OpenAI unveiled a model that already found 81 critical flaws in Firefox, an outside evaluator thinks Anthropic is improving its AI at twice the speed, and Apple opened Siri AI to apps. In space, the Station finished its power upgrade and NASA is looking for ways to save Hubble. Also: a prehistoric owl that hunted by day, a phone with a rear screen and a sequencer that just went open source. This was the most interesting stuff of the week.
Artificial intelligence
OpenAI launches GPT-6 Cyber, a model that found 81 critical flaws in Firefox
It’s OpenAI’s model for finding software flaws, building working exploits and suggesting patches. The company says it uncovered 81 critical vulnerabilities in Firefox, which Mozilla has fixed, and in the Linux kernel it reproduced 1,724 flaws and built exploits for 948. OpenAI rates it a “Critical” cybersecurity risk and for now offers it only to select Daybreak Red customers. The figures come from the company itself, and there is no independent testing yet.
An independent evaluator thinks Anthropic is now improving its AI at twice the speed
METR, an outside group that reviewed internal Anthropic information from August to October, estimates the company is improving its models on well-defined tasks at roughly double the pace of 2024 and 2025; the range runs from 1.3 to 3 times. It figures about 80 % of that acceleration comes from AI itself. It notes that Anthropic redacted much of the most informative evidence in the public report, so readers have to rely heavily on its judgment.
Google launches Gemini Omni 1.2 Flash: AI videos up to 15 seconds and 30 % cheaper
Google’s new video model goes from 10 to 15 seconds per clip and cuts its price 30 %, to $0.07 per second at 720p. You can edit a clip by chatting, it keeps characters or products consistent from reference images, and everything is marked with SynthID. It’s available in the Gemini API and Google Cloud; Google Vids and Flow already offer it, and in the Gemini app it reaches AI Ultra subscribers first.
Apple opens Siri AI to apps in the 27.3 developer betas
With the first 27.3 betas, Siri AI can run actions inside apps such as Calendar, Mail, Maps, Photos, Safari and Shortcuts: organizing files, grouping tabs, scheduling messages or creating Journal entries. Developers can connect their own apps through App Intents. For now it’s for testing only; there is no public release date.
AI agents run SETI’s radio telescope in the search for alien signals
At the Allen Telescope Array in California, software agents point the dishes, calibrate the instrument, fix data errors and analyze signals as they arrive, using NVIDIA’s Holoscan platform. So far there is no detection tied to extraterrestrial life; the confirmed real-time result is a pulsar in the Crab Nebula.
Space Station power upgrade ends with its eighth and final solar array
NASA’s Anil Menon and the Canadian Space Agency’s Joshua Kutryk spent 6 hours and 59 minutes outside to install and deploy the eighth roll-out array. The station goes from 160 to about 215 kilowatts. The upgrade began in February 2021 and took 18 spacewalks in all.
NASA looks for ways to save Hubble as it loses altitude
With no engines to correct its orbit, Hubble would reenter the atmosphere between 2033 and 2034. Raising it would take a mission before 2032. On October 29, NASA asked private companies for proposals to service it, boost it, upgrade it or retire it safely; responses are due November 30. Everything is under evaluation, nothing approved.
A 47-million-year-old owl hunted by day and ate an iridescent cockroach
At Germany’s Messel Pit, researchers found a nearly complete young owl, under 12 cm, named Masillastrix blattophaga. Its stomach held an iridescent cockroach, a sign it hunted by day, and its stocky wing bones point the same way. The study, in Current Biology, suggests owls became nocturnal between 47 and 35 million years ago.
The Xiaomi 18 Pro Max, with a rear screen, reaches Mexico in December
Xiaomi debuts the “Pro Max” name in its main series. Its second screen is on the back: it shows information, runs apps as cards and works as a camera viewfinder. It uses the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 or 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 processors. The company confirmed the international launch for November and Mexico for December, with no date or price yet.
Polyend opens up Tracker code so anyone can build custom firmware
Polyend released the code for the Tracker, Tracker+ and Tracker Mini as Tracker Community Edition 1.0, free on GitHub. It adds longer samples streamed from SD card, new effects and the CHIP and DIRT engines, plus tools to build plugins and share firmware. A recovery system restores a working image if an experimental build fails. The license allows reusing components, but not cloning the full application.