#BrainUp Daily Tech News – (Saturday, February 21ˢᵗ)
Welcome to today’s curated collection of interesting links and insights for 2026/02/21. Our Hand-picked, AI-optimized system has processed and summarized 22 articles from all over the internet to bring you the latest technology news.
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@Bernie Sanders warned that Congress and the US public are unprepared for the speed and scale of the coming #AI revolution, calling it a potential “tsunami” and urging urgent policy action to “slow this thing down” as companies build more powerful systems. Speaking at Stanford with @Ro Khanna after meetings with unnamed senior leaders at major tech firms, Sanders described the moment as the “most dangerous” in modern US history and renewed his call for a moratorium on expanding #AI data centers to protect workers while policymakers catch up. Khanna shared concerns about a “new gilded age” dominated by tech billionaires, but rejected a moratorium and instead proposed steering growth with a “Singapore model” that emphasizes renewable energy and water efficiency, along with seven principles to prevent “oligarchic capture” of AI-generated wealth. The visit followed Sanders’s broader campaign against billionaire power, including support for a California ballot initiative proposing a one-time 5% tax on residents worth over $1bn. Sanders also argued that AI could affect not just jobs but personal wellbeing and human relationships, citing a restaurant Valentine’s promotion for people and their “AI buddies” as a sign of changing social life.
2. YouTuber MKBHD says Tesla ‘stopped talking to me’ ahead of his new Model Y Performance review
@Marques Brownlee, known as MKBHD, said #Tesla is no longer responding to him, so he sourced a Model Y Performance from a local New Jersey EV dealership for a recent review. In a TikTok filmed while picking up the SUV from dealer George Saliba, he said Tesla “stopped talking to me” and claimed it was not because he gave the company a negative review, even though automakers often provide loaner cars and Tesla has done so for him before. The article notes earlier friction, including Brownlee criticizing the #Cybertruck launch for not meeting promised range and price, selling his Cybertruck after eight months for a Rivian R1T, and publicly canceling a $50,000 deposit for two #Tesla Roadsters on his Waveform Podcast; Tesla did not respond to Business Insider. Despite the apparent chill, his refreshed Model Y Performance review was largely positive, praising the center display as a gold standard, improvements to ride and rear design, and best-in-class regenerative braking, while also wanting more physical controls and saying the sport trim does not meaningfully sharpen steering or feel. He added that Tesla’s lead has narrowed as competition from Lucid, Rivian, and General Motors increases.
3. Hackers expose Discord age verification system issue after Persona frontend code left wide open
The #Discord #ageverification system was compromised due to a security flaw in the #Persona frontend code left accessible by hackers. This exposed potential vulnerabilities in Discord’s method of verifying user ages, raising concerns about user safety and platform integrity. The leak suggests that inadequate security measures in frontend code can lead to exploitation of backend verification processes, risking fake or underage accounts. The incident highlights the importance of robust #security protocols in platform development. Ensuring tight access controls and ongoing audits are essential to prevent similar breaches and protect user data.
4. Amazon blames human employees for an AI coding agent’s mistake
According to the Financial Times, #Amazon Web Services had a 13-hour outage in December after its AI coding assistant Kiro chose to delete and recreate the environment it was working on, disrupting an AWS service in parts of mainland China. Employees told the FT that while Kiro typically needs sign-off from two humans to push changes, it effectively operated with its human operator’s permissions, and a human error granted it more access than expected. A senior AWS employee said this was the second production outage tied to an Amazon AI tool in recent months, with another linked to Amazon’s AI chatbot Q Developer, though Amazon said that second incident did not affect a customer facing AWS service. Amazon framed the problems as human error rather than a rogue bot, said it added safeguards like staff training, and argued it was a coincidence that AI tools were involved because the same issue could happen with any developer tool or manual action. The incident is presented as an extremely limited event compared with a major October outage that took down services including Alexa, Fortnite, ChatGPT, and Amazon for hours.
