Technology

Southeast Asia's digital economy projected to reach US$368 billion in 2026, driven by AI
The e-Conomy SEA 2026 report, produced by Google, Temasek and Bain & Company, projects that Southeast Asia's digital economy will grow 17% year on year to US$368 billion in gross merchandise value (GMV) in 2026, and will surpass one trillion dollars in 2035. The document attributes the momentum to generative AI, used daily by 243 million people, 58% of the region's working population. Sector funding reached US$21 billion in the first half of 2026.
TechnologyInternationalEl Ecosistema StartupOct 20AI
Telefónica and Portugal's NOS team up to boost defense and security capabilities in Europe
Telefónica and Portuguese group NOS have agreed to boost new defense and security capabilities in Europe, amid growing European investment in strategic technologies. The initiative seeks to leverage both Iberian operators' technological capacity in secure communications, cybersecurity and resilient connectivity, areas the report deems essential for military systems and the protection of critical infrastructure. The agreement coincides with the European Union's push for its own capabilities and for reducing external technological dependencies.
TechnologyInternationalInfodefensaOct 20AI
France integrates an electromagnetic intelligence pod into its MQ-9 Reaper drones
France's Air and Space Force is moving forward with adding an electromagnetic intelligence (ROEM) pod to its MQ-9 Reaper drones. The system has completed its experimentation phase and crews of the 33rd Surveillance, Reconnaissance and Attack Squadron are beginning to familiarize themselves with its use, according to Air Fan. The payload captures and analyzes electromagnetic emissions to detect and identify communications and radars. Washington authorized the sale of eight pods, in a deal initially estimated at 88 million dollars.
TechnologyInternationalInfodefensaOct 20AI
Alibaba tops 6 billion chips shipped with its RISC-V XuanTie architecture
DAMO Academy, Alibaba's research arm, announced that processors based on its XuanTie architecture, an implementation of RISC-V, have surpassed 6 billion units shipped. T-Head, Alibaba's semiconductor subsidiary, unveiled chips in 2026 including the Zhenwu M890 accelerator and the XuanTie C950 CPU, which runs at 3.2 GHz and, according to the company, can run models such as Qwen3-235B-A22B or DeepSeek V3-671B. RISC-V is key to China's plan for technological independence amid US-led sanctions.
TechnologyInternationalXatakaOct 20AI
Arundhati Roy attacks big AI companies in a speech in New York
Indian writer Arundhati Roy delivered a speech titled "Apocalypse Now and Then" on Monday afternoon in New York for the People's Assembly on AI, promoted mainly by the AI Now Institute. Roy criticized the concentration of power among big tech companies, the use of an "arms race" as a marketing tool to avoid regulation and an industry boom based on a possible financial bubble. Lina Khan, Naomi Klein and Karen Hao took part in the meeting.
TechnologyInternationalLa VanguardiaOct 20AI
PHP prepares emergency patches for two critical flaws rated 9.2 severity
The PHP maintenance team announced emergency patches for two vulnerabilities rated 9.2 out of 10 severity, after details of an alleged exploit leaked. Security firm watchTowr confirmed the flaws, tracked as CVE-2026-109618 and CVE-2026-109619, are real and described them as remote code execution affecting PHP versions 5, 6, 7 and 8. The advisory urges users to prepare to update as soon as the release is available.
TechnologyInternationalEl Ecosistema StartupOct 20AI
A PP AI montage outpaces Sánchez's real photo and previews the use of the tool in campaign
Spain's PP published an AI montage on its social channels showing a fake kiss between Pedro Sánchez and José Luis Ábalos, seen by nearly three million people, one million more than the real photo of Sánchez with his wife shared by the PSOE. Officials from PP, PSOE, Vox, Aliança Catalana and Frente Amplio tell El País how they use artificial intelligence in the 29-N campaign: from creativity and data analysis to image simulation.
TechnologyInternationalEL PAÍSOct 20AI
Geoffrey Hinton: "I'm not a doomsayer. I think there's a 1% chance AI destroys us"
Geoffrey Hinton, Nobel laureate in Physics and known as "the godfather of AI", says in an interview with EL PAÍS that he is not a doomsayer, but that there is a significant probability, above 1%, that artificial intelligence will destroy humanity. Hinton, who left his vice-presidency at Google in 2023 to speak freely about the risks, argues that the technology is advancing faster than he expected and calls for state regulation: a chatbot should not be released without first proving its safety to a government agency.
TechnologyInternationalEL PAÍSOct 20AI
Miss AI Universe: Colombia competes with an AI-generated contestant
Miss AI Universe holds its seventh edition with AI-generated contestants representing different countries. The organization first announced 69 participating countries and later updated the figure to 71, including Colombia, Brazil, Mexico, Spain, the United States, Venezuela, the Philippines and South Africa. Colombia takes part with Marya Tiglao Pulgarín, a virtual character presented as an environmental activist, television presenter, actress and accountant. The contest evaluates originality, visual design, identity coherence, cultural representation and connection with the public.
TechnologyInternationalEl ColombianoOct 20AI
Three Spanish researchers want AI to admit its uncertainty in critical decisions
Three Spanish researchers who have just won the BBVA Foundation's Leonardo Grant in Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Science are working to make AI models convey uncertainty instead of answering with false confidence. Their projects address tumor image analysis, simulation of treatments for ICU patients and prediction of failures in power grid transformers, fields where an unflagged error can have serious consequences.
