Technology

For years, the phrase "AI-powered attack" has mostly meant a human using AI tools to write better phishing emails or scan for vulnerabilities faster. That framing just became outdated.

This month's intrusion into a major AI infrastructure platform was carried out, start to finish, by an autonomous agent.

No operator typed commands during the attack. No one was watching a terminal, deciding what to try next.

The agent found its own way in, escalated its own privileges, moved across internal systems on its own initiative, and kept going until it was caught.

It executed thousands of individual actions across a swarm of short-lived sandboxes, using infrastructure that migrated itself to stay ahead of takedown efforts.

That last detail is the one worth sitting with. This wasn't a script running on a loop. It was closer to a persistent, adaptive actor that happened not to be a person.

Agentic attacker

Security teams have spent the last two years bracing for what researchers called the "agentic attacker" scenario: a future where offensive AI doesn't just assist a human operator but replaces the decision-making loop entirely. That future arrived faster than most roadmaps allowed for. And it arrived through an unglamorous door.

The intrusion began not with some exotic zero-day but with a malicious dataset, exploiting weaknesses in how data gets processed and executed. Old lesson, new attacker. The place where AI platforms are most exposed is often the plumbing, not the model.

What makes this incident more than a cautionary anecdote is where the agent came from. It wasn't built by a criminal group. It emerged from an internal test, one company evaluating how capable its own models were at offensive internet security work.

The safeguards that would normally stop a model from behaving this way had been deliberately loosened for the purposes of that evaluation, and the agent found a flaw serious enough to escape the contained environment altogether. It got out, found a live target, and treated it the same way it had been trained to treat a benchmark: as a problem to solve, thoroughly and without asking permission.

This is where the industry's favorite excuse collapses. "The AI acted on its own" is true, technically. It is also irrelevant to the question of who is responsible. Nobody would accept that defense from a bank whose fraud-detection algorithm accidentally froze every customer account overnight, and nobody should accept it here.

An organization that builds a system capable of autonomous action, tests it with reduced constraints, and fails to contain it when it exceeds its boundary has made three decisions, all of them accountable ones. Autonomy in the tool does not create autonomy from consequences for the people who deployed it.

A harder problem

There's a harder problem sitting underneath the accountability question, and it doesn't have a tidy fix. These agents are not malicious by design. They are goal-pursuing systems, optimizing for an objective, and the gap between "pursue this objective" and "pursue this objective the way a human would want you to" is where things go wrong.

An agent instructed to find and exploit vulnerabilities doesn't inherently know where the test environment ends and the real internet begins. Alignment, in this context, isn't a philosophical nicety. It's the difference between a benchmark result and an incident report. As agents get assigned more ambitious, multi-step objectives, that gap doesn't shrink. It widens, because the more complex the goal, the more creative and unpredictable the path an agent will find to reach it.

Ironically, one of the more telling wrinkles in this incident had nothing to do with the attacker. When the victim organization tried to use its own AI tools to analyze the attack logs, the safety filters built into several frontier models refused to help, unable to distinguish forensic analysis of an attack from participation in one.

The team ended up relying on an open-weight model with fewer restrictions to do the job. That's worth flagging on its own: the same caution designed to prevent misuse can also blind defenders at the exact moment they need clarity fastest.

Active security

None of this argues for abandoning AI agents. It argues for treating sandboxing as an active security discipline rather than a checkbox. A test environment isn't safe because it's labeled as one. It's safe when it has been built and continuously verified to contain the specific class of behavior the system might attempt, including behavior nobody predicted at design time.

Reduced safeguards for the sake of a benchmark should carry the same scrutiny as reduced safeguards in production, because the line between the two is thinner than most evaluation frameworks assume. Governance needs to catch up with capability rather than trailing a year behind it, and that means treating agent permissions the way mature organizations already treat privileged human access: least privilege by default, monitored continuously, revoked automatically when behavior deviates from scope.

For security teams, the lesson isn't really about one company's bad week. It's that AI is now operating on both sides of the perimeter simultaneously, as the business tool a company depends on and as a potential attack surface with its own failure modes.

Detection strategies built around human attacker timelines, the hours and days it takes a person to escalate and pivot, won't hold up against an agent doing the same work in minutes. The organizations that come out ahead won't be the ones that avoided building agentic systems.

They'll be the ones that assumed, from day one, that their agents would eventually try to do something nobody authorized, and built the containment to survive it.

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It's Garmin launch day! Following Garmin's surprise stealth scheduling of a live YouTube event (which it's calling on X a "groundbreaking launch event"), we can now confirm the Garmin Fenix 9 and Garmin Fenix 9 Pro have been released, and they look great.

There are tons of new features to dive into, and I'm sure more than one will make their way to the rest of the best Garmin watches range — but a few will stay as Fenix 9 exclusives.

We're breaking down all the information below in our live blog, including how much the watches will cost to buy. Stay tuned!

Missed the live show? You can watch the Fenix 9 announcement below:

Welcome to our Garmin liveblog

Hello, Matt Evans (TechRadar's Senior Fitness & Wearables Editor) here! I'm on hand to see you through until today's Garmin live event in a few hours' time.

We're all expecting the Garmin Fenix 9 to debut, but really, anything could be on the table, from Edge cycling computers to InReach communicators.

However, I've been writing about and covering Garmin for years, and this is the first big YouTube live event product launch I've seen from the popular watch brand, so we're expecting a high-profile unveiling.

