September 16, 2026
Google launches two Gemini 3.8 Live models for real-time voice agents
AWS says some Bahrain and UAE data remains unrecovered after drone strikes, while Air Force secretary says U.S. has weapons deployed in orbit.
Google launches two Gemini 3.8 Live models for real-time voice agents
Google has launched Gemini 3.8 Live and Gemini 3.8 Live Extended Thinking, giving developers separate options for scalable real-time voice interactions and more complex, multi-step tasks.
- Google says the standard model can use live visual input, switch languages and keep conversing while tools or APIs run in the background.
- Google says Extended Thinking can reason and speak simultaneously, acknowledge requests before work finishes and narrate progress through longer workflows.
- Google says the models are available through the Gemini API, but also describes enterprise access as a private preview. The Decoder reports rates of $0.005 per input minute and $0.018 per output minute.
AWS says some Bahrain and UAE data remains unrecovered after drone strikes
More than six months after March drone strikes, AWS says some resources and data in Bahrain and the UAE remain unrecovered.
- AWS says it cannot restore access to resources and data hosted exclusively in the affected Bahrain region.
- Recovery has failed in one UAE availability zone, the company says, while restoration continues in two others.
Air Force secretary says U.S. has weapons deployed in orbit
Air Force Secretary Troy Meink made the first public U.S. acknowledgment of what he called “on-orbit space control weapons.”
- Meink said the systems are intended to defend military forces against hostile action, but officials revealed no details about their design, capabilities, testing or number.
- He framed the disclosure as deterrence, while China objected and experts warned it could encourage comparable programs elsewhere.
Cloudflare launches a no-training control designed to preserve search access
Cloudflare has introduced Disallow AI Training, a new control designed to preserve search access while rejecting AI training.
- Cloudflare says the setting publishes a no-training preference while preserving search access and blocks other training crawlers. It is available across all plans.
- Coverage is incomplete for Bingbot: Microsoft does not yet automatically receive the preference and is targeting domain-level robots.txt support in early 2027, according to Cloudflare.
Meta launches Meta One subscriptions from $7.99 with bundled AI tools
Meta One combines paid features across Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp with expanded access to Meta’s AI image, video and editing tools.
- Individual Core and Premium plans cost $7.99 and $19.99 a month; creator and business tiers have advertised monthly prices from $14.99 to $499.
- Meta declined to give TechCrunch exact AI-use limits, saying they may vary by country, product surface and system conditions.
In Brief
OpenAI is in early funding talks at a roughly $1.2 trillion valuation
OpenAI is in preliminary investor discussions about another private funding round at a valuation around or above $1.2 trillion, Bloomberg and the Financial Times report. Any deal depends on its IPO timetable.
Mozilla report puts open-weight AI’s frontier lag at 4.4 months
The report recommends using open models by default for routine work. It says closed models’ roughly four-month capability lead is concentrated in tasks that take human experts eight to 12 hours.
Western agencies say Iran used Chosen Brick spyware to target critics
UK, US and Dutch intelligence agencies allege Iran used Chosen Brick spyware to target dissidents, activists and journalists. They say the Windows malware can access messages and microphones; in at least one case, a file mimicked MRI results.
OpenAI Foundation announces $40 million for cancer-vaccine data
The OpenAI Foundation announced $40 million for a UNC program collecting novel cancer-vaccine data and $500,000 for a proposed archive of failed biotech companies’ records, MIT Technology Review reports. The round also includes unspecified support for OpenAdmet.
Nvidia and Meta chiefs oppose an industry-wide AI slowdown
Nvidia’s Jensen Huang and Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg separately rejected a coordinated slowdown in frontier AI research, the Financial Times reports. Both argued that individual labs should decide when safety concerns warrant slowing development.
Google patches Pixel modem flaw it says may face targeted exploitation
Google released September security patches for supported Pixel devices, covering 110 vulnerabilities, BleepingComputer reports. Google says one modem flaw may be under limited, targeted exploitation.
SpaceX plans Starship’s first orbital attempt for September 22
SpaceX plans to launch Starship Flight 14 on September 22, TechCrunch reports. The company says the mission would attempt to place the upper stage in Earth orbit and deploy 26 V3 Starlink satellites intended for its operational constellation.
