Financial Mindset

An OpenAI agent infiltrated an Australian government website in June, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said when speaking to reporters at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York. OpenAI did not notify the Australian government until Sept. 10, Albanese said. The agent gained unauthorized access to the public-facing Medicare Statistics Reporting Service, enabling it to access both public and non-public files, and to write files to an internal server. It’s the latest in a growing list of systems OpenAI’s agents have accessed without authorization, and largely without OpenAI or the victims knowing until weeks or months later. Meanwhile, public trust in AI safety is cratering; a recent survey by Politico found that two-thirds of Americans think there is at least a “moderate” risk that advanced AI could destroy humanity. “This situation is obviously unacceptable,” Albanese said, according to the Sydney Morning Herald. “And today...

Meta and Apple are fierce rivals, and on Wednesday, the Facebook creator upped the ante by announcing new lightweight virtual reality glasses that make Apple’s Vision Pro headset look like bulky old tech. Mark Zuckerberg showed off Meta’s new glasses, named Meta VR Glasses, at the company’s annual Connect event in Menlo Park, Calif. The glasses weigh 100 grams, the CEO said, making them light enough to compare to a regular pair of glasses. The glasses, which Meta said will ship in spring 2027, are designed for cinematic experiences such as watching movies, spatial computing, and gaming. They will cost $1,299. “We made the decision to focus a little bit less on metaverse for now; build fewer VR devices and only release them when we have real breakthroughs,” Zuckerberg said Wednesday. “We’ve also heard that a lot of people are less interested in wearing a headset. So, we’ve built a new kind of VR device.” To show off the glasses, Zuckerbe...

There are moments when you experience emerging tech for the first time, and it feels genuinely different. That’s the case the first time you put on a pair of Meta’s most advanced smart glasses , which project a high-resolution digital box inside the right lens and allow you—with the help of a smart wristband—to control objects on the screen by moving your fingers. Tap your pointer finger and thumb together, and an app opens. Say, “Hey, Meta ,” and you’re suddenly chatting with an AI bot. This, as Meta sees it, is how most of us will eventually use AI. The company recently took Fortune inside a private demo room at its Menlo Park, Calif., headquarters to show off its growing family of smart glasses. The collection included the flagship Ray-Ban Wayfarer camera-enabled glasses, with an updated nine-hour battery life; the Ray-Bans with the lens display and “neural” wristband ; new audio-only smart glasses that ditch the built-in camera; new styles including Aviator frames; and prototy...

“After nearly five years at OpenAI and a lot of reflection, I’ve decided it’s time for me to step back and move into my next chapter,” said OpenAI’s former chief communications officer (CCO) Hannah Wong in a January 2026 LinkedIn post announcing her departure.  That was nine months ago—practically a lifetime in the fast-moving AI world—and Wong’s role remains empty. The absence of a chief communications officer is particularly remarkable given the year OpenAI has had. For much of 2026, the company has lurched from crisis to crisis: A controversial deal with the Pentagon, a high-stakes courtroom showdown with Elon Musk, a swarm of agents that hacked Hugging Face and made international headlines, an Apple lawsuit alleging trade-secrets theft, and more. Along the way, OpenAI’s corporate reputation has taken a hit, and public trust in AI is cratering.  The company’s future chief communications officer will need to untangle all of these threads. It’s not a role for...

Meta’s new AI agent app is quickly taking hold of the consumer market, unseating ChatGPT as the top free app on Apple’s App Store in recent days. The app, which features a personal AI agent that books appointments, shops, and organizes calendars on people’s behalf, is the talk of tech circles this week. Named Muse, the app, which uses Meta’s latest Muse Spark AI model, connects users to a range of services that its AI agent autonomously handles. That means handing over access to accounts across a user’s phone in exchange for Muse booking a vacation or handling restaurant reservations on their behalf. It’s the first major consumer AI agent push by Meta, and it’s catapulting the company for now, past its competitors. Not everyone is rolling out the red carpet for Meta’s Muse, however. Amazon blocked Meta’s assistant from accessing its online store, saying that “continued access by an unauthorized AI agent violates Amazo...

President Donald Trump and Mayor Zohran Mamdani held a joint press conference at Gracie Mansion on Monday, the first time a sitting president has visited the mayor’s residence in decades. The two discussed Sunnyside Yards, Temporary Protected Status for Haitian New Yorkers, and press access, while trading warm words despite months of public disagreement on policy. And despite that public disagreement, the two Queens boys seem to have had a warm conversation. Trump even shared praise for the young mayor. “I certainly hope he will be a great mayor. You have to understand, I want what’s good for New York. I want what’s good for the country,” he said. “So, if I had a choice of having him be a bad mayor or horrible mayor, I don’t want that. I want him to be a great mayor, and he certainly got potential, had great potential.” The president, standing alongisde Mamdani as press and the two politicians stood in the garden of Gracie...

Movie studio Paramount  on Monday agreed to settle an antitrust lawsuit filed by 12 states, the last big obstacle blocking the company’s $81 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery in a deal that would transform the movie industry landscape. In the settlement, which still needs to be approved by a judge, Paramount agreed to terms including a five-year movie production plan and to invest $1.5 billion in domestic movies. State attorneys general say the settlement guarantees investment in domestic movie production and provides worker protection. But analysts say the deal is still likely to lead to less competition in the industry — and higher prices for consumers. “Where I’m looking at this is through the consumer’s point of view and resoundingly consumers are concerned about price hikes and they are preparing for price hikes,” said Forrester research director Mike Proulx. “They care less about the theatrical releases and some of the other industry terms. What th...