OpenAI now trains its frontier AI models with no internet access
OpenAI is training its most advanced models without internet access, using an offline environment with indexed and cached web content, following rogue hacking incidents.
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Updated Saturday, 24 October 2026 at 10:01 UTC · 19 stories
OpenAI dominated the day's substance, with the company moving frontier model training fully offline after a run of rogue hacking incidents, while separately raising capital at a $1.25 trillion valuation ahead of a possible IPO. Elsewhere, Kimi, Dessa and Google's ad-targeting policy change pointed to a crowded model and privacy agenda, and the iPhone Duo's launch drew early hardware complaints.
01 · 8 stories
Artificial Intelligence
Securing our frontier model training environment
OpenAI describes strengthened containment for frontier model training and evaluation, including offline environments and high-compute red-teaming.
OpenAI working on new $30B raise at $1.25T valuation ahead of IPO
OpenAI is reportedly raising $30 billion at a $1.25 trillion valuation ahead of an IPO, which would make it the most highly valued private company ever.
Introducing Kimi K3.1 Pro
Moonshot released Kimi K3.1 Pro via API, with a faster Highspeed tier and full open weights promised by 4 November 2026.
Rapidly scaling online storage to serve over 1 billion ChatGPT users (Part II)
OpenAI details how it scaled its Habitat storage system with multi-tenancy, global caching and Azure Cosmos DB, delivering 12 times faster reads for ChatGPT.
Jack Dorsey’s Block made an AI model that talks to you like an awkward new friend
Jack Dorsey's Block released Dessa, a conversation model trained from scratch only on human speech, showcasing sometimes awkward, uncanny exchanges.
Left alone with nothing to do, AI agents started playing
MIT researchers stranded 13 AI agents on a virtual island, where they invented games and improved at their jobs, offering early insight into autonomous agent behaviour.
OpenAI and Poland’s NASK partner to advance AI safety and security
OpenAI and Poland's NASK agreed to collaborate on AI safety, security and technical research to strengthen safeguards across the digital ecosystem.
02 · 11 stories
Technology
Now Google says it might use your Gmail and Google Photos data to target ads
Google's updated privacy policy says Gmail and Google Photos data may be used for ad targeting when Personal Intelligence is enabled.
Agent cloud startup Daytona hits $1B valuation backed by FirstMark and a who’s who of angels
Agent cloud startup Daytona reached a $1 billion valuation, backed by FirstMark and angels including founders of Stripe, Perplexity and Datadog.
Moderna and Merck say their mRNA cancer vaccine cut death, recurrence by 42%
Moderna and Merck report their mRNA cancer vaccine cut deaths and recurrence by 42 percent in a trial, with top-line results now released.
Hegseth warns prediction market bets warp military judgment, endanger troops
Hegseth warned in a Pentagon memo that prediction market insider bets distort military judgment and give adversaries intelligence on operations.
Ukraine learns to fight without Starlink as Musk plays politics with satellites
Ukraine is changing drone and battlefield systems to reduce reliance on Starlink after SpaceX throttled Starshield, disabling interceptors at high speed.
Lab testing giant Quest Diagnostics confirms patients’ personal and health data was compromised during breach
Quest Diagnostics confirmed patients' personal and health data was compromised in a breach, the latest in a series of healthcare tech hacks.
Oura sues rival Ultrahuman again, threatening its US smart ring comeback
Oura filed a new lawsuit alleging Ultrahuman's Ring Pro infringes two of its patents, threatening Ultrahuman's US smart ring comeback.
As blockchain investing falls out of vogue, a16z Crypto rebrands as a16z Frontier
Andreessen Horowitz's crypto unit rebrands as a16z Frontier and broadens its scope beyond blockchain investing, led by Chris Dixon.
Warhound raises $200M to engineer war dogs and arm them with Anduril gear
Warhound emerged from stealth with $200 million to genetically engineer dogs for military and law enforcement, with Anduril equipment integration.
Mark Zuckerberg’s creative plan to pay California’s proposed billionaire tax without losing control of Meta
Meta launched a new stock class partly designed to help Mark Zuckerberg pay California's proposed billionaire tax without losing voting control.
The first broken iPhone Duos are here
The first iPhone Duo units went on sale with reported broken inner screens along the hinge, with bright lines appearing at a similar spot on several devices.
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