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Tech Beat · 7 PM Update

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Meta is facing scrutiny from the IRS after designating its AI data centers as experimental facilities, a classification that helped the company claim roughly six billion dollars in tax credits. The problem is that label is meant for genuine research, not standard business infrastructure, and federal auditors are now questioning whether Meta's framing holds up.

Shifting to cybersecurity, all five of South Korea's major banks were hit simultaneously by what officials are calling AI hacking attacks, sending shockwaves through the country's financial sector. The coordinated nature of the assault is what's alarming analysts most — this wasn't opportunistic, it was orchestrated, and it's raising hard questions about how AI is reshaping the threat landscape.

And Apple is tightening the reins on macOS Full Disk Access permissions, citing the growing capabilities of AI agents as a genuine risk to users. The concern is straightforward: an agent with broad access to your files, messages, and browsing history is a significant attack surface, and Apple is signaling it takes that seriously before something goes wrong rather than after.

Keep surfing. Tech Beat out.

Sources

  1. https://www.techradar.com/pro/meta-told-the-irs-its-ai-data-centers-are-experimental-to-shave-usd6-billion-off-its-tax-bill
  2. https://www.wired.com/story/this-shoe-companys-instagram-ad-with-a-frat-is-pissing-people-off/
  3. https://www.wsj.com/arts-culture/books/the-proof-in-the-code-review-lean-mean-computing-machine-3fd9847e
  4. https://www.nber.org/papers/w35655
  5. https://www.chosun.com/english/market-money-en/2026/10/02/JVEBGKXTPRGQTLCP3EIDBKPPCM/
  6. https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/02/apple-says-its-tightening-macos-full-disk-access-controls-due-to-new-risks-from-ai-agents/
  7. https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/1004096/openai-chatgpt-dots-hands-on-agent
  8. https://techcrunch.com/podcast/call-it-ai-call-it-super-intelligence-only-2-of-consumers-are-buying-it/
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