OpenAI Expands Safety Testing On New Model Astra Over Cyberattack Concerns - DTH

[music] >> These are the daily tech headlines for the week ending Saturday, August 8th, 2026. [music] I'm Sarah Lane. Let's catch up on the news. OpenAI told Axios Friday that it slowed the release of its upcoming Astra model after internal tests showed it may have advanced cybersecurity capabilities. OpenAI says it's tightening safety testing and pausing Astra-related work that doesn't meet higher security requirements. This is a pretty clear example of an AI lab saying the risk is not just bad answers, but a model that could help carry out real cyberattacks. Claude code sessions on macOS can now coordinate with each other through a local intersession messaging setup. The idea is that separate coding sessions can share notes, claim work, and avoid stepping on each other while still keeping the message bodies on the user's machine. As more developers run several AI coding agents at once, isolated sessions can get kind of messy. Sony may be bringing back a cheaper version of its 2020 WH-1000XM4 flagship headphones. Great name. According to reliable leaker Billbil-kun on Dealabs, the rumored WH-1000XM4C would keep features like active noise cancellation, spatial audio, high-resolution audio support, and touch controls, but with slightly shorter battery life for around $250. Going for people who still prefer the older foldable design over Sony's newer 1000X models. Microsoft Edge is preparing to phase out older Manifest V2 browser extensions following the same path Google Chrome already took. That means older ad blockers like the original UBlock Origin will eventually stop working in Edge with consumers moved off Manifest V2 by the end of this year and enterprise users losing support in early 2027. Microsoft says most heavily used extensions have already moved to Manifest V3, but it's a heads-up for users who use the stronger blocking tool. The US president signed an executive order adding a 15% tariff and minimum prices on imported polysilicon and related solar components starting December 4th. Polysilicon is used in solar panels and some chip-making supply chains and the White House is framing the move as a national security push to protect US manufacturing. The trade-off is that it could help domestic suppliers while raising costs for solar projects and adding another point of tension with China. Nielsen is acquiring Double Verify in an all-cash deal worth about $2.5 billion. measurement. Double Verify checks whether digital ads are viewable, brand-safe, and actually reaching the right audience. The steel gives Nielsen a stronger position in digital ad measurement at a time when advertisers want more proof that their spending is actually working. The world's largest solar telescope captured some of the most detailed images yet of tiny plasma whirlpools on the sun's surface. Researchers say the images show direct evidence of Kelvin-Helmholtz instability. That's a pattern that forms when fluids or plasma move at different speeds. The finding could help explain why the sun's outer atmosphere gets so much hotter than its own surface. That's one of the longest-running mysteries in solar physics. The information sources say Nvidia is in talks to invest up to $3 billion in Lancium. That's a power infrastructure company tied to major AI data center projects in Texas. Lancium has become important because the AI boom is now as much as land, power, and grid connections as it is about chips. A deal would give Nvidia another way to secure the infrastructure needed to keep demand for its hardware growing. X is replacing its creator revenue sharing program with a new original content rewards program. The company says the new setup will pay creators based on high-quality original posts and engagement from premium users instead of rewarding copied or recycled content that games the system. It's a pretty direct attempt to push creators away from low-effort reposting, but it also gives X more control over who gets paid and why. >> [music] >> For more analysis of the tech [music] news of the day and the week, subscribe to you can find show notes and links to all these headlines [music] there as well. I'm Sarah Lane. Thanks for listening. Enjoy your weekend. We'll talk to you Monday.