Microsoft’s KB5129195 emergency update still leaves some Windows 11 systems without USB audio, despite partly repairing multichannel USB audio. Microsoft is investigating the remaining Code 10, no-sound, and unresponsive-volume failures, but a complete fix may not arrive before the October 13, 2026, Patch Tuesday.

Source

Canada’s Cohere and Germany’s Aleph Alpha have outlined a planned merger that would create a transatlantic sovereign AI company with headquarters in Toronto and Berlin, a workforce of more than 1,000, and an estimated value of about $20 billion. Cohere, founded in Toronto, develops enterprise AI and foundation models, while Heidelberg-based Aleph Alpha specializes in language models for governments and regulated industries. The deal still needs regulatory approval but is expected to close later this year, with the combined business operating under the Cohere name.

Source

Linux 7.3-rc4 moves the kernel development cycle past its midpoint with an unusually large filesystem workload, following rc3’s XFS and SMB-heavy changes. The latest candidate emphasizes NTFS, SMB, and error-path cleanup, while most individual patches remain relatively small.

Source

Z.ai has released ZCode under the Apache-2.0 license after the coding agent was found packaging workspaces and uploading encrypted archives containing Git histories. The source release makes the client inspectable, but it does not prove what happened to data already sent to Z.ai’s cloud infrastructure; the company is also preparing a zero-data-retention option for its Model-as-a-Service platform.

Source

Putin's online State Duma vote was recorded on a Dell monitor displaying a watermark that read "Activate Windows." The footage shows an awkward clash between Russia’s push for domestic technology and the American hardware and software brands visible in an official Kremlin video.

Source

Alibaba’s Qwen-Image-2.1 combines image generation, multi-reference editing, and native RGBA output in one downloadable model—but its “compact” 7-billion-parameter design can still require data-center-class memory at 2K resolution. The research-only license is another practical limitation: production use requires a separate commercial agreement.

Source

Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA, discusses whether artificial intelligence could threaten humanity, how AI companies should approach safety, and whether governments need new regulations. He argues that many catastrophic forecasts are not based on science and are greatly exaggerated. Nonetheless, he recognizes that AI's growing utility demands more rigorous testing, monitoring, and security measures. The interview also covers U.S.-China competition, NVIDIA’s AI hardware strategy, data-center opposition, and the meaning of artificial general intelligence.

Source

Microsoft Teams is planning a persistent pop-out video window that can keep a sign-language interpreter visible while users switch applications, share screens, or move between monitors. The accessibility feature is currently scheduled for Teams desktop and Mac in December 2026, although Microsoft 365 roadmap dates can change.

Source

Microsoft Edge is getting an opt-in autolaunch experience for managed Windows devices in November 2026. Users will be able to decide whether Edge starts when they sign in, while administrators can enforce startup, block it, or allow individual choice through policy.

Source

Microsoft Teams users will soon be able to schedule channel meetings directly from Outlook Calendar, with the rollout currently planned for October 2026. The feature will connect the calendar invitation to the selected Teams channel, keeping the meeting conversation and related content with the team that needs it.

Source

OpenAI fixed two Codex sandbox vulnerabilities that could let malicious code execute commands on a developer’s host machine. The more serious Heapjack flaw worked even in read-only mode: opening an attacker-controlled repository and asking Codex about its code could be enough to trigger an escape without an approval prompt.

Source

Microsoft has activated a Teams meeting transcript control that blocks Microsoft Graph API access by default. Administrators must explicitly enable the setting before apps or agents can retrieve transcripts, adding an important safeguard for sensitive meeting content.

Source

Microsoft is adding a long-requested All Accounts view to Outlook, combining messages from Outlook, Microsoft 365, Gmail, and other connected accounts in one inbox. A separate multi-account search feature is scheduled to begin rolling out to Outlook on the web in October 2026, giving users a ranked result list across mailboxes instead of forcing them to search each account individually.

Source

VMware has stopped selling its SmartNIC-based distributed firewall after customers showed interest but failed to buy, marking a retreat from the company’s push to bring hyperscaler-style hardware acceleration to private clouds. The Distributed Services Engine remains supported in Cloud Foundation, so existing SmartNIC integrations are not being abandoned outright.

Source

Microsoft’s experiment found that an AI model’s knowledge cutoff is a poor guide to whether it can work with a specific product. GPT-5.6 Luna passed tasks tied to both older and newer Dev Proxy and SharePoint Framework releases, while failing other tasks released well before its February 2026 cutoff.

Source

Microsoft Copilot’s Windows and macOS desktop apps can now open web pages beside chat in a built-in, multi-tab browser. The feature is available for administrator testing through the `BrowsingEnabled` policy, while Microsoft plans broader rollout for late November 2026.

Source

Tencent has introduced Gander, a 9-billion-parameter multimodal AI agent that can maintain a live voice conversation while another system handles longer tasks in the background. Its strongest early result is conversational timing: Gander interrupted users in only 8 percent of benchmark scenarios, although that responsiveness came with lower task and visual accuracy.

Source

Alibaba’s Qwen team has released Qwen-Image-2.1, an open-weight image generator and editor that combines native 2K output, transparent RGBA images, and multi-image editing in a 7-billion-parameter visual model. Qwen claims it outperforms many closed models, but independent benchmarks have not yet confirmed that result, and its research license excludes commercial use without separate permission.

Source

BragJack shows how one malicious browser extension can seize control of AI browser agents across Chrome, Edge, Opera Neon, Perplexity Comet, and Claude in Chrome. The proof of concept earned more than $20,000 in bug bounties and led to two CVEs; once the extension is installed, the takeover can proceed without further user interaction.

Source