# The week in AI: Oct. 13-21, 2026

> The week’s top AI stories, Oct. 13-21: Anthropic’s public benefit fund, Musk’s SpaceX share pledge, Claude’s NIST find, PHP flaws and Gemini 4 Argon.

- Publisher: JARRUS (@jarrus.tech), thejarrus.com
- Story date: Oct. 15, 2026 (2026-10-15)
- Published: 2026-10-22
- Tags: Anthropic, Google, Tesla, xAI, Amazon, Safety and security, Models, China
- URL: https://thejarrus.com/en/news/week-oct-13/

### Anthropic commits 5% of its shares to a public benefit fund

On October 18, Anthropic committed 5% of its shares to the new Anthropic Public Benefit Fund, an entity it wholly owns, with up to 2% more for every 50% rise in value at the board's discretion. The fund may explore options like direct payments to groups affected by AI. **It needs stockholder approval**, and "universal basic income" is not Anthropic's framing.

https://x.com/AnthropicAI/status/2111881963657412903

### Musk says he'll give every kid in America a SpaceX share

Musk made the pledge hours after telling Anthropic to give its shares directly to the public. The shares come from his own stake; the White House says the gift will go through Trump Accounts, and estimates put its total value at **more than $10 billion**. Who qualifies and when has not been announced.

https://x.com/elonmusk/status/2112089556615123114

https://x.com/realDonaldTrump/status/2112293785472225568

### Musk: "Maybe we should start a competitor to Amazon"

Musk wrote this on October 15, quoting a user who said Amazon was blocking Grok agents from placing orders. **Amazon hasn't confirmed any such block**, and no concrete plan was announced.

https://x.com/elonmusk/status/2110715556328579219

### Claude cracked a decades-old mystery behind NIST's curves

Anthropic says Claude found, **in under half an hour**, that the unexplained seed numbers behind widely used NIST elliptic curves came from an ordinary random-number generator seeded with 1997-98 timestamps. Cryptographer Filippo Valsorda, who set the bounty, verified it himself, making a hidden NSA backdoor far less plausible.

### Two critical PHP flaws went unnoticed for 14 years

On October 21, PHP patched two flaws affecting versions released since 2012 that can lead to **remote code execution** on servers. Calif and Wiz found them with help from models like GPT-5.6 Sol and Gemini 4 Argon. W3Techs says 69% of sites with a known server-side language use PHP; exploitation requires specific conditions.

### Google opened Gemini 4 Argon to paying users

On October 13, Google made Argon available in the API, AI Studio and the Gemini app. **In Google's own table**, Argon beats OpenAI's GPT-6 Astra and Claude Opus 5.5 in finance, legal, automation and long-context tests, but trails in some coding and science tests.

### Google broke open one of quantum computing's biggest bottlenecks

On October 15, Google said a new method cut errors **about 40x** when preparing special "magic states" on its Willow chip, reaching at least 99.99% fidelity. The result holds for the roughly 8% of attempts that passed every check.

https://x.com/GoogleQuantumAI/status/2110799626554998921

### Tesla's new Roadster drove upside down and turned in midair

Tesla unveiled the new Roadster on October 15 at SpaceX's Texas test site: it clung to a backward-curving ramp, launched off, turned in midair and **landed using cold-gas thrusters** developed with SpaceX. Musk says production starts in 2028.

https://x.com/Tesla/status/2110913438293647789

### AI might not be such a black box after all

In an October 15 essay, Goodfire's Nick Cammarata argued that, in preliminary audits of Qwen3-32B, **about 90% of neurons have one main job**. He calls it "an informal research essay and working hypothesis", and researchers like Neel Nanda say it doesn't change the big picture.

https://x.com/nickcammarata/status/2110757819427574056

### Xbox formed a team to explore what agents mean for games

Xbox CEO Asha Sharma announced **Xbox Labs** on October 13. Pointing to games being rapidly decompiled, ported to new hardware and remixed into other games, she wrote that the team will explore giving old games new life and turning players into creators.

