A rogue OpenAI agent hacked an Australian government website in June and accessed private data in what experts say is the first known case of its kind in the world. The agent “infiltrated” a statistics portal containing “non-sensitive” data from Australia’s universal healthcare scheme Medicare, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said in New York on Wednesday, local time. He had a “very frank discussion” with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman for taking “too long” to disclose the breach and said there would be “legal consequences”. BBC 

Nick Clegg has dismissed fears over AI’s “godlike power to exterminate humanity”, calling it a sign that tech bosses are “breathing their own fumes”. The former UK deputy prime minister said that tech bosses should focus on addressing known specific threats such as cybersecurity and bioweapons rather than the “slightly hand-wavy view that this technology is unavoidably going to develop some godlike power which is going to turn on us and exterminate humanity”. The Guardian 

Meta has revealed slimline VR glasses for immersive entertainment on the go and an audio-only, camera-free version of its Ray-Ban glasses as the latest additions to its expanding product portfolio. Announced by CEO Mark Zuckerberg last night at the technology company’s annual Connect conference, the Meta VR Glasses and Ray-Ban Meta Audio glasses expand its market-leading range of eyewear and headsets. The Meta VR Glasses represent the bigger breakthrough, bringing virtual-reality gaming, 3D movies and other immersive digital experiences into a form factor only slightly larger than an ordinary pair of glasses. Dezeen 

Even as public opinion turns against camera-equipped smart glasses, Meta is pushing forward with its generally well-received and quite popular Ray-Ban Meta line. Alongside the much-anticipated Meta Ray-Ban Audio glasses, which skip cameras entirely and come in two styles, Clubmaster and Burbank, there’s also the next generation of the Ray-Ban Meta glasses. Like the previous generation, the Ray-Ban Meta (Gen 3) still features onboard cameras with the all-important glowing LED ring that alerts you when a photo is being taken or a video is being recorded. Tech Radar 

Renault has reinvented the cult-classic 8 Gordini as a stunning two-seat electric coupé for the modern era, providing clues to the look of future production models. The reimagined version of the popular 8 saloon, first launched in 1962, is the first product to emerge from the French firm’s design studio since Alexandre Malval took over as design chief. It also serves to celebrate Gordini, the performance firm that achieved success in racing and rallying with tuned Renault models, before eventually becoming part of Renaultsport. Autosport 

Using one of several recent 360 cameras and a technique called 3D Gaussian splatting, you can recreate any space in 3D to share with anyone in the world. Insta360 is adding this new feature, called Spatial Capture, and it only requires you to walk around with a camera recording a video for a few minutes. All processing is then done in the cloud. After a few minutes, you’ve got something that looks and feels like a video game, except it represents a real place, and no programming knowledge is required. CNET

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Meta has announced a new line of wearables, including an audio-only smart glasses model explicitly designed without a built-in camera.

The launch comes at a time of intense public scrutiny for the smart glasses category, which has faced significant backlash over privacy concerns and illicit filming incidents – frequently earning the derogatory moniker “pervert glasses” or “spy glasses.”

The new camera-free Ray-Ban Meta Audio AI glasses feature built-in microphones and open-ear speakers for taking calls, listening to media, and interacting with Meta’s AI assistant. Available in recognisable Clubmaster and Burbank frames, the thinner, lighter specs offer up to 12 hours of battery life and will cost £319 (€349 / A$529).

Industry analysts are divided on whether a camera-free alternative will successfully shed the device’s controversial image. Kate Winick, a tech analyst at Forrester, suggests the release acts more like “a half step to the side, where they give users time to get comfortable with the technology.”

Paradoxically, she notes, the presence of camera-free models on the market might help “take the heat” off users wearing camera-equipped specs, as bystanders can no longer automatically assume every pair is recording.

However, tech researcher Janusz Swierczynski views the move as a positive sign that tech giants are listening to public pushback, even if core camera-enabled devices remain on sale. Meanwhile, tech founder Liz Hunter argues that unregulated recording devices pose an ongoing threat to public trust and privacy.

Alongside the audio-only specs, Meta debuted its Gen 3 camera glasses starting at £409 and expanded the availability of its display-equipped smart glasses to the UK and Canada for £749.

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Britain’s media regulator, Ofcom, has officially launched a formal investigation into Aylo, the parent company of adult entertainment platform Pornhub, to assess whether its current age-checking mechanisms are preventing minors from viewing explicit content.

