How AI coding agents work—and what to remember if you use them
From compression tricks to multi-agent teamwork, here’s what makes them tick.
Benj Edwards
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139
Biz & IT // Informed technology
OpenAI’s new ChatGPT image generator makes faking photos easy
New GPT Image 1.5 allows more detailed conversational image editing, for better or worse.
Benj Edwards
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113
Browser extensions with 8 million users collect extended AI conversations
The extensions, available for Chromium browsers, harvest full AI conversations over months.
Dan Goodin
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75
Merriam-Webster’s word of the year delivers a dismissive verdict on junk AI content
Dictionary codifies the term that took hold in 2024 for low-quality AI-generated content.
Benj Edwards
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123
Microsoft will finally kill obsolete cipher that has wreaked decades of havoc
The weak RC4 for administrative authentication has been a hacker holy grail for decades.
Dan Goodin
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62
Roomba maker iRobot swept into bankruptcy
Shenzhen-based Picea Robotics, its lender and primary supplier, will acquire all of iRobot’s shares.
Financial Times
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221
OpenAI built an AI coding agent and uses it to improve the agent itself
“The vast majority of Codex is built by Codex,” OpenAI told us about its new AI coding agent writing code.
Benj Edwards
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236
OpenAI releases GPT-5.2 after “code red” Google threat alert
Company claims new AI model tops Gemini and matches humans on 70% of work tasks.
Benj Edwards
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91
Most Read
Disney invests $1 billion in OpenAI, licenses 200 characters for AI video app Sora
Three-year deal lets users create AI videos of Mickey Mouse, Darth Vader, and more.
Benj Edwards
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115
Oracle shares slide on $15B increase in data center spending
Company raises its capital expenditure forecast as it doubles down on AI infrastructure bet.
Financial Times
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79
A new open-weights AI coding model is closing in on proprietary options
Devstral 2 model scores 72% on industry benchmark, nearing proprietary rivals.
Benj Edwards
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76
Operation Bluebird wants to relaunch “Twitter,” says Musk abandoned the name and logo
“Abandonment” offers rare chance to reclaim one of tech’s most recognized brands.
Cyrus Farivar
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169
Meta offers EU users ad-light option in push to end investigation
Facebook agrees to change “pay or consent” model after talks with European Commission.
Financial Times
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98
In comedy of errors, men accused of wiping gov databases turned to an AI tool
Defendants were convicted of similar crimes a decade ago. How were they cleared again?
Dan Goodin
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99
Admins and defenders gird themselves against maximum-severity server vuln
Open source React executes malicious code with malformed HTML—no authentication needed.
Dan Goodin
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83
Microsoft drops AI sales targets in half after salespeople miss their quotas
Report: Microsoft declared “the era of AI agents” in May, but enterprise customers aren’t buying.
Benj Edwards
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144
Fraudulent gambling network may actually be something more nefarious
Researchers say there’s more to the network, which has operated for 14 years.
Dan Goodin
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19
OpenAI CEO declares “code red” as Gemini gains 200 million users in 3 months
Three years after Google sounded alarm bells over ChatGPT, the tables have turned.
Benj Edwards
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208
Syntax hacking: Researchers discover sentence structure can bypass AI safety rules
New research offers clues about why some prompt injection attacks may succeed.
Benj Edwards
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74
HP plans to save millions by laying off thousands, ramping up AI use
Product development, internal operations among teams expected to be hit hardest.
Scharon Harding
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160
Crypto hoarders dump tokens as shares tumble
Several companies are selling crypto stockpiles in effort to fund share buybacks, shore up stock prices.
Financial Times
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176
UK government will buy tech to boost AI sector in $130M growth push
Plan will offer guaranteed payments for British startups making AI hardware
Financial Times
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54
Oops. Cryptographers cancel election results after losing decryption key.
Voting system required three keys. One of them has been “irretrievably lost.”
Dan Goodin
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181
How to know if your Asus router is one of thousands hacked by China-state hackers
So far, the hackers are laying low, likely for later use.
Dan Goodin
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99
Google tells employees it must double capacity every 6 months to meet AI demand
Google’s AI infrastructure chief tells staff it needs thousandfold capacity increase in 5 years.
Benj Edwards
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302
HP and Dell disable HEVC support built into their laptops’ CPUs
HEVC licensing gets more expensive in January.
Scharon Harding
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247
Massive Cloudflare outage was triggered by file that suddenly doubled in size
“I worry this is the big botnet flexing,” CEO said. But outage was self-inflicted.
Jon Brodkin
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103
Critics scoff after Microsoft warns AI feature can infect machines and pilfer data
Integration of Copilot Actions into Windows is off by default, but for how long?
Dan Goodin
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69
Tech giants pour billions into Anthropic as circular AI investments roll on
ChatGPT competitor secures billions from Microsoft and Nvidia in deal to use cloud services and chips.
Benj Edwards
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98
Bonkers Bitcoin heist: 5-star hotels, cash-filled envelopes, vanishing funds
Bitcoin mining hardware exec falls for sophisticated crypto scam to tune of $200k
WIRED
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76
Google CEO: If an AI bubble pops, no one is getting out clean
Sundar Pichai says no company is immune if AI bubble bursts, echoing dotcom fears.
Benj Edwards
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255
5 plead guilty to laptop farm and ID theft scheme to land North Koreans US IT jobs
Fleets of laptops run from US residences gave appearance workers were in the US.
Dan Goodin
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43
Oracle hit hard in Wall Street’s tech sell-off over its huge AI bet
Company falls more than rivals over its borrowing and reliance on OpenAI contracts.
Financial Times
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174
Forget AGI—Sam Altman celebrates ChatGPT finally following em dash formatting rules
Ongoing struggles with AI model instruction-following show that true human-level AI still a ways off.
Benj Edwards
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162
Researchers question Anthropic claim that AI-assisted attack was 90% autonomous
The results of AI-assisted hacking aren’t as impressive as many might have us believe.
Dan Goodin
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84
OpenAI walks a tricky tightrope with GPT-5.1’s eight new personalities
New controls attempt to please critics on both sides with a balance between bland and habit-forming.
Benj Edwards
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85