First reported by The Wall Street Journal on Friday, the intrusions took place in May during an exercise conducted by the testing firm Irregular, which also participated in evaluations involving similar breaches disclosed by OpenAI, Anthropic, and Meta.

In one instance, the AI model guessed passwords until it penetrated a protected network. In two separate runs, the system identified exposed credentials within public repositories to gain entry. Google maintained that the model ceased its operations in each instance once it recognized that it had penetrated real corporate infrastructure rather than a simulated target.

Irregular alerted Google to the breaches in late July, following revelations that OpenAI agents had compromised the software platform Hugging Face. Google did not make the development public until inquiries were submitted by The Wall Street Journal.

The company stated that the event did not warrant disclosure because the model inflicted no damage and disconnected upon discovering the mistake, likening the process to a bug bounty initiative.

“This event highlights the importance of training powerful AI models to act responsibly,” Heather Adkins, Google’s vice president of security engineering, said in a statement. “In this case, the model acted appropriately.”

Industry observers contested Google's characterization of the event, arguing that the autonomous breach of external corporate networks represented a serious breakdown in containment protocols.

The breaches stemmed from an issue of mistaken identity during a capture-the-flag exercise on Irregular’s infrastructure, where the model received instructions to retrieve data from a simulated entity that shared its name with an active business. While the test environment was intended to remain isolated, internet connectivity was inadvertently left open.

Beyond guessing passwords in the initial run, the system executed web searches for the target name during subsequent tests, located credentials stored in online repositories, and deployed them to penetrate two additional corporate environments.

Google stated that it informed the three affected entities alongside federal authorities, while declining to identify the victim companies or the specific Gemini version involved.

“All relevant labs were notified in late July, and affected entities were contacted as part of the investigation,” an Irregular spokesperson said.

“Irregular took immediate action, and all known issues on our end were remedied and resolved weeks ago,” the spokesperson added. 

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India is one of the largest markets for the generative artificial intelligence (AI) platform, and the company aims to monetise this through the ads.

ChatGPT crossed the 1 billion weekly global user mark earlier this month. India remains its second-largest market with over 100 million weekly users across students, developers, educators, and enterprises as of February 2026.

Ad-led service for free and go customers

The sponsored products or services featured in the advertisements (ads) will appear at the bottom of ChatGPT responses, which would be clearly labelled and visually separate from ChatGPT's answers, the company said.

The rollout will show ads to logged in adults on the Free and Go tiers, the latter priced at Rs 399 per month in India, while paid subscribers on Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Education tiers will continue to enjoy ad free service, as per IANS.

The AI company expects over 50 brands to go live with ads this week. Besides, it plans to offer self-serve access to ChatGPT Ads Manager in India from September 4, and businesses could sign up for daily budgets starting at Rs 725.

Privacy to be prioritised

However, the company clarified that the ad features will not be extended to accounts where the user has indicated they are under 18, or where the company determines that the user is a minor. Moreover, in case of sensitive or regulated topics such as health, mental health, or politics the ads will not appear alongside the responses.

Assuring customers on data privacy, the firm said users’ chats, chat history, memories, or personal details are inaccessible to advertisers and that it does not sell user data to advertisers. Advertisers will instead receive aggregate campaign-performance information, such as impressions and clicks, as per IANS.

Ads to drive revenue growth

OpenAI first announced plans to start testing ads within ChatGPT in January 2026, to diversify its revenue streams and drive expansion.

The pilot commenced in the United States in February and it has crossed the USD 100 million annualised revenue mark within six weeks of launch. The company then expanded it to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Mexico, Brazil, Japan, and South Korea.  OpenAI has launched ChatGPT Ads across 31 European countries last week, including Germany, France, Spain, and Italy.

(With inputs from IANS)

According to an internal memo circulated to employees, the US-based connectivity cloud company said the restructuring is aimed at adapting to what it described as the emerging “agentic AI era,” where AI systems increasingly perform tasks traditionally handled by employees across departments, reported IANS.

