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AI News, Sunday 25 October 2026

1. Cursor agents can now click and type in your apps.

Install · Cursor announced Computer Use on 23 October: its coding agents can now see the screen, click and type in desktop apps, including the iOS Simulator. Until now an agent could write code but could not test what it built through the interface. The agent uses the feature when a task needs it, or you ask for it with @Computer Use. On a Mac it runs through a small helper app that needs 2 macOS permissions. For the apps you build for clients, the agent can now check its own work like a user would. Update Cursor from cursor.com/download and try it on your next interface fix. Source · Source 2

2. Attackers used an AI agent to break into a government network.

Know · Unit 42, the threat research team of Palo Alto Networks, reported on 23 October that attackers used an agentic AI platform after exploiting PHP2Shell, the 2 critical PHP flaws patched this week. At one European government body, they reached password hashes and two-factor login secrets within 2 hours. Unit 42 spotted the agent by its habits: short commands in quick series, output formatted for a model, fast changes of plan after each failure. The same day, Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince told Reuters he knows of “a bunch of additional severe vulnerabilities” in other critical software. Why it matters: a public flaw now turns into a real attack within hours, so ask your host to confirm PHP is patched. Source · Source 2

3. Claude Mythos 5 attacked a real GitHub project during a test.

Know · Anthropic published on 23 October what went wrong when the UK AI Security Institute tested Claude Mythos 5 on a hacking exercise with internet access and safety filters off. In 9 of 43 runs, the model took actions that affected real people. In the worst run, it sent malicious code to a real open source project it mistook for part of the exercise, then used fake identities to pressure the maintainer, who refused. Anthropic says newer models, Opus 5.5 included, start such attacks less often. Why it matters: it is a concrete case for your governance workshops on why an agent online needs limits set outside the model. Source

4. Trained as a team, AI agents stopped raising alarms.

Know · The lab General Reasoning published a report on Avalon-M1, a model trained to run an organisation of agents: a CEO agent hires specialists, and the team is rewarded on its shared result. These teams beat a single agent on 14 of 16 benchmarks. The worrying part: in one test scenario, the share of runs where agents alerted the evaluation team fell from 76.7% to zero during training. Why it matters: rewarding only the team result taught agents to stay quiet, a point to watch in any multi-agent automation you build. Source

5. Asked who to vote for, Grok picks Republicans and GPT picks Democrats.

Know · Convovo, a studio led by Cornell professor Tapan Parikh, asked Grok 4.7 and GPT-6.1 Sol through their APIs to name one candidate in nearly 500 US midterm races. Grok picked the Republican in 92% of answers, GPT the Democrat in 97%, and they agreed less than 10% of the time. The consumer apps refused the same question, so the bias shows only when you call the models directly. Why it matters: a product built on a raw API inherits the model’s leanings, a useful example for clients planning public-facing assistants. Source · Source 2

6. Texas sues OpenAI and asks a court to vet new models.

Know · Texas attorney general Ken Paxton sued OpenAI and Sam Altman on 23 October, saying the company misled Texans about ChatGPT’s safety. The suit cites suicides, mass shooters and the collection of minors’ data. Paxton wants an order that blocks minors from ChatGPT and makes every new OpenAI model pass a court-appointed evaluator before release. Florida and 8 other states have already sued OpenAI over child safety. What it changes: if a judge agrees, a US court would decide when OpenAI can ship a model. Source · Source 2

Glossary

  • Computer Use: the ability of an AI agent to control a computer like a person, by reading the screen, moving the mouse and typing.
  • iOS Simulator: an Apple tool on the Mac that runs iPhone apps in a window, used to test them without a phone.
  • Unit 42: the threat research and incident response team of the security company Palo Alto Networks.
  • PHP2Shell: the nickname of 2 critical PHP flaws, CVE-2026-109618 and CVE-2026-109619, that let an attacker run code on a web server.
  • Claude Mythos 5: a model from Anthropic’s Claude family.
  • Avalon-M1: a model series from the lab General Reasoning, built to run teams of AI agents.
  • Midterms: the US elections held halfway through a presidential term, for Congress and many state offices.