Seven stories from roughly the last day. Summaries only; follow the links for the full reporting.
Hackers used ConnectWise's backup app to get into Microsoft 365 tenants
ConnectWise shut off customer access to its Cloud Backup service (formerly SkyKick) after attackers got hold of the app's credential and used it to sign in to customers' Microsoft 365 tenants. Huntress confirmed at least 162 compromised tenants (later reports say 173), and Microsoft saw activity starting October 15 from a single IP address. Because the attacker signed in as the app, not a person, multi-factor authentication didn't help, and the app's existing permissions could reach mail, OneDrive, SharePoint and Teams. ConnectWise says it has no sign that stored backup data was taken; admins are being told to disable and audit the affected service principals.
Anthropic says its AI agents now log six times the hours of its staff
In a research report, Anthropic said interactive AI agents at the company were working six times as many hours as employees by August, and output per person rose as people adopted coding agents. At the same time, its share of junior technical hires fell from 27% to 9%, and meeting time per employee rose about 20% year over year. The company says human attention is now the bottleneck, and hiring managers are weighting judgment and autonomy over narrow technical skills.
Replit switches its default AI model from Anthropic to OpenAI
Replit CEO Amjad Masad said onstage that the company was no longer working with Anthropic, then clarified that OpenAI's models are now the default for Replit Agent while Claude stays available as an option. He pointed to performance, cost and the strength of the partnership. It's a notable swing for one of the best-known AI coding platforms, and a sign of how fiercely OpenAI and Anthropic are competing for developer tools.
DeepSeek updates its Flash model and opens search tools to everyone
DeepSeek released V4.1-Flash-1017, a new checkpoint that now sits behind its existing Flash model name, so developers don't need to change anything to use it. It also opened standalone Search and Fetch APIs to all users, priced at $0.75 per 1,000 successful requests, giving agent builders a cheap way to let models look things up on the web.
Apple cracks down on AI "nudify" apps and hidden features
Apple updated its App Review Guidelines so apps with user-generated or AI-created content must prevent and remove nonconsensual intimate imagery, with filtering, reporting and blocking tools. A new rule, 2.5.19, bans hidden or dormant features, aimed at apps that pass review looking harmless and then switch on nudification later. Breaking the rules can mean removal and losing a developer account.
The world votes to end leap seconds starting in 2027
At the General Conference on Weights and Measures on October 15, delegates adopted a resolution ending leap-second adjustments to UTC, with continuous UTC starting May 20, 2027, years ahead of the earlier 2035 target. Atomic time and Earth-rotation time will be allowed to drift up to an hour apart. That's good news for software and networks, where leap seconds have caused outages and glitches.
Anthropic gives an outside safety group insider-level access
Anthropic began giving METR, an independent AI evaluation group, employee-like access to assess its models and safety practices. METR can publish what it finds, with only narrow redactions. It's a concrete model for outside oversight that other AI labs are likely to be measured against.