Today's stories sit at some uneasy crossroads between technology and the living things around it. A new startup backed by Colossal's Ben Lamm and Anduril's Palmer Luckey wants to genetically engineer military dogs and outfit them with high-tech armor. Over to the dystopian side of AI, a Sydney man's arrest after Interpol flagged his conversations with Claude raises fresh questions about what happens to the things we tell our chatbots. And finally, researchers have figured out the tech that will weave a touchscreen right onto the fabric of your clothes.

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Warhound, a new startup that just raised $200 million, plans to genetically engineer dogs for the US military and outfit them with high-tech protective gear. It's a project from Colossal Biosciences' Ben Lamm and Anduril's Palmer Luckey. Lamm told Wired the company has already begun editing genes in cell samples taken from its first donor dogs, drawn from top-performing military, police, and first responder breeds, mostly Belgian Malinois, along with some labradors and shepherds. The plan is to clone the dogs after Colossal scientists tweak their genes. The first edits will focus on making the animals less likely to develop conditions common to their breeds, such as hip dysplasia and certain cancers.

Lamm says that later rounds could aim for faster, more agile dogs or an enhanced sense of smell. Anduril, which Luckey founded after Oculus VR, will design the goggles, vests, body armor and software that protect the dogs on the job. Luckey is a partner in the business, but neither he nor Anduril holds a stake. Colossal has equity, Lamm sits on the board, and former Palantir employee David Spirk is CEO. Warhound expects its first genetically engineered dogs to be born in early 2027, and they will be trained for work like bomb detection and search-and-rescue. For now, there are no plans for cyborg dogs, but the roadmap toward enhanced animals suggests that line will be worth watching.

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A 29-year-old Sydney man, David Lan Thackray, was arrested on Sunday after Interpol flagged his conversations with Anthropic's Claude, in which he reportedly said he wanted to "go down to the local Westfield right now and shoot up the local daycare." He has been charged with using a carriage service to harass, menace, or offend, and will undergo a mental health evaluation. The takeaway for anyone using a chatbot: those conversations may not stay as private as they feel. It remains unclear how Interpol got access to the chats, or whether Anthropic passed them along. Prosecutors told the court, "We're understanding what's in his mind with his interactions with the chatbot," and said the discussions also referenced the alleged Bondi Beach attacker.

Thackray's lawyer countered that he was simply venting, stressed and frustrated by an ear infection, that his words carried "no weight," and that he believed the exchanges were private. The case lands in an unsettled debate. There is no industry-wide standard for when, or whether, an AI company should alert law enforcement to what users tell a chatbot, and privacy advocates worry about overreach. Yet chatbot conversations have been tied to violent crimes, such as the 2025 shooting at Florida State University, and they may hold early warning signs. Expect pressure to define those rules to grow.

Researchers at the National University of Singapore have woven a working touchscreen into a sleeve, and they describe it as the first touchscreen built into a garment. Published in Nature, the prototype uses 54 specialized fibres to form a 96 x 54-pixel display that can show images, play video, run a calculator and respond to finger presses. It also receives images over Bluetooth, responds to voice commands and can show body temperature readings. The electronics aren't bolted onto the fabric. Thousands of microelectronic components are built into flexible fibres about a millimetre thick, combining display and sensing, with a touch-sensitive layer that detects presses and lights the matching pixels. The team says the display and touch response stayed nearly unchanged after 50 machine-washing cycles and 1,000 bending cycles, and the fabric stays flexible and breathable.

Don't expect to stream anything in 4K on a jacket, though: the resolution is low, and the researchers haven't announced a commercial release. For a broader look at smart ways to deal with cold weather through new tech, wearable warmth is already becoming a practical category. Still, the work points toward checking health readings or messages on your sleeve instead of a smartwatch or phone. If the approach scales up in resolution, smart clothing could become more than a jacket with Bluetooth speakers. Wearables are also getting attention in home tech, as seen in AI living during the Discover Samsung shopping event. Read more at www.digitaltrends.com.

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