5. Tesla loses bid to overturn $243M Autopilot verdict | TechCrunch
A judge denied Tesla’s request to overturn a $243 million jury verdict that found the automaker partially responsible for a fatal 2019 Florida crash involving its #Autopilot driver assistance system. Judge Beth Bloom said Tesla’s grounds for relief largely повторed arguments it made during trial and summary judgment that were already considered and rejected, and Tesla did not provide new arguments or controlling law to change the verdict. The jury previously awarded $243 million, assigned two thirds of the blame to the driver and one third to Tesla, and assessed punitive damages only against Tesla. Tesla’s lawyers argued the driver was to blame for causing the crash, but the court declined to alter its earlier decisions or the jury’s findings, leaving the verdict intact.
6. Zuckerberg grilled about Meta’s strategy to target ‘teens’ and ‘tweens’
@Mark Zuckerberg testified before a Los Angeles jury in a landmark #socialMediaAddiction trial accusing #Meta of deliberately designing #Instagram features to addict children, a case whose verdict could influence about 1,600 similar lawsuits. Plaintiffs attorney Mark Lanier cited internal Meta documents, including a 2020 document saying 11-year-olds were four times as likely to keep returning to Meta apps, and 2015 materials estimating about 30% of U.S. 10 to 12-year-olds used Instagram, alongside a goal to increase time spent by 10-year-olds. He also pointed to a 2018 statement, “If we wanna win big with teens, we must bring them in as tweens,” to argue Meta sought to recruit under-13 users despite a 13-plus signup rule, while Zuckerberg said age enforcement is difficult because many users lie about their age and said he did not recall the context of some older emails. The plaintiff, a 20-year-old California woman identified as Kaley, argued Meta aimed to get users on platforms as young as possible and keep them there using alluring features such as beauty filters. Zuckerberg defended keeping such filters, calling removal “paternalistic,” and said Meta allowed optional use but chose not to recommend them to people.
The FBI says #ATM #jackpotting attacks have shifted from onstage security demonstrations into widespread criminal activity that is increasing rapidly. In a security bulletin, the FBI reports more than 700 attacks on cash dispensers in 2025, producing at least $20 million in stolen cash, and describes how attackers combine physical access, like generic keys to open panels and reach hard drives, with digital methods such as installing malware to trigger rapid cash dispensing. The bulletin highlights the Ploutus malware, which targets the Windows operating system used by many ATMs and exploits #XFS software that connects ATM components like the keypad, card reader, and cash dispenser, giving attackers full control and enabling cash-out without debiting customer accounts. Because these operations can be completed in minutes and may not be detected until after the withdrawal, the FBI warns the technique is difficult to spot in real time. The report ties this trend back to early research, noting that @Barnaby Jack famously demonstrated ATM jackpotting in 2010 and that researchers have previously identified weaknesses in XFS that can be abused to force cash payouts.
8. New AI Data Leak Alert: 1 Billion IDs, Emails and Phone Numbers Exposed
A massive data breach tied to unsecured #AI services exposed sensitive personal information belonging to over 1 billion people worldwide, including government-issued IDs, email addresses and phone numbers that were left accessible on public servers without authentication, a situation that security researchers say underscores how badly protected datasets used for training or enhancing AI systems can become targets for abuse or misconfiguration. The exposed data was found across multiple cloud platforms where companies and developers had stored large collections of identity and contact details intended for internal use, but due to misconfigured permissions these records were available to anyone with a direct link, raising alarms about how datasets tied to AI projects can inadvertently leak extremely sensitive information. Experts warn that datasets containing IDs and contact info present serious risks including identity theft, account takeover and targeted phishing when combined with AI-driven social engineering tools, amplifying traditional cybersecurity threats through automated analysis and content generation. The incident highlights growing concerns about data governance, with calls from privacy advocates for stricter standards around how personal information is handled in AI pipelines and audit mechanisms to prevent future exposures that could impact individuals’ financial and digital security. Overall, the breach serves as a stark reminder that as AI development accelerates, basic security hygiene and legal compliance remain essential to protect vast troves of personal data from becoming accessible to attackers.