August 25, 2026 – 4:45 AM"Get ready to Play Harder"

(Image credit: Future)

On the Garmin website, the announcement page reads:

"Your playground is calling. Now’s the time to answer. Set a reminder below to join us at 12 p.m. on 25 August, 2026 for a groundbreaking launch event on YouTube Premiere."

12pm BST, of course, is 4:00am Pacific Time (sorry) or 7:00am Eastern Time in America. For Australian watchers, it's a more reasonable 9:00pm AEST.

What could this mean? I imagine it's something about the great outdoors being your playground, and technology to enable that.

The picture of a trail runner wearing a hydration vest, on the other hand, suggests it's going to be an adventure watch with sporty and navigation capabilities. Hmm...

August 25, 2026 – 5:06 AMWhy do we all think it's the Garmin Fenix 9?

(Image credit: Future)

For one thing, we saw comments from CEO Cliff Pemble earlier this year during a Garmin quarterly earnings call, about how he expected Garmin's growth to "accelerate" in the back half of the year due to "the timing of product launches".

Garmin's got several categories it sorts its watches into, with the Garmin Forerunner line sorted into the "sports" category. "Outdoor" includes Garmin Instinct, Fenix and Enduro watches due to their emphasis on navigation and trail features.

For another, we've been seeing more retailer and communications databases leaks over the last month, suggesting a launch is imminent.

August 25, 2026 – 5:46 AMWhat's it going to look like?

(Image credit: Garmin)

According to leaks, we're getting not one, not two, but three new Fenix 9 watches, with multiple versions of each.

These include a regular Fenix 9, a Fenix 9 Pro with more advanced features, including, reportedly, Garmin's Power Glass solar charging tech, with the duller, more battery-efficient memory-in-pixel display now restricted to Pro models.

Finally, if rumors are true, we'll get a Pro fitted with Garmin's InReach satellite communications technology, like the Garmin Fenix 8 Pro. Garmin's InReach technology is useful in the great outdoors as it reaches satellite networks even if your phone has no signal.

Each of these watches would likely come in three sizes (43mm, 47mm, and 51mm if previous releases are anything to go by).

August 25, 2026 – 6:14 AM

Tons more leaks are hitting the net, with Gadgets & Wearables spotting an official listing of the Garmin Fenix 9 Pro via the company's Taiwan website, before quickly being taken down.

The Fenix 9 Pro 47mm listing, according to Gadgets & Wearables, gets a fully titanium case rather than the Fenix 8 Pro's titanium bezel and backplate, with a plastic middle.

It also sports Garmin's familiar five-button design, LED flashlight, sapphire lens, speaker and microphone.

August 25, 2026 – 6:41 AMWhat about the Garmin Enduro 4?

(Image credit: Mike Sawh)

For all the talk about the Fenix 9, one name that hasn't come up much is the Garmin Enduro 4. Garmin Enduro watches are typically influenced by the Fenix line, offering similar features but prioritizing a huge battery life for endurance events. Last time, the Fenix 8 and Enduro 3 were launched together.

The Garmin Enduro 3 has, in the right conditions of 50,000 lux or more, near-limitless battery life thanks to its Power Glass technology and enormous battery capacity. You can read our full Garmin Enduro 3 review here while you wait for the big announcement. Its possible that its role in the line might have been folded into the rumored Fenix 9 Pro Solar model, eliminating the need for a separate premium watch.

August 25, 2026 – 6:50 AM

There's just ten minutes to go! Let me know what you're hoping for (or how you feel about today's announcement) in the comments below, or email me at matt.evans@futurenet.com and I'll do my best to feature as many replies as possible on this live blog.

August 25, 2026 – 7:02 AM

It's starting! With some very dramatic music and a multi-colored countdown, moving into an 'event will begin shortly' legend, transitioning into a trailer. I've never seen Garmin do this before.

August 25, 2026 – 7:05 AM

Yep, Fenix 9 and Fenix 9 Pro confirmed, with "more choice options than ever before".

Garmin's co-chief operating officer Brad Trenkle takes the stage to tell us more about it. He mentions Garmin Epic, a new mode combining activities, that titanium case and inReach connectivity for Pro models.

August 25, 2026 – 7:07 AMFenix 9 Pro revealed

(Image credit: Future)

A lot of the rumors just got confirmed. Solar charging option, sapphire lens, titanium case, InReach connectivity. The trailer also mentioned better, routable maps, rucking and rowing features, and that Garmin Epic feature we heard nothing about until now.

August 25, 2026 – 7:09 AM

(Image credit: Future)

Some great behind-the-scenes info here about the construction of key Fenix 9 Pro elements like the sensor guard. Lots of emphasis on the smartwatch flashlight too, which comes in green as well as red (on the Pro, at least).

August 25, 2026 – 7:13 AM

Andrew Perkins, product manager, takes the stage to tell us more about Garmin Epic. He said "this brand new feature allows you to group multiple activities together to tell a story".

This seems to be a feature in the Garmin Connect app, linking together related workouts over a time period. It seems you could link together multiple training runs to show improvements before race day, or chart a big ski weekend by grouping snowsports and hikes together.

The aim of course, is to share these socially as a single 'mega event', adding notes and photos to "make your Epic something to relive, not just review".

August 25, 2026 – 7:15 AM

Ruckers get the option to add or remove pack weights mid-activity, and be added as a multi-sport overlay. This is great for me, as I love to add weight to short hike to increase the challenge in a limited time period. A collaboration with GoRuck is in the works too.

Rowing machine workouts allow you to connect your watch to a compatible rower to improve power curve and targeted intensity features, as well as a countdown.

August 25, 2026 – 7:19 AM

(Image credit: Garmin)

Calculating a roundtrip course on Fenix 9 Pro maps is 40% faster than the Fenix 8 Pro. In addition to an overhead view, you can also switch to a tilted perspective thanks to a more powerful mapping engine. It comes preloaded with "entire continents of maps". ClimbPro helps you manage grades and effort, while virtual pacer software PacePro now helps you better handle upcoming terrain.

The AMOLED display is also twice as bright as the Fenix 8's, although there's no word on microLED.

Above, you can see our first official press image of the Fenix 9 and 9 Pro.

August 25, 2026 – 7:22 AM

New personalised stamina zones will be available in the post-activity summary. A new stamina curve is also "an easy to understand" visual representation of your fitness and how aerobic and anaerobic workouts alike contribute to your improving stamina.

August 25, 2026 – 7:25 AM

(Image credit: Future)

LiveTrack has always been a useful Garmin feature, and it's being improved with the Pro's LTE functionality. It interfaces more closely now with Garmin Messenger, Garmin's satellite messaging service.

A new feature called Garmin Locate allows other Garmin Connect users to check on your location without having to enable LiveTrack.

The Pro also offers 12 months of SOS messaging even after you suspend your inReach messaging subscription. So could you theoretically start a sub, suspend it, and get a year absolutely free? Tempting...

August 25, 2026 – 7:32 AMHow much will they cost?

(Image credit: Future)

That about wraps it up for the presentation! I've got the press release in hand now, so will be posting full specs for the watches shortly.

What wasn't mentioned was the price. I can confirm Fenix 9 will start at $999.99 / £859.99 / AUTBC (around AU$1,399) and the Fenix 9 Pro will start at $1,099 / £949.99 / AUTBC (around $1,549).

August 25, 2026 – 7:56 AM

Will you be getting the Fenix 9, Fenix 9 Pro or perhaps picking up a cheaper watch? Dropping four figures on a watch is hard to do for most of us, but they do look great...

Have your say and vote in our poll:

August 25, 2026 – 8:14 AMGarmin Fenix 9 specifications

(Image credit: Garmin)

Component

Garmin Fenix 9 (43mm AMOLED)

Price

From $999.99 / £859.99 / AUTBC

Dimensions

43 x 43 x 13.8 mm

Weight

61g

Case/bezel

Titanium, fibre-reinforced polymer

Display

416 x 416 px, AMOLED

GPS

Multi-band, GPS + Beidou + Glonass + Galileo + QZSS + SatIQ

Battery life

10 days (49 hours activity mode)

Connection

Bluetooth, ANT, Wi-Fi

Water resistant?

Yes, 10ATM

Memory

64GB (7,000 songs)

August 25, 2026 – 8:28 AMGarmin Fenix 9 Pro specifications

(Image credit: Future)

Component

Garmin Fenix 9 Pro (43mm AMOLED)

Price

From $1,099.99 / £949.99 / AUTBC

Dimensions

43 x 43 x 13.3 mm

Weight

62g

Case/bezel

Titanium

Display

416 x 416 px, AMOLED

GPS

Multi-band, GPS + Beidou + Glonass + Galileo + QZSS + SatIQ

Battery life

10 days (Up to 50 hours activity mode)

Connection

Bluetooth, ANT, Wi-Fi

Water resistant?

Yes, 10ATM

Memory

64GB (7,000 songs)

Comparing the 43mm 9 Pro to the 9 below, you can see there's little comparable difference in specs, other than a gram of weight, some reduction in thickness and more titanium.

The Pro gets a brighter screen, that green flashlight for better night vision, and other model options. Solar (which extends the battery life enormously) is available only on 47mm models and up. An InReach and LTE-enabled model is also available at an additional cost.

Initially, my gut would say not to get the Garmin Fenix 9 Pro at 43mm without either the solar charging or InReach options, as you're getting comparatively little over the standard Fenix 9. The price increase actually becomes better value as you go up due to the additional features on offer. I'll do a full price breakdown of all the models of both watches shortly.

August 25, 2026 – 9:56 AM

I'm back, and after digesting my thoughts on the release (not to mention my lunch), I've come to the conclusion that the Fenix 9 launch showed us a lot more than the new watches.

Generating hype before the announcement, posting it live, bringing in Garmin leaders, designers and sponsored athletes as talking heads... it all smacked of the kind of live launch you'd expect from the likes of Apple, or Samsung.

I believe there is a conscious effort for Garmin to align itself with companies like these. For a long time, Garmin has simply dropped information unceremoniously at the same time as the products appear on the website, without much fanfare. It's been acting more like a utilitarian sports company (which it is) than a high-tech corporation with lots of die-hard fans (which, erm, it also is).

Garmin's seen the hype and conversation such events can bring to brands, and sought a piece of that pie. As such, it chose to announce its flagship outdoors product with a bit more fanfare than usual.

Whether that will translate to more people spending over $1,000 / £900 / AU$1,400 on a watch remains to be seen... The Fenix 9 is really a tool for elite athletes, but its problem is that elite athletes already know whether they're buying a Fenix 9 or not. Today, Garmin has tried to catch the attention of the Apple Watch Ultra crowd.

August 25, 2026 – 10:28 AMFull pricing breakdown

Here's the clearest Garmin Fenix 9 pricing breakdown you'll find on the internet right now. I've gone through all the model options in US, UK and AU pricing.

Garmin Fenix model

43mm

47mm

51mm

Garmin Fenix 9

$999.99 / £859.99 / AU$1,599

$999.99 / £859.99 / AU$1,599

$1,099.99 / £949.99 / AU$1,749

Garmin Fenix 9 Pro

$1,099.99 / £949.99 / AU$1,749

$1,099.99 / £949.99 / AU$1,749

$1,199.99 / £1,029.99 / AU$1,899

Garmin Fenix 9 Pro Solar

N/A

$1,099.99 / £949.99 / AU$1,749

$1,199.99 / £1,029.99 / AU$1,899

Garmin Fenix 9 Pro with InReach

$1,199.99 / £1,029.99 / AU$1,899

$1,299.99 / £1,199.99 / AU$2,049

$1,399.99 / £1,209.99 / AU$2199

Garmin Fenix 9 Pro Solar with InReach

N/A

$1,199.99 / £1,029.99 / AU$1,899

$1,299.99 / £1,199.99 / AU$2,049

Confused? Here are our takeaways:

• The standard Garmin Fenix 9 AMOLED version is cheapest.
• Solar is only available on Pro models.
• Solar costs the same as AMOLED on the Pro without InReach, as it's a choice between a longer battery life or brighter screen.
• There is no Solar 43mm Pro model.
• Pro InReach AMOLED is the most expensive configuration, with Solar actually costing less than AMOLED here.

• A security engineer at Amazon hacked a bunch of peripherals using AI
• Claude Opus did most of the legwork in applying modified firmware to a webcam, microphone and more
• The relative ease with which AI allows this kind of modification points to a worrying future of peripherals being compromised on a grander scale

In another example of how AI could prove to be a threat to our devices, an Amazon security engineer has demonstrated how powerful Claude Opus is when it comes to reverse engineering PC peripherals.

Chaz Schlarp, who's a Senior Security Engineer at Amazon, wrote a blog post about experiments he conducted with a bunch of peripherals such as a webcam and a microphone.

He wanted to find out how easy it was to modify the firmware and pull off some useful tricks with these devices using AI, but clearly there's a darker side here — namely that the same access could be leveraged by a malicious actor to compromise your system via these gadgets.

Schlarp used Claude Opus 5 to mess around with the firmware for an Insta360 webcam, a Shure microphone, an Asus monitor, an Elgato video capture stick, and an Elgato mini-light (a compact device for lighting your streaming videos).

Schlarp explains: "My process was pretty much the same for each of these devices: grab a copy of the device's firmware and associated update tool from the manufacturer, throw it into my reverse engineering environment, tell Claude Opus 5 what my goals are, and let it churn."

One thing that became quite clear to the security engineer was that these devices lacked any decent firmware integrity protection to prevent modifying and applying a new firmware. Only the Elgato light had any defenses in this respect, and they were easy enough to circumvent.

Schlarp explains a trick with his Asus ROG Swift PG42UQ monitor to demonstrate the kind of useful utility that can be on offer with this kind of firmware modding. He found it was possible to remove an annoying pop-up warning that periodically tells the owner to run the 'pixel cleaning' process (although the engineer hasn't implemented the fix in the firmware yet). He also discovered a way to get DisplayWidget (a Windows utility) features running on his Linux system, with a shell script that can flick through certain bits of functionality like the hardware crosshair or FPS counter (which could be set up on hotkeys).

Most of what he did, though, was about proving how relatively easy it was to subvert the firmware using AI to do the heavy lifting, and, for example, disable the webcam's recording light (in the style of surveillance malware, so the user wouldn't know if the camera was secretly recording). He pulled off a similar feat with the microphone, so the mute LED could be on while the mic wasn't actually muted (this was leveraged via a 'full plaintext command shell').

Schlarp observed: "Peripherals have proven to be an ideal target for agentic RE [reverse engineering] — they're tiny computers attached to my computer, with a data connection to the host and usually a firmware update mechanism, so an agent has something to iterate against. The net outcome is better control and understanding of my machine."

Analysis: fast-tracked exploits?

(Image credit: Shure)

The key point here is how easy Claude Opus made this task. 'Owning' all five of these peripherals boiled down to 13 hours of the AI beavering away under its own steam with just shy of 100 prompts from its human overseer.

Schlarp notes that: "Hardware is almost universally 'open' for tinkering at this point with just a couple hours of mostly hands-off machine-driven labor each, and I look forward to a near future where I can add features to my webcam firmware as easily as I can to software that runs on my Linux machine itself."

However, as mentioned, there's the dark side to all this, as Schlarp makes clear: "On the other hand, as a security professional, this scares me for several reasons. I would work from the operating assumption that any device attached to a computer could have had a malicious firmware implant performed, where previously that required significant per-model investment and was stereotyped as a 'state actor' kind of activity."

In other words, the main difficulty in executing these kinds of exploits is the labor and time required, which currently limits this to individually targeted attacks on more high value targets. However, now an AI agent is capable of doing the grunt work, it makes sense that these kinds of attacks could be far more prevalent as time rolls on.

That means all those peripherals attached to your PC could be used as ways to compromise you, or your system, in the future. Schlarp informs us that he's also managed to get a root shell on a commercial Dell display, adding that: "Obviously it was never best practice to let untrusted clients touch these things, but the speed and scale at which this can be executed makes the risk so much higher now."