### A simulated fruit fly brain is flying through AI-generated worlds

On October 17, Odyssey said it placed a fruit fly brain inside its world model, Odyssey-3, and that the fly now flies through imagined worlds by itself. The company hasn't said which brain model it used or how it was connected, and **there's no paper or code**.

https://x.com/odysseyml/status/2111589148146749616

### A mod built with Claude Code turns Red Dead Redemption 2 into a living world

In enRAGE, released by nicklovin99 on October 17, every NPC has a name, family, memories and grudges, and eight factions, including the U.S. Army, fight each other and remember what the player did. Claude Code helped write its scripts; **no AI runs inside the game**.

### Open-source DigUp searches a Mac by what's inside the files

Abdur Rahim's MIT-licensed app runs Google's EmbeddingGemma 2 **on-device** to search inside photos, videos, audio, PDFs and code. It took off after Google's Gemma account shared the video on October 13; Windows and Linux versions are in beta.

https://x.com/_ARahim_/status/2108649742217679257

### A Mac app that converts files with a drag and a Shift

In Leap Studio's Tangerine, users drag a file and tap Shift to pick a format; the developer says it offers 275 conversions and works entirely offline. The app came out in September, and an October 17 video hit 1.9 million views. **There's no AI inside**.

https://x.com/th2049/status/2111477585461039241

### Shenzhen turned traffic-light poles into drone bases

Shenzhen traffic police say **65 drone docks** were installed on signal poles in Futian; the drones take off automatically, patrol, warn drivers by loudspeaker and photograph parking violations. The system has run since March, and the footage went viral again on October 15.

### A bride gave her groom an RTX 5090 at their wedding, and he cried

In a wedding clip from China that spread on social media on October 16, a bride hands her groom an ASUS ROG Astral RTX 5090. The claim that it's worth $12,000 rests on **a single gray-market listing**; retail prices in China are around $5,500-6,400.

https://x.com/RT_Visual_on_X/status/2111063956965962152

### Nearly half a million dollars of RTX 5090s vanished at Brazil's biggest airport

Brazilian distributor Oderço says **two pallets of ZOTAC RTX 5090s** worth R$2.5 million at cost (about $470,000) disappeared at São Paulo-Guarulhos Airport. The airport reported the loss to authorities; theft hasn't been confirmed, and the number of cards wasn't disclosed.

