How insurance leaders use agentic AI to cut operational costs
Agentic AI offers insurance leaders a path to scalable efficiency as the sector confronts a tough digital transformation. Insurers hold deep data reserves and employ a workforce skilled in analytic decision-making. Despite these advantages, the industry has largely failed to advance beyond pilot programmes. Research suggests only seven percent of insurers have scaled these initiatives…
Indian pharmacy chain giant exposed customer data and internal systems
A security lapse by one of India’s largest pharmacy chains allowed outsiders to gain full administrative control of its platform, exposing customer order data and sensitive drug-control functions, TechCrunch has exclusively learned. The issue affected DavaIndia Pharmacy, the pharmacy arm of Zota Healthcare, which operates a large network of retail outlets across India. Security researcher…
Mewgenics Dev Responds To Criticism Of Its Voice Cameos
Mewgenics, the new tactical RPG roguelike about cat breeding, has come under a bit of fire during its launch week for its long list of voice cameos. Among the eclectic group of people who do the various “meow”s in the game are a fair number of content creators, including husband-and-wife podcast hosts Ethan and Hila…
Microsoft Develops Scanner to Detect Backdoors in Open-Weight Large Language Models
Ravie LakshmananFeb 04, 2026Artificial Intelligence / Software Security Microsoft on Wednesday said it built a lightweight scanner that it said can detect backdoors in open-weight large language models (LLMs) and improve the overall trust in artificial intelligence (AI) systems. The tech giant’s AI Security team said the scanner leverages three observable signals that can be…
Red Hat unifies AI and tactical edge deployment for UK MOD
The UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) has selected Red Hat to architect a unified AI and hybrid cloud backbone across its entire estate. Announced today, the agreement is designed to break down data silos and accelerate the deployment of AI models from the data centre to the tactical edge. For CIOs, it’s part of a…
A Stanford grad student created an algorithm to help his classmates find love; now, Date Drop is the basis of his new startup
As Valentine’s Day approaches at Stanford, some students may be gearing up for first dates — not with people they met on Tinder or Hinge, but with matches from a service called Date Drop, designed by Stanford graduate student Henry Weng. Date Drop pairs students with potential dates once per week based on their responses…
PlayStation Boss Had Two Joking Requests For Horizon MMORPG
Guild Wars publisher NCSoft revealed Horizon Steel Frontiers late last year as a new MMO spin-off that would see players group up together on PC and mobile to hunt the sci-fi franchise’s iconic prehistoric robots. Thanks to a new interview with one of the company’s executives, we now have some new details about the upcoming…
DEAD#VAX Malware Campaign Deploys AsyncRAT via IPFS-Hosted VHD Phishing Files
Ravie LakshmananFeb 04, 2026Malware / Endpoint Security Threat hunters have disclosed details of a new, stealthy malware campaign dubbed DEAD#VAX that employs a mix of “disciplined tradecraft and clever abuse of legitimate system features” to bypass traditional detection mechanisms and deploy a remote access trojan (RAT) known as AsyncRAT. “The attack leverages IPFS-hosted VHD files,…
Chinese hyperscalers and industry-specific agentic AI
Chinese hyperscalers have defined a distinct trajectory for agentic AI, combining language models with frameworks and infrastructure tailored for autonomous operation in commercial contexts. Alibaba, Tencent and Huawei aim to embed these systems into enterprise pipelines and consumer ecosystems, offering tools that can operate with a degree of autonomy. These offerings are accessible in the…
Fusion startup Helion hits blistering temps as it races toward 2028 deadline
Fusion energy startup Helion announced Friday that it has hit a key milestone in its quest for fusion power. Plasmas inside the company’s Polaris prototype reactor have reached 150 million degrees Celsius, three-quarters of the way toward what the company thinks it will need to operate a commercial fusion power plant. “We’re obviously really excited…