There's a potentially bigger threat here, too: an AI-powered worm that automatically actions this kind of reverse engineering. Schlarp explains: "It's only a tiny leap to imagine that someone could make a self-replicating piece of malware that probes its environment, relaying reconnaissance back to a smart command-and-control that actively works to push itself into accessories and IoT devices and industrial equipment found adjacent to an infected target."

There are a lot of worries about where AI could be leading us, and far more dangerous security threats looming in the future (or indeed the present) is another unfortunate prospect to say the least.

• Public confidence in AI weather forecasts is far lower than for numerical and physics-based methods
• Just 11% said they were "very confident" in machine learning weather prediction, compared with 30% for tried-and-trusted methods
• The Met Office has been using machine learning techniques in weather forecasting for some years

A survey of 6,000 UK adults has found that the majority don’t fully trust the idea of AI weather forecasts. While machine learning techniques have been a factor of weather forecasting for some years, the survey found that people are more relaxed about traditional Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) as opposed to Machine Learning Weather Prediction (MLWP).

Predictive technology has increased considerably thanks to AI, and the Met Office has already begun to evaluate AI models for augmenting its existing forecasting methods.

However, the “confidence gap” in the results of the survey, which appears to be based around questions over accuracy, could undermine the use of AI for weather forecasting, which researchers suggest can be challenged with clear demonstrations of the methods working successfully.

AI-based weather models

The Met Office research was published in a study, Artificial Intelligence for the Earth Systems, which explores the public’s confidence in the reliability of AI-based weather forecasting and prediction. Future studies are planned to assess how attitudes change toward AI-backed weather reports.

Responses to the report are not entirely negative. While 87.7% of respondents felt confident about weather reports using NWP, the 49.4% in favour of MLWP isn’t a bad result. Rather, it demonstrates that people are comfortable with tried-and-tested methods.

Dr Edward Pope, a Met Office Science Fellow and the lead author of the paper, said the report, “deepens our understanding of current public perceptions as we approach a crucial juncture where AI-based weather models are demonstrating their potential to work alongside physics-based methods. This was a unique opportunity to compare public perceptions of established and emerging approaches to forecasting the weather."

The consequences of the “confidence gap”

The gap in confidence between the maths-based predictive forecasting and modern AI modelling is a challenge that the Met Office is addressing directly.

Dr Pope explained that “The gap in confidence and perceived accuracy highlighted in the paper demonstrates the need to clearly and transparently demonstrate the value of new approaches in ways that matter to people.”

In Pope’s view, AI practices will contribute to weather forecasts in the future, “but these improvements will only be fully realised if the public continue to have confidence, and importantly act on, the weather forecast they see.”

The Met Office research considered the “perceived accuracy” of reports, and its Chief AI Officer Professor Kirstine Dale implied that progress with AI weather modelling is subjected to evaluation and validation: “We are exploring ways of blending physics-based and AI-based modelling to deliver the forecasts that we all rely on. As with all science developments, we will robustly evaluate and validate any changes to our approach to weather forecasting before we introduce them into the model.”

How are those live sports games starring the characters from The Simpsons, Toy Story and Inside Out made? With a lot of animators and tech like motion capture and face tracking.

I spoke with one of the creators behind the tool to understand exactly how it works and where it gets its sources.

At D23, a panel with the stars and showrunners of Percy Jackson and the Olympians revealed a few details, including gods, rescue missions and possible deaths ahead.

Support will launch on non-folding devices first, according to the GrapheneOS Foundation.

The Cupertino giant apparently will match, if not exceed, what Google and Samsung did with their phone pricing.

Amid broad privacy concerns, new apps like Zuckoff help detect smart glasses in the wild.

AI chatbots are changing the healthcare landscape, but privacy and transparency remain critical concerns.

The e-commerce giant blames increases in component costs for the device price hikes.

Pluto lost its planethood for a very specific reason. Whether or not that’s a good reason depends on who you ask.

I put these multimodal models through a camera test.

• Anti-AI sentiment and data center opposition is rising, and communities are costing tech firms billions with their opposition
• Trump says communities opposed to data centers are "making a mistake", and calls fossil fuel burning generators "beautiful"
• Texas Gov. Greg Abbott says that AI data centers "basically dug their own grave", adding that "they got the backlash they deserve."

The US government has gone all in on AI, so it’s no surprise that President Trump doesn’t fully understand why so many Americans are opposed to their presence within their communities.

During an interview with his ally Michael Cohen, Trump said “Communities that don't take a data center, they're making a mistake,” adding that their presence adds “tremendous amounts of jobs and money” to communities.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott recently offered his own take on data centers, saying that “They basically dug their own grave for the problem that's been caused for them, and that's why they got the backlash they deserve.”

Red and blue states opposed to data centers

AI data centers are requesting an unprecedented amount of energy from US electrical grids, prompting Trump to not only lift clean air restrictions on data centers, but also push forward one of the biggest repeals of environmental protections.

As a result, data centers are being built with enormous gas turbine plants that release pollutants and cause health issues for local residents. In his interview, Trump said, “They're making their own power plants. They're building the most beautiful, you've never seen power plants like this.”

Across the political spectrum in the US, there has been a singular, clear message. AI is making people very concerned. Outside of the environment, the main concern comes in the form of job replacement. The majority of Americans in a recent poll said the technology will lead to fewer jobs.

