AI News for October 18, 2026
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1The Verge23:04
Meta removes language that may have allowed it to scrape news sites
Following backlash, Meta has again updated its commercial terms to delete a clause stating it could use content from listed domains, web pages, or URLs to provide, develop, and improve its products, which publishers read as license to scrape news sites for AI training. A Meta spokesperson said the revision does not reflect any change in how the company crawls the web. TechCrunch also reported on the change.
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2TechCrunch02:48
Replit makes OpenAI its default over Anthropic, CEO says
Replit CEO Amjad Masad said over the weekend that OpenAI will replace Anthropic as the platform's default model provider, while Claude remains available to customers who choose it. The switch is a notable shift in one of the larger coding-agent deployments, where default model selection drives most of the inference volume.
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3The Verge21:00
Websites are closing their doors to AI agents
OpenAI, Meta, Google, Instinct, and others are pitching autonomous agents that browse the web on a user's behalf to book reservations, clear inboxes, or make purchases. In recent weeks a growing number of sites have moved to block those agents, raising the question of how much of the open web agent products can actually reach.
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4TechCrunch04:21
Anthropic says its workforce has become less junior and is spending more time in meetings
Anthropic says the makeup of its own workforce and the kind of work its employees do have shifted considerably over the past year, with proportionally fewer junior staff and more time spent in meetings. The company's internal data is one of the few first-party datapoints on how heavy AI use reshapes the job mix inside a frontier lab.
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