China’s DeepSeek-R1 AI generates unsafe code when mentioning Tibet or Uighurs in prompt
New research from CrowdStrike reveals that DeepSeek’s artificial intelligence (AI) inference model DeepSeek-R1 creates more security vulnerabilities in response to prompts containing topics deemed politically sensitive by China. “We found that when DeepSeek-R1 receives a prompt containing a topic that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) considers politically sensitive, it increases the likelihood of generating code […]
ShadowPad malware actively exploits WSUS vulnerabilities to gain system-wide access
November 24, 2025Ravi LakshmananMalware/vulnerabilities A recently patched security flaw in Microsoft Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) was exploited by threat actors to distribute malware known as ShadowPad. “The attackers targeted Windows servers with WSUS enabled and exploited CVE-2025-59287 for initial access,” the AhnLab Security Intelligence Center (ASEC) said in a report released last week. “They […]
History of Science: Iconic ‘Lucy’ Fossil Discovered Changes Our Understanding of Human Evolution — November 24, 1974
simple facts Milestone: Fossil “Lucy” discovered When: November 24, 1974 Location: Hadar, Ethiopia People: Anthropologists Donald Johansson and Tom Gray More than 50 years ago, two anthropologists were digging in Hadar, Ethiopia, when they discovered something glowing in a trench. What they discover will change the story of human evolution. Donald Johansson, then a curator […]
X’s new “About this account” feature is working well
X recently began rolling out a new feature that revealed that many right-wing “America First” accounts are actually based outside the United States. However, the data may be unreliable. X’s new “About This Account” feature includes information about when users joined and how they downloaded apps, but geographic location is getting the most attention so […]
TechCrunch Mobility: Finding the tipping point for robotaxis
Welcome to TechCrunch Mobility. A central hub for news and insight on the future of transportation. To receive this in your inbox, sign up for free here. Just click on TechCrunch Mobility. Before we get started, here are some simple housekeeping items. Due to Thanksgiving next Friday, the Transportation Newsletter will not be published. We […]
Beehiiv’s CEO isn’t worried about newsletter saturation
Newsletter platform beehiiv recently celebrated its four-year anniversary by launching a suite of new features, including an AI website builder, as well as support for podcasts and selling digital products. In other words, beehiiv is about more than newsletters now. Co-founder and CEO Tyler Denk (who writes a popular startup newsletter of his own) spoke […]
ChatGPT told them they were special, but family says that led to tragedy
Zane Shamblin never said anything to ChatGPT that suggested a negative relationship with his family. But in the weeks leading up to his death by suicide in July, chatbots encouraged the 23-year-old to distance himself even as his mental health deteriorated. According to chat logs included in a lawsuit filed by Shamblin’s family against OpenAI, […]
Strange-looking rocks on Mars are completely alien, discovered by the Perseverance rover
NASA’s Perseverance rover has discovered an extremely rare rock on the surface of Mars. The craggy rock has a metal-rich composition and is most likely a meteorite that crash-landed on Mars, the first meteorite discovered by Perseverance during its four-year mission to search for signs of life in Martian rocks. Since landing inside Mars’ Jezero […]
After all, the Trump administration may not fight state AI regulations
The Trump administration has targeted state-level AI regulation, with the president declaring in a social media post this week that the industry needs “one federal standard, not a patchwork of 50 state regulatory systems.” This comes after a 10-year ban on national AI regulation was initially included in President Trump’s Big Beautiful Act, but was […]
Waymo receives regulatory approval to expand across Bay Area and Southern California
Waymo continues to expand its reach, with the robo-taxi company announcing Friday that it is “officially cleared for full self-driving in more areas of the Golden State.” Waymo already has operations in San Francisco, Silicon Valley, and Los Angeles (as well as outside California in Atlanta, Austin, and Phoenix). But maps published by the California […]