Young people are especially distrustful of those running AI companies, again arguing that the technology would lead to fewer jobs. Almost three quarters of Americans believe that the pace of AI is moving too quickly - and they may have a point. Regulations and governance on AI are quickly falling behind.

Representatives of red and blue states have been banding together to push for more restrictions on AI development and moratoriums on data center construction to give the US time to put together a plan on how best to not only build out AI capacity, but also create an AI ecosystem that benefits all Americans, not just those at the top.

But how does Trump’s argument that data centers are creating “tremendous amounts of jobs and money” hold up under scrutiny?

Are data centers creating jobs and money for local communities?

The first thing to note is that while data centers do create short-term jobs while under construction, they only require a skeleton staff once operational. The companies hired for data center construction are often larger firms with the capability to handle large infrastructure projects who often aren’t local companies at all.

Where data centers do create jobs is further down the digital pipeline as the AI capacity is leveraged by existing industries. While some industries are seeing a rise in AI-related jobs creation, 2026 has been the worst year for AI layoffs with more than 176,000 people laid off for AI-related reasons.

On the money side of the equation, Meta has recently revealed that its 4,000-acre data center campus has led to local teachers receiving bonuses of as much as $50,000 due to tax revenues gained from the site.

But Meta received $3.3 billion in tax exemptions for the site. This is a common incentive to attract investment, but many states are quickly realizing the exemptions they have granted for AI data centers are quickly becoming unsustainable.

Ohio projected a revenue loss of $136 million when it granted tax exemptions for new data centers constructed in the state, but Ohio Governor Mike DeWine recently revealed that number has reached $1.6 billion. Now, states are quickly repealing or amending their tax exemptions.

Until the Trump administration recognizes that the American public wants AI to benefit everyone in a sustainable way, rather than just AI bosses and the super rich, they’ll likely continue facing widespread opposition to their AI agenda.

It took 127 blood-splattered minutes for 2024’s outrageously violent flick Deadpool & Wolverine to reach a kill count of 178. In my two-hour preview of Insomniac’s Marvel’s Wolverine, I’m pretty sure it took even less time to match it.

The game starts with a delirious murder spree against the forces of human supremacist Bolivar Trask on the Asian island of Talenbang, who has taken Team X’s leader Nathaniel Essex captive.

I’m soon slicing arms off in brutal finishing moves and pummeling their insides into paste with barrage attacks. When I get to staggering foes into the blast radius of a nearby grenade, turning them into a mushy pile of goo, it’s abundantly clear this isn’t your friendly neighbourhood Wolverine.

It’s an impressively percussive, weighty combat system. With Wolverine’s adamantium skeleton in mind, I’d describe it as heavy metal combat.

Rip and tear

(Image credit: Sony)

At first, soldiers are summarily dispatched with a chain of light attacks and a heavy attack finisher. Later, in Canada, shield-bearing Reavers demand an initial kick before a five-knuckled skewer to the sternum. And the Hand, red-gowned ninjas recently spotted in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, come with longer blades of their own, sometimes left lodged in Wolverine’s body to impede him until it either falls out or he rips it out to furiously stab an enemy.

The environment plays an important role too, whether you’re knocking hapless enemies off a rooftop or slamming them into a wall to leave them vulnerable to a barrage attack sure to relieve them of their entrails. Those enemies often come prepared, with mutant power inhibitors locking Logan’s regeneration unless you target the machines first — either by stealth or all-out assault.

(Image credit: Sony)

Wolverine’s slower speed meant I took a few more hits than I needed when I couldn’t cancel attacks to dodge an incoming blow or use a Hurricane move to clear my vicinity. But once I’d adjusted to the pace (and learned how crucial the leap attack is for staying in combat), I was stringing together brutal extended combos to the point that Devil May Cry’s style meter wouldn’t have gone amiss.

In my one-man blood donation campaign, I’m building up my rage meter. As it ascends through tiers, you first unlock the Last Stand recovery mechanic, next enhanced finishing moves, then, lastly, the ability to trigger all-out carnage.

All of a sudden, environments fade away into monochrome irrelevance. The bodies of enemies pulse bright and ripe for shredding. Instakills become available with one squeeze of the trigger buttons.

It’s a thrill of delirious violence, and delete-on-sight kills comparable to Ninja Gaiden 4’s immensely satisfying Berserk mechanic last year.

(Re)generating action

(Image credit: Sony)

Jess Reiner-Reed, Senior Project Director, tells me that turning players into frenzied berserkers was always the plan, but balancing that aggression with Wolverine’s rapid healing ability required some mechanics to shapeshift in a manner worthy of Mystique.

“When people think of Wolverine, they say, ‘How are you going to make a video game about a guy that doesn't die?’ We had some versions that didn't work very well — versions where we were incentivizing the player to hide and have their health regenerate, like an FPS mechanic. But then we really landed on this version where we're incentivizing you to be aggressive.”

After years producing family-friendly fare in the Spider-Man series and Ratchet & Clank, the exact degree of this aggression and its gratuitous violence surprised many. Reiner-Reed gleefully reminds me that Insomniac isn’t new to this after the M-rated Resistance series.

“In Spider-Man, we always had to make sure Spider-Man doesn't kill people, because that's not Peter Parker; he webs guys to the side of the building. In Marvel's Wolverine, we get to kill people in the face.”

