Google announces Gemini 4 Carbon, an AI model only some security teams can use for now

Google says Gemini 4 Carbon is its strongest model, with gains in coding, long agent tasks and cybersecurity. Google says it ranks first on Artificial Analysis' new Intelligence Index v5 with a score of 59, ahead of Claude Opus 5.5 and GPT-6 Astra. Artificial Analysis says 60% of that index now uses private test sets or held-out answers, so outsiders cannot reproduce the results. Starting this week, Google is giving access to a subset of cyber defenders, then to more trusted partners through its Fairwind Program, before a wider release. Google says the price will be $2 per million input tokens and $10 per million output tokens, the same as Gemini 4 Argon. Ars Technica calls Carbon essentially a slightly better version of Argon.

Google's AI Mode in Search dodged questions about who won the 2020 US election

Ars Technica found that Google's AI Mode often would not say who won the 2020 or 2024 US presidential elections. Instead it pointed users to the Federal Election Commission. It answered other years directly, and the results varied by user. The problem did not show up when testing from other countries over a VPN, and the Gemini app answered normally. A Google spokesperson said there was "a technical gap" with 2020 queries, and with 2022 Senate races, and that Google is fixing it.

Meta launches its personal AI agent Muse in Singapore, linked to Grab and Shopee

Meta says its AI agent Muse is now available in Singapore on iOS, Android and muse.ai. It can connect to Gmail, Google Calendar and Instagram. Local partners include Shopee, Grab, Singapore Airlines, Agoda, ShopBack, Klook, Trip.com and Lazada. Meta says these connections will roll out gradually, and some will arrive after launch. Muse runs on what Meta calls Muse Secure VM, a dedicated cloud computer. Meta says this keeps passwords and payment methods out of the agent's view, and that Muse asks before it sends email or buys anything. Meta says it is free for most uses, with paid plans for more.

Anthropic's stock market filing shows Amazon stands to gain most from its listing

According to Anthropic's filing to list its shares, no venture firm owns 5% of the AI company, which TechCrunch calls highly unusual. At a private valuation of $965 billion, even large stakes are small percentages. Amazon made much of its investment as convertible notes, which are loans that turn into shares when the company lists. The notes have $6.2 billion in principal, but Amazon's own filings valued them at $97.9 billion as of June 30. Amazon has invested about $18 billion in total, and Anthropic has committed to spend at least $110 billion on Amazon's cloud over ten years. Google also holds a stake and has at least $114 billion in cloud commitments from Anthropic through 2033.

Google and Microsoft report fast cloud growth, but Alphabet shares fall on cash flow

Alphabet says quarterly revenue rose 25% to $127.6 billion, and Google Cloud revenue rose 103% to $30.7 billion. CEO Sundar Pichai says search query growth is the highest in five years and credits AI. YouTube ad revenue grew 9% to $11.2 billion, below estimates, Variety reports. CNBC reports Alphabet had negative free cash flow of $9.07 billion, worse than expected, and its shares fell more than 10%. Microsoft says revenue rose 19% to $92.3 billion, with Azure cloud revenue up 48% to $33.2 billion, the first time it has given Azure's revenue in dollars. A filing shows Microsoft made $10 billion from OpenAI in the quarter, almost 11% of its revenue, TechCrunch reports. Reuters reports Microsoft spent $45.2 billion on equipment and buildings, below its own $50 billion forecast.

Apple unveils its first touchscreen MacBook Pro, with an OLED screen, from $2,899

Apple announced 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros with a two-layer (tandem) OLED screen it calls PROLED XDR, and touch input on a Mac for the first time. Apple claims up to 2,000 nits of brightness, a 10,000,000:1 contrast ratio and a refresh rate of up to 120 Hz. The laptops use M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, add a Dynamic Island at the top of the screen and bring back a light-up Apple logo. Apple says the 14-inch weighs 3 lb and the 16-inch 4 lb, with pre-orders open and availability from November 6. Prices start at $2,899 and $3,399. The Verge says a fully specced model costs $14,549, mostly because of a $7,000 16TB storage option. Ars Technica's hands-on says the OLED looks great, but the touchscreen does little you couldn't already do with the trackpad, and it does not support the Apple Pencil.

Nvidia's RTX Spark laptop chip goes on sale in machines from Dell, HP, Lenovo and others

Nvidia says laptops built on RTX Spark are now available from ASUS, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Microsoft and MSI. RTX Spark combines an Nvidia Blackwell graphics chip and an Nvidia Grace processor in one package, with up to 128GB of memory the two share. Nvidia claims up to 1 petaflop of AI performance at its lowest-precision setting. A new control in the NVIDIA App lets users decide how much graphics power goes to the app they are using and how much to AI agents running in the background. Nvidia also released Nemotron 3.5 Transcribe, a free, open speech model that transcribes recordings in 40 languages. TechCrunch notes it works only on recordings, not live audio.

Hacker leaks names and contacts of over 40,000 US Homeland Security staff

A hacker stole personal information about more than 41,000 employees of the US Department of Homeland Security, including staff at ICE and CBP, and it has been published online. The Verge, citing TechCrunch and Wired, says the data includes names, job titles, phone numbers, email addresses and office locations. Wired reports that undercover ICE agents are among those exposed.

Xreal starts selling Aura, wired smart glasses running Google's Android XR, from $1,099

Xreal, Google's smart glasses partner, launched the Xreal Aura at Google's Android Developer Summit. The 95-gram glasses connect by wire to a small pocket computer with a Snapdragon Reality Elite chip. They use Sony Micro-OLED screens at 1200p and 120 Hz, can show several virtual screens and include Google's Gemini assistant. Orders are open in the US, Canada, Japan and South Korea, and shipping starts by mid-November. Until December, the 12GB/256GB model costs $1,099 and the 16GB/512GB model $1,299. After that, they cost $1,279 and $1,499.

Amazon launches the Alexa Photo Frame, an Echo Time alarm clock and other Echo devices

Amazon unveiled five Alexa devices, including two new kinds of hardware. The Alexa Photo Frame, from $199.99, has a 10-inch matte screen and lets Alexa+ pick photos from Amazon Photos. The Echo Time alarm clock, $199.99, has optional sleep sensing and can wake you during lighter sleep, within a 10 to 60 minute window you set. The Echo Studio with Home Camera, $249.99, can watch a room while you are away and show things to Alexa. The $99.99 Echo Dot adds a smart home hub and an eero Wi-Fi extender. The Echo Show 16, $499.99 to preorder, has a 16-inch screen and Fire TV built in.

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