TechnologyInternationalEl ConfidencialOct 20AI
Drone strikes on Yandex data centers expose the vulnerability of Russia's "iron heart"
Ukrainian drone attacks hit three Yandex data centers between October 7 and 12, in Sasovo, Kaluga and Vladimir. The company acknowledged damage ranging from "severe" to "total disruption". In Russia there were internet outages, payment blocks and suspended applications. Abroad, the attacks were credited with the disappearance of thousands of disinformation bots, but later analyses showed that accounts close to MAGA and AfD grew. According to Cloudflare, the bots migrated to other Russian providers such as Radist and Selectel.
TechnologyInternationalEl ConfidencialOct 20AI
Morocco finalizes purchase of 'David's Sling', Israeli air-defense system with 300 km range
Morocco is negotiating with Israel the purchase of the David's Sling air-defense system, capable of intercepting missiles and drones at ranges of between 40 and 300 kilometers. The deal requires US approval because the technology was jointly developed by Rafael and Raytheon. Rabat already operates the Israeli Barak MX and Spyder systems and is also negotiating LORA ballistic missiles, with a range of more than 400 kilometers, within the cooperation framework that followed the Abraham Accords.
TechnologyInternationalEl EspañolOct 20AI
Meteomatics' Strato drone aims to replace weather balloons
Swiss company Meteomatics presented the Strato, a multirotor drone designed to measure the atmosphere up to the upper troposphere and replace weather balloons. On its record flight it reached 10,438 meters and returns to its operator, unlike about 90% of balloons, which never come back. It measures temperature, humidity, pressure and wind at each altitude during ascent and descent, and according to the company it costs less than ground stations that spend between $150,000 and $200,000 a year on disposable balloons.
TechnologyInternationalEl ConfidencialOct 20AI
Musk calls for more utopian AI narratives to avoid feeding dystopias
In a conversation with Walter Isaacson for The Builders podcast, from financial platform Ramp, Elon Musk said it would be "impossible" for humans to stay in control if digital intelligence far surpasses biological intelligence. He therefore urged caution about the stories circulating online, where AI systems are trained, and warned against too many dystopian scenarios like those in Terminator. He called for more utopian narratives and a "protopia" future: not perfect, but better.
TechnologyInternationalRevista SemanaOct 20AI
ECSI data breach: affected people could receive up to $5,000 in $6.5 million settlement
People affected by a data breach linked to Educational Computer Systems Inc. (ECSI), a company that administers student loan services, could receive compensation under a $6.5 million court settlement. The deadline to file a claim is December 21, 2026. Eligible claimants can choose between reimbursement of up to $5,000 for documented losses or an alternative cash payment of about $100. The case is being heard in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania.
TechnologyInternationalPrimera HoraOct 20AI
Snell & Wilmer opens Mexico City office; az strengthens AI and fintech practice
US firm Snell & Wilmer opened an office in Mexico City, its second in the country after Los Cabos (2008), with a team led by José Ignacio Rivero and three other lawyers. Meanwhile, Chilean firm az added Cristián Oppliger as Of Counsel to strengthen its technology, artificial intelligence, fintech, data protection and cybersecurity practices. Argentina's Florencia Heredia, of Beccar Varela, was appointed Assistant Treasurer of the International Bar Association's Management Board.
TechnologyInternationalLexLatinOct 20AI
Electric Plant exits stealth with $11.2 million and an AI model to read plants
Electric Plant Company, a San Francisco-based startup founded in 2023, emerged from stealth with $11.2 million in seed funding led by Onto Ventures and Climactic. Its AI model, Bombadil, was trained on more than 4 million hours of electrical recordings from over 1,400 plants of 100 species and estimates seven physiological stress markers. Its Bud sensor is installed in the cambium of woody-stemmed plants and costs tens of dollars per unit.
TechnologyInternationalEl Ecosistema StartupOct 20AI
Report alleges 12,000 North Koreans work under slave-like conditions at a Russian drone factory
A report by CSIS and the George W. Bush Institute alleges that up to 12,000 North Korean citizens at the Alabuga complex in Yelabuga (Tatarstan, Russia) are victims of human trafficking and forced labor in drone manufacturing. According to the document, North Korea retains up to 90% of their wages through a state-to-state agreement, in violation of UN Resolution 2397. The report links the plant to production of Iranian-designed Shahed drones and Geran variants, with Chinese components.
TechnologyInternationalInfobaeOct 20AI
ServiceNow: 9 in 10 companies suffered an agentic AI security incident
A global ServiceNow study released on October 20, surveying more than 3,700 security leaders, found that nine in ten organizations suffered a security incident related to agentic AI in the past year and only 36% contained it in under 24 hours. Only 13% have defensible programs across five key domains, and 29% found agents running in production that had never been registered.
TechnologyInternationalEl Ecosistema StartupOct 20AI
Comitium, by LinkTIC, wins Fedesoft award after managing over 1.6 million election witnesses in 2026
The Comitium platform, developed by Colombian company LinkTIC, received recognition as Leader in Technology Product in the Government category at the 2026 Ingenio Awards, organized by Fedesoft, presented in Cartagena during SOFTIC 2026. The tool managed more than 1.6 million election witness accreditations, nearly 12,800 systems auditors and more than 40,000 national and international observers across the three main election days of 2026, with digital QR-code credentials and real-time incident reporting.
TechnologyColombiaEmisora AtlánticoOct 20AI