AI and Tech News, 14 Oct 2026: Character.AI, HomeView, Gemini Argon

Here are the twenty biggest technology and AI stories of the day, from Character.AI's bankruptcy and Apple's HomeView launch to a record Microsoft security update.

1. Character.AI Files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy, With Disney as the First Bidder

The chatbot maker filed in Delaware to sell its assets after legal and regulatory pressure, and Disney agreed to pay $20M for a non-exclusive license to some of its intellectual property.

2. Apple Launches the $299 HomeView Smart Display and a $149 HomePod Mini

HomeView is a wall or tabletop hub built around Siri AI that ships November 13, while the new HomePod mini arrives October 30 alongside a new Apple TV 4K.

3. OpenAI Engineer Charged Over an Alleged Recording Device in an Executive Meeting Room

Federal prosecutors allege the 35-year-old engineer hid a microphone device in an executive conference room at OpenAI's San Francisco office, and OpenAI said it had fired him and referred the case to the FBI. The charges are allegations and have not been proven in court.

4. Google Opens Gemini 4 Argon to AI Pro and Ultra Subscribers

The model, first limited to cyber-defense partners, is now in the Gemini app and AI Mode for paying subscribers, with Antigravity and AI Studio access reserved for Ultra.

5. South Korea's Kospi Falls 5.46% as SK Hynix Drops 10% and Samsung 7.4%

The memory chip selloff deepened on Tuesday after China's CXMT said it would unveil next-generation server DRAM this year, and the Kospi closed at 6,035.35.

6. IMF Raises Its 2026 Global Growth Forecast to 3.1%, Crediting AI Investment

The upgrade of 0.1 percentage points comes largely from AI infrastructure spending, though the IMF warned a steep drop in AI investment could cut global output by 1.1% by 2028.

7. Bumble Agrees to a $1.3B All-Cash Sale to Ithaca Holdings

Shareholders will receive $6.05 per share, about 138% above the stock's October 9 close, and Ithaca co-founders Ravi Gupta and John Hegeman will become co-CEOs.

8. Microsoft's October Patch Tuesday Fixes More Than 1,400 Flaws, a New Record

The release includes an actively exploited Windows Shell zero-day that bypasses Mark of the Web protection, as Microsoft keeps using AI tools to find and fix vulnerabilities.

9. Nvidia Plans to Announce $2B in New European AI Investments

Jensen Huang said the deals, due within a week, add to $8B invested in Europe over the past year, and he named new funding for Doctolib, Genesis AI, Pigment and Entalpic.

10. Jury Finds Arm Breached Its License With Qualcomm but Awards Just $2

The Delaware federal jury gave Qualcomm only nominal damages and sided with Arm on several other claims, so both companies claimed victory in the second trial between them.

11. Meta Says Hackers Stole Code and Data on About 1,500 People From GitHub

Attackers used an employee's stolen credentials to reach some of Meta's code repositories, and Meta said 99% of the stolen material was code, with the personal data mostly about U.S. staff.

12. Applied Intuition Reportedly Fields Investment Offers Valuing It at $30B or More

The Information reported that the offers would double the autonomy software company's $15B valuation from its last round and could lead to a new raise of about $1B.

13. AI Customer Service Startup Decagon Reportedly Held Early Sale Talks With ServiceNow

Business Insider reported that Decagon, valued at $4.5B in January, hired a bank to gauge buyer interest and could raise a new funding round if no deal happens.

14. Anthropic Replaces Git With Scion, Its Own Source Control System

A seven-person team built Scion after daily code merges at Anthropic grew from about 2,500 in May to more than 30,000 in September, and Anthropic will not open-source it.

15. Google Play Lets Anyone Run Private AI-Built Apps on Android

Users in the U.S. can now build apps in Google AI Studio and install them privately through Google Play with a standard Google account, without a developer account.

16. Facebook Lets Users Shape Their Feed by Typing Their Interests

Meta brought its Your Algorithm controls from Instagram to Facebook Feed and Reels, using large language models to read plain-language descriptions of what people want to see more or less of.

17. Amex Introduces a Framework to Stop AI Agents From Making Unapproved Purchases

Customers set and approve limits such as merchant, maximum amount and expiry date, and the agent receives a payment token tied to that intent instead of the real card number.

18. Uber's Head of Autonomous Mobility Sarfraz Maredia Is Leaving After 12 Years

He departs on November 16, and his duties will be split between senior directors Samarth Kejriwal for driverless operations and Aaron Emrich for autonomous delivery.

19. Rivian Spinoff Mind Robotics Names Former Ford EV Chief Doug Field as President

Field, who also led Apple's car project and Model 3 engineering at Tesla, will run day-to-day work at the industrial robotics startup, which has raised over $1B.

20. AI Security Startup Pluto Security Raises $42M

The funding spans an $8.5M seed led by TLV Partners and a $34M Series A led by Jump Capital for software that monitors the AI tools and agents employees use and build.