This story has really gotten legs somehow. The research is related to work with AI agents developing a trade/negotiation logic with shorthand language [0], but the media seems to have spun it into a tale of rogue computers being shut down in the nick of time. There have been some articles attempting to roll back the sensationalism [1] [2], but most of the headlines are still working the "scary AI needs to be shut down" angle. The actual paper in [0] is a very interesting read, and recommended if you want to get some idea of what the kernel of this story actually is.

[0] https://arxiv.org/abs/1706.05125

[1] http://gizmodo.com/no-facebook-did-not-panic-and-shut-down-a...

[2] http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-40790258