AI lab Nous Research retrains Alibaba's Qwen model to reflect Western values

Nous Research has released Arete-27B, built by further training Alibaba's Qwen3.8-27B model. Nous says the goal was to reinforce Western values in a model trained in China. It also claims the original model's built-in bias is only a shallow layer. The model is on Hugging Face, where it has 256 likes and 1,747 downloads.

Apple saved $2.7B in tax by sending profits through Singapore, filings show

New filings show Apple saved $2.7 billion in taxes this year by routing up to $50 billion in profits through Singapore, the Financial Times reports. That is more than the $2.6 billion it saved through Ireland, so Singapore is now Apple's biggest tax shelter.

Leaked Cisco papers show it grew its business with Israel's military during Gaza war

Cisco workers who object to the company's ties to Israel's military leaked internal documents to The Guardian. The Guardian says the papers show Cisco expanded that business as the war in Gaza went on, even while staff protested its role.

PC owners are buying less RAM as memory prices rise, CPU-Z data shows

Statistics from the CPU-Z Validator show PC memory falling year over year for the first time, according to Doc TB, one of CPU-Z's developers. 32 GB is still the most common setup at 37.2% of validations, but its share fell 2.5%. 64 GB fell 18% to 7.3%. 16 GB rose 12.9% to 33.0%, and 8 GB rose 5.5% to 11.0%. Older DDR4 memory now makes up 54.5% of validations, while DDR5 slipped to 32.9%. Tom's Hardware links the shift to memory prices pushed up by AI demand.

China's Inner Mongolia region is building AI data centres fast and cheaply

Research firm SemiAnalysis reports that Inner Mongolia is China's fastest-growing region for AI data centres, with low building costs and no public backlash. It describes an 800 MW wind-powered campus, with 120 MW built within a year. The site also has a 5 MW pilot running on 800-volt direct current and a cooling design without central chillers.

Epic Games plans to bring its Linux game launcher to SteamOS on the Steam Deck

Epic says its new Linux launcher, still in Preview, should support as many Linux versions as possible, including Fedora and SteamOS. This seems to be the first time Epic has named SteamOS, which runs on the Steam Deck and Steam Machine. For now the Preview ships only for Debian and Ubuntu, with an AppImage version due back this month. Epic has not said how it will work in SteamOS's Game Mode.

Super PAC funded by Anthropic spent over $63M; 10 of its 17 candidates won

Public First, an AI safety super PAC backed by Anthropic, spent more than $63 million in the 2026 US midterms, Bloomberg reports. 10 of the 17 congressional candidates it backed won. Bloomberg says candidates who favour stricter oversight of AI won in key races. Politico separately describes how a small AI-safety network that organised in Signal chats grew into a coalition that beat Leading the Future, a $100 million super PAC.

Crypto industry braces for probes after Democrats win the US midterms

The crypto industry is preparing for tougher times after Democrats won the US midterms, the Financial Times reports. Democrats have vowed to investigate President Trump's family and its ties to the industry.

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