Gemini as a work agent, an offline note-taker and a tech-led drop

Google launched Foresight, a Mac app that takes meeting notes, including in-person meetings, with an on-device model that works fully offline. It shows your own shorthand notes beside the AI notes, and can answer questions from files you upload, such as PDFs, Google Docs and Office files. TechCrunch did not report a price, a release date or support for other computers.

Goodfire launched monitors that read an AI model's internal signals while an agent works, and only call a second model when something is flagged. They are available to customers of the hosting platform Baseten. Goodfire says monitoring about 1 million exchanges costs roughly $185, and that the monitors caught 93% of malicious hacking sessions in its tests. TechCrunch notes these are the company's own figures, with no independent check.

First-time filings for unemployment benefits came in at a seasonally adjusted 197,000 for the week ended October 3, down 2,000 from the prior week and just under the 200,000 economists expected. Continuing claims, which run a week behind, rose by 17,000 to 1.72 million. The Labor Department reported the figures on October 8.

On October 8, Vice President JD Vance announced that Microsoft, Adobe, Capgemini, Cognizant, HCL, Infosys, Tata and Wipro are suspended from a program that helps skilled foreign workers get permanent residency, and the administration accuses them of fraud. Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling said the government will not accept new or pending applications involving these companies. Microsoft said it filed about 6,000 H-1B applications last fiscal year, 80% for current employees. TechCrunch gives no end date for the suspension.