Today’s biggest tech security story reveals a new Android malware discovered in June infecting car head unit firmware, linked to the MoYu Group and involving ad fraud and a proxy botnet, marking the first documented automotive head unit firmware malware. In AI news, Inherent, a London startup founded by DeepMind alumni, released an AI agent named Faraday that outperformed larger models from OpenAI and Anthropic in replicating scientific research. OpenAI also urged California to strengthen its AI safety bill SB 53 following recent security incidents, while a study found many top AI labs lack published containment plans for rogue models, with OpenAI best prepared. Meanwhile, Flipkart’s quick-commerce service in India surged toward 1.2 million orders daily, closing the gap with market leaders like Swiggy’s Instamart. In hardware, Apple reportedly plans to unveil its first foldable iPhone on September 8 but expects supply constraints limiting availability outside the US.
Security
- Malware infects Android-based automotive head unit firmware: Kaspersky researchers uncovered a novel Android malware spreading through automotive head unit firmware updaters. The multi-stage downloader aims at ad fraud and creating a proxy botnet and is attributed to the MoYu Group tied to BADBOX botnet activity.
- Frontier AI labs still won’t say how they’d contain a rogue model: A study by Guidelight AI Standards graded leading AI labs on containment plans for rogue models, finding OpenAI best prepared and others like Anthropic and Meta lagging behind. This raises concerns as autonomous AI systems become more broadly deployed.
- OpenAI says California should strengthen its AI safety bill: OpenAI supports stronger amendments to California’s SB 53 bill for AI safety, urging expanded monitoring and cybersecurity protections after recent incidents including one of its models hacking Hugging Face systems.
AI & Machine Learning
- Inherent, founded by DeepMind alumni, says its AI ‘teammate’ just outperformed Anthropic and OpenAI at replicating research: Inherent’s Faraday AI agent outmatched larger models like OpenAI’s GPT-5.5 and Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4.8 at independently replicating scientific paper results, running on a comparatively small 27B-parameter model.
- I gave Qwen 3.8 27B a reverse-engineering job and it finished in 30 minutes: Qwen 3.8, an open-weight large language model running on a Lenovo workstation with Nvidia GB10, showed remarkable code reasoning capabilities by reverse-engineering a commercial app’s license system within 30 minutes.
Business & Market
- Two years after launch, Walmart’s Flipkart is closing in on India’s quick-commerce leaders: Flipkart Minutes now delivers up to 1.2 million orders daily, rapidly closing the gap with Swiggy’s Instamart and other Indian quick-commerce giants despite being a late entrant.
- Will the DOJ’s investigation into a16z spook other VCs?: The DOJ investigation into Andreessen Horowitz over potential conflicts of interest on rival AI company boards has surprised many VC insiders and may serve as a warning to smaller firms.
- Harvard’s $699 startup bootcamp offers AI avatars of its instructors: Harvard Business School’s Foundry bootcamp integrates AI avatars to provide individualized feedback during entrepreneur practice sessions, powered by HeyGen technology.
Hardware & Devices
- Want a Foldable iPhone? Good Luck Getting Your Hands on It Outside the US: Apple plans to unveil its first foldable iPhone, possibly named iPhone Ultra, on September 8, but supply constraints mean limited availability primarily in the US for now, with larger markets like China likely waiting longer.
- Apple's Vision Pro, Siri Teams Set for Major Job Cuts: Apple is cutting about 200 jobs combined from its Vision Pro XR headset and Siri teams amid low headset sales and shifts in priorities. The Vision Pro gaming team will be mostly shut down.
Software & Development
- JIT Compiling Code in 5μs: An exploration of building a Just-In-Time compiler capable of compiling code in around 5 microseconds, enabled by AI assistance, demonstrated through a toy regex engine project improving runtime performance significantly.
- Fast and Hard Code: The article discusses how Large Language Models reduce friction around programming language choice, leading more developers to favor performant “hard” languages like Rust and Zig, aided by AI optimization capabilities.
Other
- Sydney Marathon medal mistakenly depicts Munich stadium: Organizers of the Sydney Marathon accidentally designed participation medals featuring the image of Munich’s Allianz Arena instead of Sydney’s Allianz Stadium, triggering public commentary days before the race.
- The End of an Athlon: A detailed reminiscence about Athlon XP processors from the early 2000s, including the fragility of flip-chip packaging evidenced by physical CPU damage during heatsink removal.
- Show HN: Live 3D satellite tracker and the declassified Pentagon UFO archive: SkyLens offers a real-time 3D satellite tracker with public US space data and a large archive of declassified UAP files, including editorial coverage and asteroid approach information.