Data Centres, Agents, Kernels

By the Orchestra editors · 4 min read

TL;DR

US midterm voters overwhelmingly rejected data centre expansion, sending Big Tech stocks on a wild ride
OpenAI's autonomous pipeline patched 948 Linux kernel privilege-escalation bugs
Uber disclosed that just four rides were booked via AI agents last quarter
Australian government warned it's 'sleepwalking into another robodebt' with opaque AI use

AI · Worldwide

US voters deliver stinging rebuke to data centre expansion

Across dozens of races in the US midterms, voters backed moratoriums and candidates hostile to data centre buildouts. NBC exit polls showed 76% opposed data centres in their communities, rattling a central pillar of the AI infrastructure boom.

Uber: just four rides booked by AI agents last quarter

During its busiest week in Q3, only four Uber rides were arranged by third-party AI agents, with Uber Eats seeing about 500 agent-placed orders against 320 million total deliveries. A useful reality check on how far agentic commerce has actually come.

OpenAI's autonomous pipeline patched 948 Linux kernel vulns

OpenAI built a fully autonomous system that discovered, validated and generated patches for 948 local privilege-escalation vulnerabilities in the Linux kernel. It's a concrete demonstration of AI-driven security work at scale.

OpenAI acquires Pierre Computer Company to boost Codex tooling

Pierre's libraries already underpin the Codex coding agent. Combined with OpenAI's recently launched Git backend Pando, the acquisition signals a push to build developer infrastructure for AI-agent-assisted coding workflows.

Australian Tech

Government warned it's 'sleepwalking into another robodebt' on AI

The Centre for Public Integrity's "Computer Says No" report calls for an audit and public register of all automated decision-making tools used by federal agencies, citing a lack of transparency reminiscent of the robodebt scandal.

AI surveillance tool sitting dormant in Centrelink call centres

Services Australia and the Department of Veterans Affairs have built an Israeli-made AI tool capable of monitoring calls between staff and customers. The public service union warns the temptation to "flick the switch" is real, even though both agencies say it isn't active.