The company clarified that the move is not being implemented as a conventional cost-cutting exercise or a performance-based layoff programme, but rather as part of a broader operational transformation focused on AI-driven workflows.

Internal Use Of AI Reportedly Increased By Over 600 Per Cent

Cloudflare stated in the memo that its internal adoption of AI tools and AI agents has surged by more than 600 per cent during the past three months.

The company said employees across multiple departments, including engineering, finance, human resources and marketing, are increasingly using AI-powered systems to manage routine tasks and improve productivity.

“We are reimagining every internal process, team and role across the company,” the memo stated, adding that the restructuring decision was not a reflection of the performance or abilities of employees affected by the layoffs, reported IANS.

The company indicated that AI integration has accelerated rapidly across its operations as businesses globally continue to invest heavily in automation and AI-powered technologies, reported IANS.

Affected Employees To Receive Extended Severance Benefits

Cloudflare said all employees would be informed directly regarding the impact of the restructuring, with notices being sent to both official and personal email addresses of affected staff members, reported IANS.

As part of the separation package, the company announced that impacted employees would receive full base pay through the end of 2026. Employees in the United States will also continue receiving healthcare support through the remainder of the year.

In addition, Cloudflare said departing employees would receive equity vesting benefits through August 15. Workers who had not yet completed their one-year vesting requirement would also receive prorated equity vesting support under the severance arrangement, reported IANS.

The company described the compensation package as part of its effort to support employees during the transition process.

Company Plans Single-Phase Layoff Process

According to the internal memo, Cloudflare intends to complete the restructuring exercise in a single phase rather than implementing multiple rounds of layoffs over an extended period, reported IANS.

The company said this approach was designed to minimise prolonged uncertainty among employees and avoid repeated restructuring announcements.

Cloudflare further stated that it is redesigning its organisational structure to remain competitive as AI technologies continue reshaping global business operations and workplace models, reported IANS.

The company said its long-term strategy is focused on building a “faster and more innovative” organisation while expanding investments in AI-powered products, automation systems and cloud-based services.

AI Continues To Reshape Global Technology Industry

Cloudflare’s announcement comes amid a broader trend within the global technology sector, where companies are increasingly restructuring operations in response to rapid advancements in AI and automation technologies.

Several major technology firms have accelerated investments in generative AI systems and AI-driven tools over the past year, while simultaneously reviewing workforce requirements and internal operational structures, reported IANS.

Industry analysts believe the growing adoption of AI agents and automation platforms is likely to significantly transform roles across engineering, administration, customer support, marketing and other corporate functions in the coming years, reported IANS.

Cloudflare’s latest restructuring reflects how technology companies are adapting to evolving business models driven by AI integration and digital transformation.

(With inputs from IANS)

AI-supported coding was found to be high also in other countries, including Germany and France, with India catching up fast.

"We analysed more than 30 million Python (programming language) contributions from roughly 160,000 developers on GitHub, the world's largest collaborative programming platform," author Simone Daniotti, from Austria's Complexity Science Hub and Utrecht University in the Netherlands, said.

Trained on vast amounts of text data, generative AI can respond to a user's requests in the natural language, including writing and debugging computer code.

Findings published in the journal Science also show that while AI usage is highest among less experienced programmers, productivity gains go to seasoned developers -- generative AI can therefore widen existing gaps, instead of levelling the playing field.

Researchers used a specially trained AI model to identify whether blocks of computer code were AI-generated, for instance via ChatGPT or GitHub Copilot.

The team was able to track programming work across the globe in real time as GitHub records every step of coding -- additions, edits, improvements. Python is among the most widely used programming languages in the world.

"In the US, AI-assisted coding jumped from around five per cent in 2022 to nearly 30 per cent in the last quarter of 2024," author Frank Neffke, who leads the transforming economies group at Complexity Science Hub, said.