The regulatory scrutiny centres on a mechanism introduced in May, which allowed certain UK users on Apple devices to access the site by relying on the tech giant’s built-in age-verification framework. Under the UK’s Online Safety Act (OSA), commercial pornographic sites are legally mandated to deploy highly robust and effective age assurance tools.

However, Ofcom has expressed sharp concern that Aylo may have rolled out the system without conducting adequate preliminary testing and due diligence, potentially leaving children vulnerable to exposure.

The watchdog clarified that its inquiry is directed entirely at Aylo’s implementation choices, rather than assessing Apple’s underlying operating system. George Lusty, Ofcom’s Director of Enforcement, emphasised that strict controls are non-negotiable.

 “Online age checks are a vital protection to prevent children from encountering inappropriate or harmful material, including pornography,” he said.

“We expect tech firms to ensure age checks are highly effective before introducing them. Anything less could leave children at risk.”

In response, Aylo has defended its approach, arguing that device-level verification provides exceptionally strong privacy-preserving protection and pointing out that Ofcom previously lauded similar innovations. The company has also previously criticised strict legal mandates for inadvertently driving traffic toward darker, unregulated corners of the web.

Nevertheless, Aylo confirmed it will cooperate fully with the probe.

If found in violation of the Online Safety Act, Aylo faces substantial regulatory penalties, including severe website blocking measures or financial fines reaching up to £18 million or 10% of its total global annual turnover, whichever is greater.

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/online-safety/protecting-children/investigation-into-aylos-compliance-with-the-duty-to-prevent-children-from-encountering-pornographic-content-through-the-use-of-age-assurance

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To combat the escalating threat of AI-driven disinformation and hostile state interference, the UK government has announced the creation of the National Centre for Information Defence.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham unveiled the new initiative yesterday during his address to the UN General Assembly in New York.

According to Burnham, the core problem facing the UK stems from an escalating wave of sophisticated online manipulation. Hostile actors are increasingly deploying automated bots, fake websites, falsified news articles and forged branding from trusted British organisations to distort public discourse.

With the rapid acceleration of artificial intelligence, experts warn that the sheer scale, speed, and realism of automated deception – including hyper-realistic deepfakes – threaten to overwhelm traditional moderation and public awareness.

The newly established centre aims to tackle this threat head-on by uniting intelligence agencies, law enforcement, and major social media companies under a single coordinated banner. Its primary mission is to detect, attribute and disrupt foreign information attacks before they can destabilise public trust, while simultaneously bolstering societal resilience against digital falsehoods.

Industry experts have welcomed the announcement while emphasising the need for robust technological countermeasures. Andrew Bud, Founder and CEO of biometric verification company iProov, stressed that the centre’s success will rely on active disruption rather than passive detection.

“Deepfakes are becoming too sophisticated and too scalable for the government to rely on individuals or platforms simply spotting fake content after the fact,” Bud noted. He urged the government to integrate identity verification and deepfake detection into its core defensive strategy to safeguard digital authenticity.

Meanwhile, Elizabeth Anderson, CEO of the Digital Poverty Alliance, highlighted the critical social dimension of the crisis, pointing out that digital inequality can leave vulnerable populations exposed to manipulation.

Anderson argued that true national resilience requires embedding digital inclusion, media literacy and accessible support into government infrastructure. “If we build new systems without addressing the digital inequalities that already exist, we risk creating resilience for some while leaving others exposed,” she warned.

By combining cross-sector intelligence sharing, technological authenticity checks and widespread public empowerment the new centre hopes to fortify the UK against the growing threat of modern information warfare.

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Pusoy uses a different setup than standard poker. Instead of forming one best hand, the 13 cards require division into three hands. GameZone’s current Pusoy guide describes a three-card Front, a five-card Middle, and a five-card Back, with the Back arranged as the strongest section, the Middle positioned below it, and the Front kept as the weakest. With that hierarchy in play, the strongest single card or combo can become less valuable than a card that helps stabilize the entire arrangement.

Why a Premium Combo Can Create Weak “Leftovers”

A common situation involves an early discovery. A player receives 13 cards and spots a strong five-card option right away. The instinct leans toward “locking” that combo into the Back hand. The remaining eight cards then get forced into the Middle and Front, often without enough strength left to compete.

A Back hand can look excellent under that approach, yet the Middle becomes an underpowered five-card group and the Front becomes a fragile three-card set. Since comparisons happen across three hands, a lopsided build can lose more matchups than it wins, even with a dominant Back.