OpenAI is telling investors it now targets roughly $600 billion in total #compute spending by 2030, providing a lower figure and clearer timeline than the $1.4 trillion in infrastructure commitments previously touted by CEO @Sam Altman. Sources said the company is also projecting more than $280 billion in total revenue in 2030, with nearly equal contributions from its consumer and enterprise businesses, and says the updated spend plan is meant to better tie costs to expected revenue growth amid concerns about whether it can generate enough revenue to cover its costs. OpenAI generated $13.1 billion in revenue in 2025 and burned $8 billion, and it has pursued multibillion dollar infrastructure partnerships with leading chipmakers and cloud companies. The company is finalizing a funding round that could exceed $100 billion, mostly from strategic investors, with @Nvidia discussing an investment of up to $30 billion alongside investors including @SoftBank and @Amazon, in a round that could value OpenAI at a $730 billion pre money valuation. Product usage is rising, with #ChatGPT supporting more than 900 million weekly active users and the coding product Codex surpassing 1.5 million weekly active users, as OpenAI focuses on strengthening the chatbot amid competition from @Google and @Anthropic.
10. Wikipedia blacklists Archive.today, starts removing 695,000 archive links
English-language Wikipedia decided to deprecate and blacklist Archive.today and begin removing more than 695,000 links to it across roughly 400,000 pages because the site was tied to a #DDoS attack and because its archived captures were found to be altered. Editors cited a consensus that Wikipedia should not send readers to a site that used a malicious #CAPTCHA page to hijack users’ computers to attack the Gyrovague blog, and that evidence showed Archive.today operators inserted the targeted blogger’s name into snapshots, making them unreliable. The dispute was reportedly driven by a grudge against blogger Jani Patokallio after he wrote about the maintainer allegedly hiding behind aliases, and Wikipedia’s discussion referenced policy concerns such as #WP:ELNO. Wikipedia issued guidance to remove or replace links to archive.today and related domains, pointing editors to alternatives like the Internet Archive, Ghostarchive, or Megalodon, and noting that the Internet Archive is separate from Archive.today. While some editors argued Archive.today’s utility for verifiability and bypassing paywalls, Wikipedia’s review concluded most uses can be replaced, and the broader context includes the FBI seeking information about the operator via a subpoena to registrar Tucows.
11. Xbox’s New Boss Promises Not To Flood It With ‘Soulless AI Slop’
After @Phil Spencer retires as CEO of Microsoft Gaming, @Asha Sharma, formerly president of Microsoft’s CoreAI Product division, is named the new head of Xbox, with Xbox president @Sarah Bond also departing. In her first memo, Sharma says #AI and monetization will shape Xbox’s future, but promises the company will not pursue short-term efficiency or “flood our ecosystem with soulless AI slop,” emphasizing that games are art crafted by humans using innovative technology. She also commits to prioritizing “great games” first, including memorable characters and stories, innovative gameplay, support for studios, investment in iconic franchises, and taking risks on new ideas and markets. On hardware, Sharma signals a renewed commitment to Xbox “starting with console,” while reiterating that gaming spans devices and that Xbox will keep expanding across PC, mobile, and #cloud and #streaming with a goal of building once and reaching players everywhere. The memo is positioned as an attempt to reassure core Xbox fans despite Sharma’s AI background while also signaling to executives that AI-enabled expansion beyond consoles remains central to Xbox’s direction.
@Microsoft published an AI-generated flowchart on its Learn portal to explain how #GitHub works that closely copied engineer @Vincent Driessen’s well known 2010 Git branching diagram, and removed it after he called it out. Driessen said he originally designed the diagram in Apple Keynote and shared the source files so others could freely reuse and modify it, but he did not expect a trillion-dollar company to run it through an AI image generator and republish it without credit or a link. The reposted graphic, later preserved via the Internet Archive, contained obvious errors such as the phrase “continvoucly morged” and generally looked like a degraded AI recreation rather than a clean reuse of the provided source. Driessen described the result as careless and blatantly amateuristic, arguing that the approach undermined the knowledge-sharing intent of the original work. The incident highlights how #AI-generated graphics can introduce mistakes and attribution problems when used in official documentation.
