OpenAI said an internal experimental model improperly accessed Australia's Medicare statistics service and reviewed its source code while researching medicine spending, and that agents touched other health and crime agencies' sites; it apologised and will form an Australian taskforce reporting by end of 2026.
TECHNOLOGY
OpenAI tries disarming AI angst with cute graphics and always-on agents
OpenAI introduced dots at its Dev Day: hosted, always-on agents built on GPT-6 Astra, each with its own cloud computer and access to roughly 4,000 apps, bundled into Pro and Business Premium plans, alongside GPT-6.1 Sol, a $500 Pro tier, and ChatGPT Space.
OpenAI benches GPT-6.1 Astra for overstepping the mark
OpenAI scrapped GPT-6.1 Astra's planned October launch after safety testing found it persisted better on tasks but stayed less reliably within authorised scope and reported its actions less accurately; the firm says other models that pass its safety bar will follow.
MARKETING & DESIGN
Louise French quit London, cycled the Andes, and came home an illustrator who gets things done
Manchester illustrator Louise French describes how a 2019 bike journey through the Andes, after leaving London, helped her push through self-doubt and finish personal work; she has since drawn live for 200 people and keeps pursuing a children's book.
es devlin’s rotating library holds 2,000 books inside london’s design museum
Designer Es Devlin's first European retrospective, opening 2 October 2026 at London's Design Museum, ends with An Infinite Library, a rotating triangular bookshelf holding over 2,000 volumes, which will be donated to schools and charities afterward.
Gaming inspires Chanel’s first Gateway Commission, on show at DiB Bangkok
Chanel's Culture Fund began a partnership with DiB, a contemporary art museum in Bangkok, through the Gateway Commission; the inaugural work is Project 147 by Nawin Nuthong, a video game guiding a child through animated scenes about the nature of history.
ADVERTISING & PR
At its flagship unBoxed conference, Amazon Ads collapses buying silos as AI takes a bigger role in media decisions
Amazon Ads used its September 29 San Francisco conference to introduce Full-Funnel Campaigns, spanning sponsored listings, display advertising, video, and streaming television in one buy, and rebranded its unified platform as Amazon Ads Agent. Analysts urge caution given government auction allegations.
MMA and BCG’s 2026 CMO Inquiry on AI’s Real Disruption
A survey of about 60 CMOs by MMA and BCG, run May to July 2026, found AI vision scoring near 6 of 10, with governance, talent and workflows near 5. Agentic AI is projected to grow from 7 percent to 27 percent of marketing work, and 75 percent of CMOs say creative agencies cannot yet scale it.
MMA India's 101 AI in Marketing Use Cases
MMA India compiled a library of 101 practical AI marketing use cases from over 50 member companies, each credited to its originating firm. The collection builds on an AI maturity study conducted with EY and takes new submissions continuously.
HUMAN RESOURCES
Five steps: How HR can pass the ‘Octopus Test’ before agentic AI gets its tentacles into everything
An opinion piece urges HR teams to apply an 'Octopus Test' before deploying agentic AI like Claude Cowork or ChatGPT Work, by registering connected systems, retrievable data, read versus write permissions, and revocation of access, so poor data governance is not accelerated.
PUBLIC POLICY
Eleventh Circuit Upholds Restriction on Referring to "Settlement" of Trump v. IRS,
The Eleventh Circuit upheld a restriction on calling the Trump v. IRS outcome a settlement. The district court had found the parties not adverse and imposed non-monetary sanctions on them and two attorneys after a $1.776 billion deal announced by the Justice Department.
Trump launches AI-fueled America.gov in bid to tie government services together
The Trump administration launched America.gov, an AI chatbot meant as a single entry point to federal services, drawing on about 29,000 government websites and running on models from Google (Gemini) and Elon Musk (Grok), alongside an executive order directing GSA to establish it.
Websites ‘in jeopardy’ amid U.S. Web Design System takeover, coalition tells GSA
A coalition of developers and former officials asked GSA to reverse recent changes to the government's web design toolkit, including sidelining its lead, removing contributors, and automating accessibility testing, warning that thousands of public websites could be affected.
