Welcome to the September 8, 2025 edition of ACM TechNews, providing timely information for computer professionals three times a week.

HEADLINES AT A GLANCE

• Teen Coder Made First Millennial Catholic Saint
• Undersea Cables Cut in Red Sea, Disrupting Regional Internet
• IT Unemployment Fell in August; Tech Jobs Market Still Shrinking
• Google Fined $3.5 Billion for Breaking Europe’s Antitrust Laws
• German Chancellor Inaugurates Supercomputer for Research
• Acoustic AI Adds Sound Awareness to Autonomous Driving
• ICE Reactivates Contract with Previously Banned Spyware Vendor
• AI-Powered Drone Swarms Enter the Battlefield
• Boffins Build Automated Android Bug Hunting System
• NSF Announces Funding for AI Research Resource Operations Center
• ‘Robot Ballet’ Promises to Choreograph Production Line Gains
• Anthropic to Pay $1.5 Billion to Settle Authors’ Copyright Lawsuit

Teen Coder Made First Millennial Catholic Saint

Carlo Acutis, a British-born Italian who died of leukemia in 2006 at age 15, was canonized on Sunday as the Catholic Church’s first millennial saint. Acutis was known for using his coding skills to build websites spreading the faith. Antonio D'Averio, a 24-year-old computer programmer who was at the ceremony, said he identified with Acutis' story. "He too was passionate about computer science," said D'Averio. "It's certainly something new. It's also something that, in my opinion, was needed."
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Undersea Cables Cut in Red Sea, Disrupting Regional Internet

Damaged undersea cables in the Red Sea have disrupted Internet access across parts of Asia and the Middle East, with India, Pakistan, and Gulf states among those affected. Microsoft confirmed increased latency due to fiber cuts, while Internet access monitor NetBlocks reported outages in the SMW4 and IMEWE cable systems near Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The cause of the damage remains unclear.
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IT Unemployment Fell in August; Tech Jobs Market Still Shrinking

The IT job market showed mixed signals in August, as unemployment among tech workers fell to 4.5% from 5.5% in July, according to Janco Associates based on U.S. Department of Labor data. Hiring remains weak, with only 22,000 new jobs added economy-wide and 446,763 active tech postings, down 2.6% from July, CompTIA reported. Demand is strong for AI expertise, with listings for AI skills up 94% year-over-year, but general IT roles are shrinking due to automation, outsourcing, and slower small-business hiring.
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Google Fined $3.5 Billion for Breaking Europe’s Antitrust Laws

The European Union fined Google about $3.5 billion on Friday for abusing its dominance in online advertising. Regulators said Google unfairly steered business to its own ad services and excluded rivals, giving it access to pricing data competitors could not see, harming publishers, advertisers, and consumers. The fine, stemming from a 2021 investigation, gives Google 60 days to outline compliance plans. President Trump condemned the penalty as discriminatory against U.S. firms and threatened retaliatory tariffs on Europe.
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German Chancellor Inaugurates Supercomputer for Research

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz inaugurated the Jupiter supercomputer on Friday, calling it a “historic European pioneering project” that puts Germany at the forefront of global high-performance computing. Jupiter ranks as the world’s fourth-fastest supercomputer and Europe’s first exascale-class system. Powered by Nvidia chips, Jupiter was assembled by French IT group Atos and German modular supercomputing company ParTec.
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Acoustic AI Adds Sound Awareness to Autonomous Driving

Researchers at Germany's Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology developed "The Hearing Car," which complements visual sensors with acoustic technology. A prototype vehicle uses microphones and AI to identify sirens, pedestrian voices, and other audio cues that cannot be picked up by cameras or radar. Critical sounds can be transmitted directly to drivers through headrest speakers to improve response times. The technology also enables natural voice commands, speaker verification for security, and passenger health monitoring through voice analysis and contactless sensors.
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ICE Reactivates Contract with Previously Banned Spyware Vendor

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has resumed its $2-million contract with Paragon Solutions, a spyware company previously sidelined under an executive order from the previous administration targeting unethical surveillance vendors. A government filing on Aug. 29 lifted the stop-work order imposed last year, though ICE has not explained the reversal. Paragon drew criticism after its Graphite spyware was discovered on devices belonging to Italian journalists, migrant advocates, and associates of Pope Francis.
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AI-Powered Drone Swarms Enter the Battlefield

Ukraine is pioneering AI-powered drone swarms, using software from local firm Swarmer to coordinate UAV attacks on Russian positions. Unlike traditional operations requiring multiple pilots, AI swarm technology lets drones map routes, adapt to conditions, and decide strike timing collaboratively, reducing manpower needs. Ukrainian forces have used the system more than 100 times, typically deploying three to eight drones, though tests with 25 have been run.
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Boffins Build Automated Android Bug Hunting System

Computer scientists at Nanjing University in China and The University of Sydney in Australia have developed an AI system that identifies and validates Android app vulnerabilities. Unlike traditional tools that overwhelm developers with false positives, the A2 tool mimics human bug hunters by planning, executing, and validating attacks. In testing, it achieved 78.3% coverage on the Ghera benchmark—far higher than existing analyzers—and uncovered 104 zero-day flaws in production apps, including one with 10 million downloads.
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NSF Announces Funding for AI Research Resource Operations Center

The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) announced a solicitation to establish the National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource Operations Center (NAIRR-OC), a key step in transitioning the NAIRR from a pilot to a sustainable national program. Launched in 2024 with support from 14 federal agencies and 28 partners, the pilot has already connected 400 research teams with AI tools, data, and computing resources. The center aims to accelerate innovation, train future researchers, and strengthen U.S. leadership in AI.
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‘Robot Ballet’ Promises to Choreograph Production Line Gains

Researchers at University College London (UCL) in the U.K., working with Alphabet's Google DeepMind and Intrinsic, developed an AI system that allows robot teams to work together while avoiding crashes. Using reinforcement learning and graphical data, the RoboBallet system plans tasks in seconds rather than days, enabling more robots to complete more jobs with greater efficiency. Said UCL's Matthew Lai, “RoboBallet transforms industrial robotics into a choreographed dance, where each arm moves with precision, purpose, and awareness of its teammates."
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Anthropic to Pay $1.5 Billion to Settle Authors’ Copyright Lawsuit

AI startup Anthropic will pay at least $1.5 billion to settle a copyright infringement lawsuit over its use of books downloaded from the Internet to train its Claude AI models. The federal case, filed last year in California by several authors, accused Anthropic of illegally scraping millions of works from ebook piracy sites. As part of the settlement, Anthropic has agreed to destroy datasets containing illegally accessed works.
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