Top AI & Tech News Stories — August 15, 2026

Microsoft AI watermarks in Paint and Photos are linked to user IDs, researcher finds

3 outlets · 3 articles · 39 total since August 3, 2026 · Anthropic, Claude, watermarking, OpenAI, Google

When Anthropic disclosed earlier this month that it would be applying a statistical word-choice watermark to its Claude text output, the company noted that at least 190 AI providers have agreed to abide by Europe's AI transparency rules. One such company is Microsoft, which has…

More coverage: theregister.com · engadget.com

Breakdown Of Stealing Reasoning Traces from Proprietary LLM APIs Paper

1 outlet · 1 article · 3 total since August 11, 2026 · prompt injection, Anthropic, API security, Cryptography, jailbreaking

Well, you don’t see this everyday... By now, hopefully you understand that AI models are incredibly complex and that there’s so much happening under the hood before you see ChatGPT or any other model respond to you. Tokenization, context building, embedding, prediction…

NVIDIA’s Credit Support Buys Exclusivity at OpenAI’s Ohio Data Center

1 outlet · 1 article · 41 total since December 17, 2025 · Amazon, Anthropic, OpenAI, microsoft, NVIDIA

The post NVIDIA’s Credit Support Buys Exclusivity at OpenAI’s Ohio Data Center appeared first on Futurum . Analyst(s): Brendan Burke Publication Date: August 20, 2026 NVIDIA will provide credit support for the land, power, and shell buildout at SB Energy’s PORTS-Pike Technology…

Elon Musk says Grok can earn users money

2 outlets · 2 articles · 13 total since August 12, 2026 · OpenAI, Anthropic, reinforcement learning, SpaceXAI, Grok 4.5

Elon Musk says his artificial intelligence chatbot Grok can “earn you money,” putting a new focus on how users could turn the AI tool into a source of income. Musk made the claim on X on August 20 without providing details about how much money users could make or whether xAI…

More coverage: thenewstack.io

Microsoft to Make Passkeys Default in Entra ID and Retires SMS and Voice Authentication

1 outlet · 1 article · passkeys, Multifactor authentication (MFA) bypass, SIM swapping, social engineering, Replay attack mitigation

Microsoft will make passkeys the default authentication experience in Microsoft Entra ID as part of a broader move away from phishing-prone sign-in methods. The company will also retire Microsoft-provided SMS and voice authentication for multifactor authentication, pushing…

Hackers Started to Exploit Critical SAP Commerce Cloud, Still No Public PoC

2 outlets · 2 articles · 3 total since August 12, 2026 · SAP, SAP Commerce Cloud, input validation, arbitrary code execution, CVE.org

Threat actors have begun actively probing and attempting to exploit a maximum-severity flaw in SAP Commerce Cloud, just three days after official security fixes were released. Defused honeypot telemetry captured the first wave of unauthenticated remote-execution traffic…

More coverage: thehackernews.com

Shell Investigating Data Breach Following Cl0p Ransomware Group Claim

1 outlet · 1 article · incident response, digital forensics, data exfiltration, Threat intelligence, log aggregation

Multinational energy giant Shell has launched an active investigation after the notorious Cl0p ransomware syndicate claimed responsibility for exfiltrating sensitive internal data. Security researchers and enterprise defenders are closely monitoring the situation as forensic…

Nagarro’s Strategic Shift: What Persistent’s Takeover Offer Means for the Market

1 outlet · 1 article · AI Consulting, custom application development, cloud services, engineering execution, AI software development platform

The post Nagarro’s Strategic Shift: What Persistent’s Takeover Offer Means for the Market appeared first on Futurum . Publication Date: August 15, 2026 Nagarro's Management Board and Supervisory Board have formally recommended shareholders accept Persistent Systems' voluntary…

Government agencies urged to clarify accountability for AI implementation

1 outlet · 1 article · 14 total since August 3, 2026 · AI governance, data governance, audit trail, Access control, governance

Australian public sector agencies are being urged to simplify complex AI approval processes and move beyond high-level principles in their risk and assurance frameworks. A new global report released by Boston Consulting Group (BCG), Salesforce, and the Centre for Public Impact…

Unisys Positions Itself as a Leader in AI and Cloud with Upcoming Investor Conferences

1 outlet · 1 article · AI governance, observability, automated test coverage, root-cause analysis, audit logging

