The US has ordered all artificial intelligence (AI) technology from the Chinese firm DeepSeek to be removed from most government systems. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has banned all use of DeepSeek within civilian government agencies, and any technology built with the aid of its AI models. As a powerful AI model that is open source – meaning it is free to access and less expensive to use – has been seen as a disruptive force in the ongoing AI technology race. While the DHS notice did not detail the exact security concerns surrounding DeepSeek, the White House has this year criticised AI firms from China. BBC 

Doctors have developed an that can predict a cancer patient’s chances of survival from a single photograph of their face. The AI system was custom-built by experts at , a nonprofit, integrated academic healthcare system in Massachusetts, to estimate biological age and directly predict survival outcomes in patients diagnosed with cancer. It is one of the most comprehensive demonstrations to date of how AI analysis of a selfie could help assess a patient’s health and potentially guide their medical care. The Guardian 

Russian authorities have reportedly explored using with a staggering 95% effectiveness. According to a report by Russian newspaper , the proposal surfaced in a draft national plan for implementing AI technologies through 2030. The ambitious scheme envisioned AI models analyzing the characteristics of 70% of VPN services targeted for censorship…Moscow is already heavily investing in a permanent censorship infrastructure, with recent reports highlighting plans for Russia to double its internet censorship budget.

Apple got slammed with pre-orders for the iPhone Duo – the demand outstripped supply so badly that shipping dates around the world were quickly pushed back to January 22. But maybe the wait won’t be so bad as multiple users are reporting that their shipping dates have been pulled forward. If you have pre-ordered the iPhone Duo, have a look at the estimated shipping date – you may be in for a pleasant surprise. Ray Wong of says that many X users from Japan are seeing the initial November/December shipping estimates be pulled forward all the way to October 23 – that’s the official launch date for the Duo. GSM Arena 

When Spotify launched its it was intended for people who live together, but that hasn’t stopped some subscribers from splitting the cost with friends or relatives who live elsewhere. The company has tried to enforce that rule multiple times, and now it is introducing another way to check whether everyone on a plan really belongs to the same household. Some Premium Family members may now be asked to verify where they live by scanning a QR code displayed on the plan manager’s phone. Digital Trends 

A month after Apple started cutting off companies that follow people around the web in its Safari browser to target them with ads, the company has finally explained itself.  The engineers behind the browser laid it out in a blog post on Monday (October 19). When someone types their email address into a website, to log in or sign up for a newsletter, a company working with that site can receive it and convert it into an ID. That ID lets advertisers recognize the same person across different sites without using cookies. Apple wants that stopped. Digiday

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