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New Koske Linux malware hides in cute panda images

A new Linux malware named Koske may have been developed with artificial intelligence and is using seemingly benign JPEG images of panda bears to deploy malware directly into system memory.

Researchers from cybersecurity company AquaSec analyzed Koske and described it as “a sophhisticated Linux threat.” Based on the observed adaptive behavior, the researchers believe that the malware was developed using large language models (LLMs) or automation frameworks.

Koske’s purpose is to deploy CPU and GPU-optimized cryptocurrency miners that use the host’s computational resources to mine over 18 distinct coins.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman warns of an AI ‘fraud crisis’

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says the world may be on the precipice of a “fraud crisis” because of how artificial intelligence could enable bad actors to impersonate other people.

“A thing that terrifies me is apparently there are still some financial institutions that will accept a voice print as authentication for you to move a lot of money or do something else — you say a challenge phrase, and they just do it,” Altman said. “That is a crazy thing to still be doing… AI has fully defeated most of the ways that people authenticate currently, other than passwords.”

The comments were part of his wide-ranging interview about the economic and societal impacts of AI at the Federal Reserve on Tuesday. He also told the audience, which included, representatives of large US financial institutions, about the role he expects AI to play in the economy.

OpenAI prepares to release advanced GPT-5 model in August

OpenAI is reportedly set to launch its highly anticipated GPT-5 model in August 2025, following hints from CEO Sam Altman who previously stated the release would come “very soon” and “sometime this summer.” According to reports from The Verge and other sources, the next-generation AI model will arrive alongside mini and nano versions, with API access for developers, marking a significant evolution from its predecessor GPT-4.

They helped make Waymo go. Now they’re building AI-powered robots to solve America’s labor crisis

To confront this growing labor crisis, Boris Sofman—a Carnegie Mellon robotics Ph.D. and early Waymo executive—cofounded Bedrock Robotics in 2024. Instead of building autonomous machines from scratch, Bedrock retrofits existing construction equipment like excavators, bulldozers, and loaders with AI-powered operating systems, sensors, and lidar to make them fully autonomous.

Sofman has brought together fellow engineers from Waymo, Google, and Caterpillar (CAT), many of whom were instrumental in scaling autonomous technologies in some of the world’s most complex machines. The team shares a fundamental belief: the future of construction lies in autonomy, not more manpower.

“I saw the powerful potential of applying modern ML approaches we developed at Waymo to construction. This is a problem you could not solve without the modern approaches we saw to be so effective, and helped deploy, in transportation, so it felt like a huge opportunity to address this critical need,” Sofman tells Fast Company. “We can get to a deployed product for a fraction of the cost it took Waymo, and continue to build toward the full potential while growing revenues and serving real customers.”

Explosive neural networks via higher-order interactions in curved statistical manifolds

Higher-order interactions shape complex neural dynamics but are hard to model. Here, authors use a generalization of the maximum entropy principle to introduce a family of curved neural networks, revealing explosive phaseions and enhanced memory via a self-regulating retrieval mechanism.

Research uses AI to find pathologic and genetic basis for worse outcome of endometrial cancer in Black women

Endometrial cancer—in which tumors develop in the inner lining of the uterus—is the most prevalent gynecological cancer in American women, affecting more than 66,000 women a year. Black women are particularly at risk, with an 80% higher mortality rate than other demographic groups and a greater chance of contracting more aggressive cancer subtypes.

Regardless of lifestyle choices and health care equity, studies still show Black women have lower survival rates. A team of Emory researchers wondered: Could that poorer prognosis in Black women be caused by pathologic and genetic differences as well?

“Racism and equitable access to health care certainly play a big role in the increased mortality for populations of color,” says Anant Madabhushi, executive director of the Emory Empathetic AI For Health Institute. “But with endometrial cancer, it may not completely explain the difference in mortality.