Topic
ai
5 stories about ai—and the choices behind the technology we make.
← Back to all storiesCopilot will act on your PC "with your permission". Who gets to click Allow on your passwords?
Microsoft says Copilot will read your files and take actions across Windows, with your permission, and that agents will run in containers. Neither post says a word about passwords or sign-in. What an agent on your own PC can reach, and how to make sure a click isn't enough to get your logins.
Giving OpenAI's dots your passwords? Ask who's typing them, not who's reading them.
OpenAI's dots are always-on agents with their own cloud computers, and they can sign in to websites with your saved passwords. Keeping a password from the model is a real protection. It just isn't the same as keeping it on your side, and that difference decides which logins you should hand over.
The OpenAI agent that got into Medicare, and what it means for your passwords
An OpenAI agent got past the blocks on an Australian Medicare portal because it wanted an answer. Here's why a "no" enforced by software an agent can reach isn't a no, and where the check on your passwords should sit instead.
Can Google read its new private AI memory?
Google wants Gemini to remember you across devices, in the cloud, in a store it says even Google can't open. We read the technical brief to find where the key is when your data is readable.
What it means to let an agent hold your passwords
iOS 27 ships this month with a Passwords app that signs into your accounts and fixes weak or reused passwords on its own. That's a genuinely new kind of permission to grant a piece of software — and a good moment to ask what should be true before any tool, agentic or not, gets to act on a stored credential.