A New Mexico judge ordered Meta to pay about $25 billion (roughly 22 billion euros) for misleading Facebook users about its data privacy policy. A jury in the Santa Fe District Court found 43 million violations of state consumer protection laws, with fines of up to $5,000 each. The lawsuit was filed in 2021 following the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Meta called the penalty disproportionate and said it will appeal.
Spain's PP party shared a video on social media that uses artificial intelligence to impersonate Begoña Gómez, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and Santos Cerdán, among others, during the pre-election campaign. The PSOE is studying legal action; the PP argues it is political satire. More than half a dozen legal experts consulted by EL PAÍS agree that freedom of expression and the right to satire leave broad margins, though they stress that the AI-generated label and the context are key.
Orange is entering the development and distribution of artificial intelligence with MentorIA, an application for the school environment devised by Humansdid and developed by Spanish company BQ. The tool uses a conversational architecture based on the Socratic method: instead of giving solutions, it poses guiding questions, hints and challenges so that students complete the reasoning themselves. It starts with 4th-year secondary school students in History and Biology, after a pilot test in three schools in the Community of Madrid.
The US Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) sent combat rations, an L3Harris tactical radio, batteries, a desalinator and emergency medical equipment into space inside a SpaceX Starfall capsule. The experiment aims to check whether the supplies survive launch and reentry. It is the first step in a Pentagon plan to deliver military material anywhere on the planet in under an hour, though experts question its cost.
Apple's first foldable iPhone, the iPhone Duo, has sold out nearly all its units during the pre-order period, and the official website listed January 25 as the shipping date this Thursday, a wait of more than three months. The base model starts at 2,349 euros in Spain. The device, with a 7.6-inch inner display, titanium hinge and IP68 resistance, comes with trade-offs versus the Pro models, such as the absence of a 5x optical telephoto lens and of a physical SIM slot.
Morocco acquired guided munitions from Emirati conglomerate EDGE for its combat drones, according to Moroccan and specialized press. The contract was formalized on October 9 at the Marrakech air show and includes Desert Sting 16 (DS-16) glide bombs and Thunder P-31 kits, which add guidance to conventional 250-pound bombs. The manufacturer puts the DS-16 range at about 15 km and the P-31 at between 10 and 27 km. Prices and delivery timelines were not disclosed.
The United States will provide US$15 million in non-reimbursable funds to launch a national cybersecurity operations center in Argentina, as part of a program to progressively replace Chinese equipment in state networks. The announcement followed a meeting between Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno and US Under Secretary of State Christopher Landau. The project includes a security assessment of ARSAT's Internet backbone and foresees a first six-month diagnostic phase.
The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) blocked authorization of two devices for the first time because they contain a video surveillance chip from HiSilicon, Huawei's semiconductor unit. According to the agency on October 22, the products are a car camera and a wireless video transmitter, which were halted before completing the process. The FCC thus used for the first time a power adopted in July 2026 and in force since October 13, which covers standalone components from blacklisted companies.
Donald Trump said at a campaign event in South Carolina that he called Google CEO Sundar Pichai to ask whether Google Maps could "help him" rename the Atlantic Ocean, and that Pichai refused. According to his account, Pichai argued that oceans span too many countries. Google has not confirmed the conversation. Earlier, following an executive order, Google Maps changed the name of the Gulf of Mexico to "Gulf of America" in the United States and later did the same with Lake Ontario.
Marco Landi, former Apple COO and one of the executives who pushed for Steve Jobs' return in 1997, founded the World AI Film Festival (WAIFF), which arrives for the first time in Buenos Aires on Friday, October 30, at the Convention Center, within TecWeek 2026 and with free admission. The day includes talks on training, intellectual property and the value chain, screenings of local finalists and an international Cannes window. Five works will represent Argentina at Road to Cannes.
