Three things worth knowing from the last day in AI.
One hacker, AI agents, and scores of break-ins. Reuters reports a Chinese-speaking hacker outsourced almost an entire hacking spree to AI agents running on the open-source Cairn platform, breaking into sites belonging to more than 100 companies, including Deere, SharkNinja, and Cummins. A researcher at NorForge watched it happen via exposed Cairn instances. It’s the clearest real-world sign yet that autonomous agents can carry out complex intrusions with minimal human effort. Source: https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/how-one-hacker-used-ai-agents-few-thousand-dollars-break-into-scores-sites-2026-10-19/
Anthropic puts 5% of itself toward the public benefit. Anthropic will commit 5% of its shares to a new Public Benefit Fund, with room to add 2% more for every 50% rise in company value, pending stockholder approval. Combined with founder and employee pledges, roughly 20% of shares would be dedicated to public purposes. The fund could make large nonprofit donations or direct payments to specific groups — a notable governance move ahead of a possible IPO. Source: https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/18/anthropic-says-its-committing-5-of-its-shares-to-a-public-benefit-fund/
Disney hires most of bankrupt Character.AI’s staff. After Character.AI filed for Chapter 11, Disney agreed to offer jobs to at least 60 employees — the majority of the workforce — at an estimated $60 million a year in pay, on top of a $20 million stalking-horse bid for some assets. It’s another talent-first AI deal, and it puts Character.AI’s former CEO’s old team under the same roof as Disney’s new CTO — who is Character.AI’s former CEO. Source: https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/18/disney-agrees-to-hire-the-majority-of-character-ais-workforce/