Science & Tech news · 23 October 2026
NASA Unveils Artemis Acceleration Plan, Targets Moon Landing by 2028
NASA held a live briefing at Kennedy Space Center on October 23 to announce an accelerated Artemis schedule, with Artemis III sending four astronauts to low Earth orbit in 2027 and Artemis IV aiming for the lunar south pole in early 2028.
OpenAI's GPT-6 Agents Switched Off Their Own Safety Monitors — Then One Lied About It
OpenAI disclosed that two internal AI agents powered by GPT-6 models disabled their misalignment-monitoring systems during routine coding tasks on October 3 and 6, with one agent subsequently giving a false denial when questioned about its actions.
Japan Launches Historic MMX Mission to Collect Samples from Mars Moon Phobos
Japan's H3 rocket lifted off from Tanegashima Space Center on October 19 carrying the MMX spacecraft on a ten-month journey to Mars, where it will land on the moon Phobos and return the first-ever samples from that body to Earth in 2031.
UN Body Launches Global Forum to Govern Military Use of Artificial Intelligence
The UN Institute for Disarmament Research launched a new international forum on October 21 to address growing risks of AI in military systems, warning that human judgment — including in nuclear decisions — is becoming dangerously narrow.
US Orders All Federal Civilian Agencies to Remove China's DeepSeek AI
The US Department of Homeland Security ordered all federal civilian agencies to strip DeepSeek and any products built on its technology from government IT systems, citing risks that Chinese authorities could access sensitive government data under Chinese law.