Weekly Tech & AI Roundup: Amodei's Call to Slow AI, a Password-Free Camera Flaw, and iPhone 18 Pro's Debut (September 12–18, 2026)

The biggest surprise of the week: a commercial security camera, the CareCam CM2507, turned out to let anyone on its network watch its live video feed without typing a single password. It's a reminder that "smart" and "secure" aren't the same word — especially for the camera watching your own front door. Here's everything else that mattered in tech and AI this week, with the home-security angle spelled out for every story that touches your house.

The week in 60 seconds

• Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei published "We Must Pace the Frontier" on September 12, 2026, urging AI labs to deliberately slow capability gains.
• OpenAI's Sam Altman and Elon Musk both publicly backed Amodei's call within a day, on September 13, 2026.
• OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google DeepMind confirmed September 14–15, 2026 they're in talks to form a joint AI safety "Standards Body."
• CISA disclosed seven vulnerabilities in CareCam CM2507 IP cameras on September 18, 2026, including a no-login flaw (CVE-2026-88259, CVSS 7.5) that exposes live video to anyone on the network.
• Hikvision disclosed three vulnerabilities on September 10, 2026, including a Wi-Fi camera flaw that leaks network configuration data.
• Apple's iPhone 18 Pro reached stores September 18, 2026, a week after iOS 27 rolled out September 14 with a rebuilt Siri and new parental-safety tools.

Smart Home & Security Cameras

CareCam CM2507 IP cameras do not require authentication to access their network video streaming service, according to a CISA advisory (ICSA-26-258-08) published September 18, 2026, which also assigned the flaw its own tracking number, CVE-2026-88259. Rated 7.5 out of 10 (High) under CVSS 3.1, the flaw lets anyone with network access to the camera pull its live feed — no login, no credentials, no alert to the owner. CISA's advisory covers seven vulnerabilities total in the same firmware, including a hardcoded empty-password admin account and cleartext storage of Wi-Fi credentials, and notes the manufacturer has not responded to its coordination attempts. For your home: if a camera can be watched by anyone who finds it on the network, it isn't monitoring your property, it's broadcasting it. Whatever you use to watch your own home — including a repurposed phone running an app like iCameraPlus — should require you to log in to view footage and should keep that footage off the device itself, not sitting on an open local stream.

Separately, Hikvision disclosed three vulnerabilities on September 10, 2026, one of which (CVE-2026-85543) lets an authenticated low-privilege user extract a Wi-Fi camera's network configuration through insufficient permission checks. Hikvision says it has no evidence the flaw has been exploited and has published fixes. For your home: two unrelated camera brands disclosing access-control bugs in the same eight-day span isn't a coincidence so much as a pattern — before you buy or keep using any internet-connected camera, check that the maker publishes security advisories at all, and update firmware the day a fix ships.

For a deeper look at where a camera's footage should actually be stored, see our guide on home security camera options.

Privacy & Surveillance

The Federal Trade Commission rescinded its 2021 policy statement on breaches by health apps and other connected devices on September 9, 2026, saying the guidance was made obsolete after the agency updated its Health Breach Notification Rule in 2024 to directly cover those devices. The commission voted unanimously, framing it as regulatory cleanup rather than a rollback of the underlying breach-notification requirement. For your home: the rule that actually requires health-tracking and connected devices to notify you of a breach is still in force — this was Washington tidying up an old memo, not removing your protection.

Artificial Intelligence

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei published an essay titled "We Must Pace the Frontier" on September 12, 2026, arguing the AI industry should deliberately slow the rate at which it pushes out more capable models rather than race unchecked. Amodei paired the call with a unilateral commitment to give third-party evaluators, including the AI safety group METR, permanent employee-level access to verify Anthropic's safety claims.

Amodei's own rivals, Altman and Musk, publicly agreed within 24 hours. OpenAI's Sam Altman wrote that he agreed the industry needs to "pace the frontier," and Elon Musk backed the call too, according to reporting from September 13, 2026 — a rare moment of public agreement among three executives who compete directly for AI dominance.

Days later, OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google DeepMind confirmed they've been in talks for weeks about forming a joint AI safety "Standards Body," modeled loosely on financial-industry self-regulators, according to TechCrunch's September 15, 2026 report and CNN's September 14, 2026 coverage. The proposed pillars include shared technical evaluations, pre-release audits, and standardized safety protocols across the three labs.

Notable Releases

Apple's iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max reached stores on September 18, 2026, following preorders that opened September 12. The launch came four days after Apple began rolling out iOS 27 on September 14, 2026, which rebuilt Siri with conversational follow-up questions and added new parental-safety controls, and supports every iPhone back to the iPhone 11. For your home: new-phone launches are exactly when old phones pile up in drawers or head to trade-in programs — before you hand yours over, wipe it properly, and if it still powers on, it can keep working as a dedicated security camera instead of sitting idle.

What to do with this week's news

• If you own any internet-connected camera, check the manufacturer's security-advisory page this week and apply any pending firmware update.
• Never rely on a camera that doesn't require a login to view its stream — confirm yours does before you trust it to watch your home.
• Traded in a phone for the new iPhone lineup? Wipe your old device before you sell, recycle, or hand it off.

Sources

• Axios: "Anthropic, OpenAI CEOs call for slowdown in AI development" (September 12, 2026)
• SiliconANGLE: "Sam Altman and Elon Musk back Dario Amodei's call to slow down the frontier of AI development" (September 13, 2026)
• TechCrunch: "OpenAI, Anthropic, Google have been in talks on AI safety for weeks" (September 15, 2026)
• CNN Business: "Top AI companies have discussed creating their own standards body" (September 14, 2026)
• CISA: ICS Advisory ICSA-26-258-08, CareCam CM2507 (published September 18, 2026)
• TheHackerWire: CVE-2026-88259 vulnerability record, CareCam CM2507
• Hikvision Europe: Security Advisory (September 10, 2026)
• Federal Trade Commission: "FTC Withdraws Obsolete Policy Statement" (September 9, 2026)
• Apple Newsroom: iPhone 18 Pro launch details (September 2026)
• MacRumors: "iOS 27 Available Now With These 8 New Features" (September 14, 2026)