Thursday, 29 October 2026

20:14

California law requires companies to connect customers to a person within 15 minutes

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed AB 1609, the Right to Human Customer Service Act, on Sept. 28. The law takes effect Jan. 1, 2027 and requires companies with more than $500 million in annual revenue to connect a customer with a person within 15 minutes of the request, or to book a call-back within one business day.

NoteFor companies running AI service bots, the law turns the handoff into a fixed clock, and only public prosecutors can enforce it.

Source: PYMNTSShare

20:12

Models & Labs

Google will make Gemini 4 Carbon available to a subset of cyber defenders

Google DeepMind announced Gemini 4 Carbon, which it calls its strongest model, and says it ranks #1 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index at 59. Google will make Carbon available to a subset of cyber defenders starting this week, and says it is gathering feedback and iterating on guardrails before making it available to developers, businesses and consumers.

NoteThe first users are cyber defenders, and the benchmarks in Google's post test finding, exploitation and patching of vulnerabilities. Carbon launched two weeks after Gemini 4 Argon.

Source: Google DeepMindShare

20:10

Top story: Banking & Lending

RBC blocks third-party personal AI agents from online banking

Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) has decided to block third-party personal AI agents from direct access to online banking, due to concerns about fraud and consumer harm. According to the article, the connections customers have used to let those agents reach their RBC accounts will stop working.

NoteRBC's reasoning is that personal agents need access to accounts and may store passwords, and that the stakes go up when something goes wrong. Its customers can still use the bank's own website, app and service team.

Source: PYMNTSShare