The day in AI and tech
Saturday 15 August 2026
27 events from 16 outlets. Each line is one event: the headline, then who reported it. Days are UTC.
Artificial Intelligence18 events
- Alibaba AI models hit 3 billion downloads, passing Meta, Google — Fortune (opens Fortune's report in a new tab)Read on Fortune (opens in a new tab)
- Woman claims her stepfather used Grok to transform childhood photo into explicit imagery — TechCrunch (opens TechCrunch's report in a new tab)Read on TechCrunch (opens in a new tab)
- Have a laugh at AI’s expense by roleplaying as a chatbot — The Verge (opens The Verge's report in a new tab)Read on The Verge (opens in a new tab)
- Apple Turns to Alibaba to Help Build AI Model for China — Decrypt (opens Decrypt's report in a new tab)Read on Decrypt (opens in a new tab)
- Anthropic revenue surges to over $11.5 billion in second quarter — Fortune (opens Fortune's report in a new tab)Read on Fortune (opens in a new tab)
- Boiler room raised $74 million selling retirees SpaceX, Anduril, Anthropic, and Perplexity while reaping ‘massive hidden fees,’ SEC claims — Fortune (opens Fortune's report in a new tab)Read on Fortune (opens in a new tab)
- ‘I have a chip on my shoulder.’ Phoebe Gates wants her $185 million AI startup Phia to succeed with ‘no ties to my privilege or my last name’ — Fortune (opens Fortune's report in a new tab)Read on Fortune (opens in a new tab)
- AI could help fossil fuel companies create more emissions — Grist (opens Grist's report in a new tab)Read on Grist (opens in a new tab)
- AI is creating a new wave of philanthropists. The system they’re walking into is broken — Fortune (opens Fortune's report in a new tab)Read on Fortune (opens in a new tab)
- ChatGPT’s Index, GA Benchmarks, Google Refiles Complaint – SEO Pulse via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern — Search Engine Journal (opens Search Engine Journal's report in a new tab)
- Fine-Tuning Tool-Calling LLMs: A Complete Guide Using XYZ-Aquila-SFT and Qwen3 — MarkTechPost (opens MarkTechPost's report in a new tab)
- Secondhand book sales are booming. Is it because of AI? — BBC (opens BBC's report in a new tab)Read on BBC (opens in a new tab)
- Nobel laureate Daron Acemoglu says AI and liberal democracy share the same crisis: ‘there is a tendency to escalate everything’ — Fortune (opens Fortune's report in a new tab)Read on Fortune (opens in a new tab)
- Anthropic Reveals What The Watermark Is And How It Can Be Defeated via @sejournal, @martinibuster — Search Engine Journal (opens Search Engine Journal's report in a new tab)
- AI isn’t changing how companies work. It’s changing what a company is — Fortune (opens Fortune's report in a new tab)Read on Fortune (opens in a new tab)
- Secondhand booksellers in UK and Ireland suspect AI firms behind ‘strange’ bulk orders — The Guardian (opens The Guardian's report in a new tab)Read on The Guardian (opens in a new tab)
- America’s AI election — Financial Times (opens Financial Times's report in a new tab)Read on Financial Times (opens in a new tab)
- Agentic profiles for effective AI governance — Nature (opens Nature's report in a new tab)Read on Nature (opens in a new tab)
Computing & Chips1 event
Robotics & Autonomy2 events
Space1 event
Energy Tech2 events
- Every fusion startup that has raised over $100M — TechCrunch (opens TechCrunch's report in a new tab)Read on TechCrunch (opens in a new tab)
- UK’s biggest EV battery gigafactory shelves expansion as Jaguar Land Rover talks stall — The Guardian (opens The Guardian's report in a new tab)Read on The Guardian (opens in a new tab)
Wearables & XR1 event
Cybersecurity2 events
- How to tell if your AI platforms’ accounts have been hacked — TechCrunch (opens TechCrunch's report in a new tab)Read on TechCrunch (opens in a new tab)
- New Evooo1Bot Linux botnet turns routers into traffic relay nodes — BleepingComputer (opens BleepingComputer's report in a new tab)Read on BleepingComputer (opens in a new tab)
Events are grouped automatically, by matching the publishers' headlines and times; no person reviews the grouping. An event reported by several outlets has its own page listing who reported what and when.