust. [49] Rust is a programming language known for speed and safety. [53] The change was merged for version 263, which is now being built. [49] Only new, separate parts may use Rust; existing C code stays as it is. [49] Rust code there must be built without Cargo, Rust's usual build tool. [49] It also may not use Rust's standard library. [49]

    Why it matters — "Existing C code isn't ported," the change notes say. [49]

29. 30

    Ubuntu restarts its long-late locked desktop

    Canonical, which makes Ubuntu Linux, has restarted work on Ubuntu Core Desktop. [50] Its core system is locked, so it is hard to break by accident. [50] It looked set to arrive in 2024 and is now years late. [50] Daily test builds should start in the coming weeks. [50] Canonical names three uses: a browser machine, a developer computer and a games machine. [50]

    Why it matters — Google's ChromeOS Flex and Fedora's Atomic versions already fill two of those roles. [50]

30. 31

    An AI app that burns each chat

    Howler, a free open-source Mac app, answers AI questions and then destroys the chat. [51] A Chinese developer, Aries Zhou, named it after the exploding letters in Harry Potter. [51] It keeps messages only in memory, with no history and no logs, its website says. [51] It uses an online AI model with the user's own key, or one on the Mac. [51] The key stays in the Mac's Keychain, its built-in password store. [51]

    Why it matters — Setting it up needs a coding agent or typed commands. [51]

31. 32

    A free tool frees Withings scales

    Withings, a maker of smart scales, now charges new users to send data to other apps. [52] Tom Anthony built YourOwnWeigh, an open-source tool that does it for free. [52] It loads changed software onto the scale over Bluetooth. [52] The scale then sends readings to a server the owner chooses. [52] It can run on a free Cloudflare account. [52]

    Why it matters — Apple Shortcuts can then pull the data into Apple Health. [52] Owners keep using their scales with other apps without paying Withings. [52]

32. 33

    A Rust tool for building websites

    Carl Lerche, an Amazon Web Services engineer, showed Topcoat, for building web apps in Rust. [53] Web developers mostly use JavaScript, the language browsers run. [53] Topcoat turns Rust code into JavaScript for the browser. [53] Lerche created Tokio, the most popular Rust tool for running many tasks at once. [53] He showed it at the P99 conference, held online by ScyllaDB last week. [53]

    Why it matters — He said Rust suits web work now that AI does the heavy lifting in coding. [53] He admitted Topcoat is not for very big apps like Figma. [53]

33. 34

    Google fixes a Photos bug

    Google has fixed a bug in its Photos app on Android phones. [54] Since summer, edited pictures had gone missing from other apps' photo pickers. [54] It hit people who kept only the edited version and deleted the original. [54] Saving the edit as a copy had been the way round it. [54] Artem Russakovskii, APK Mirror's founder, and the site 9to5Google spotted the fix. [54]

    Why it matters — Last month Google also fixed Photos buttons that stopped working after edits. [54] Edited pictures can be shared from other apps again. [54]

34. 35

    Apple's laptop shows colour alike for more eyes

    Apple's new MacBook Pro is the first laptop to support Apple CMF 2026 colour modes. [55] A CMF is maths describing how people's eyes see colour. [55] The usual standard, CIE 1931, was built from only 17 test subjects. [55] On new OLED and quantum-dot screens, one image can look different to different people. [55] Apple's modes aim to make screens match whoever is looking. [55] So far only one other product supports them. [55]

    Why it matters — Film and photo workers need their work to look the same on every screen. [55]