Local timeline

The White House launched America.gov, an AI chatbot intended as a single front door to federal services.
Source: The Next Web
https://thenextweb.com/news/america-gov-ai-chatbot-trump-gemini-grok-minecraft
#TechPolicy #WhiteHouse

The Department of Defense notified millions of current and former U.S. military personnel that their personal information had been stolen in a months-long breach. https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/30/hackers-stole-millions-of-us-military-personnel-records-during-months-long-data-breach/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

Rippling's AI agents can move across payroll, spend, devices, and headcount with the same permissions as a person.
Source: Kleiner Perkins
https://www.kleinerperkins.com/perspectives/meet-rippling-ai/
#Tech

DoorDash unveiled the six-propeller aircraft that will be used in its new drone delivery business at its annual Dash Forward 2026 event. https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/30/doordashs-drone-strategy-started-on-the-ground/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

The new BMW 3 Series shows just how quickly EVs have caught up to fossil fuel vehicles on pricing. https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/30/bmw-built-the-same-car-for-gas-and-electric-the-ev-is-4400-cheaper/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission is investigating OpenAI, Anthropic and the nonprofit METR over potential dangers of their technology.
Source: Semafor
https://www.semafor.com/article/09/30/2026/ftc-probes-openai-anthropic-and-metr
#TechPolicy #FTC #OpenAI

OpenAI's "Decisions API" is a Jev clone that confirms the importance of fast, cheap intelligence. https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/30/openais-jev-clone-could-help-the-frontier-lab-stop-its-swarming-agents/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

The $300 million employee tender was co-led by Wellington and T. Rowe Price. https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/30/ai-voice-startup-elevenlabs-doubles-valuation-to-22b/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

The price of AI is crashing faster than the rate of Moore's Law, a report suggests. The report says AI costs have fallen by thousands of times, roughly 50% cheaper each quarter.
Source: Tom's Hardware
https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/artificial-intelligence/the-price-of-ai-is-crashing-faster-than-the-rate-of-moores-law-report-suggests-intelligence-costs-are-in-freefall-outpacing-comparative-technologies-like-compute-dna-sequencing-and-lithium-batteries
#AI

Reddit is ending support for RSS feeds, as the company continues tightening access to its trove of user-generated content. https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/30/reddit-is-killing-rss-feeds-ending-public-api-access-because-of-ai-bots/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

The African Union is drafting a continental AI model law. Malawi's communications regulator backed AI surveillance cameras for Blantyre.
Source: Innovation Village
https://innovation-village.com/ai-africa-intelligence-september-24-30-2026-vol-25-a-lighter-week/
#TechPolicy

There’s a reason frontier labs have gotten gunshy about consumer AI — and it’s not because the tech isn’t good enough. https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/30/the-ugly-economics-of-consumer-ai/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

Cloudflare announced a closed beta of its Monetization Gateway, which lets domain owners charge AI agents for access to websites, APIs, tools or datasets.
Source: Cloudflare
https://blog.cloudflare.com/monetization-gateway-beta/
#Tech

Meta says its Muse AI agent cannot access a user’s Messages without explicit permission, disputing a journalist’s account that the agent read his private messages while the required Mac setting was turned off. https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/30/meta-disputes-claim-that-muse-read-a-users-private-messages-without-permission/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

Apple Pay has officially launched in India through a partnership with Axis Bank.
Source: Gulf News
https://gulfnews.com/business/banking/apple-pay-finally-launches-in-india-after-years-on-the-sidelines-but-theres-a-catch-1.500693857
#Tech #Apple

By launching an AI agent for food ordering, DoorDash is looking to gain an edge over rivals Uber Eats and Grubhub. https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/30/doordash-launches-an-ai-agent-you-can-text-to-order-food/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

"One of the biggest reasons we are winning against robotics companies is because we are not a robotics company." https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/30/destro-ais-secret-sauce-is-getting-robots-and-humans-on-the-same-page/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

Instinct is rolling out human-curated product and travel recommendations, but some users aren’t happy about getting suggestions they never asked for. https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/30/instincts-new-product-recommendations-are-giving-some-users-the-ick/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

The order -- Harbinger's biggest ever -- comes as the startup is reportedly considering an IPO. https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/30/fedex-orders-2000-electric-trucks-from-harbinger-in-300m-deal/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

Pledge signed by President Trump and top AI leaders misspells the United States. https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/30/pledge-signed-by-president-trump-and-top-ai-leaders-misspells-the-united-states/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon