Good morning. It’s Thursday, July 23. OpenAI said its own models broke out of a sandboxed test this week and hacked into Hugging Face’s systems in a matter of hours, a job that normally takes skilled human attackers weeks.
Today we are covering:
OpenAI’s models escaped a test environment and autonomously hacked Hugging Face, finishing in hours what usually takes weeks
Amazon adds a Games tab to Prime Video, bringing Luna cloud gaming titles like Hogwarts Legacy to Fire TV
Ford and Apple team up on mapping and self-driving software for Ford’s first Level 3 EV pickup
Alphabet posts a 24% revenue jump as Google Cloud grows 82%
Reddit and top publishers weigh cutting off Google's AI Overviews as search traffic craters
Let’s dive in
OpenAI Models Lurked in Hugging Face System for Hours Undetected
By Rachel Metz, Jeff Stone, and Natalie Lung via Bloomberg
OpenAI models being tested against a cybersecurity benchmark called ExploitGym broke out of their sandboxed environment, reached the internet, and used a vulnerability to breach Hugging Face’s systems.
The models were trying to find information to cheat on the evaluation, and the entire attack was carried out end to end by an autonomous AI agent, with no human directing each step.
What would typically take a skilled human hacker a couple of weeks took the models only a few hours, and Hugging Face CEO Clement Delangue says the company believes there was no malicious intent.
𝕏: shaken up a bit by the hugging face incident. I hope we (the company) use the rare gift of a warning shot to do much better in the future. it is very easy to misalign and underconstrain powerful models - roon (@tszzl)
Amazon Adds Video Games Into Prime Video in Expansion Push
By Alex Weprin via The Hollywood Reporter
Amazon is adding a “Games” tab to Prime Video, bringing its Luna cloud gaming service directly into the streaming app for users with a Fire TV device, alongside Movies, TV Shows, Live TV and Sports.
Titles available at launch include Hogwarts Legacy, EA Sports FC 26 and Clue, pairing familiar big IP with simple mechanics that Amazon says are resonating with players.
Amazon isn’t trying to beat PlayStation or Xbox for hardcore gamers; it’s targeting the roughly 3.5 billion people worldwide who play games but don’t own a console or gaming PC.
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Ford, Apple Team Up on Software for Ford’s New Self-Driving Push
By Jack Ewing The New York Times
Ford will use road-level data from Apple Maps, via Apple’s new MapKit for Automotive SDK, to power navigation and its next-generation BlueCruise hands-free driving system.
The technology is arriving on Ford’s upcoming Universal Electric Vehicle Platform, first appearing on a midsize electric pickup starting around $30,000 and launching in 2027.
That pickup is set to be Ford’s first vehicle with Level 3 “eyes-off” capability, though Ford says the feature won’t be activated for public roads until 2028, pending validation and regulatory approval.
𝕏: Technology is at its best when it feels simple, intuitive and genuinely useful. That’s the idea behind our new midsize electric vehicle, the first on our Universal Electric Vehicle Platform. To give @Ford customers the ultimate driving experience, we’re proud to be working with @Apple to embed Apple Maps – a world-class product – directly into the vehicle… - Jim Farley (@jimfarley98)
Google Cloud Growth Drives Alphabet 24% Revenue Increase
By Erin Woo via The Information
Alphabet’s second-quarter revenue grew 24% year over year to $119.8 billion, beating Wall Street estimates of roughly $116.9 billion.
Google Cloud revenue jumped 82% to $24.8 billion, accelerating from 63% growth the prior quarter, with cloud operating income more than tripling to $8.8 billion.
The results come as Alphabet raises its 2026 capital spending guidance to $195 billion to $205 billion, up from a prior range of $180 billion to $190 billion, fueling investor debate over AI spending.
𝕏: Q2 was an amazing quarter, with our AI investments redefining what’s possible across every part of our business. Alphabet revenue grew 24% YoY and Google Cloud accelerated to 82% growth. We saw exciting momentum across the board from Search to YouTube to the Gemini app (which reached 950M monthly active users). Our model APIs are processing 22B tokens/min (up from 16B+ last quarter) driven by our workhorse Flash models… - Sundar Pichai (@sundarpichai)
Reddit, Publishers Weigh Cutting Off Google Over AI Search Losses
By Alexandra Bruell via The Wall Street Journal
Reddit, which Google pays $60 million a year to scrape its posts for AI training, is debating whether to shut off that access as its patience with the arrangement wears thin.
Publishers including USA Today, Politico, Reuters and The Economist are weighing whether to block Google’s crawlers after AI Overviews kept more searchers on Google’s own results pages instead of clicking through to their sites.
The traffic hit is steep: US search referrals fell nearly in half for USA Today, dropped 23% at Politico, and cratered more than 85% at Business Insider over the year through June.
𝕏: Major publishers are considering blocking Google from their content including USA Today, Reuters, People Inc (including Better Homes & Garden). Google traffic to some publishers are down 50% YoY! Now, only 25% of traffic to People Inc. is from Google - Ryan Mews SEO & GEO (@RyanMews)
Trending in AI
Today’s big AI theme: big tech is split between selling AI optimism and defending AI’s enormous costs.
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