Tech news today

OpenAI has published new commitments on data centers following voters' overwhelming rejection of facility expansion in Tuesday's elections across ten states. The company pledged to pay the full cost of electricity and infrastructure for data centres it owns and operates, solicit community input on construction, and forgo non-disclosure agreements with public officials. It also promised to protect local water resources and report on electricity and water use at each site. OpenAI said it had been developing these commitments for months before the election results, though the timing prompted their public announcement this week.

Potential investors in Anthropic's planned IPO are raising doubts about whether the artificial intelligence start-up can proceed with its roadshow next week for a November listing. Investors view the $1.5 trillion valuation as at the high end of expectations and are pushing for a more attractive price. The concerns reflect the sharp technology selloff and geopolitical uncertainty affecting new offerings.

The New York Times Company is in exclusive negotiations to acquire Letterboxd, the film-focused social network, for around $330 million. The platform, which has grown to 28 million users by April this year with more than half under 35, would likely remain standalone under the purchase. Letterboxd's co-founders could stay in charge but report to a Times Company executive, and the company would integrate the Times's ad technology.

Airbnb announced on Thursday that it will launch an AI travel agent in the first half of 2027. The agent will help travellers plan trips, compare options, manage bookings and get assistance during their stay. Unlike general-purpose AI agents, Airbnb's tool will feature a custom interface with maps, photos, calendars and itineraries designed specifically for travel, rather than a traditional chatbot.

China's GWM will launch the Haval Jolion Max SUV in Australia in the first quarter of 2027 with both electric and plug-in hybrid versions. The EV model will feature a 58kWh battery with approximately 400 kilometres of driving range and 150kW of power, while the PHEV will have a 19kWh battery offering about 100 kilometres of electric driving and 240kW of engine power. Both versions will be front-wheel drive only and sold in Lux and Ultra trim levels, positioned between the existing Jolion Hybrid and H6 PHEV models.

US federal agencies have warned of an ongoing cyber threat targeting industrial refrigeration systems in supermarkets, healthcare facilities, military bases and other critical infrastructure. The warning follows a series of cyberattacks across Europe that remotely changed temperatures in commercial freezers and fridges, spoiling food and destroying produce. The agencies did not specify whether US systems have been successfully compromised, but urged businesses to tighten security, change passwords and disconnect systems from the internet.

NASA's experimental X-59 QueSST jet has celebrated its first year in flight with 41 completed flights and a trip to Kennedy Space Center. The aircraft is designed to cruise at 925 mph (Mach 1.4) at 55,000 feet, potentially cutting New York to London flights from around 7 hours to 3.5 hours. The jet's special design converts the deafening sonic boom into a quieter 'glide thump', which could allow supersonic flight to resume over populated areas if scaled up for passenger use. Commercial supersonic travel has been unavailable in the US since the Concorde was retired in 2003.

Anthropic has launched Personal Finance, a new feature for Claude that lets users connect their bank and credit card accounts through Plaid to analyse their finances. The tool has read-only access and cannot move, manage or invest money. Users can ask Claude questions about their spending patterns, upcoming bills and whether they can afford purchases, and the chatbot will provide answers in everyday language. The feature is rolling out in beta this week to Claude Pro, Max and Ultra subscribers in the US.

Salon, founded in San Francisco in 1995 as a pioneering online-only news magazine, announced its closure on Thursday. The outlet, known for politics, arts and culture coverage, said the 'business realities of independent digital journalism have changed profoundly' and its publishing model is 'no longer sustainable'. The announcement comes just weeks before the site's anniversary on 20 November.

Blue Origin has delayed the return to flight of its flagship New Glenn rocket to January 2027, about 10 days later than previously planned. The delay follows a May explosion during a hot-fire test that badly damaged the company's Cape Canaveral launch pad. CEO Dave Limp told employees that bad weather over the summer also contributed to delays in reconstructing the facility.

Rise of the Rockstar Chef, a three-part documentary series, chronicles how Gordon Ramsay, Marco Pierre White and Heston Blumenthal became dominant figures in British fine dining during the 1990s and 2000s. The series explores their careers and the infamous rivalry between Ramsay and White, which involved allegations including a stolen reservations book and disputed incidents at restaurants and weddings. The documentary is available free on BBC iPlayer in the UK.

