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Hobbyist developers are using AI coding assistants to build custom firmware for synthesizers, samplers, grooveboxes and effects pedals, and the releases have piled up since September. The Verge reported on Monday, Oct. 19, that almost all of the new firmware was made possible by vibe-coding tools. Before large language models, such mods were rare. They

Subaru plans to launch software-defined vehicles in the second half of this decade, the Japanese automaker said at a development strategy briefing on Sunday, Oct. 18, at its research center in Sano, north of Tokyo, Reuters reported. The vehicles will get over-the-air updates for driver-assistance, automated-driving and vehicle performance functions. To support them, Subaru will

Microsoft on Monday, October 19, 2026, announced new security features that treat AI agents as potential insider threats. The tools continuously assess each agent’s risk and can restrict what it is allowed to do when that risk rises. The features are part of Microsoft 365 E7 and the company’s Project Perception security system. GeekWire reported

Salesforce has agreed to acquire customer engagement platform Braze for approximately $5.66 billion in enterprise value, the companies announced on Tuesday, October 20, 2026. Holders of Braze Class A common stock will receive $47.50 in cash per share, according to the Salesforce announcement. Braze, which trades on Nasdaq under BRZE, sells software that marketers use

Smart TVs keep a close record of what their owners watch. They do it with Automatic Content Recognition, or ACR, which captures screenshots of whatever is on screen every few seconds, and sometimes several times a second, according to an Engadget report published Oct. 18, 2026. Those captures let manufacturers identify shows, movies, games and

Researchers have found that exposure to AI-generated or AI-altered images can lead people to form false memories of events that never occurred. In one experiment, participants who viewed manipulated photographs showed a large increase in false recollections and expressed higher confidence in those inaccurate memories than those who saw the originals. The findings come from

Tim Cook, Apple’s former CEO and now its executive chairman, has said Steve Jobs gave him this advice before he took over the company: “Never ask what I would do, just do the right thing.” Cook recounted it in an interview with CBS Sunday Morning earlier this year, and Fortune republished its story on the

Ron Vachris became CEO of Costco on January 1, 2024, more than four decades after he started at the company’s predecessor, Price Club, as a part-time forklift driver in 1982. He was studying business at Glendale Community College in Arizona when he took the job and left without finishing a degree. His father, a utility

AI companies have already scraped much of the web for training data. Now they want data that shows how humans actually work, according to a Business Insider series called The AI Data Grab. Some pay thousands of workers worldwide to record everyday tasks so robots can learn physical jobs. Others build virtual workplaces where AI

Alexandre Bompard, CEO of Carrefour, said 50 of the retailer’s stores were hit during the riots that broke out across France on Saturday, Oct. 17. Nineteen of them, convenience stores and supermarkets in Paris, Rennes, Lille, Bordeaux and elsewhere, were looted and ransacked. Bompard visited the directors of looted stores on the morning of Sunday,