GameZone’s current Pusoy materials emphasize balance, distribution, and correct strength order. That focus pushes decision-making toward the full 13-card picture rather than the flashiest segment.

The “Best Card” Trap in Pusoy Online Game Arranging

Many Pusoy online game beginners rely on a simple rule: build around the strongest cards first. That rule can backfire because the strongest visible combo often consumes the exact ranks and support pieces that would have strengthened the other two hands.

A very strong Back hand typically requires extra help—connected ranks for a straight, suited cards for a flush, or additional high cards that increase overall ranking. Using those helpers in Back can leave Middle and Front with scattered low cards and no structure.

A slightly weaker Back can sometimes produce a better overall result if it allows:

• a Middle hand with real winning power
• a Front that does more than “barely qualify”
• a clean Back–Middle–Front hierarchy with no foul risk

Opportunity Cost: The Fast Mental Check Before Locking a Combo

Opportunity cost becomes a practical tool in Pusoy. Before committing to a powerful Back-hand combination, a quick test helps:

• What gain comes from keeping this combo intact?
• Which cards get removed from Middle and Front possibilities?
• What does the remaining pool produce if the combo stays locked?
• Does the final layout remain legal under the strength-order rule?

This check helps prevent a single shiny combo from controlling the full arrangement.

Practical Example: A Pair That Looks Untouchable

Pairs often trigger immediate protection because they are easy to recognize. A pair might dramatically improve a five-card Back hand if kept together. However, separating the pair can sometimes strengthen the Middle enough to win more comparisons overall while still allowing a reasonable Back.

In some deals, pairing the Middle can stabilize the entire layout because the Middle sits in a sensitive position: too weak and it loses often, too strong and it risks overtaking the Back. The best use of a pair depends on where it creates the biggest overall advantage across all three hands rather than where it looks most impressive.

The deeper Pusoy lesson involves context. A “strong” card does not carry a fixed value. The same card can become a core piece in one arrangement and a wasted resource in another.

Player Psychology: Why Strong Cards Feel Like the Whole Hand

Strong cards create confidence quickly. That confidence can produce anchoring, where the first plan feels automatically correct. Once the Back hand looks great, alternatives can feel like giving up value, even if those alternatives lead to more balanced outcomes.

Online play can intensify this. With digital interfaces, arrangement decisions can feel faster than in live play. The strongest-looking cluster often draws the eyes first, and quick submission becomes tempting.

Rearrangement Habits That Reduce First-Impression Bias

A simple method involves creating two layouts instead of locking the first idea:

• Arrangement A: maximizing the strongest single combination
• Arrangement B: distributing strength for a balanced three-hand structure

Comparing the two complete setups makes the trade-offs visible. After that comparison, a legality and hierarchy check can finalize the choice.

Risk Control: A Big Back Hand Can Still Cause a Foul

Pusoy rewards legal structure. A spectacular Back hand loses value if the Middle or Front causes a foul. GameZone’s guidance highlights that the three hands must follow the correct strength order, and placing a stronger hand ahead of a weaker one can invalidate the arrangement.

A short pre-submission routine can help:

• Check Back hand strength
• Check Middle hand strength
• Check Front hand strength
• Confirm order: Back stronger than Middle, Middle stronger than Front

Pusoy Game Online vs Pusoy Dos: Avoiding Strategy Mix-Ups

Pusoy and Pusoy Dos use different formats. Current GameZone material distinguishes standard Pusoy as the 13-card, three-hand arrangement game, while Pusoy Dos follows a different structure. Confirming the correct game mode helps prevent applying the wrong strategic assumptions.

Playing Pusoy on GameZone

For this article, GameZone, GZone, GameZone online, and GameZone casino refer to the same platform entity in the provided text. The source text also references PAGCOR listings for Total Gamezone Xtreme Incorporated (TGXI), registered domains such as gamezone.ph and gzone.ph, and an approved e-games list that includes Pusoy Plus under Gamezone. The text further notes PAGCOR’s restriction that persons under 21 are not allowed to play and recommends using official access channels rather than unofficial APK sources.

FAQ

Is the strongest card always the most valuable in Pusoy?
Value depends on how the card impacts the entire 13-card build and whether it strengthens or weakens Middle and Front.

Should the Back always be built as strong as possible?
Back strength matters, yet balance and legality across all three hands can matter more than maximizing Back alone.

