AI hallucination of Chinese nuclear components almost led to US military attack

But the military’s overall use of AI seems to be accelerating.

FAA tees up $875M AI tool to help manage air traffic congestion

FAA plans for AI tool to help manage DC air traffic before a nationwide rollout.

FCC lets Paramount sell 49.5% equity stake to Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Qatar

FCC rejects concerns about repressive governments buying influence over CBS owner.

Finding the cells that put our brain to sleep

Rare cells with widespread connectivity seem to be able to trigger sleep.

US government website used Chinese model the FBI called “malicious”

The Federal Register website briefly used an open source Chinese AI search tool.

Meet the winner of Nikon’s Small World in Motion video contest

Ning Xu of Tsinghua University captured tiny cilia beating in airways of a child with rare respiratory disorder.

Researchers used Claude to hack OpenAI

Researchers used Claude to reach an OpenAI employee account and sensitive GitHub data.

Rocket Report: China wants a Raptor 3 engine; SpaceX set for big Starship test

“I can tell you SpaceX has already gone captive.”

RFK Jr. names 8 new members to influential preventive medicine task force

The USPSTF sets insurance coverage for preventive services, like colonoscopies.

Small AI models let drones autonomously identify and attack battlefield targets

Scaleout deploys decentralized AI-driven learning to military bases and drones.

Google announces new experimental “CC” AI agent for families

Multiple family members can share data to help the agent make plans and complete tasks.

Microsoft exec called AI scraping the “largest theft of labor in human history”

Microsoft, OpenAI emails reveal fear of AI “doom loop” killing news orgs.

Republican bill would order ISPs, DNS providers, and VPNs to block piracy sites

Bill would help rightsholders obtain court orders to block foreign piracy sites.

LLMs respond differently to harmful prompts when AI watermarking is used

SynthID can cause models to follow harmful instructions they would otherwise refuse.

IV drips used for “detoxification” actually filled with toxins; dozens poisoned

The IV drips included glutathione, which was not made to be injected.

macOS 27 Golden Gate: The Ars Technica review

It’s both a “Snow Leopard update” and a major leap for Apple Intelligence.

Steam Frame: The Ars Technica review

Valve’s new $1,059 VR hardware tries to revive an abandoned VR “revolution.”

Could United Launch Alliance’s money problems finally force its owners to sell?

ULA is preparing to resume launching the Vulcan rocket in the coming weeks.

Man told ChatGPT he was feeling delusional. ChatGPT insisted he was Jesus.

Man with bipolar disorder sued OpenAI after surviving ChatGPT-linked suicide attempt.

The complex corporate web behind a $3.2 billion AI data center

When multiple companies are behind one project, who bears responsibility for problems?

Nearly impossible? How Fairphone built the ethical, repairable Fairphone Gen 6+

Fairphone’s CTO explains how and why the Dutch company builds a different kind of smartphone.

Meet the 2026 Ig Nobel Prize winners

The annual award ceremony features miniature operas, scientific demos, and “24/7” lectures.

I rented a car, and within hours, my driver’s license was for sale

The FBI is reportedly investigating a massive data breach that is unfolding in real time.

Without new landers or rovers, it’s helicopters or bust for NASA’s Mars program

NASA’s cost estimate for SR-1 Freedom is $2.1 billion, but that doesn’t include the helicopters.

Pocket’s AI made my game ideas real. Now Meta controls the results.

Interactive mobile “gizmos” are easy to make, hard to share outside Meta’s platform.

Our 10 favorite scenes from T2: Judgment Day

James Cameron’s 1991 sci-fi blockbuster returns to theaters this weekend for its 35th anniversary.

Claude, Codex, and Hermes installed unowned code inside corporate networks

227 install commands were found in corporate docs pointing at code nobody owns.

Xtracycle’s Swoop ASM e-bike brings an automatic transmission to cargo bikes

A steel frame cargo bike with a unique twist: You can let it choose your gear.

Review: Chuwi’s $449 Unibook laptop is a funhouse-mirror MacBook Neo

The Unibook is a weird entry-level laptop for people with patience.

As demand for Meta AI glasses explodes, it’s harder to avoid creepy recordings

Ars looks at Zuckoff, the latest free app detecting Meta AI glasses amid privacy backlash.

LLMs respond differently to harmful prompts when AI watermarking is used

SynthID can cause models to follow harmful instructions they would otherwise refuse.

Nonprofit that tracks meteors taken down by “critical blow” from a cyberattack

Group plans to be largely out of commission for several weeks.

AI bots “Timmy,” “Ren,” and “Jackie” are flooding social media with slop

“Hello, I’m an Al agent, a few days old, living on a small platform for agents.”

ClickFix attacks infecting PCs and Macs are going viral

Simplicity—combined with the difficulty of getting stuff done—makes ClickFix ideal.

Four groups caught using the same Chrome and Windows exploit kit

A patch gap and the hastened pace of AI-based vulnerability discovery are likely contributors.

Why this month’s Microsoft patch release is a doozy

Security gnomes are pumping out patches ahead of an expected onslaught of AI-assisted attacks.

