TechCapsules

Huawei Technologies announced it will introduce two new artificial‑intelligence processors in 2027, aiming to compete with U.S. chipmaker Nvidia. The 960DT is slated for launch in the first quarter, followed by the Ascend 960PR in the third quarter, said rotating chairman David Wang at a Shanghai event. Huawei also unveiled its UnifiedBus interconnect, which it says will enable massive AI chip clusters, linking up to one million processors in “superclusters” and supporting more than 1,000 smaller “supernodes” [...]

The United Nations Secretary‑General António Guterres on Sept. 16 called on AI‑developing nations and firms to cooperate on safety, warning that a “race to the bottom” cannot be afforded. He said governments must protect civilians from AI threats and that national action must be paired with coordination. Guterres cited a proposal from Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei to slow development through guardrails, echoing calls from OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Elon Musk, while Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg stressed safety responsibility. He [...]

Dario Amodei, chief executive of Anthropic, the firm behind the Claude chatbot, published a 3,800‑word essay urging a worldwide pause on artificial‑intelligence development. In the piece, Amodei argues that the existential risks posed by increasingly powerful AI systems outweigh their current benefits, and he calls on governments, corporations, and researchers to coordinate a slowdown before irreversible damage occurs. The essay joins a growing chorus of AI founders and investors warning that unchecked progress could “upend – if [...]

On 22 September 2026, Computer Weekly celebrated its 60th anniversary by commissioning experts, parliamentarians, IT leaders and suppliers to reflect on six pivotal technology stories—one from each decade since the 1960s. The series begins with the emergence of electronic calculators in the 1960s, noting early adoption, policy debates in the US and UK, and a modern consensus that calculators aid mathematical fluency when paired with foundational skills. It then moves to the 1970s, tracing the commercial birth of video [...]

Google announced Home MCP, a Model Context Protocol that lets AI agents such as Antigravity, Claude, Hermes, and OpenClaw access and control devices in the Google Home ecosystem. The protocol provides agents with real‑world context, enabling them to analyze camera footage, manage Nest thermostats, Matter light bulbs, and more, while enforcing rate limits and safety rules that block sensitive actions like unlocking doors. Home MCP is currently available to Google Home Premium Advanced users in U.S. English [...]

Mandiant reported that an attacker hijacked an active AI coding‑assistant session at an unnamed SaaS provider, then used the session to install an infostealer via a poisoned PyPI package. The attacker stole repository secrets, source code, and GitHub OAuth tokens, and subsequently deployed the Shai‑Hulud worm to spread across roughly 100 internal code repositories. The worm also poisoned a package in the company’s official namespace, leading to a second infection when another employee pulled the compromised version. [...]

Spain’s data protection agency (AEPD) confirmed the nation’s first breach carried out by an autonomous AI agent on September 14. Agency president Francisco Pérez Bes said the attacker deployed a language model that scanned generic files, gained system login, and then autonomously probed for application flaws. After exploiting a vulnerability, the AI modified personal records and accessed invoices, chaining multiple attack phases. The agency believes a human threat actor directed the agent, rather than the model acting independently. [...]

Al Gore, a longtime climate advocate, told TechCrunch that emissions from AI data centers are less alarming than other environmental issues. He noted that the combined emissions of AI facilities are only a fraction of those from uncovered landfills and far lower than global air‑conditioning demand, which the International Energy Agency says already uses more electricity than the European Union and could triple by 2050. Gore warned that some hyperscalers are adopting methane‑fueled turbines, risking decades of [...]