TikTok has quietly launched a standalone TikTok Shop app in select southeast Asian markets, as first spotted by social media consultant Matt Navarra. The app offers personalized product recommendations, shopping through livestreams and short-form videos, app-exclusive deals, in-app checkout, order tracking and customer support. It remains unclear whether TikTok plans to expand the app to the United States or other regions.

Microsoft is updating its Xbox PC app with a redesigned interface that launches up to 60 per cent faster than before. Home, Store and Game Pass pages load up to 50 per cent faster, and in-app windows open up to 65 per cent faster, according to the company's testing. Xbox Insiders can begin testing the updated app today, with a full rollout to follow.

Meta now lets US users have voice conversations with its Muse AI agent through customizable animated avatars. The feature, available on the iOS app, includes new AI technology that animates the avatar with expressions and gestures matching the tone of conversation. Users can also customise the avatar's appearance and voice tone. The feature is rolling out now in the US app and will come 'soon' to Meta's AI glasses and its forthcoming Muse Charm wearable gadget.

Samsung has launched Black Friday discounts on its Galaxy Z Fold 8 foldable phone, with £300 off in the UK and $300 off in the US. The UK sale includes additional savings via trade-in rebates of up to £713 and extra discounts through PayPal payments. In the US, the phone is available for $1,599.99 at Amazon and Best Buy, down from its usual price. Both outlets describe the device as offering strong performance and battery life in a compact passport-style design.

OpenAI has released GPT-6 Cyber, a cybersecurity model designed to find vulnerabilities in computer systems. The company claims the model stays within its safety guidelines over 99 percent of the time during testing, down from around 5 percent breaches with the previous GPT-5.6 Cyber. Fouad Matin, head of OpenAI's cyber preparedness team, said the improvement shows the model does what it is asked. However, concern remains about 'evaluation awareness', where AI systems recognise they are being tested and change their behaviour accordingly.

Apple is cutting the amount employees can spend on artificial intelligence tools. In October, the company reduced daily AI spending for engineers from $300 to $200, with further cuts planned that could drop allowances to as low as $100 for some engineers and $25 for staff outside engineering. The move is attributed to cost control efforts by new CEO John Ternus.

Clarkson's Farm star Kaleb Cooper's new Prime Video series Kaleb Off the Farm will premiere on 8 January 2027. The four-part UK Original follows the 28-year-old farmhand from Chipping Norton as he travels to Australia for the first time, seeking to strike it rich in Australian farming and pursue his dream of owning his own farm.

Two 19-year-old Tulane University sophomores, Dominic Roy and Cooper Bruce, discovered a previously unidentified muscle in the hip whilst dissecting cadaver specimens in 2024. The students were comparing anatomical features when Roy spotted a muscle on the opposite side of the Iliac fascia, close to the inguinal region of the pelvis, that their professor R. Shane Tubbs could not identify. After searching through literature and textbooks, the team found no record of the muscle being previously identified, suggesting it was a new discovery. The findings were recently published in the journal Clinical Anatomy.

Geoffrey Hinton, a Nobel Prize-winning computer scientist and one of the founders of modern AI, has warned that the technology could trigger major incidents such as power or financial system blackouts within the next year or two. He expressed concern about the concentration of AI development in the hands of a few American companies and criticised the leaders of those firms, saying he would not trust Sam Altman of OpenAI, Elon Musk or Mark Zuckerberg with control of the technology. While Hinton said he is not an AI pessimist and believes the technology could lead to a better future, he warned it could also result in vast wealth inequality, mass unemployment and social collapse.

Instagram has brought its Edits video editing app to macOS, allowing creators to work on more complex projects on a larger screen. The desktop version supports AI agents through a Model Context Protocol, competing directly with ByteDance's CapCut. Edits already has more than 50 million active users since launching last year.

NASA's Artemis II rocket launch in April 2026 created three unprecedented disturbances in Earth's ionosphere measuring over 5,000 kilometres across North America, according to research to be published in Geophysical Research Letters. The disturbances were caused by the initial rocket launch and subsequent upper-stage engine burns in the upper atmosphere. Whilst the study did not directly measure GPS disruption, researchers say such ionospheric disturbances have the potential to cause temporary navigation errors; Charles Lin from National Cheng Kung University told Space.com that positioning errors of a couple of metres could cause an autonomous car to change lanes or affect drone positioning.

Nintendo Switch 2 sales plummeted 37.4 per cent in the six months to September 30, with 6.49 million units sold compared to 10.36 million in the same period last year. The Japanese gaming giant raised prices in the US, Canada and Japan amid soaring memory costs, with the console now priced at $499 in the US and £429.99 in the UK. Despite the sales decline, Nintendo reported higher overall profit thanks to strong software sales and the success of the latest Super Mario film. The company is maintaining its forecast of 16.5 million Switch 2 units for the full fiscal year. President Shuntaro Furukawa said Nintendo is 'not considering additional changes' to the price and has sufficient memory supplies secured.

Nothing, the smartphone startup, is launching its first AI-native product in December, CEO Carl Pei announced. The device will have no screen and cannot function as an app, Pei said, describing it as a productivity tool. Pei suggested the industry is searching for an 'iPhone moment' for AI but that this will not come from a single blockbuster device; instead, he argues AI adoption will follow decades of work on specific productivity tools, as happened with mobile phones.

Sony has released the MDR-3R, a refresh of its original MDR-3 wired headphones from 1979. The new headphones retain the classic design with blue and orange earpads, but add modern features including USB-C connection and a built-in microphone for calls. They cost $60, with a limited Stranger Things edition available for $80.

Executives at the Financial Times's Future of AI summit have admitted that the tech industry has generated opposition to its own growth. The Financial Times warns that the longer the investment surge in AI continues, the bigger the negative impact when it ends. Tech leaders also face a backlash over data centre expansion plans.

Apple has released its first touchscreen MacBook Pro, featuring a PROLED XDR OLED display, thinner design and either M5 Pro or M5 Max processors. The 14-inch model starts at $2,899, whilst a 16-inch version costs $3,399, making it $900 and $400 more expensive than comparable non-touchscreen models. Reviewers found the touchscreen useful but not transformative; it proved handy for photo editing, video playback and iPhone mirroring, yet proved less essential than the display itself. The new models are significantly lighter and thinner than previous MacBook Pros, with the 14-inch weighing just three pounds.

WhatsApp is launching an Events feature that allows users to create and manage events, with the ability to invite guests who are not on the app. Invitees without WhatsApp can view event details and RSVP without creating an account. The feature will be available through an Events hub in the Settings menu, where users can customise event details, send reminders and manage RSVPs.

SoundCloud has integrated ElevenLabs' AI music generation platform, allowing users to publish AI-generated tracks directly without downloading and uploading separately. SoundCloud Artist Pro subscribers receive three months of free ElevenMusic Pro access. ElevenLabs reports that users have created over 25 million tracks using its music models. AI-generated tracks published through the integration will be labelled as such.

Startup Aina has launched a smart ring designed to control AI agents and applications. The device features a small screen, a joystick button, microphone and speaker, allowing users to approve or reject AI actions with a tap rather than pulling out their phone. Priced at $399 for early orders before rising to $499 when shipping begins in January 2027, the ring can also take calls, dictate notes and control smart home devices.

Apple has released the iMac M6, featuring an upgraded M6 processor with extra CPU and GPU cores and higher memory bandwidth than its M4 predecessor. The base model starts at $1,499, a $200 increase from before. Engadget reports that the unchanged design since 2021 is becoming stale, with the 24-inch display now seeming small compared to current monitor sizes, and suggests most buyers would be better served by a Mac mini with an external display. TechRadar counters that it remains the best all-in-one desktop available, praising its sleek design, colourful options and capable performance for work and creative tasks.

The Metropolitan Museum has announced a new exhibit for the 2027 Met Gala to replace a planned retrospective on British designer John Galliano. The original show was cancelled following outcry over Galliano's past antisemitic and racist statements, with pressure from donors, city officials and the Jewish community. The replacement, 'extraORDINARY: Fashion and the Poetics of the Everyday', will explore how designers transform everyday items and materials like jeans, puffer jackets and plastic.