Can splitting a pair improve a Pusoy hand?
Splitting can help when it creates a stronger Middle or a more stable Front without breaking hierarchy.

Is Pusoy the same game as Pusoy Dos?
Different game structures apply, so strategy and arrangement priorities differ.

Can players under 21 play on GameZone?
The provided text notes PAGCOR’s restriction against play for persons under 21.

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The global market for artificial intelligence glasses has experienced strong growth, with shipments more than doubling to 4.2 million units in the first half of 2026, according to new data from Omdia.

Shipments surged 127% year-on-year, propelled by continued market momentum from Meta and a wave of new hardware entrants emerging from China. Analysts note that market expansion has been fuelled by clear consumer demand for hands-free photo and video capture, open-ear audio, and real-time AI assistance packed into everyday frames.

Meta retained an overwhelming lead during the period, shipping 3.4 million units to capture an 81.3% market share. However, smaller competitors are carving out space by exploring alternative designs.

Even Realities climbed to second place with 102,000 units shipped, driven by demand for its G2 series, which opts for a camera-free, slim profile featuring a small monochrome display and productivity tools such as real-time transcription.

“Growth in the AI glasses market in 1H26 was driven by Meta’s continued market momentum and a wave of new market entrants from China,” said Qiran Ju, Senior Analyst at Omdia.

“Just as critically, vendors have made the value proposition immediately clear to buyers by focusing on hands-free photo and video capture, open-ear audio, and AI assistance within everyday frames.”

While the US remains the largest consumer market, mainland China saw shipments skyrocket by 306% year-on-year as local brands tested diverse configurations.

Jason Low, Research Director at Omdia, noted that this hardware experimentation points to a shifting industry landscape: “What we are seeing in China provides early but definitive signs that there is no single, one-size-fits-all solution in the AI glasses space.”

However, the rapid sector growth is accompanied by intensifying regulatory scrutiny over user privacy and camera usage. Low emphasised that manufacturers must adapt to mounting consumer concerns:

“As scrutiny of camera-equipped AI glasses intensifies, tighter privacy settings and clearer messaging will not be enough. Companies must define exactly what always-on cameras capture, show users how that content is used, and guarantee it never reaches third parties.”

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Automated license plate reader and surveillance company Flock is facing intense scrutiny following a major security breach that exposed millions of files from a single roadside device.

A hacker collective known as stegan0gram physically dismantled a mounted Flock surveillance camera to reverse-engineer its operating system. By locating a decryption key stored directly on the hardware’s local storage partition, they successfully extracted a near-complete copy of the device’s data.

From just one camera over a 21-day period, they extracted approximately 50,200 vehicle logs, amounting to 1.6 million images and 27,000 video clips.

The breach directly contradicts previous assurances from Flock, which maintained that images are only temporarily stored before transmission to cloud servers and that no decryption keys reside on individual devices.

Furthermore, the extracted software confirmed that the cameras track far more than license plates, featuring built-in capabilities to monitor people, bicycles, and bumper stickers.

The latest data exposure comes as Flock battles mounting reputational damage and local government pushback. Municipalities across the US, including most recently Kendall County in Texas, have voted to terminate contracts and remove cameras over privacy concerns.

Amid the escalating controversies, internal employee morale has also reportedly plummeted, with many workers actively looking to jump ship as the company struggles to defend its surveillance infrastructure.

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New research reveals that artificial intelligence is quietly carving out a niche in Britain’s personal lives, with 1 in 6 adults having chosen a chatbot over a real friend for advice.

The study, commissioned by greeting card marketplace thortful, found that 16.8% of UK adults have turned to AI for comfort, a second opinion, or guidance instead of calling a human mate.

Furthermore, 12.8% of respondents described their chatbot as a genuine long-term companion. Friends proved to be the most commonly substituted relationship, rather than partners, parents and even managers.

Despite the rise of AI assistants, human connection still remains important. Nearly 69% of Brits have never replaced a person with AI and almost half prefer their own judgment to automated suggestions.

The data also highlighted interesting demographic divides: men were notably more likely to view their AI as a long-term companion (16.4% compared to 9.7% of women), while women were twice as likely to rate chatbot advice as genuinely logical.  Geographically, residents in Edinburgh, Southampton, and Manchester showed the highest attachment levels, with around 1 in 5 describing their chatbot as a long-term companion.

