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A Sept. 18 San Francisco cage match between influencer Frankie LaPenna and three remotely operated humanoid robots drew more than 10 million YouTube views. California’s State Athletic Commission later ordered the event’s organizers to stop holding unsanctioned human-versus-robot fights, citing state licensing rules and public safety.
New York Rep. Ritchie Torres plans to introduce the Power To The Players Act, which would direct the Federal Trade Commission to protect ownership rights for video games. The proposal follows plans to delist NBA 2K25 and shut down its online servers.
Microsoft has withdrawn as anchor tenant for Nscale’s planned £2-billion data centre in Loughton, Essex, after the site’s expected power connection was pushed to the 2030s. The move leaves the site without an announced customer and comes as Nscale pursues a possible flotation of up to $35 billion (£26 billion).
A Stanford study found that bleached corals in contact with healthy neighbours recovered in eight weeks. The researchers say the result could inform efforts to help threatened reefs recover.
Users report that AI agents from Meta, xAI, OpenAI and Instinct are blocked from some major websites. Companies cite licensing and security concerns, while others have opened shopping access to agents.
LinkedIn is using its own AI systems and a team of former journalists and social media experts to identify generic posts and limit their reach. The platform said views of content classified as AI slop fell 40% after improvements to its detection systems.
The October 2026 TIOBE Index shows R overtaking SQL and Julia returning to the top 20, while Go falls to No. 11. Dart and OCaml also make large jumps, and the index adds Mandarin Chinese search terms to broaden its geographic reach.
Long-time Palm OS developer Ardiri has released about 1.5 GB of historical development resources and found the source code for a virus he created in June 2001. The functional source code and binaries will remain private.
The Free Software Foundation says Raspberry Pi firmware can reject replacement memory or prevent a board from booting, restricting owners from upgrading hardware. It argues the company could address fraud concerns without limiting users’ control of their computers.
Mark Stephens, who wrote under the name Robert X. Cringely, died last week at 73. He chronicled the technology industry, wrote the bestselling book Accidental Empires and made the documentary Triumph of the Nerds.
The arrest of Saudi national Abdulrahman Alfozan, an OpenAI employee, has renewed concerns about espionage risks in Silicon Valley. U.S. authorities have not charged him with foreign espionage or said whether he acted alone or for a foreign government, while the case has prompted discussion among OpenAI employees and industry figures about hiring foreign nationals.
A New York Times follow-up on three Silicon Valley recipients found that $1,330 monthly payments eased expenses, while long-term results varied. The recipients faced structural barriers, and one died during the program; his savings helped pay for his brother’s drug rehabilitation.
A federal judge has temporarily blocked enforcement of Utah’s SB 73 provisions targeting VPN use, finding the law likely burdens people and businesses beyond the state. The Electronic Frontier Foundation says the requirements threaten privacy and demand technical steps websites cannot reliably perform.
Blue Origin plans a $330 million expansion of its Cape Canaveral facilities, including new launch and landing pads and a customer integration facility. The company says the work will support multiple flights per week by the end of the decade.
A decision at the October 8 Maintainers Summit in Prague removed the requirement to use an “Assisted-by” tag for AI-generated code submitted to the Linux kernel. Linus Torvalds called a ban on AI “utterly stupid” and said he expects contributors to understand their work.
Headlines from Slashdot, listed as published.