NewzBits — AI News Aggregator | Summarized & Cited

• Twenty-four Indian startups across various sectors raised more than $412.81 million in funding between September 7 and September 12, 2026. • Spacetech startup Pixxel led the group by securing $100 million in a Series C round from Temasek and Seraphim Space. • This weekly funding total represents a 42% increase over the previous week's $290.91 million.

• President Trump downplayed warnings about artificial intelligence risks, claiming that negative forces are voicing concerns about events that will not occur. • Trump told ABC's This Week that the U.S. should slow the pace of development to protect the American people and ensure the technology proceeds safely. • Tech investor David Sacks, a member of Trump's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, urged AI companies to police themselves rather than relying on government mandates.

• The CEOs of OpenAI, Anthropic, and Elon Musk's AI company publicly agreed to slow down the development of artificial intelligence on Saturday, September 12, 2026. • This agreement marks the first time the leaders of the three most powerful AI companies in the Western world have aligned on a strategy to decelerate the AI race. • The decision suggests a shift in market competition toward safety or regulation, potentially delaying the release of next-generation AI models for developers and users.

• Chip Huyen is sharing strategies to reduce AI inference costs, which are the expenses associated with running a trained model to generate predictions, ahead of her P99 CONF appearance on October 21–22. • She recommends using continuous batching to prevent hardware slots from sitting idle while waiting for the slowest request in a group to finish. • This approach allows developers to process more requests simultaneously, lowering the cost per output for companies deploying large language models.

• French AI startups are increasingly seeking funding from the United States to overcome a capital shortage within Europe. • Mistral, a European alternative to OpenAI and Anthropic, has secured investment from Dutch chip-equipment maker ASML and targets clients like BNP Paribas and TotalEnergies. • This funding gap forces European companies to rely on foreign capital to compete with dominant U.S. AI firms.

• AI and advanced exploit kits are ending the era of "security through obscurity," where systems were protected simply by keeping their architecture secret. • At least four espionage crews, likely linked to China, recently exploited a "patch-gap" in open source Chromium by attacking users before stable updates were pushed. • This trend threatens critical operational technologies and industrial control systems, which often rely on hidden designs rather than robust security.

• Hardline factions in Iran are leveraging escalating tensions with the United States to consolidate domestic power. • Holly Dagres of The Washington Institute for Near East Policy notes that rigid power centers are strengthening despite widespread Iranian belief that the state is plagued by corruption and repression. • This political shift reduces the available room for diplomacy between the two nations, creating potential political instability for both Donald Trump and Masoud Pezeshkian.

Alleged victim tells court he froze and was ‘in disbelief’ after broadcaster kissed him on corner of his lips at public eventA prominent athlete froze and was “shocked and embarrassed” when Alan Jones kissed him on the side of his mouth at a public event, the broadcaster’s trial at Sydney’s Downing Centre has heard.The witness said the kiss on the corner of his lips happened years after Jones sent him a weekly bouquet of flowers after he had complimented the flowers on Jones’s dining table. He said Jones’s driver would drop the flowers at his home every week. Continue reading...

TGA issues alert after person was hospitalised after believing they were taking experimental weight loss drug retatrutideFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastA patient who tore their oesophagus after taking a counterfeit version of an experimental weight loss drug has prompted Australia’s medicines regulator to warn of serious risks of such products.The concern relates to retatrutide, a type of drug known as a peptide. Retatrutide has not been approved by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) or regulators overseas, and it cannot be legally prescribed or sold in Australia. Continue reading...

Miki Zohar accuses Oscar-winning directors Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor of ‘treason against the state’‘They know the house they are bombing is full of children’: NAZA’s directors on their devastating film about Israeli intelligenceIsrael’s culture minister has called for the Oscar-winning Israeli directors of NAZA, a documentary about the country’s mass killing of civilians in Gaza, to be stripped of their citizenship, accusing them of “treason against the state”.NAZA, which was produced by the Guardian, is named for an acronym used by Israel’s intelligence service to indicate how many civilians it expects to die in an airstrike on Gaza. Continue reading...

Legal pioneer remembered as an advocate for equality and champion of women in the workplaceFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastMary Gaudron, the first woman appointed to the high court of Australia, has been honoured for her contributions to the legal landscape after her death at the age of 83.Gaudron was appointed to the high court in 1987, aged 44, and served until 2003. Continue reading...

• The Philippine economy faced a series of systemic shocks over the past year, including domestic corruption and global geopolitical instability. • A flood control corruption scandal restricted state spending while overseas conflicts triggered a global energy shock that increased domestic prices. • These events highlight structural vulnerabilities that threaten the long-term resilience of the national economy.

• India is building rice buffers to protect against potential trade crises or weather-related production disruptions. • The country currently maintains rice stocks that exceed its own domestic needs. • These strategic reserves aim to stabilize the local market and ensure food security during global supply shocks.

• US inflation remained at 3.4 per cent in August, sustaining expectations that the Federal Reserve will continue raising interest rates. • Market analysts suggest that large private banks with strong deposit franchises are better positioned to handle these shifts than other financial institutions. • Higher US rates and bond yields may weaken the rupee, which could provide a competitive advantage for Indian export sectors like IT and pharmaceuticals.

• European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde stated that energy shocks from the Middle East conflict will keep inflation high across the euro area. • New projections released Thursday show inflation will be quicker in 2027 and 2028, with the 2028 rate now slightly above the bank's target goal. • The bank is lifting interest rates and signaling further hikes to combat these rising prices.

• One economist argues that the Federal Reserve's potential interest rate hike in September 2026 is designed to benefit Wall Street rather than combat inflation. • Market futures currently price in an 85% chance of a rate increase during the September 15-16 meeting. • Higher rates increase bank profits in the short term and make fixed-income assets like Treasury yields more attractive than stocks for investors.

• OpenAI CEO Sam Altman ruled out an initial public offering for the company in 2026 to prioritize AI safety. • Citi analysts predict the Federal Reserve will implement a "dovish hike," meaning a small interest rate increase accompanied by a signal that future hikes will be limited. • These decisions affect investor timelines for AI equity and market expectations for borrowing costs.