## Sources

1. [Anthropic: Investing in the public benefit, Oct. 18, 2026](https://www.anthropic.com/news/public-benefit-fund)
2. [Anthropic (X): Anthropic’s fund announcement: together with founder and employee pledges, roughly 20% of shares are committed to the public good., Oct. 18, 2026](https://x.com/AnthropicAI/status/2111881963657412903)
3. [CNBC: Anthropic commits 5% of shares to new public benefit fund that could address AI job disruption, Oct. 18, 2026](https://www.cnbc.com/2026/10/18/anthropic-ai-public-benefit-fund.html)
4. [Elon Musk (X): Musk recommended that Anthropic give the shares directly to the public., Oct. 18, 2026](https://x.com/elonmusk/status/2111914396490604547)
5. [Elon Musk (X): “Next year, I will give one of my SpaceX shares to every kid in America. This will be the first of many.”, Oct. 19, 2026](https://x.com/elonmusk/status/2112089556615123114)
6. [Elon Musk (X): Reply to Anthropic: “This is what I will be doing”., Oct. 19, 2026](https://x.com/elonmusk/status/2111980598084698114)
7. [Donald J. Trump (X): Trump said the gift will go through Trump Accounts., Oct. 19, 2026](https://x.com/realDonaldTrump/status/2112293785472225568)
8. [TechCrunch: Musk pledges to give ‘every kid in America’ one of his SpaceX shares, Oct. 19, 2026](https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/19/musk-pledges-to-give-every-kid-in-america-one-of-his-spacex-shares/)
9. [CNN: Elon Musk says he will give a SpaceX share to ‘every kid in America’, Oct. 19, 2026](https://www.cnn.com/2026/10/19/business/elon-musk-children-spacex-shares-x-post-intl)
10. [CNBC: If Elon Musk gifts SpaceX stock through Trump Accounts, it will come with a catch, Oct. 20, 2026](https://www.cnbc.com/2026/10/20/musk-spacex-trump-account-stock-rules.html)
11. [Elon Musk (X): “Maybe we should start a competitor to Amazon 🤔” (quote post)., Oct. 15, 2026](https://x.com/elonmusk/status/2110715556328579219)
12. [nick (X): User post claiming Amazon blocks Grok bots from ordering; not confirmed by Amazon., Oct. 15, 2026](https://x.com/thecsguy/status/2110693166059851836)
13. [Moneywise (Yahoo Finance): Elon Musk wants to start an Amazon competitor after Grok bot users say the company blocked them from placing orders, Oct. 15, 2026](https://finance.yahoo.com/small-business/articles/elon-musk-wants-start-amazon-220000094.html)
14. [Edge: Edge Master Class 2008: A Short Course in Behavioral Economics, July 25, 2008](https://www.edge.org/events/the-edge-master-class-2008-a-short-course-in-behavioral-economics)
15. [Anthropic: Claude reveals ECDSA curve origins, Oct. 16, 2026](https://www.anthropic.com/research/ecdsa-curve-origins)
16. [Filippo Valsorda: The NIST Elliptic Curves Seeds Bounty Has Been Claimed, Oct. 16, 2026](https://words.filippo.io/seeds-solved/)
17. [CoinDesk: Anthropic’s Claude cracks a 25-year NSA curve mystery, what it means for bitcoin, Oct. 17, 2026](https://www.coindesk.com/tech/2026/10/17/wow-it-s-a-real-discovery-claude-cracks-a-25-year-nsa-number-mystery)
18. [PHP: Security advisory: Critical remote code execution vulnerabilities, update now, Oct. 21, 2026](https://www.php.net/archive/2026.php#2026-10-21-5)
19. [PHP (GitHub): RCE via OOM corruption (GHSA-w8hw-w9fx-j79w), Oct. 21, 2026](https://github.com/php/php-src/security/advisories/GHSA-w8hw-w9fx-j79w)
20. [PHP (GitHub): RCE via stale global state (GHSA-6wmf-4rv5-p3rp), Oct. 21, 2026](https://github.com/php/php-src/security/advisories/GHSA-6wmf-4rv5-p3rp)
21. [Wiz Research: PHP2Shell: AI uncovers critical RCE vulnerabilities affecting 70% of the Internet, Oct. 21, 2026](https://www.wiz.io/blog/php2shell-php-rce)
22. [Calif: php2shell: A tale of two PHP remote vulnerabilities, Oct. 21, 2026](https://calif.io/php2shell/)
23. [OpenAI: Coordinated disclosure of critical vulnerabilities, Oct. 21, 2026](https://openai.com/index/coordinated-disclosure-of-critical-vulnerabilities)
24. [W3Techs: Usage statistics of server-side programming languages for websites, Oct. 22, 2026](https://w3techs.com/technologies/overview/programming_language)