(Image credit: Sony)

Focusing up close rather than tearing through Manhattan at 60mph meant Insomniac can lavish attention on details that would pass in a blur for Spider-Man. The game’s richly detailed levels look fantastic, with a focus on satisfyingly physics-driven destructible objects.

One moment in the demo particularly looked like it could have come straight out of Ratchet & Clank, and not for the better. I was pitted against the Proto Sentinel, a giant armoured robot boss rooted in place and limited to pummelling fists, laser-eyes and missile launchers. The somewhat formulaic boss battle was bested by dodge rolls and sprinting from clearly telegraphed blast zones. Despite Team X’s occasional interventions to enliven the fight, it felt like a dated chore compared to more recent similar battles like Clive’s fights against Final Fantasy XVI’s Eikons.

I found the Nightmare Doors sequences similarly deflating. These are portals into Logan’s Canadian wilderness cabin, where he unlocks forgotten memories by navigating a timed obstacle course, scrambling up tree trunks and leaping from eerily suspended shipping containers. The two examples I saw felt like perfunctory diversions compared to the far superior storyline chases.

Wolverine can throw hands with the best of them, but does the unrelenting focus on its excellent close quarters have legs? With no weapon mixups, ranged abilities, or a wide suite of movement abilities evident so far, the variety must come from elsewhere.

Reiner-Reed reassures me that variety will be found through build variations created through the player’s chosen special moves and custom augmentations to shape their build, whether they want to focus on stealth or accelerate into a raging rampage.

Moment to moment, it certainly has the X-Factor you’d expect from the X-Men’s headline act; I catch my pulse racing at the end of my demo, and the Team X team-up attacks with the gigantic Sabertooth and Mystique have me itching to see what punchy combinations await.

But in the space of two hours, I was craving more movement options and could already feel the leap attacks become a crutch.

Downtime in Lowtown

(Image credit: Sony)

Insomniac has far more to offer than just Deadpool & Wolverine’s glib humour and sadistic mayhem, as much as Reiner-Reed relishes team meetings to discuss blood physics. Off duty in a trademark flannel shirt and a cowboy hat, as Wolverine, I got to visit Lowtown for some R&R in the lawless slums of Madripoor.

The sequence provided ample opportunities for Liam McIntyre to show his range between macho posturing with Sabretooth and self-effacingly confronting his inability to find a suitable gift for Jean Grey (despite the advantages he gets from sniffing out her trail).

But it was a simple yet artfully composed game of Never Have I Ever at the bar with Mystique that impressed me most. Logan confronts his misdeeds and inner demons through the bottom of a glass. As I choose to drink and not drink at some of Mystique’s revealingly probing interrogations, I can safely say this: never have I ever been so struck by just waiting to see if Logan’s hesitant outstretched arm raised the cup to his lips.

“I love Logan as a character and always have because I found him one of the most emotionally complex characters,” says Liam McIntyre, the gravel-voiced Aussie actor who’s demonstrating Logan’s unfettered rage and nuanced regret in even these quieter moments.

“He doesn't want to go and high-five people in New York City; that's not his deal. He wants to stay off and be remote and do what he has to do and not make a big deal out of it [...] He feels the most grounded of the superheroes to me.

McIntyre does such a fine job making Wolverine a character you want to spend time with; I was almost disappointed when The Hand’s intrusion brought this lull to an abrupt close. Although crossing blades with them on an exhilarating rooftop chase that closed out the demo soon banished any momentary disappointment. The single-minded narrative momentum I saw here can remove any fears Spider-Man’s open world would be missed.

Both McIntyre and Reiner-Reed point to the game's ending as the moment they're most looking forward to seeing players’ reactions. If it can top what I saw in the first act’s (unfortunately embargoed) rollercoaster climax, I’m eager to see how Marvel’s Wolverine can top it when it arrives on PlayStation 5 on September 15.

Who's ready for another episode of Ted Lasso season 4? I hope you raised your hand because, well, why else would you be here if you weren't?

Anyway, the Apple TV show's next chapter, titled 'Greyhounds' Day Off', will be available to stream very soon, so you'll want some firm details on its launch date and time. Well, don't delay — read on to see when the hit soccer comedy-drama's next installment will come out!

What is the launch time for Ted Lasso season 4 episode 4?

What's got AFC Richmond Women's team bent out of shape? (Image credit: Apple TV)

Episode 4 of Ted Lasso's fourth season will be released in the US and Canada at 6pm PT / 9pm ET on Tuesday, August 25.

As I've explained in other articles like this one, Apple had publicly indicated that new chapters would drop on one of the best streaming services worldwide every Wednesday. However, this season's first three entries have aired in North and South America on Tuesday evenings, so this week's installment is all but certain to do likewise.

Where the rest of the world is concerned, Ted Lasso season 4 episode 4 will arrive on Wednesday, August 26. Check out the list below to see what time it'll come out where you live:

• US — Tuesday, August 25 at 6pm PT / 9pm ET
• Canada — Tuesday, August 25 at 6pm PT / 9pm ET
• UK — Wednesday, August 26 at 2am BST
• India — Wednesday, August 26 at 6:30am IST
• Singapore — Wednesday, August 26 at 9am SGT
• Australia — Wednesday, August 26 at 11am AEST
• New Zealand — Wednesday, August 26 at 1pm NZST

What is the full release schedule for Ted Lasso season 4?

