Google parent, Alphabet lost just over $500bn (£374bn) in value on Thursday after it rattled Wall Street with its last update of the year on its business operations. Google spooked investors so badly that its stock hit a six-month low, after it revealed its on search were affecting ad revenue. Microsoft and Amazon also updated investors this week, and joined Google in plans to keep spending astronomical sums of cash in an ongoing AI race. But investors appeared dismayed at the impacts these plans are having on the ability of each to keep growing their core lines of business. BBC 

NatWest has cut 1,000 jobs in the last three months as it charges ahead with advances in AI. The bank said on Friday that it had cut a total of 1,400 jobs so far this year with the majority coming in the last quarter. The figures did not include the impact of the acquisition of wealth manager Evelyn Partners. The job cuts come as NatWest rolls out AI across the bank, including for customers. Its fraud triage agent, called Cora, has dealt with 52,000 credit card customer issues, the bank said without giving a timeframe. Telegraph 

announced a new, advanced version of its AI-powered sleep apnea detection, and which devices it will appear on in November. Sleep apnea detection was first introduced to Galaxy devices in 2024, after Samsung gained approval from the FDA in the US. The tool was offered as a baseline detection feature, so users who might be suffering from frequent breathing interruptions during sleep would be aware and seek further medical help. Samsung says its new and improved version uses an AI algorithm to analyze breathing disturbances per hour (via ).

Meta staff discussed deploying a “whisper strategy” to undermine the influential US academic whose work has inspired a global social media crackdown, according to court documents. Employees at the parent group of Facebook and Instagram sought to discredit Jonathan Haidt, the social psychologist and author of The Anxious Generation, a book that helped tip the debate about online safety towards more stringent measures such as the under-16 ban in Australia. Minutes of internal meetings contained in a recent legal filing in the US showed that staff discussed how to “get the academic community to disavow Haidt”. The Guardian 

Earlier this month, a report claimed that Huawei was preparing to launch a new sub-brand called Xingmang, which translates to “Starlight” in Chinese. Now, a tipster has shared details about the first smartphone from the upcoming brand. According to tipster Digital Chat Station, the first smartphone from Huawei’s upcoming sub-brand will feature a wide-screen candybar design.

The handset is tipped to sport a 6.39-inch display and be powered by a Kirin 9000-series chipset. The top-end variant is said to offer up to 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage. GSM Arena 

A car giant’s plan to significantly improve its manufacturing plant in Solihull has taken a step closer to coming to fruition after planners made a ruling on an environmental impact report. Range Rover announced its first fully electric model last month. In a boost for the region it was confirmed Range Rover Electric would be manufactured at Solihull’s Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) site. As part of the plans around 9,000 employees in Solihull have been upskilled for electrification with a further 1,500 trained across the West Midlands. Birmingham Mail 

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