The 82nd SIP General Assembly opened at the Hilton Hotel in Bogotá and will run until Sunday, October 25. The organization's president, Pierre Manigault, warned about pressure on the press across the Americas, including the United States, and about violence against journalists in Mexico, Ecuador, Peru, Colombia and Guatemala. Andrés Mompotes of El Tiempo flagged disinformation and artificial intelligence; José Antonio de Brigard of RCN flagged the shift in advertising investment. Mayor Carlos Fernando Galán signed the Chapultepec Declaration and the Salta Declaration.
In an interview with Walter Isaacson on the program The Builders, published on October 20, 2026, Elon Musk said that the development of artificial intelligence and robotics could lead to an economy in which conventional money loses importance. He said currency would still exist but would be measured with physical magnitudes such as power in watts, tonnage, mass and energy. He also stated that there will be no task that AI and robots cannot do better than humans.
Unitree Robotics presented the H2-X Kung Fu Legend Guardian, a humanoid robot designed to intervene in risky situations, including facing an attacker with a knife. In a promotional video the robot performs kicks, acrobatic jumps and simulated rescue maneuvers: it steps between a woman and an armed attacker, pulls a person out of the path of a vehicle and lifts the front of a car to free a dummy. The company claims a maximum autonomy of about eight hours but announced no price or release date.
Rhode Island's Attorney General sued Meta for allowing and promoting fraudulent ads on its platforms, including misleading products, fake investment opportunities and impersonations. The state alleges a violation of its Deceptive Trade Practices Act and seeks civil penalties for each violation, injunctive relief, refunds for consumers and the appointment of a monitor. According to the lawsuit, Meta displayed about 15 billion ads daily with clear signs of fraud and took in about $16 billion in 2024 from ad revenue tied to such content.
Mark Zuckerberg reached an agreement with Meta's board of directors for the company to help him pay the proposed billionaire tax in California without losing his stake in the company, according to regulatory documents published this week. The measure will be voted on in the elections concluding on November 3 and, if approved, would levy a 5% tax on the wealth of Californians with more than $1 billion. The agreement allows him to sell part of a new class of non-voting shares.
The IMF and the OECD warn that artificial intelligence could boost global growth, but its benefits risk concentrating in the most developed countries. The IMF estimates that effective adoption would add up to 0.5 percentage points to annual global growth in the medium term, and the OECD calculates an increase of between 0.4% and 1.2% in annual productivity growth among its members. Gaps in electricity, connectivity and specialized training would hinder adoption in lower-income economies.
Iranian state television on Thursday, October 22, broadcast images that it said show an underground drone production facility. Army commander-in-chief Amir Hatami said during a tour with a state TV reporter that the country has expanded its production centers and has "very good reserves" of these equipment, with the participation of specialists from technology companies and universities. The material did not specify the facility's location or the filming date, and Reuters said it could not independently verify it.
Disruptions from cyber incidents cause annual losses of USD 600 billion among the world's largest companies, an Oxford Economics estimate that grew 50% in two years, according to the text. Chris Millington of Hitachi Vantara argues organizations must move from adding security tools to protecting and recovering the data that sustains operations. CrowdStrike reported an 89% increase in AI-enabled attacks, which calls for governance, zero trust and immutable backups tested with digital twins.
Carolyn Marvin, a 78-year-old retired communications professor at the University of Pennsylvania, was arrested in Philadelphia after standing in the path of an Uber Eats delivery robot near Reading Terminal Market to stop it from continuing its route. Police arrived after reports of disturbances, asked her several times to move and, when she refused, handcuffed her and issued a citation for disorderly conduct. Marvin argues these machines replace human delivery workers and had already staged a similar protest in September on Broad Street.
Michael Ferris and Leigh Day, senior vice presidents at Red Hat, visited Argentina and took part in the Summit the open source software company organized in the country, with more than 400 attendees. They discussed AI adoption: the focus has shifted from models to agents and applications, and investment is growing in preparing corporate data for AI. They also noted customer pressure to control their data and deploy hybrid architectures, and highlighted the interest and opportunities they see in the country.
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