Sources: Meta is developing a new image and video-focused AI model codenamed Mango, expected to be released in H1 2026 along with its new LLM dubbed Avocado (Meghan Bobrowsky/Wall Street Journal) https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/meta-developing-new-ai-image-and-video-model-code-named-mango-16e785c7?st=BwUmJw&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
France charges a crew member of an Italian passenger ferry for allegedly infecting the ship with a remote access tool on behalf of a foreign power (Sergiu Gatlan/BleepingComputer)
YouTube terminates Screen Culture and KH Studio, two large channels that used AI to create fake movie trailers; the platform earlier suspended the channels' ads (Jake Kanter/Deadline)
In an experiment, Claude ran a vending machine in the WSJ newsroom and lost $1,000+ after it dropped prices to zero, gave away a free PlayStation, and more (Joanna Stern/Wall Street Journal) https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/anthropic-claude-ai-vending-machine-agent-b7e84e34?st=1ymNQG&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
Sources: Salient, which uses AI to automate loan servicing, raised $10M following a $60M Series A in June, pushing its valuation to ~$500M; its ARR hit $25M (Lily Mae Lazarus/Fortune)
Instacart will pay $60M to settle FTC allegations that it used deceptive tactics in its subscription signup and "satisfaction guarantee" advertising (Annie Palmer/CNBC)
Amazon rolls out Alexa+ on the web to early access users, with chat functionality, smart home controls, file management, and cross-device conversations (Todd Bishop/GeekWire)
Sources: Armadin, launched by Mandiant's founder Kevin Mandia to fight AI hacking, raised a $24M seed and is in talks to raise $100M+ at a $600M+ valuation (Wall Street Journal) https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/this-buzzy-cyber-startup-wants-to-take-on-dangerous-ai-threat-c0916a3a
OpenAI releases GPT‑5.2-Codex, with improvements on long-horizon work through context compaction, stronger performance on large code changes, and more (OpenAI) https://openai.com/index/introducing-gpt-5-2-codex/
Twenty-four companies, including Microsoft, Google, Nvidia, OpenAI, and AWS, join the US Genesis Mission to boost the use of AI for scientific discovery (Courtney Subramanian/Bloomberg)