25. [Fortune: AI helped discover the PHP vulnerability that could take down 70% of the internet, Oct. 21, 2026](https://fortune.com/2026/10/21/ai-tools-discovered-the-php-vulnerability-that-could-take-down-70-of-the-internet-now-the-race-is-on-to-patch-it-before-ai-powered-hackers-attack/)
26. [Google: Gemini 4 Argon: Built to solve your hardest problems, Oct. 13, 2026](https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/models-and-research/gemini-models/introducing-gemini-4-argon/)
27. [Google: Gemini 4 Argon: our next era of frontier intelligence, Sept. 30, 2026](https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/models-and-research/gemini-models/gemini-4-argon/)
28. [Google Gemini (YouTube): Start Building with Gemini 4 Argon, Oct. 13, 2026](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwmfyguADXc)
29. [Google Quantum AI (X): Magic state cultivation on Willow: 40x error reduction, 99.99% fidelity (Science), Oct. 15, 2026](https://x.com/GoogleQuantumAI/status/2110799626554998921)
30. [Google: Bringing the magic: Google breaks open a bottleneck in quantum computing, Oct. 15, 2026](https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/models-and-research/quantum-computing/magic-state-cultivation-quantum-computing/)
31. [MIT Technology Review: Google CEO Sundar Pichai on achieving quantum supremacy, Oct. 23, 2019](https://www.technologyreview.com/2019/10/23/102523/google-ceo-quantum-supremacy-interview-with-sundar-pichai/)
32. [Kyle Conner (X): Audience clip of the Roadster ramp demo; the reference footage (0–22 s), Oct. 16, 2026](https://x.com/itskyleconner/status/2110901867823718434)
33. [Tesla (X): Tesla’s official ramp video (“Real life, baby”), 97M+ views, Oct. 16, 2026](https://x.com/Tesla/status/2110913438293647789)
34. [Tesla (X): Thrusters build on SpaceX spacecraft tech, fed by compressed-gas COPVs, Oct. 16, 2026](https://x.com/Tesla/status/2110904290743402880)
35. [TechCrunch: Tesla reveals SpaceX-powered Roadster that flies and falls with style, Oct. 15, 2026](https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/15/tesla-reveals-spacex-powered-roadster-that-flies-and-falls-with-style/)
36. [Snopes: Are videos of Tesla’s new ‘flying’ car performing mid-air stunts real?, Oct. 16, 2026](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/tesla-flying-roadster-car-real/)
37. [Goodfire: Neural Networks Are Already Clean, Oct. 15, 2026](https://already-clean.goodfire.com/)
38. [Nick Cammarata (X): Cammarata’s post announcing the essay., Oct. 15, 2026](https://x.com/nickcammarata/status/2110757819427574056)
39. [MIT Technology Review: “We were looking at it wrong”: The explosive claim that’s upended the AI world, Oct. 19, 2026](https://www.technologyreview.com/2026/10/19/1147149/we-were-looking-at-it-wrong-the-explosive-claim-thats-upended-the-ai-world/)
40. [Xbox Wire: Introducing XBOX LABS, Oct. 13, 2026](https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2026/10/13/introducing-xbox-labs/)
41. [The Verge: Xbox is officially embracing the chaos of AI-powered game ports, Oct. 13, 2026](https://www.theverge.com/news/1010406/xbox-labs-game-decompiling-emulation-exploration)
42. [GeekWire: Microsoft forms ‘Xbox Labs’ to explore game remixes, ports and other new frontiers, Oct. 13, 2026](https://www.geekwire.com/2026/microsoft-forms-xbox-labs-to-explore-game-remixes-ports-and-other-new-frontiers/)
43. [Odyssey (X): Odyssey announced it placed a fruit fly brain inside its Odyssey-3 world model, Oct. 17, 2026](https://x.com/odysseyml/status/2111589148146749616)
44. [Odyssey: Introducing Odyssey-3: A General-Purpose Physical Intelligence, Sept. 15, 2026](https://odyssey.systems/introducing-odyssey-3)
45. [Traictory: Odyssey-3’s fruit fly is an integration effort, not an upload, Oct. 19, 2026](https://traictory.com/news/2026-10-19-fly-brain-odyssey-3-world-model)
