Meta buys its way into the AI agent race with Manus AI acquisition
Meta is buying AI agent startup Manus AI, a system built on competitor models. The deal shows how far the company has fallen behind on AI agents despite billions in spending. Still, the acquisition could be a smart shortcut.
Read full article about: Security researchers catch "privacy" browser extensions siphoning AI chats and selling them via a data broker
If you use a chatbot and an Urban browser extension, you might want to rethink that combination. Security researchers at Koi have found that eight browser extensions with more than eight million users combined are secretly harvesting AI conversations and potentially selling them to third parties.
| Extension | Chrome | Edge |
|---|---|---|
| Urban VPN Proxy | 6,000,000 | 1,323,622 |
| 1ClickVPN Proxy | 600,000 | 36,459 |
| Urban Browser Guard | 40,000 | 12,624 |
| Urban Ad Blocker | 10,000 | 6,476 |
The extensions intercept conversations with ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Copilot, Perplexity, DeepSeek, Grok, and Meta AI. Even when the VPN is switched off, data collection continues in the background. Uninstalling the extension is the only way to stop it.
According to Koi, the data collection feature was quietly added in July 2025 through an automatic update. The data goes to Urban VPN's servers, and the privacy policy states that browsing data is shared with affiliate BiScience and that AI prompts are used for marketing analytics.
But the provider tells a different story in the Chrome Web Store, claiming data is not sold to third parties. Adding to the confusion, "Featured" badges from Google and Microsoft give users a false sense of security. Urban Ad Blocker for Edge is the only extension without a Featured badge.
Ad
Read full article about: Zara uses AI to dress models virtually instead of booking new photo shoots
Zara is using artificial intelligence to digitally edit photos of models. The Spanish fashion giant reaches out to models and asks for permission to reuse existing images, reports City AM from London. Using AI, the company then dresses the models in new clothes and places them in different settings, eliminating the need for new photo shoots. Two models told City AM they receive the same payment as they would for an actual shoot. But everyone else who would normally be involved in a photo shoot, from makeup artists to photographers and stylists, likely gets nothing.
Zara says AI will supplement traditional photo shoots, not replace them. The shift comes during a rough patch for the retailer, with UK sales hitting their lowest point in six months this past November. Competitors H&M and Zalando announced similar plans over the summer, creating AI-based "digital twins" of models.
Read full article about: AI fraud forces world's largest accounting body to end online exams
The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), the world's largest accountancy organization, will stop offering online exams starting March 2026. The decision comes as AI-powered cheating outpaces detection methods. "We're seeing the sophistication of [cheating] systems outpacing what can be put in, [in] terms of safeguards," ACCA CEO Helen Brand told the Financial Times.
The organization serves nearly 260,000 members and more than 500,000 students. Despite efforts to combat cheating, "people who want to do bad things are probably working at a quicker pace," Brand said. One student told the FT that a friend photographed exam questions and fed them into an AI chatbot. A recent study found that current reasoning models can pass the demanding CFA certification.
Online exams launched during the pandemic. The ACCA is now overhauling its qualification for the first time in a decade, adding focus on AI, blockchain, and data science. The ICAEW, another major accountancy body, still offers some online exams but reports rising fraud cases.
Comment
Source: Financial Times
Read full article about: Oscar winners and Hollywood A-listers launch coalition to set AI rules for entertainment industry
The Creators Coalition on AI (CCAI) brings together filmmakers and artists pushing for common standards around AI use in the entertainment industry. Oscar winners Daniel Kwan and Jonathan Wang founded the group alongside actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Natalie Portman, Cate Blanchett, Paul McCartney, Guillermo Del Toro, and Mark Ruffalo have signed on as supporters.
The coalition isn't against AI outright—instead, it's pushing for clear guidelines. The group focuses on four main issues: getting consent and fair pay when creative work is used for training data, protecting jobs in the industry, establishing safeguards against deepfakes and misuse, and keeping human creativity at the center of the creative process. The CCAI aims to become a central hub for industry-wide conversations about these issues.
Ad
One in five YouTube Shorts shown to new users is AI-generated slop, study finds
A recent study shows that low-quality AI videos are already a million-dollar industry firmly embedded in YouTube’s daily feed. Set up a fresh account today, and one in five Shorts will be AI slop. And the technology is just getting started.
AI reasoning models think harder on easy problems than hard ones, and researchers have a theory for why
If I spent more time thinking about a simple task than a complex one—and did worse on it—my boss would have some questions. But that’s exactly what’s happening with current reasoning models like Deepseek-R1. A team of researchers took a closer look at the problem and proposed theoretical laws describing how AI models should ideally ‘think.’
Ad
Read full article about: Nvidia's $20 billion Groq deal sure looks like an acquisition as 90 percent of staff moves over
In case there was any doubt that Nvidia's Groq deal is anything but a takeover in disguise: according to Axios, roughly 90 percent of the workforce—including CEO Jonathan Ross and President Sunny Madra—is moving to Nvidia. Groq will continue as an independent company under new CEO Simon Edwards.
Though officially a non-exclusive license agreement worth around $20 billion, employees and shareholders are walking away with significant payouts. Staff moving to Nvidia get cash for vested shares and Nvidia stock for unvested ones; even those at Groq for less than a year will have their vesting cliff waived for immediate liquidity. Shareholders receive about 85 percent upfront, another 10 percent in mid-2026, and the rest by year's end.
Since 2016, Groq has raised around $3.3 billion from investors including Blackrock, Samsung, and Social Capital. They're now seeing substantial returns, as the deal pushed the startup's valuation from $7 billion to roughly $20 billion. For a more in-depth look at why Nvidia made this move, see my analysis.