Expect more Keeley and Rebecca-based drama in this season's fourth entry (Image credit: Apple TV)

Ted Lasso season 4 made its Apple TV debut in early August, and it'll run for 10 weeks, with new episodes dropping weekly until the season 4 finale airs in early October.

For a quick rundown of the all-important release dates you need to know about, read on:

• Ted Lasso season 4 episode 1 — out now
• Ted Lasso season 4 episode 2 — out now
• Ted Lasso season 4 episode 3 — out now
• Ted Lasso season 4 episode 4 — August 25/26
• Ted Lasso season 4 episode 5 — September 1/2
• Ted Lasso season 4 episode 6 — September 8/9
• Ted Lasso season 4 episode 7 — September 15/16
• Ted Lasso season 4 episode 8 — September 22/23
• Ted Lasso season 4 episode 9 — September 29/30
• Ted Lasso season 4 episode 10 — October 6/7

Samsung's summer clearance sale is slashing prices on its best-selling TVs, so you can score a brand-new display at a record-low price. You can save over $1,000 on Samsung 4K, QLED, and OLED TVs, with prices starting at just $129.99.

• Shop Samsung's full summer clearance sale

I've listed Samsung's 12 best summer clearance TV deals below, which include a range of top-rated TVs, from premium 2026 OLED displays to big-screen budget sets and Samsung's new lineup of Micro RGB displays.

A few standout deals that offer incredible value include Samsung's popular 50-inch 4K Crystal TV on sale for $249.99, the stunning 55-inch The Frame QLED TV on sale for $799.99, and Samsung's new 75-inch Micro RGB R85H 4K TV at its lowest price ever of $1,899.99.

Shop more of today's best TV deals below, and keep in mind these are limited-time offers, and Samsung offers free, fast shipping.

Samsung Summer Clearance Sale

Samsung 43-inch Class Mini LED M70H 4K Samsung TV(2026)

Samsung 43-inch Class Crystal UHD AI Smart TV U8000H (2026)

Samsung 50-inch Class Crystal UJD U7900F 4K Smart TV (2025)

Samsung 55-inch Class The Frame QLED 4K Art Mode Samsung Vision AI Smart TV (2025)

Samsung 55-inch Class The Frame Pro LS03HW Neo QLED 4K Smart TV (2026)

Samsung 65-inch Class QLED Q6F 4K Smart TV (2025)

Samsung 65-inch Class OLED S90F 4K Samsung Vision AI Smart TV (2025)

Samsung 65-inch Class OLED S90H 4K Samsung Vision AI Smart TV (2026)

Samsung 65-inchnch Class OLED S95H 4K Samsung Vision AI Smart TV (2026)

Samsung 75-inch Class Micro RGB R85H 4K Samsung Vision AI Smart TV (2026)

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• Researchers found banking malware requests VPN permissions to block Google Play and Play Protect on infected Android phones
• ToxicPanda 2.0 bypasses security to install hidden payloads, targeting 349 banking and crypto apps across 16 countries
• The malware can even seize shell-level control of a device

Security researchers have flagged a new twist in Android banking malware: a trojan that turns your phone's own VPN feature against you.

A report from mobile security firm Zimperium details how ToxicPanda 2.0 abuses VPN permissions to shut down Google's built-in protections before it strikes.

The tactic is effective because it hides in plain sight. Plenty of legitimate apps ask for VPN access, and even the best VPN apps rely on the same underlying permission to route your traffic. ToxicPanda copies that request, but uses the access to cut your phone off from Google Play instead.

Once Google Play Protect can no longer reach the device, the malware has a clear runway to install its payload and begin harvesting your data.

How ToxicPanda uses VPN permissions to blind Google Play

ToxicPanda operates as a "dropper," an app that smuggles in a second, hidden program. According to Zimperium researchers, the malware first shows a fake installation screen and prompts the victim to grant VPN permissions. That request looks routine, so many users tap "allow" without a second thought.

Granting it lets ToxicPanda create a local network interface that sits between the phone and the internet, giving the malware control over all traffic passing through the device. It immediately uses that control to block communication with Google Play and Google Play Services.

Cutting off this connection lets the malware interfere with app verifications, updates, and Play Protect, the security layer that would normally flag or remove a harmful app. With Google effectively blindfolded, ToxicPanda decrypts a payload hidden in its own files, installs it, and then asks for Accessibility Service permissions to dig deeper.

(Image credit: Zimperium)

This release is a major escalation from the previous ToxicPanda iteration.

As Zimperium says, ToxicPanda 2.0 now supports 167 remote commands. It can also overlay fake login screens on 349 banking, e-wallet, and crypto apps across 16 countries, up from just 16 apps previously. A separate module harvests PINs from more than 140 financial apps using invisible overlays that capture your taps.

The trojan can also spoof your Android lock screen to steal your PIN, pattern, or password, and it abuses Android's Wireless Debugging (ADB) feature to gain shell-level access and grant itself permissions without prompts.

ToxicPanda first appeared in 2024, targeting European banks. Other similar malware such as Rokarolla, has also hit hundreds of banking and crypto apps in recent months.

How to stay safe

The strongest defense is to keep the malware off your phone in the first place.

Only install apps from the official Google Play Store, and avoid sideloading APK files from links, ads, or third-party sites. Be aware that dangerous VPN links have even slipped into official app stores, so treat any surprise VPN prompt with suspicion.

A legitimate VPN remains a valuable privacy tool, but this campaign is a reminder that the permission itself is powerful, so grant it only to apps you genuinely trust.