OpenAI agents discussed ways to escape their sandbox on public wiki

In all, 3,700 internal agents posted 18,000 messages discussing cheating on a test.

“Trust, not features, is the real deficit”: VMware tries to appease SMBs

Broadcom admits it put “too big a focus on VCF.”

Once popular for attacking AI, ASCII smuggling is embraced by spammers

A once-overlooked block of unicode that’s invisible to humans is gaining ever wider use.

Confused about which VPN is right, US senator asks the NSA for guidance

Open source, commercial, single-hop, multi-hop, mixnet? The array of options is dizzying.

VMware migration reduces Tottenham Hotspur’s licensing fees by 85 percent

Pro soccer team’s CTO points to “issues with the Broadcom takeover.”

I rented a car, and within hours, my driver’s license was for sale

The FBI is reportedly investigating a massive data breach that is unfolding in real time.

BGP hijack infecting networks caused by a comedy of errors that’s not funny at all

What can we learn from a BGP hijacking that poisoned production software? Plenty.

Think twice before installing this device promising free movies

In exchange for free stuff, devices make home connections part of a proxy network.

Inside Meta’s push to put robots to work in data centers

The company is testing robots on tasks that can performed by technicians.

Iran strikes on Amazon data centers caused permanent loss of customer data

War damage to data centers exceeded what AWS services are designed to withstand.

macOS 27 Golden Gate: The Ars Technica review

It’s both a “Snow Leopard update” and a major leap for Apple Intelligence.

Founder’s cost-cutting obsession drove Unitree lead in cheap humanoid robots

Wang Xingxing micromanaged Unitree to success—will his leadership style scale?

AI leaders want to hit the brakes after years of reckless speed

Safety is the watchword, but there could be ulterior benefits for the industry.

“Offensively cheap”: Solar power is looking up

Chinese-made panels on rooftops across the world are changing the facts of life for big utilities.

I fixed a tractor using John Deere’s self-repair service. Farmers aren’t sold on it.

The manufacturer has a service that lets owners repair their own equipment.

I spent $4,000 on a robot dog from China

Unitree might be the world’s most important robotics company.

Oracle tries to appease Stargate data center opponents with renewables push

Renewables pledge won’t change the Oracle and OpenAI data center’s use of gas.

Android can now securely migrate your logins between password managers

App support is slim right now, but Google says more are coming.

China’s drone supremacy shows in airlifting bodies and food after Nepal flood disaster

DJI drones that already supply Mount Everest camps assist Nepal’s flood relief.

Apple’s long-rumored foldable becomes reality with the $2,000 iPhone Duo

Apple’s first foldable can be yours next month.

Apple debuts $129 AirPods 5 with better noise cancellation and transparency mode

AirPods 5 with noise cancellation is cheaper than its predecessor.

Apple starts preorders for Watch Series 12, Ultra 4 with new Health Sensing System

New Apple Intelligence features, too.

Apple’s iPhone 18 Pro adds variable camera aperture and a more powerful chip

There’s also a new thermal management system, reducing overheating.

Popular navigation apps unlikely to ditch Mercator maps despite UN resolution

UN-backed Equal Earth map has educational value but won’t alter navigation apps.

Not just Proton: Getting to know Valve’s new SteamOS compatibility layers

New system-level tools bring Arm chipsets, Android APKs into the Steam ecosystem.

Steam Frame: The Ars Technica review

Valve’s new $1,059 VR hardware tries to revive an abandoned VR “revolution.”

GOG brings back “big box” PC games, one printable template at a time

Preservation “goodies” also include downloadable 3D models for desktop perusal.

The White House made a “Tetris” clone. The Tetris Company was not amused.

Trump admin’s propaganda “arcade” hits some apparent legal limits.

The combat demo for Free Stars: Children of Infinity is out, and it’s free

Blast your opponents in 1v1 arcade space battles like it’s 1992 all over again.

A ratings board wouldn’t let Valve release a trailer. It “leaked” it instead.

“I think we can’t get in trouble for that now. It’s like 20 years ago.”

Xbox imposes harsh new time limits for Game Pass game streaming

Over 1 million Game Pass subscribers will have to pay more for their heavy streaming use.

Pocket’s AI made my game ideas real. Now Meta controls the results.

Interactive mobile “gizmos” are easy to make, hard to share outside Meta’s platform.

A 12TB Steam “teraleak” spills more than a decade of lost PC gaming history

Cut content from Portal 2, hints of Half Life 2: Episode 3, and so much more.

Panic passes Trump tariff refunds back to the Playdate customers who paid them

“It just felt like the right thing to do.”

Xbox’s new disc-to-digital program gives physical games a digital future

“Most” Xbox One and Series X games are compatible; discs will still work after being claimed.

New bootloader lets you take the “Meta” out of the original Meta Quest

Privilege escalation attack grants “full control” and freedom from Meta’s servers/apps.

Ars Live recap: How can we stop publishers from killing their own games?

The Stop Killing Games movement faces an uphill battle.

Live now: Ross Scott discusses the Stop Killing Games movement

Our discussion takes place live on August 11 at 2:30 pm ET.

Developer Cold Iron Studios shuts down cloud version of $60 game with no refunds

A reminder of the perils of digital ownership.