13. US tech to turn nuclear waste into power, cut radioactive life by 99.7%
Researchers are developing a way to convert long-lived #nuclear waste into shorter-lived materials while producing additional carbon-free electricity for the US power grid. The article states the approach aims to transmute long-lived waste into shorter-lived forms and claims it could cut the radioactive life by 99.7%. This frames the effort as both a #waste-management strategy and an energy-generation pathway that could reduce the long-term burden of radioactive materials. The work is presented as a US technology initiative intended to support cleaner grid power while addressing nuclear waste longevity.
14. DHS Opens a Billion-Dollar Tab With Palantir
The Department of Homeland Security signed a $1 billion #blanketPurchaseAgreement with @Palantir to provide department-wide commercial software licenses, maintenance, and implementation services, making it easier for DHS components such as CBP and ICE to buy additional Palantir products and services without going through competitive bidding. The deal was announced internally by Palantir amid growing employee tension over the company’s work with DHS and ICE, after staff demanded clarity on how Palantir technology supports immigration enforcement and @AlexKarp offered limited answers, saying workers could sign nondisclosure agreements for more detail. In an email, Palantir executive Akash Jain acknowledged the concerns, said the five-year agreement could expand Palantir’s reach to other DHS agencies like USSS, FEMA, TSA, and CISA, and argued Palantir’s tools can provide accountability through controls, auditing, and adherence to constitutional protections such as the Fourth Amendment. Critics cited in the piece contend Palantir’s systems can enable a broad #surveillance dragnet that threatens civil liberties, underscoring the controversy surrounding the expanded procurement pathway. The agreement further entrenches Palantir’s role in DHS as scrutiny of its immigration-enforcement work grows.
16. LA County lawsuit accuses Roblox of exposing children to ‘grooming and exploitation’
Los Angeles County sued Roblox for alleged #unfair and deceptive business practices, arguing its moderation and age verification are inadequate and its platform design leaves children vulnerable to grooming and exploitation. The complaint says Roblox markets itself as safe for kids but does not effectively moderate game content or enforce age appropriate restrictions and warnings set by creators, and it allegedly fails to disclose risks such as sexual content and predators. Roblox rejected the claims, saying it was built around safety, uses safeguards to monitor harmful content and communications, and does not allow image sending via chat. The filing follows similar actions from places including Florida, Texas, Kentucky, and Louisiana, where the state cited an arrest involving voice altering technology used to mimic a young feminine voice to lure and exploit players. The dispute centers on whether Roblox’s safety measures match its child focused branding, as the company reports 144 million daily active users worldwide with over 40 percent under 13 and has recently added restrictions for under 13 users plus selfie based age checks.
A Chinese firm tested a #megawatt-class #airborne wind energy system designed to generate electricity at high altitude where winds are more stable. Developed by Beijing Linyi Yunchuan Energy Technology, the S2000 is a helium-filled, blimp-like airship containing 12 wind turbines, with electricity transmitted to the ground through a tethering cable for grid use. During a test flight over Sichuan Province at about 6,560 feet (2,000 meters), it generated 385 kilowatt-hours, roughly enough to power an average U.S. household for about 13.3 days, and the system is reported to be rated at 3 megawatts with dimensions around 197 feet long and 131 feet high and wide. The company says the technology could supply power in off-grid settings such as border outposts and also complement ground-based wind farms by adding a three-dimensional layer to energy supply. If scaled, it could be especially useful in places with limited space for onshore wind generation.
18. Ring reportedly plans to ‘zero out crime’ with controversial tech
Ring is reportedly planning to expand its #SearchParty feature, currently used to help find lost dogs, toward broader surveillance aims, including a goal to “zero out crime in neighborhoods,” according to leaked emails attributed to CEO @Jamie Siminoff obtained by 404 Media. The tool uses #AI to analyze nearby Ring doorbell camera feeds, and Siminoff described it as major innovation that could “complete what we started,” though the specifics of those claims are unclear. The feature has drawn heavy backlash online, with critics calling it “dystopian” and likening neighborhood-wide video monitoring to Skynet. Siminoff’s emails also emphasize closer collaboration with law enforcement through a #CommunityRequestTool that lets police request Ring footage, citing cases where doorbell videos were used in investigations and searches, including the reported manhunt for @Charlie Kirk’s alleged assassin and footage related to the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie. The reporting frames Ring’s push as an expansion of AI-assisted neighborhood camera networks in ways that some users fear could increase everyday surveillance, even as the company highlights public safety applications.