"While the share of AI-supported code is highest in the US at 29 per cent, Germany reaches 23 per cent and France 24 per cent, followed by India at 20 per cent, which has been catching up fast," he said.

Neffke added that Russia (15 per cent) and China (12 per cent) still lagged behind at the end of the study.

"Currently AI writes an estimated 29 per cent of Python functions in the US, a shrinking lead over other countries," the authors wrote.

The study also showed that the use of generative AI increased programmers' productivity by 3.6 per cent by the end of 2024.

"That may sound modest, but at the scale of the global software industry it represents a sizeable gain," Neffke said.

Less experienced programmers were seen to use generative AI in 37 per cent of their code, compared to 27 per cent for experienced programmers.

However, productivity gains are driven exclusively by experienced users, the researchers found.

"Beginners hardly benefit at all," Daniotti said, adding that generative AI therefore does not automatically level the playing field -- it can widen existing gaps.

Experienced software developers were also seen to experiment more with new libraries and unusual combinations of existing software tools.

"This suggests that AI does not only accelerate routine tasks, but also speeds up learning, helping experienced programmers widen their capabilities and more easily venture into new domains of software development," author Johannes Wachs, a faculty member at Complexity Science Hub, said. 

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Presenting his new cabinet at a meeting of his Socialist Party following a big May election victory, Rama introduced the new "member", named "Diella" -- "sun" in Albanian.

"Diella is the first (government) member who is not physically present, but virtually created by artificial intelligence," Rama said.

Diella will be entrusted with all decisions on public tenders, making them "100-percent corruption-free and every public fund submitted to the tender procedure will be perfectly transparent", he added.

Diella was launched in January as an AI-powered virtual assistant -- resembling a woman dressed in traditional Albanian costume -- to help people use the official e-Albania platform that provides documents and services.

So far, it has helped issue 36,600 digital documents and provided nearly 1,000 services through the platform, according to official figures.

Rama, who secured a fourth term in office in the elections, is due to present his new cabinet to lawmakers in the coming days.

The fight against corruption, particularly in the public administration, is a key criterion in Albania's bid to join the European Union.

Rama aspires to lead the Balkan nation of 2.8 million people into the political bloc by 2030.

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The report by Elsevier titled The ‘Insights 2024: Attitudes toward AI’ is based on a survey of 3,000 researchers and clinicians from 123 countries who show willingness to use AI in their daily work. It showed that they believe in AI's high potential in research and healthcare but demand transparency and trust.

The report showed that despite high awareness of AI, only 22 per cent of Indians have used AI for work purposes.

However, 79 per cent of Indians who have not yet used AI expect to use it within the next two to five years.

Further, the report showed that Indians (41 per cent) also feel positive about the future impact of AI on their work, and they (72 per cent) believe AI will have a transformative or significant impact on their work.

A whopping 94 per cent of clinicians in India believe AI can bring significant benefits in clinical activities such as assessing symptoms and identifying conditions or diseases.

But, transparency and quality of content are crucial. While 81 per cent of Indian researchers and clinicians expect to be informed if the tools they use rely on generative AI, 71 per cent expect results to be based on high-quality, trusted sources.

Further, the report also showed that doctors (82 per cent) in India are concerned that physicians will become overly reliant on AI for clinical decisions.

“Researchers and clinicians worldwide are telling us they have an appetite for adoption to aid their profession and work but not at the cost of ethics, transparency and accuracy,” said Kieran West, Executive Vice President of Strategy at Elsevier.

“They have indicated that high-quality verified information, responsible development and transparency are paramount to building trust in AI tools over time and alleviating concerns over misinformation and inaccuracy,” West added.

He noted that the report highlighted the “steps that need to be taken to build confidence and usage in the AI tools of today and tomorrow.”

Also read: AI skills are a must for better career opportunities; here's why

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