Gemini Escapes Simulated Environment During Security Test - DTH

[music] >> These are the daily tech headlines for the week ending Saturday, September 19th, 2026. I'm Sara Lane. Let's catch up on the news. CNN sources say the US military almost intercepted a Chinese ship in the Middle East after an AI-assisted intelligence report falsely claimed it was carrying components for a nuclear weapons program. Armed service members were preparing to board the ship and military planes were already in the air before subject matter experts checking the underlying material found the chatbot had misidentified the cargo. CNN says the report came from a special operations command analyst during the Iran war. And one source called it entirely false and said it almost started a war. The Wall Street Journal reports Google's Gemini hacked three real companies during a May cybersecurity test run by AI security firm Irregular. Gemini was supposed to be working inside a simulated environment, but unintended internet access and overlapping company names sent it into real systems where it guessed one password and found two sets of credentials in public repositories. Google says Gemini stopped once it realized the companies were real. No harm was caused and the affected companies were notified. But if you're keeping score, that's another AI agent leaving the test track. Clicks says it's BlackBerry-like communicator with physical keys will start shipping in December, almost a year after its CES debut. The final version is getting a spec bump to 12 gigs of RAM, a 4,350 milliamp hour battery, Android 17 out of the box, software support through Android 20, and 5 years of security updates. If you're looking for a niche physical keyboard phone, it also has a 4.03 inch 120 hertz AMOLED display, and the price jumps from $499 to $649 on October 1st. Disney named Karan Deep Anand its first company-wide Chief Technology Officer, a new role that starts October 2nd and reports directly to CEO Josh D'Amaro. Anand was most recently CEO of character.ai and before that held senior roles at Meta, Microsoft and Brex. He'll oversee Disney's enterprise technology, infrastructure, data and AI platforms, product and engineering, which seems like a sign that Disney wants more internal tech muscle around Disney Plus, AI and its broader One Disney push. Roku is giving users a new place to try experimental apps called Roku Labs. It launches with four apps: Backdrop Studio for custom TV backgrounds, Roku immerse for custom screensavers, Roku weather and Roku stocks. And any Roku owner can access it from a new home screen tile. Roku's also open-sourcing Roku LTOS. That's the operating system that powers its remotes and smart home products. Tinkerers rejoice, or at least you have new options. Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger signed an executive order meant to slow down the state's data center boom and create a new AI task force. The order bans executive branch officials from signing non-disclosure agreements on data center projects, speeds up work on noise regulations, reviews backup generator use and gives local communities more tools to scrutinize projects. The AI task force will look at risks like workforce displacement, data privacy and cybersecurity. Google is refocusing its CCAI agent on household coordination, not just personal productivity. The updated version gives CC its own Google account, so up to six family members can share emails, schedules, tasks, and permissions. Then, have the agent add calendar events, track school and sports details, make shopping lists, plan meals, even fill out permission slips. It's currently limited to US users with personal Gmail accounts who are 18 or older. So, the family agent still can't actually work with a lot of kids' school accounts. Researchers in China found a way to eavesdrop on audio from headphones and other devices by injecting electromagnetic signals into their analog components. The attack is called InjectEve and can recover intelligible headphone audio from as far as 30 m in the best case, including through walls, and was tested on commercial devices from Sony, HP, Philips, Apple, and others. This isn't a software bug encryption can fix. The leakage comes from the hardware's analog path. So, solutions look more like shielding, filtering, and different component design. And finally today, Meta's personal agent Muse climbed to the top of Apple's US App Store free charts, passing GPT a little over a week after it launched. Muse can do all the usual stuff, fill out forms, shop for you, book reservations, and connect to services like email, calendars, Spotify, Instagram, and OpenTable, and is designed to ask for approval before any sensitive actions. If you don't mind sharing your digital life with Meta, it's another option in that personal agent space. For more [music] analysis of the tech news of the day and the week, subscribe to dailynewsshow.com. [music] You can find these show notes and links there, as well. I'm Sarah Lane. Thanks for listening. Enjoy your [music] weekends. We'll talk to you tomorrow.