46. [Nexus Mods: enRage - Living World and Nemesis System, Oct. 17, 2026](https://www.nexusmods.com/reddeadredemption2/mods/10967)
47. [It's A Deer (YouTube): enRAGE Trailer | Living World & Nemesis System Mod for RDR 2, Oct. 17, 2026](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hez2yR4GyTA)
48. [GamesRadar+: Red Dead Redemption 2 gets a Shadow of Mordor-style nemesis system in massive new mod, Oct. 20, 2026](https://www.gamesradar.com/games/red-dead/red-dead-redemption-2-gets-a-shadow-of-mordor-style-nemesis-system-in-massive-new-mod-where-everyone-you-cross-in-the-west-can-become-your-nemesis/)
49. [Abdur Rahim (X): DigUp creator’s launch video, Oct. 9, 2026](https://x.com/_ARahim_/status/2108649742217679257)
50. [Google Gemma (X): Google Gemma account shared DigUp asking what if Spotlight understood meaning, Oct. 13, 2026](https://x.com/googlegemma/status/2110044337849692644)
51. [GitHub: ARahim3/DigUp, Oct. 21, 2026](https://github.com/ARahim3/DigUp)
52. [Google: EmbeddingGemma 2: an open, lightweight multimodal embedding model, Oct. 6, 2026](https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/technology/developers-tools/embeddinggemma-2/)
53. [thameem (X): Developer’s viral demo video: tap Shift and drop the file onto the format you want, Oct. 17, 2026](https://x.com/th2049/status/2111477585461039241)
54. [Tangerine: The zero-click offline file converter for Mac, Oct. 22, 2026](https://tangerineformac.com/)
55. [Tangerine (Press kit): Press kit, Sept. 7, 2026](https://tangerineformac.com/press)
56. [App Store: Tangerine: File Converter, Oct. 17, 2026](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/tangerine-file-converter/id6813034065?mt=12)
57. [Shenzhen Trafik Polisi: 百架无人机起飞查违停！覆盖福田全区重点路段, March 9, 2026](https://szjj.sz.gov.cn/m/YD_JGDT/content/post_12674602.html)
58. [Shenzhen Hükümeti: 深圳交警机巢无人机自动感知违停 采用全链条执法抓拍, March 3, 2026](https://www.sz.gov.cn/cn/xxgk/zfxxgj/bmdt/content/post_12664542.html)
59. [RTVisual (X): Wedding clip of a bride gifting her groom a ROG Astral RTX 5090 (footage used in the reference); original filmer unknown, Oct. 16, 2026](https://x.com/RT_Visual_on_X/status/2111063956965962152)
60. [Guru3D: Spotted: ASUS ROG Astral GeForce RTX 5090 Resells for $12,000 on Chinese Gray Market After Wedding Gift, Oct. 20, 2026](https://www.guru3d.com/story/spotted-asus-rog-astral-geforce-rtx-5090-resells-for-on-chinese-gray-market-after-wedding-gift)
61. [MyDrivers (快科技): 新娘送RTX 5090当结婚礼物！新郎当场泪崩：价值近9万元, Oct. 17, 2026](https://news.mydrivers.com/1/1158/1158288.htm)
62. [ZOL 中关村在线: 华硕ROG ASTRAL 夜神 RTX5090 D O32G GAMING 报价, Oct. 22, 2026](https://detail.zol.com.cn/2120/2119976/price.shtml)
63. [NVIDIA China: GeForce RTX 5090 D v2, Oct. 22, 2026](https://www.nvidia.cn/geforce/graphics-cards/50-series/rtx-5090-d/)
64. [PC Gamer: Man moved to tears by RTX 5090 on his wedding day, Oct. 19, 2026](https://www.pcgamer.com/hardware/graphics-cards/man-moved-to-tears-by-rtx-5090-on-his-wedding-day-usd9000-price-tag-brings-a-tear-to-my-eye-too/)
65. [Oderço (Instagram): Distributor’s official statement: two pallets of Zotac RTX 5090s worth R$2.5 million at cost, Oct. 16, 2026](https://www.instagram.com/reel/DekU56QjpYv/)
66. [Times Brasil | CNBC: Carga de placas de vídeo RTX 5090 avaliada em R$ 2,5 milhões desaparece do Aeroporto de Guarulhos, Oct. 17, 2026](https://timesbrasil.com.br/brasil/carga-de-placas-de-video-rtx-5090-avaliada-em-r-25-milhoes-desaparece-do-aeroporto-de-guarulhos/)
67. [Adrenaline: Carga de R$ 2,5 milhões em GPUs RTX 5090 teria sumido no aeroporto de Guarulhos, diz Oderço, Oct. 18, 2026](https://www.adrenaline.com.br/nvidia/carga-de-r-25-milhoes-em-gpus-rtx-5090-teria-sumido-no-aeroporto-de-guarulhos-diz-oderco/)
68. [VideoCardz: Two pallets of ZOTAC RTX 5090 graphics cards worth $470,000 disappear at Brazilian airport, Oct. 18, 2026](https://videocardz.com/newz/two-pallets-of-zotac-rtx-5090-graphics-cards-worth-470000-disappear-at-brazilian-airport)

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