Dad Says 9-Year-Old Spent $118K on YouTube Ads | Cohere AI Privacy | AI Extinction Risks

A $20 YouTube promotion becomes a reported $118,000 company credit card bill. Canada's Cohere tackles a gap in AI data security. And could realistic scenarios help us understand—and prevent—an AI-enabled catastrophe? Jim Love hosts Hashtag Trending for Friday, September 18, 2026. A father says his nine-year-old ran up $118,000 advertising Minecraft and Roblox videos over roughly three weeks. We examine how a shared Google account and saved company card enabled the spending—and what that could mean for AI agents given purchasing authority. Cohere adds confidential computing to Model Vault to protect sensitive enterprise information while AI processes it. We explain why a promise not to train on your data doesn't address exposure in working memory, and how the technology is designed to block access even by Cohere and its cloud providers. Plus, Cohere signs a merger agreement with Germany's Aleph Alpha, subject to regulatory approval. Then, "Rumours of Our Death": CNN explores four AI extinction scenarios involving engineered pandemics, autonomous robots, nuclear weapons and control of infrastructure. What could AI contribute? What physical barriers remain? And what does our response to climate change suggest about our ability to agree on effective safeguards? CHAPTERS 00:00 Headlines and introduction 00:40 Father reports $118K in YouTube ad charges 01:31 Spending controls and AI agents 02:53 Cohere's Model Vault privacy protection 04:22 How confidential computing works 05:01 Cohere–Aleph Alpha merger agreement 05:29 Could AI wipe out humanity? 06:16 Four AI extinction scenarios 09:18 Current AI capabilities and misuse 10:24 Would we act to prevent catastrophe? 11:53 Could AI help us assess the risks? 12:16 Wrap-up and subscribe Subscribe for daily technology news, and join us Saturday for Project Synapse, where we take a deeper look at the week's AI developments. What safeguards would you require before giving an AI agent access to company data or spending authority? Leave a comment below. Contact Jim through the Contact Us page at technewsday.ca or technewsday.com.