Microsoft is announcing Project Ire today, an autonomous AI agent that can analyze and classify malware without assistance. Developed by Microsoft Research, Microsoft Defender Research, and Microsoft Discovery & Quantum, Project Ire is the first agent at Microsoft to independently author a conviction case “strong enough to justify automatic blocking” of an APT malware sample.
[microsoft.com]
Microsoft’s hacking event, Zero Day Quest, is back and accepting nominations today until October 4th. This year there is up to $5 million in bounty awards, up $1 million on last year’s figure. Microsoft is even offering multiplied bounty awards for the most critical issues in products like Azure, Copilot, and Microsoft 365. Security researchers will also get a chance to qualify for a live hacking event at Microsoft’s headquarters in spring 2026.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman teased GPT-5 yesterday in a post on X, and now OpenAI’s head of applied research says he’s “excited to see how the public receives GPT-5.” I reported in my Notepad newsletter that OpenAI was preparing to launch GPT-5 in early August. Microsoft has already quietly launched a mysterious new Copilot smart mode, which is likely in preparation for a GPT-5 release. OpenAI loves to launch new things on a Thursday.
