Italy's competition regulator says it is scrutinizing a Meta policy excluding rival AI chatbots from WhatsApp, broadening the scope of a probe started in July (Edith Hancock/Wall Street Journal)

Meta has removed competing AI chatbots from its messaging platform WhatsApp, a move that reflects its strategy to consolidate its position in the AI space. This decision comes amid increasing scrutiny over competitive practices in the tech industry.

The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has issued a warning that hackers are targeting encrypted messaging apps like Signal and WhatsApp using commercial spyware that exploits vulnerabilities in specific phones and accounts. This alert highlights the ongoing risks associated with these platforms, including phishing attempts and zero-click exploits aimed at high-value users.

Italy's Finance Ministry is nearing an agreement to sell the digital-payments platform PagoPa to two state-controlled companies for up to €500 million ($579 million), marking a significant step in the government's strategy to streamline its digital assets.

Andrej Karpathy, former director of AI at Tesla and a founding member of OpenAI, created a 'vibe code project' over the weekend, allowing multiple AI assistants to collaboratively read and critique a book, ultimately synthesizing a final answer under a designated 'Chairman.' The project, named LLM Council, was shared on GitHub with a disclaimer about its ephemeral nature.

Meta has launched SAM 3, the latest iteration of its Segment Anything Model, which significantly enhances segmentation capabilities by improving accuracy, boundary quality, and robustness in real-world scenarios. This update is the most substantial since the model's inception, aiming to provide more reliable segmentation for both research and production workflows.

A novel system called InferF has been proposed to enhance AI/ML workflows by factorizing inference computations over multi-way joins of datasets. This approach aims to minimize redundant computations by decomposing machine learning tasks into sub-computations executed on normalized datasets, addressing the limitations of existing methods.

Robinhood has announced plans to launch a futures and derivatives exchange in collaboration with Susquehanna by 2026, alongside acquiring MIAXdx, a firm that specializes in clearing and executing derivatives trades. This move is aimed at expanding Robinhood's offerings in prediction markets and enhancing its trading capabilities.

Nvidia expressed satisfaction with Google's advancements in AI but asserted that its technology is a generation ahead, following reports that Meta may utilize Google's Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) in its data centers. This statement comes amid growing competition in the AI chip market.