AI Weekly Malaysia

New Zealand's Security Intelligence Service alleges that China-linked organizations, including the Purple Mountain Observatory, attempted to install ground-based space infrastructure (GBSI) in New Zealand to collect military intelligence, often partnering with local companies unaware of the equipment's capabilities. NZSIS disrupted one such attempt but expects further tries, and also reports PRC intelligence using job platforms and fake consultancy roles to recruit informants.

Article URL: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/aug/13/us-government-spied-anti-ice-protesters Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49294199 Points: 269 # Comments: 96

Uber and Chinese autonomous driving company Pony.ai plan to deploy 2,000 robotaxis across Europe and expand the partnership to the Middle East, building on a commercial service already running in Zagreb, Croatia since spring 2026. Four additional European cities are planned but unnamed, with no exact timeframe given. Waymo remains the global leader with roughly 5,000 vehicles, primarily in the U.S.

OpenAI launched 'Computer History,' an opt-in feature for the ChatGPT macOS desktop app that records clicks, typing, keyboard shortcuts, and app switches to build timeline-based memories for ChatGPT. It replaces the earlier screenshot-based 'Chronicle' with input-event capture, storing files unencrypted locally for 48+ hours, with OpenAI warning other macOS user-level programs can access them. Available to Pro, Business, and Enterprise users (not EEA, UK, Switzerland, API, or Bedrock users).

Article URL: https://atproto.com/blog/introducing-bluesky-protocol-services Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49293324 Points: 209 # Comments: 70

CNBC reports that global companies including Apple, Ford, Volkswagen, and Stellantis are increasingly sourcing technology from Chinese firms—Apple uses Alibaba and Baidu for AI in China, Ford uses CATL for batteries, VW partners with Xpeng on smart EVs, and Stellantis expands with Leapmotor. IDC China managing director Kitty Fok notes a shift from China as a sales market to a capability-sourcing market, though geopolitical risks mean adoption varies sharply by sector.

Anthropic published a guide on reducing token costs and improving efficiency when using Claude Code. Key recommendations include running /clear between tasks to avoid sending irrelevant context, setting model and effort levels before starting to prevent prompt cache busts, and using @-mention for files instead of naming them to save Read calls. It also advises using /compact before taking a break since the prompt cache expires after an hour.

Reddit shares rose 11% in extended trading after S&P Dow Jones Indices announced the company will join the S&P 500 on Aug 18, replacing AvalonBay Communities. Reddit becomes only the second pureplay social media company in the index after Meta, despite having reported its eighth straight quarter of sales growth above 60% in late July—after which the stock fell due to 'choppy' search referrals.

CNBC's Jim Cramer argued that investors shouldn't let past market crashes scare them out of current tech winners, citing Nvidia, Cisco, and Workday as cases where skeptics apply outdated historical comparisons. He advised booking profits along the way rather than selling out entirely based on historical analogies.

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Investors are suing Selena Gomez and her mother over their mental health startup Wondermind, alleging securities fraud and breach of contract after investing nearly $1.2 million. The complaint claims the app was never built, promised partnerships never materialized, and investors were kept in the dark about the company's collapse until a September 2025 media report.

Surveillance startup Flock announced new accountability measures for its automated license plate camera systems, including reducing default data retention from 30 to 7 days, an 'Evidence Mode' requiring case numbers for longer retention, and mandatory enablement of an 'Audit Assistance' tool by year-end. Despite Flock executives touting Audit Assistance as key to detecting abuse—flagging behaviors like a user searching the same plate for 30+ days—the company has not explained how the tool actually works technically.

Apple sent a new batch of spyware threat notifications on Thursday to users in 110 countries, bringing the total to over 150 countries notified to date. The notifications now appear directly on the iPhone lock screen as a push alert reading 'Apple detected a mercenary spyware attack targeted at your iPhone,' alongside updated guidance including enabling Lockdown Mode — a feature Apple says has never been bypassed in any known case.

Apple opened a new manufacturing facility in Houston, Texas, with CEO Tim Cook and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick present. The plant will manufacture Mac Mini desktops later this year and is already assembling Apple's AI servers, with Apple spending hundreds of millions on the facility.

Writer launched Palmyra X6, a post-training variation of Z.ai's open source GLM-5.2, alongside upgrades to its agentic harness, claiming up to 50% cost cuts for basic tasks. Writer's own research found that harness efficiency changes reduced costs an average of 40% across multiple models, often more reliably than model choice itself.

Cisco shares fell 9% despite Q4 revenue of $17.3B beating the $16.8B consensus, and next-quarter guidance of $18-18.2B topping the $16.8B estimate. Piper Sandler analysts called the guidance 'conservative given the current demand environment' and warned some investors may see 'peak growth,' noting the stock had already risen 60% YTD on AI boom expectations.

UK-based developer Alex Morley-Finch built Marlin, an open-source personal search engine that indexed ~560,000 homepages for ~$10 in cloud GPU time using under 1GB of storage. It uses a small OpenAI-compatible local LLM to generate summaries, categories, and tags for each page, with four components: a fetcher, a worker, a steward for filtering bad pages, and an API with web UI. His first crawl went wrong—90% corporate sites and docs—so he added a weighting system to prioritize pages he actually cared about, like portfolios and indie projects.

Prusa Research is rolling out second-generation upgrades across its XL, Core One, and Core One L 3D printer lines, with all new orders automatically receiving the updated models at no extra cost. Details on what specifically changed in the second generation are not provided in the available text.

Databricks raised $5B at a $190B valuation after originally intending to raise only $1B; investor interest reportedly reached $15B following a leaked report during its June conference. CEO Ali Ghodsi disclosed the company has hit $7B in annualized run rate revenue.

Article URL: https://gruhn.me/blog/2026-08-13/ Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49291268 Points: 242 # Comments: 177

Workday shares surged 18% and were halted multiple times on a Reuters report that private equity firm Silver Lake is in talks to acquire the HR software maker, whose market value exceeds $50 billion. Workday's stock had been pressured by fears that AI tools would upend its business model, and co-founder Aneel Bhusri was renamed CEO in March.

OpenAI Chief Revenue Officer Denise Dresser is leaving after just eight months on the job, replaced by Dali Rajic (formerly president and COO of Wiz). This follows the departure of longtime exec Brad Lightcap days earlier, marking two senior exits as OpenAI heads toward an expected IPO.

Cloudflare Radar data shows HTTP request volume dropped 15-30% in regions along the path of totality during the August 12, 2026 solar eclipse across Iceland, Spain, and Portugal, with traffic troughs aligning almost perfectly with maximum solar obscuration. Countries experiencing only shallow partial eclipses (Sweden, Denmark, Poland, Switzerland) saw little to no traffic change. Traffic rebounded within minutes of maximum coverage as people returned to their screens.