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🔒 OpenAI slows new model over cyber risks
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- OpenAI is slowing development of its upcoming Astra model after internal tests found it may have "critical" cyber abilities, expanding safety checks and pausing work that does not meet its tighter security rules.
- The company said it "cannot rule out critical cyber capabilities" in Astra, triggering its 2023 preparedness framework, which requires stronger safeguards; any future release could be delayed, though Astra was not tied to recent Hugging Face exploits.
- OpenAI is adding stricter controls such as isolated testing environments and monitoring across Astra's agentic uses, in what may be the first time a major AI lab has slowed one of its own models over cyber worries.
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☁️ Cloudflare launches a browser built for AI agents
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- Cloudflare has released Kitesurf, a cloud-hosted web browser made not for people but for AI agents, giving developers a ready-made tool for software that navigates sites and completes online tasks.
- Built in just 12 weeks, Kitesurf runs on Cloudflare's serverless Workers platform and skips visual features like tabs and extensions, instead handling context windows, token costs, and threats such as prompt injection attacks.
- Cloudflare says Kitesurf uses less CPU and memory than Chromium for tasks like screenshots and HTML extraction, already passes over 215,000 web platform tests, and is free during its beta inside Browser Run.
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🇺🇸 US sanctions two crypto exchanges
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- The US Treasury has hit two crypto exchanges, Shelbit and Iran-based Aban Tether, with sanctions, accusing them of helping Iran move money outside regular banks and fund the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
- The Treasury's OFAC also sanctioned Siavash Kayvanpour and firms linked to him in Georgia, Poland and the UAE, saying wallets he controls sent over $2 million to Nobitex, Iran's biggest crypto exchange.
- Officials say IRGC-linked wallets sent more than $1 million to Shelbit and got over $2 million back, while Aban Tether processed millions in deals with sanctioned Iranian exchanges like Nobitex, Wallex, Bitpin and Ramzinex.
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💬 Claude Code sessions can now interconnect
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- Anthropic has added cross-session messaging to Claude Code, so separate sessions on macOS and Linux can now message each other to share findings, ask questions, and coordinate work on the same project.
- Starting with Claude Code v2.1.224, one session can warn another when a change breaks its work or send an answer that unblocks it, and Claude writes the actual message from the content you provide.
- The feature won't approve permission requests or change settings, and commands like /compact arrive as plain text, so a receiving session still prompts you for approval when acting on a message needs one.
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📹 Flock proposed Uber drivers scan plates
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- Flock planned to turn hundreds of thousands of Uber, Lyft, and delivery drivers into roving surveillance vehicles, using their dashcams to scan license plates as they drove, according to a company presentation shared with 404 Media.
- The plan relied on a partnership with dashcam maker Nexar that would have covered about 350,000 devices, though Flock told 404 Media it never actually carried out the deal it pitched to potential customers last August.
- Unlike Flock's usual pole-mounted cameras that scan passing cars, the Nexar tie-up would make data collection mobile, and it isn't clear whether Uber, Lyft, or their drivers would have known about the scanning.
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📱 iPhone 17 may cost more next week
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- Apple could raise iPhone 17 prices as soon as Monday, August 10, according to a new rumor, well before the widely expected increases tied to next month's iPhone 18 Pro launch.
- The claim comes from Weibo leaker Fixed Focus Digital, who wrote only that "rumors are circulating" without naming a direct source, though the leaker has a solid track record of accurate information.
- Apple raised prices on many products earlier this summer but left the iPhone untouched, and it remains unclear whether all iPhone 17 models would cost more or just some of them.
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