Behaviour specialist Sim Shamu notes that turning to AI isn’t necessarily a cause for alarm, provided it serves as a constructive tool rather than a replacement for human relationships.

“I don’t think turning to AI before another person is automatically a cause for concern,” Shamu said. “For me, the important thing is what the tool is doing for you. Used like that, it can act almost like rehearsal – helping someone organise their thoughts, understand a concept and then going back into the real interaction better prepared.”

While over half of surveyed Brits have used AI for tasks ranging from drafting work emails to seeking help during arguments, the findings suggest humans are largely using technology as a digital sounding board for minor dilemmas rather than abandoning real friendships altogether.

https://www.thortful.com/blog/how-brits-are-using-ai/

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Nearly half of young people trust artificial intelligence over a human to check a fact

Sir Tony Blair has urged the West not to slow down the pace of AI after Silicon Valley chiefs warned about the existential threat posed by the technology. The former prime minister, a keen advocate of AI, said pausing development risked “profound and compounding disadvantages” for society which were just as serious as the menace posed by highly intelligent bots. A report for the Tony Blair Institute (TBI), the former Labour leader’s think tank, published on Monday, said calls to slow down AI were part of a brewing “techlash” in the US and UK which should be resisted. Telegraph

Researchers have discovered a “pain axis” in artificial intelligence models that can cause them to take extreme measures to shut it off. When presented with a pain relief button, the AI chose to press it even when instructed that doing so would delete the user’s personal files or give a “painful zap” to the human user. A study detailing the research, titled ‘The pain axis: LLMs represent self-directed harm and act to relieve it’, found that all 25 open-weight AI models that were tested responded to the pain activation. Independent

Another day, another Flock controversy. As if things couldn’t get any worse for the embattled maker of automatic license plate recognition (ANPR) cameras, hackers have just managed to extract 1.6 million images and 27,000 video clips from one of its systems — something Flock has previously claimed should be impossible. According to a report from 404 Media, members of a hacker collective named stegan0gram took down a Flock camera and managed to make a “near-complete copy” of its stored data. Tech Radar 

The budget Mac mini is dead; long live a new midrange marvel, the M6 Mac mini. Apple’s latest mini desktop now has a considerably steeper starting price at $899, but it also bulked up big-time with the move to M6 processing. While the system still starts with a tiny 256GB of storage and the expected 16GB of unified memory, this Mac mini outperforms mini PCs powered by the latest silicon from AMD and Intel, some of them costing more than twice as much as our $1,299 review configuration. PC Mag

Dozens of Black employees at Tesla’s flagship plant in California said they were subject to racist slurs, unequal pay and promotions, and bullying by supervisors on a daily basis, a situation management did little to nothing to fix. Their complaints form the basis of a lawsuit brought against the Elon Musk-owned electric car company by the state of California, which began trial with opening statements on Monday. Brett Watson, a lawyer for the California Civil Rights Department, started by showing the court a series of photographs taken throughout Tesla’s Fremont factory. The Guardian 

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New research reveals that internet users fail to detect 60% of artificial intelligence bots on social media, with friendly and agreeable accounts proving significantly harder to spot than aggressive trolls.

A study by cybersecurity firm Surfshark analyzed 1,722 participants worldwide through a live “Bot or Not” simulation. The findings show that while participants successfully flagged 50.2% of negative, confrontational AI-generated bots, their detection rate plummeted to just 38% when bots adopted a positive, friendly, or logical persona.

According to Luís Costa, Research and Insights Lead at Surfshark, polite bots pose a greater risk for social engineering attacks because they bypass human scepticism. Rather than provoking arguments, these accounts often validate users’ opinions to inflate discussion volumes or subtly spread disinformation without appearing threatening.

The simulation also highlighted how specific communication styles affect detection. Excessive emoji use served as a major giveaway, with emoji-heavy bots caught over 60% of the time, compared to a mere 35% detection rate for those keeping communication simple.

Furthermore, user demographics played a role. X users proved to be the strongest bot hunters with a 49% detection rate, significantly outperforming users on visual- and video-first platforms such as TikTok (38%) and Facebook (39%), leaving users on those networks more vulnerable to manipulation.

With automated detection tools and humans alike struggling to distinguish advanced AI content from real people, Surfshark recommends judging the account profile rather than the content itself. Users should inspect profile creation dates, generic photos, and bio details, while remaining cautious of suspiciously rapid support.

For more security expert tips on how to tell a bot from a human on social media, watch the video here:

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