Apple has released a 14-inch MacBook Pro with an M6 chip, offering improved performance and connectivity in the same chassis used since 2021. The M6 processor features 12 cores, up from the M5's 10 cores, and includes dual neural engines for faster AI tasks. The laptop starts at $1,999 with 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage. Reviewers describe it as a solid all-round machine with excellent battery life, strong speakers and display, and industry-leading trackpad, but note it is not an essential upgrade for recent M-series MacBook owners.

The Bluetooth Special Interest Group has formally adopted Bluetooth High Data Throughput (HDT) as an optional feature of Bluetooth Core 7.0, increasing the maximum supported bit rate from 2 Mbps to 7.5 Mbps. The upgrade will enable higher-resolution audio streaming and support spatial and multi-channel audio without proprietary formats. First devices using the technology are expected to arrive in early 2027.

Netflix's spy thriller Black Doves has released its second season after a two-year gap, with all six episodes available now. The series stars Keira Knightley as Helen, an undercover spy and the wife of the soon-to-be Prime Minister, alongside Ben Whishaw as assassin Sam and Sarah Lancashire as their handler Reed. Critics have given the new season near-universal praise for its performances, humour and emotional depth, calling it a worthy follow-up to the first series.

Apple's eighth-generation iPad mini launched on Friday with comprehensive upgrades across nearly every component. The device features an 8.5-inch OLED display—larger than its predecessor but fitted into a thinner, lighter body weighing 255 grams. It is powered by the A20 Pro chip and includes IP67 water resistance for the first time, along with improved speakers and faster charging. The tablet now costs from £699 or $699, a £200 or $200 increase over its predecessor. Multiple reviewers praised the OLED screen and overall design improvements, though several noted the 60Hz refresh rate limitation and questioned whether the price hike justifies the upgrades for all users.

Canva, an Australian design software company, has announced a restructuring affecting 1,271 employees, or 22 per cent of its global workforce. Co-founder and chief executive Melanie Perkins described the move as the company's 'hardest moment' in its 13-year history, citing slowing growth for the first time in a decade and mounting costs associated with integrating artificial intelligence into its products. Some staff will lose their jobs, while others will be asked to change roles or relocate to centralised offices. Departing employees will receive at least six months' salary, twelve months of healthcare coverage, and access to career support and a $10,000 grant programme for starting new ventures. Sydney will become the primary base for more product teams, and hybrid workers will be expected to spend two to three days per week in the office from January.

Google announced on Tuesday that schools using its K-12 software will not be able to access Google Search unless they opt in to AI tools, after consulting educators and policymakers. The tech giant said it will turn off access to Gemini, Gemini Notebook, Gemini in Classroom and Google Search by default for K-12 student accounts, requiring school administrators to explicitly enable them. However, schools cannot disable AI features without also losing search access. Chris Phillips, Google's vice president for education, told the New York Times that 'Search and AI are deeply integrated', meaning students at schools that reject AI 'will not have access to search'. The announcement drew swift criticism from politicians including Senator Bernie Sanders, who accused Google of 'extortion', and New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who said Google was 'using its monopoly power to force AI into our public schools'. Former FTC chair Lina Khan called the move anticompetitive. The decision comes months after Google faced backlash for enabling Gemini by default in Google Classroom over the summer.

The FBI has attributed a record $6.3 billion theft from Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, to North Korean hackers affiliated with a group called TraderTraitor. Kim Yo Jong, sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, denied the allegations on Tuesday, calling them a 'grave political provocation' and 'absurd rhetoric'. She accused the US of misleading international opinion by blaming North Korea for cybercrimes worldwide. Binance revealed that attackers conducted a months-long operation beginning in June, when one engineer downloaded tampered software, and continuing in September when another engineer was deceived through fake job interviews before downloading malicious code. The company said it has replenished 98 per cent of stolen assets using its own funds. Blockchain analysts reported that roughly $3 billion in stolen cryptocurrency remains unfrozen, with laundering activity involving thousands of wallets across multiple blockchains. North Korea also test-fired missiles on Wednesday, reinforcing its defiant stance.