First things first
AI is everywhere in this batch, from cheaper model judging and tools to the unsettling pace of research itself. Meanwhile, the market mood is wobblier, with giant valuations, security headaches, and big questions about who gets trusted.
Builders have plenty to chew on too, with libraries, Linux progress, safer project setups, and new hardware. Between retro games, robots, rent fights, and internet stunts, the future feels less tidy than promised.
The top 6
Anthropic IPO investors have lowered their valuation expectations after a sharp selloff in AI stocks, with some now discussing $1.2 trillion to $1.3 trillion. Market volatility and concerns about data-center expansion have added pressure, and some investors say a valuation near $1 trillion would be more comfortable.
Libghostty-vt 1.0 is a portable, high-performance C terminal-emulation library with a stable API and ABI. It already powers terminals and developer tools used by millions, including JetBrains IDEs, and has bindings across many languages.
Hightouch tested Jev and GPT-6 Luna as judges for identity resolution, comparing their accuracy with frontier models. Jev can ask Claude Opus for help, achieving near-Opus accuracy at about one-quarter the cost.
Anthropic’s AI capabilities advanced about twice as fast from October 2025 to October 2026, with AI automation driving most of the acceleration, according to Ajeya Cotra’s account of a METR investigation. A simple extrapolation suggests acceleration could compound rapidly, but it does not establish that superintelligence will arrive within a year.
Google introduced Gemini Omni 1.2 Flash, a fast model in its Gemini family. It is designed for developers building AI applications.
Deus Ex received mixed-to-glowing reviews in 2000, with praise for its ambitious, reactive world and criticism of technical and design flaws. Over time it became widely hailed as a landmark game and supposed predictor of the future, though some modern praise overlooks the context behind its creation.
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Quote of the day
You must do the things you think you cannot do.
Eleanor Roosevelt
Also big today
Asahi Linux advanced upstream support for Apple Silicon, submitting audio and video drivers and adding early device trees for M4 and M5 systems. M3 support is now generally available, with display improvements that enable sleep and use of the area around MacBook notches.
Researchers used a guest-to-host memory vulnerability to locate Firecracker’s saved vCPU registers and redirect a live thread, achieving root code execution on the host. The exploit let Firecracker continue running and kept the compromised VM accessible over SSH.
Ubuntu has left a critical CVE rated 9.8 without a fix for nearly a week, though it has published a mitigation. The delay has raised concerns about Ubuntu’s ability to keep pace with growing security threats.
Tesla plans to wind down Cybertruck production around mid-2027 to make room for Cybercab manufacturing. Despite heavy reservations, the polarizing pickup sold poorly and faced design and quality problems.
Report URI has identified 15,579 websites serving malicious JavaScript, exposing visitors to skimmers, malware, spyware, and phishing; the sites receive an estimated 135 million visits monthly. The company can detect infections faster than it can notify website owners and is seeking ways to improve responsible disclosure.
Rune is a Rust UI framework that renders interfaces on the GPU. It targets macOS, Windows, Linux, and the web.
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Worth a look
CATL says its sodium battery will reach cost parity with LFP batteries in 2026. It is rated for 15,000 charge cycles and a 30-year lifespan.
Kevin Boone’s tutorial series teaches experienced Linux developers to build bare-metal PC applications that boot through UEFI, without requiring prior UEFI knowledge. It covers compiling and linking, EFI system partitions, bootable USB or DVD images, and basic file handling in a recommended sequence.
Democrats plan congressional investigations into Musk’s companies, Apple and Meta, focusing on alleged uses of Grok in a military operation, Apple’s hosting of ICE tracking apps and Meta’s data center agreements. The probes are prompting corporate executives and lawyers to prepare for subpoenas and public scrutiny.
Since macOS 13, two background services have built an on-device knowledge graph from data such as contacts, messages, photos, calendars, and location. The graph infers relationships, including family ties, but Apple provides little detail about how it works or what it collects.
Two federal appeals courts rejected Kalshi’s efforts to block state gambling laws in Connecticut, New York, and Nevada, while Arkansas sued the prediction market over alleged illegal gambling. Kalshi argues its event contracts fall under federal commodities regulation, but state officials say the platform’s wagers must follow state gambling rules.
Unitree’s factory still relies heavily on human labor, which makes up only 8% of its robot production costs in China. Automation offers limited savings there, while Western factories could benefit more because labor costs are far higher.
Song of the day
Deep cuts
Devvm creates an isolated virtual machine for each project, with the project folder mounted and developer tools ready for coding or coding agents. It keeps personal files outside the VM and controls internet access through a proxy and allowlist.
Ancient DNA evidence supports a barbarian tribe’s traditional account of its origins and migration. Researchers linked the tribe to ancestors who moved into Europe from Scandinavia.
UploadYourRAM.org satirizes claims that consumers don’t need RAM by pretending they can donate unused computer memory to Sam Altman. Its donation buttons offer 2, 4, or 16 GB, but the site provides no real way to upload RAM.
A federal court approved settlements totaling nearly $360 million for renters in an antitrust case alleging landlords used RealPage software to coordinate rent increases. The companies denied wrongdoing, and a legal expert said the ruling may not end litigation over algorithmic pricing.
Researchers found 820 suspicious domains impersonating 35 restaurant brands, with some cloning real ordering sites and skimming customers’ card details and bank SMS verification codes. The attacks use look-alike domains and do not require the restaurants’ websites to be hacked.
GitHub redesigned its Git storage architecture to handle repository growth and improve how repositories are stored and served. The new system aims to boost performance and reliability across the platform.
Today's best Hacker News stories, summarized and screenshotted, one email a day.