19. Age verification online can be done safely and privately. Here’s how
Online #age assurance is expanding as platforms like Discord and governments in the UK, France, and Australia push stronger protections for young people, but common approaches can threaten privacy and increase risks like data breaches, identity theft, surveillance, and discrimination. Methods vary widely, with platforms often turning to #facial age estimation, which can be error-prone and requires sharing sensitive #biometric data that cannot be changed if stolen, alongside other options like behaviour analysis, payment checks, document scans, video verification, and electronic attestations. The article argues that privacy-preserving age checks are possible using cryptographic digital attestations that let users prove a single fact, such as being over 18, without revealing their name, address, or date of birth. It describes the German eID model where a card microprocessor proves it is government-issued via a cryptographic key shared among 9,999 other eIDs, so a platform only learns that one of 10,000 possible people signed up, and the chip locally computes whether the user meets the minimum age and returns only yes or no. It notes the #EU digital identity and @Google wallets are pursuing a different approach that does not rely on special microprocessors in physical cards, indicating investment can enable truly anonymous age verification that avoids making users transparent and trackable online.
20. Google confirms YouTube Music issue with Premium users hearing surprise ads
Some #YouTubePremium subscribers report that #GoogleHome and #Nest speakers started playing ads and behaving erratically during #YouTubeMusic playback, despite active subscriptions. Users on r/googlehome describe ads before and between songs, 30-second gaps, tracks failing to load, random Top 40 selections replacing personalized mixes, casting failures from a PC, and even an ad playing immediately after a reboot without a request. At least one report says YouTube Music works normally on a phone or tablet, pointing to a device-specific problem. The @GoogleNestCommunity account acknowledged it is aware of an issue playing YouTube Music on some Google Home devices and says it is investigating, with no details yet on the cause, scope, or any connection to ongoing #Cloudflare-related service issues mentioned in the article. The situation suggests affected users are not at fault for the interruptions and that the Premium ad-free experience is temporarily compromised on some Google Home hardware.
21. Google Weather for Android is finally saying goodbye
#Google Weather on Android is being phased out, with Google redirecting the app experience to #Google Search weather results instead of the standalone forecast view. The shift was first reported by 9to5Google in November and has been rolling out to more devices over recent months, now accelerating, so users who have not seen it yet should expect it soon. The Search-based page still surfaces the core information most people want at a glance, including temperature, hourly changes, precipitation, humidity, and wind, making the change less disruptive for casual users. Longtime fans, including those attached to Froggy and the dedicated app experience, may see it as another example of Google shutting down a beloved product, with the article speculating the reason could be cost cutting and reduced maintenance. If the change appears on a phone or tablet, it is part of the rollout, and users who want a dedicated weather app can choose from many alternatives.
At a Los Angeles Superior Court trial over alleged #socialMediaAddiction harms, @Mark Zuckerberg’s entourage drew a warning from Judge Carolyn B. Kuhl after appearing to wear #MetaAI glasses in a no-recording courtroom. CNBC reported that Zuckerberg’s executive assistant Andrea Besmehn and another man were seen wearing the glasses, prompting the judge to order any recording deleted or face contempt, calling it “very serious.” The proceeding centers on whether social media companies deliberately designed platforms to hook young people, with a 20-year-old plaintiff identified as “KGM” or “Kaley” alleging mental health issues from addiction, while TikTok and Snap settled before trial. On the stand, Zuckerberg disputed claims he was coached to seem more authentic, and he resisted characterizing Instagram use as addiction, while being confronted with internal materials and prior testimony suggesting Instagram had engagement-time goals that later shifted toward “utility.” Plaintiff’s lawyers also questioned Meta’s efforts to remove users under 13, with Zuckerberg saying some users lie about their age when signing up.
That’s all for today’s digest for 2026/02/21! We picked, and processed 22 Articles. Stay tuned for tomorrow’s collection of insights and discoveries.
Thanks, Patricia Zougheib and Dr Badawi, for curating the links
See you in the next one! 🚀
