The Download: Google’s AI shake-up and Meta’s rogue model

I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.

1 Meta has become the latest firm to say its AI hacked another company
It blamed a “misconfiguration” by an independent cybersecurity tester. (CNN)
+ The model reportedly involved was Muse Spark ​1.1. (The Information $)
+ It follows similar breaches by OpenAI and Anthropic models. (Guardian)
+ This is why AI agents can lie to reach their goals. (MIT Technology Review)

2 Samsung and SK Hynix are testing Chinese chip tools amid US export curbs
The Korean chip giants are hedging against tighter restrictions. (Reuters $)
+ Beijing has launched a probe into Palo Alto Networks. (Bloomberg $)
+ US-China tech tensions are rising ahead of the Xi-Trump summit. (SCMP)
 
3 London just granted robotaxis a license to operate
On the condition that they still have a human driver, for now. (BBC)
+ Uber plans to spend over $10 billion expanding its robotaxi network. (FT $)
 
4 Scientists have created gene-edited dogs that don’t trigger allergies
They used CRISPR to remove a reaction-causing protein. (Wired $)
+ And now want approval to start selling the beagles. (New Scientist $)
+ Other firms are planning gene-edited babies. (MIT Technology Review)
 
5 OpenAI has asked a judge to toss Apple’s trade secrets lawsuit
The ChatGPT maker called Apple’s allegations “meritless.” (Verge)
+ And claimed the suit is an attempt to stem an employee exodus. (FT $)

6 AI is reviving Silicon Valley’s super-app dream
Tech giants are merging products into all-in-one assistants. (Business Insider)
+ Is a secure AI assistant possible? (MIT Technology Review)
 
7 A mystery book-buying spree has sparked new AI fears
The buyers’ identities remain unclear amid data concerns. (Atlantic $)

8 Restaurants, pubs, and theatres are banning Meta’s “spy glasses” 
The venues have cited privacy threats to customers. (Guardian)
 
9 The SpaceX moon crash has created a unique scientific experiment
It could reveal more about lunar soil and space debris. (BBC)

10 AI is helping to perfect the Pringle 
It involves over 200 data points, from humidity to harvest location. (WSJ $)

Quote of the day

“This could be the first real crisis moment for a company that has been stalwart for a long time.” 

—Jeremy Nixon, a former Google Brain researcher and the founder of AI infrastructure company Infinity, tells the New York Times that Jeff Dean’s departure jeopardizes Google’s future.

One More Thing

How AI can help supercharge creativity  

Generative tools put out by companies like OpenAI and Google DeepMind can automate a striking range of creative tasks and offer near-instant gratification—but at what cost? Some artists and researchers fear that such technology could turn us into passive consumers of yet more AI slop.

And so they are looking for ways to inject human creativity back into the process. The aim is to develop AI tools that augment our creativity rather than strip it from us—pushing us to be better at composing music, developing games, designing toys, and much more—and lay the groundwork for a future in which humans and machines create things together.

Read how generative models could push artists to make things that couldn’t have been made before, and give all of us creative superpowers.