AI News Update: Is OpenAI Raising $30 Billion to Beat Anthropic’s Upcoming IPO? and more

UK Says Apple Pay Still Dominates The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority says Apple still makes it too hard for third-party developers to launch alternatives to Apple Pay, despite loosening its grip on the iPhone’s NFC chip. The finding keeps regulatory pressure on Apple’s payments business and could push Cupertino toward further concessions on wallet …

Summary Usage-based billing (UBB) models, including GPT-6 Astra and Claude Fable 5.1, will be available in Microsoft Copilot Chat and Copilot in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint starting November 2026. Access requires enabling UBB, assigning credits, and a Microsoft 365 Copilot license. Admins manage billing and credit allocation. Message ID: MC1519122 Published: Oct 21, 2026 Service: …

Safe Key Rotation for Azure Cosmos DB is now generally available. You can view timestamp metadata showing when each account key was last used, helping you identify active keys before rotating or retiring credentials. Azure update ID: 576716 Published: Oct 21, 2026 Status: Launched Timeline: October 2026 General Availability Product: Azure Cosmos DB Tag: Feature …

Starting October 30, 2026, Microsoft Entra ID will make the Choose Your Own Telephony Provider experience available. This feature enables organizations to use a supported third-party telecommunications provider for SMS and voice authentication. Organizations select a supported provider through Microsoft Security Store and manage their commercial relationship directly with the provider. Azure update ID: 577273 …

We’ve released updates to the following update channel for Microsoft 365 Apps: Current Channel Message ID: MC1519247 Published: Oct 21, 2026 Service: Microsoft 365 apps Tag: Feature update When this will happen We’ll be gradually rolling out this update of Microsoft 365 Apps to users on that update channel starting October 21st, 2026 (PST). How …

Army Wants AI Hackers With Minimal Supervision Apparently, minimal supervision is a selling point for cyberweapons. US Army Cyber Command (ARCYBER) is looking to outsource its offensive hacking to autonomous AI, because what could possibly go wrong? According to documents reviewed by The Intercept, the proposed framework—adorably codenamed ECHOTRIBBLE—would let software hunt and disable adversary …

US bans DeepSeek from fed systems The Department of Homeland Security has ordered all federal civilian agencies to stop purchasing DeepSeek products and remove existing Chinese AI technology from government IT systems, citing national security risks tied to potential data access by Chinese authorities. The ban extends beyond DeepSeek’s own products to cover third-party services …

Summary Microsoft is updating the Windows 11 Photos app experience to help users browse, organize, and find photos and videos across local PC content and OneDrive. The updated app includes a refreshed photo library, a native photo viewer from File Explorer or other Windows locations, and an updated native photo editor. Existing management controls still …

Summary Microsoft 365 apps admin center is adding Update Repair in Inventory to help admins find Windows devices with Microsoft 365 apps that are out of date or having update problems. Admins can review device status, see recommended remediation actions, and remotely start Online Repair for eligible devices. Repair reinstalls Microsoft 365 apps using the …

Summary Microsoft Teams is adding an onboarding workflow that automatically connects new team members to relevant channels when they join a team. The change is designed to help team owners onboard users faster and improve discoverability of important team information. This affects Teams across desktop, mobile, and Mac clients. No admin configuration is required, but …