Microsoft's day-long outage, a Notion AI data theft and AI agents that make phone calls
AI launches, business news and the market in one short read, each with its date and the original source. Plain words, no hype.
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AI4 stories
Notion · Nov 12
~1%
of Notion customers hit by the Fireworks AI breach
Top story · Nov 12 · TechCrunch
Hackers took Notion AI chat transcripts through its AI vendor Fireworks AI
What it means for you: If your team pastes client details into an AI feature, ask the tool's maker which outside vendors see that text, because a breach at the vendor can reach your data.
Full story
Fireworks AI, a platform developers use to run open AI models, confirmed that a cyberattack exposed customer data. The attacker got in through Fireworks' cloud provider and took billing information and some datasets. Notion said about 1% of its customers were affected and that the stolen data includes chat transcripts, inputs and model outputs, from customers who used its Notion AI "Insights" feature. Notion cut its connection to Fireworks and deleted the data on November 3. TechCrunch says this is Fireworks' second breach in two months and gives no advice for customers.
Meta's Muse AI agent can now phone US businesses for paying users
What it means for you: Expect more calls to your office from AI agents, so decide now whether your front desk answers them or has a script for them.
Full story
Meta's consumer AI agent, Muse, can place phone calls to US businesses for you, such as a cable company or a restaurant that takes no online bookings. It is available now to paid subscribers in the US. Plans start at $20 a month, and a $100 a month plan is the heavier tier. TechCrunch notes that Google's Gemini and a startup called Instinct offer similar call features, and that many businesses and receptionists hang up when they realize an AI is calling.
United restricts AI agents that book flights for customers
Nov 12 · TechCrunch
United Airlines blocks AI agents from booking flights
What it means for you: If you let an AI assistant log in to your accounts for travel or banking, check each company's rules first, because more of them are starting to refuse it.
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United said it will restrict AI agents that book flights and manage reservations for customers, both on its own digital platforms and through travel agencies and aggregators, and it is updating its booking and distribution policies. The airline warned that sharing account details with outside AI assistants can expose sensitive information and lead to unintended purchases, account changes or use of MileagePlus miles. It also cited federal rules that need a human to complete check-in. TechCrunch calls United the latest large US company to block AI agents and notes that Bank of America recently urged customers not to share banking passwords with AI assistants.
faster at tasks than Google's previous fast model, per Google
Nov 12 · TechCrunch
Google Search AI Mode gets a new Gemini model for multi-part questions
What it means for you: Customers comparing providers in Google may get fuller answers drawn from many sites, so make sure your own site states your services, prices and hours plainly.
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Google said AI Mode in Search now runs on a new model, Gemini 4 Hydrogen, which it calls its biggest model improvement to Search yet. Google says it handles questions with several parts and very specific requests better, and AI Mode will show more images, comparison tables and custom tools in its answers. The update is rolling out to all Search users worldwide, and the model is also coming to Google AI Studio, the Gemini API and the Gemini app. TechCrunch gives no pricing.
Today's items are about trust in the tools around your office. A vendor of a vendor was breached, a major email service went down for most of a day, and companies like United are deciding which AI agents they will let in. AI agents are also starting to call businesses, so offices need a plan for them.
Business2 stories
Microsoft · Nov 12
18 hrs
of downtime before traffic returned, per Kentik's Doug Madory
Nov 12 · TechCrunch
Microsoft's Outlook and Teams outage lasted about 18 hours
What it means for you: If your office lives in Outlook, write down now how you would take client calls and urgent messages for a day without email.
Full story
A Microsoft outage that began Thursday, November 12 started with Outlook email and Teams video calls and grew into a wider cloud failure, reaching files, documents, Copilot and the Defender security tool. Administrators also could not open their Intune dashboards. Doug Madory of Kentik said traffic was returning after about 18 hours of downtime, and by Friday morning on the East Coast Outlook had begun recovering. Microsoft had not given a cause, described only a large number of servers being unexpectedly unavailable, and said it saw no evidence of malicious activity.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang resigns after 33 years; CFO Colette Kress steps in
What it means for you: Many AI services run on Nvidia chips, so watch your vendors for any change in pricing or plans after the earnings report, though nothing has changed yet.
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Nvidia's board announced on Thursday, November 12 that co-founder and CEO Jensen Huang resigned as president, CEO and board member, effective immediately, after leading the company for 33 years. Colette Kress, the CFO, is interim CEO while the board searches for a permanent successor. TechCrunch says Nvidia gave no reason and that the news followed reports about Huang's personal conduct that it does not confirm. Nvidia is worth about $3.8 trillion and is due to report quarterly earnings on Tuesday.
Stocks ended slightly lower on Thursday after a volatile day
Thursday, November 12: percent change at the close
Index closes
Dow Jones−0.4%
S&P 500−0.4%
Nasdaq Composite−0.4%
Russell 2000−1.7%
Our view: A single company's news and oil prices drove the day, and moves like these can reverse as quickly as they came.
Full story
This is Thursday's close, November 12. The S&P 500 fell 0.4% to 7,592.40, the Dow fell 0.4% to 52,297.09, the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.4% to 25,366.09 and the Russell 2000 fell 1.7% to 2,799.06. The report says Nvidia fell about 14% at first after its CEO resigned and then recovered about half of the drop, while other AI chip stocks rose. Oil prices climbed after President Trump said he was no longer interested in a deal with Iran.