The post Unisys Positions Itself as a Leader in AI and Cloud with Upcoming Investor Conferences appeared first on Futurum . Publication Date: August 15, 2026 Unisys is stepping up its investor conference presence to articulate a strategic pivot toward AI, cloud, and digital…

Russian missile uses Nvidia AI chip to help target Ukraine

1 outlet · 1 article · 2 total since August 14, 2026 · computer vision, NVIDIA, The Register, Ukraine, Russia

Sanctions and Nvidia’s exit from Russia in 2022 haven’t stopped its Jetson Orin hardware from turning up in Russian weaponry, according to Ukrainian military intelligence. The Defense Ministry’s Intelligence Directorate (GUR) reported this week that it spotted an Nvidia Jetson…

Security firms hit back at Trump’s call to hack back against international crime gangs

1 outlet · 1 article · 5 total since August 13, 2026 · offensive cyber operations, United States, cybersecurity, surveillance, Threat intelligence

The Trump administration has given security companies the green light to launch offensive cyber operations against "criminal networks operating in cyberspace" in a dramatic expansion of America’s offensive digital capabilities. Traditionally, only the military and government…

Cisco Warns of ClamAV Vulnerabilities With Public Exploit Code

1 outlet · 1 article · file parsing, ClamAV, malware detection, email filtering, database updates

Cisco is warning about seven ClamAV vulnerabilities affecting its Secure Endpoint Connector products. Exploit code is already publicly available for two of the flaws. ClamAV is an open-source, cross-platform malware detection engine that provides features including a…

Texas Blocks State Funding for AI License Plate Readers Over Privacy Concerns

1 outlet · 1 article · 10 total since August 15, 2026 · Flock Safety, data retention, computer vision, Electronic Frontier Foundation, United States

Texas has taken a firm stand against the expansion of AI-powered surveillance technology by blocking state funding for systems manufactured by Flock Safety. The decision comes after months of growing public concern over privacy implications and the rapid spread of automated…

Coin-Sized Implant Exposes Boeing 737 Avionics to Stealth Takeover

1 outlet · 1 article · ARINC-429, autopilot, Wi-Fi, ESP32 microcontroller, cryptographic authentication

A device no larger than a quarter. Less than $100 to build. Under a minute to install. Yet it can seize control of a Boeing 737’s flight management computer, rewrite its route, falsify critical takeoff data, and feed pilots a convincing lie on their displays. All while remaining…

[AINews] Cursor's $60B acquisition by SpaceXai closes

1 outlet · 1 article · 7 total since August 14, 2026 · Cursor, SpaceX, Cursor, SpaceXAI, Anthropic

Throwback to when we did the first ever podcast on Cursor when they were 5 people: And then recapping agents at ICML 2024 with Graham Neubig: And then their third era in 2026: And talking about how they do FDE in the Enterprise: AI News for 8/13/2026-8/14/2026. We checked 12…

Google’s HEIR Compiler Turns Homomorphic Encryption Into a Practical Tool for Private AI

1 outlet · 1 article · homomorphic encryption, lattice-based cryptography, noise management, bootstrapping, encrypted inference

Homomorphic encryption once lived in the realm of theoretical cryptography. Computations on encrypted data sounded elegant in papers. In practice the overhead made it unusable for anything beyond the simplest tasks. That picture has shifted. Google just released a new…

Samsung Developing Variable Aperture Camera for Galaxy S27

1 outlet · 1 article · depth of field, optical aberrations, computational photography, HDR (high-dynamic-range) imaging, portrait

Samsung has long pushed the boundaries of smartphone photography, and recent reports suggest the company is preparing a significant advancement for its flagship Galaxy S series. According to a detailed report from Mashable , the Galaxy S27 could introduce a variable aperture…

More than half of Americans now view AI negatively

1 outlet · 1 article · 5 total since August 14, 2026 · Mark Zuckerberg, Sam Altman, Elon Musk, CNBC, Generative Work Labs

Attitudes towards AI are shifting in America. More than half of adults now say that they are more concerned than excited about the technology, and that includes those under 30 for the first time. This comes from a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center, which says that…

AI Chatbots Quietly Shortchange Women in Finance and Hiring

1 outlet · 1 article · large language models, Prompting, portfolio allocation, risk assessment, bias auditing

Artificial intelligence now dispenses career and money advice to millions. But new research shows it treats women differently. Often to their financial detriment. Researchers at MIT and Stanford examined how leading large language models respond when prompted as male or female…