Tech & AI News Roundup — September 30, 2026, 1:00 PM UTC

Quick links to what's actually happening in AI, tech, and IT right now — curated from real reporting, not rewritten, so you can go read the full story wherever it's genuinely worth your time.

Tinder adapts to a social, IRL dating future with ‘Group Hangouts’ feature

As younger users grow increasingly tired of the endless scroll, dating apps are scrambling to adapt to a generation that increasingly wants dating to feel more social and rooted in real-world experiences. The latest example comes from Tinder, which on Wednesday announced the launch of “Group Hangouts,” a new feature that lets groups of friends […] — TechCrunch

Charter Space raises $5M to bring insurance to the stars

As Charter explains on its website, a common experience for space companies is that regular insurers "heard a bunch of scary science words and freaked out." — TechCrunch

Africa’s retail-investing boom is running into an infrastructure problem

The Dangote IPO shows how digital platforms are expanding retail investing in Africa, while exposing the infrastructure and cross-border hurdles that remain. — TechCabal

Pearson’s Workera deal targets a big workplace problem: No time to AI upskill

Pearson has agreed to acquire Workera to help businesses assess employees’ AI skills and target training where it’s needed most. — ZDNet

Here’s how tech leaders will self-police AI safety under Trump’s deal

Anyone else getting “The Last Supper” vibes from this photo taken at the White House tech gathering? | Photographer: Tierney L. Cross/The Washington Post/Bloomberg via Getty Images We now have the full details of the "morally binding" AI safety deal announced by President Trump yesterday, in which top executives agreed to self-regulate their artificial intelligence technology. The accord, official — The Verge

The Download: OpenAI’s chief research officer explains its hacking response

This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. “We’re not going to shoot ourselves in the foot” over hack fallout, says OpenAI’s chief research officer Two months after OpenAI’s agents hacked into the computers of AI company Hugging Face,… — MIT Technology Review

Samsung’s new SmartTag is smaller, longer-lasting, and works with iPhones

Samsung has announced its third-generation Bluetooth tracker, the Galaxy SmartTag 3. It combines a smaller design and improved battery life with a few new tracking and software features, including cross-OS support intended to make it easier to share tracking information with friends and family. As revealed by leaks, the SmartTag 3 has adopted a squircle design, similar to the original SmartTag but — The Verge

Know Your Enemy: Browser-Based Attack Techniques in 2026

Given that the browser is where business apps are accessed and used, it makes sense that attacks are happening there too. Most breaches today begin in a browser session. Often, they never leave it, with the entire attack chain from initial access to exfiltration playing out in the browser. Here are the six most dangerous techniques that should be on every security team's radar in 2026. 1. — The Hacker News