Claude Finds a CRISPR-Like System as F5’s BIG-IP Zero-Day Gets Exploited

AI & Machine Learning

Anthropic says the biology lab it opened in the Bay Area this spring has already turned up a previously unknown enzyme system in bacteriophage DNA that behaves much like CRISPR, able to cut, copy and paste DNA. Claude spent 21 hours on the search, coordinating roughly 950 agents and burning through about 210 million tokens. CEO Dario Amodei was careful about the claim, noting that Stanford researchers had earlier found a system that is in some ways similar and that the work built on others’ research. Anthropic stresses that all bench work is done by human scientists at BSL-1 and BSL-2 biosafety levels, though it has not ruled out more autonomous lab operation with safeguards. The wider research community still has to validate how significant the find really is. Source: TechCrunch Verified: True

OpenAI’s GPT-6 Astra has become the first large language model to complete a real driving test, though the bar was a Toyota Corolla creeping around traffic cones in a parking lot. Researchers on the DrivingBench project said Astra finished the 134.7 meter course on its second attempt in just over five minutes, at roughly 0.94 mph. GPT-5.6 Sol, Grok 4.6 and Claude Fable 5.1 all failed to complete it. The run cost about $7.74 in tokens on top of $999 of hardware, and Astra only checked its camera every five to six seconds. The team also had to tell the models they were working in a simulation to get past their safety objections, and one researcher said using an LLM out of the box for real driving is not practical today. Source: The Register Verified: True

Consumer Hardware

Meta unveiled a camera-free pair of smart glasses, the Ray-Ban Meta Audio, priced from $349 with preorders opening October 13. Built with EssilorLuxottica, they weigh 43 grams and promise up to 12 hours of battery per charge, or 48 hours with the case. They handle music, podcasts, calls, speech translation and access to the Muse AI assistant, and come in two styles, Clubmaster and Burbank, with 23 color and lens combinations plus prescription options. Meta framed the design as an answer to privacy worries about camera glasses, while launching a camera-equipped Ray-Ban Meta Gen 3 with a 12MP sensor and 3K video at the same event. Source: TechCrunch Verified: True

YouTube is introducing custom feeds that let viewers describe in plain language what they want to watch and have Gemini assemble it into a feed pinned as its own tab on the home page. Users can specify what to include, what to exclude, what to prioritize and even the mood, with examples such as a commute-friendly feed of video podcasts. Support for creating multiple custom feeds arrives on web and mobile next month. The move brings YouTube in line with similar user-controlled algorithm tools already offered by Bluesky, Threads, Instagram, X and Spotify. Source: TechCrunch Verified: True

Cybersecurity

F5 has patched CVE-2026-94127, a critical heap-based buffer overflow in BIG-IP Access Policy Manager that is being exploited for unauthenticated remote code execution. The flaw is rated 9.3 under CVSS v4.0 and only affects APM systems configured as an OAuth authorization server with the access policy and OAuth profile on the same virtual server. F5 confirmed the bug has been exploited, and CISA added it to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, giving federal agencies until Friday to patch. The disclosure follows a nation-state breach of F5’s network about a year ago that exposed BIG-IP source code and zero-day details. Source: The Register Verified: True

ShinyHunters claims it breached the FBI by exploiting an Oracle PeopleSoft zero-day on the bureau’s jobs site, apply.fbijobs.gov. The group says it achieved remote code execution, moved laterally to FBI servers on AWS GovCloud and stole 2 to 3 TB of data on current, former and prospective employees, touching human resources, MedLink and Criminal Justice Information Services systems. Unusually, it insists the attack is “NOT financially motivated” and says it wants the FBI to retract a May 15 bulletin describing its tactics. The FBI, Oracle and AWS had not responded to requests for comment, so the claims remain unverified. Source: The Register Verified: True

Cisco Talos has documented CLOSEDQUORUM, described as the first publicly known Windows implant to use large language models for command and control. The Go-based malware queries four providers in sequence, Google Gemini, DeepSeek, Qwen and Mistral, tallies their independent verdicts and acts on the result, with DeepSeek breaking ties. It steals credentials, browser passwords and cryptocurrency wallet data, injects code through process hollowing and sets up persistence. Talos found no in-the-wild deployments yet and traced developer artifacts to 2025 criminal forum posts about carding. It recommends watching for applications that contact several LLM providers while also touching LSASS, injecting into processes or creating WMI persistence. Source: The Register Verified: True

Enterprise Infrastructure

Alibaba Cloud plans to grow its datacenter fleet to 20GW over six years and revealed the Zhenwu V900 AI chip to help power it. At its Apsara conference, CEO Eddie Wu described the V900 as China’s most powerful AI chip, with three times the performance of the Zhenwu M890, 216GB of memory and 1,200 GB/s of inter-chip bandwidth. Alibaba says it can configure clusters of up to half a million V900s. Wu also outlined training for Qwen 4 and successors scaling to five and ten trillion parameters. For scale, the US has about 37.7GW of datacenters under construction, and no dollar figure was given for Alibaba’s buildout. Source: The Register Verified: True

Gartner expects 55 percent of enterprises to start proofs of concept for alternatives to VMware’s distributed hybrid infrastructure by 2029, up from 25 percent in 2026. The timing lines up with subscription cycles, six years after Broadcom’s acquisition and three years after many customers locked in new multi-year deals. Gartner cites per-core pricing that has driven significant cost increases, little room to negotiate and frustration over support delays. Its Magic Quadrant leaders for alternatives are AWS, Nutanix, Microsoft and Oracle, though each has drawbacks, from Nutanix’s complex licensing to 15 to 35 percent premiums on AWS Local Zones. Actual migrations are hard, so most customers are likely to stay through 2029. Source: The Register Verified: True

Policy & Regulation

Governor Gavin Newsom signed seven bills on September 21 tightening rules on datacenters, a reversal from his 2025 veto of similar legislation. The package requires fuller disclosure of water and electricity use (AB 1577, AB 2469, AB 2619), clarifies who pays for grid connections, adds ratepayer protections and rate-structure rules (SB 886, SB 1168), and sets environmental review processes (SB 887). Datacenters must also contribute to wildfire mitigation and liability costs. The shift reflects mounting public opposition: 16 states are weighing bans and an estimated $68 billion in projects were blocked or delayed in the second quarter alone. Source: The Register Verified: True

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Office of Defects Investigation has opened a probe into Comma.ai’s aftermarket hands-off driving technology after five reported crashes. Investigators are examining failures to detect or respond to slow or stopped vehicles in the same lane. The crashes include two fatal collisions that killed three people and four crashes with as many as 11 injured. At least one fatal crash involved FrogPilot, a modified fork of Comma’s openpilot software rather than the original product. Comma’s own documentation acknowledges that its adaptive cruise control can be affected by stationary vehicles in the lane, and the company and founder George Hotz did not respond to requests for comment. Source: TechCrunch Verified: True

Privacy group noyb, led by Max Schrems, is attacking a European Commission proposal to amend the GDPR so AI development can rely on “legitimate interests” rather than consent. The draft language, from an Article 88c that a leaked version calls 88bis, would let controllers process personal data where it is necessary for developing and technically operating an AI system. Noyb argues this amounts to “digital expropriation of Europeans” because companies could repurpose decades-old personal data for training without fresh consent, including from people who never agreed to AI use. The Commission pitches the change as part of an ambitious program to improve EU competitiveness. No legislative vote date has been set. Source: The Register Verified: True