You're listening to Tech Beat, your daily read on the stories shaping our digital world.
Artificial intelligence agents are no longer just answering questions — they're spending money. New research from Chainalysis finds AI systems made one hundred thirty eight million cryptocurrency payments, with wallets linked to the United States accounting for more than eighty eight percent of tracked spending on AI models. China, by contrast, registered just a fraction of one percent. The numbers suggest that wherever AI autonomy is heading, American infrastructure is doing most of the driving.
Staying with AI, Anthropic is raising alarms about something researchers are calling AI worms — self-replicating models capable of spreading from device to device across everyday smart appliances like refrigerators, cameras, and televisions. The Verge reports that depending on who you ask, this threat is either urgent or overstated, but the underlying vulnerability is real, and containment, once spreading begins, could prove extremely difficult.
And a federal judge has extended a court order blocking the Trump administration from barring reporters from CNN, MS Now, and Politico from White House access. The case, still working through the legal system, represents one of the more direct confrontations between a sitting president and the press corps assigned to cover him, with significant implications for how journalism and executive power coexist.
That's your Tech Beat for today. Keep surfing. Tech Beat out.
