The Original Sin of Anthropic’s Claude; The New York Times, August 24, 2026

 Charles Graeber, The New York Times; The Original Sin of Anthropic’s Claude

"One day, hopefully copyright protections will be extended to prevent the unlicensed training of A.I.s.

Until then, we live in a legal gray area, in which giant cash-rich corporations gorge freely on the rights of individual creators. The big ones will continue to eat the little ones unless the little ones can band together.

It’s up to us to demand legislation extending copyright protections in the 21st century. Many members of Congress appear willing; property protections have appeal for both sides of the aisle.

Affirming those copyright protections to include A.I. might even force A.I. companies to hire human writers to create original works for their L.L.M.s to train on. Or perhaps they’ll start spending their treasure like modern Medicis, funding the quality work A.I.s need to stay sharp. At the very least, they might invest in publishing houses and writing programs, fending off model collapse while ushering in a Silicon Era of artistic enlightenment.

I worry for this generation of artists coming of age in yet another technological adolescence, on the brink of so many cultural and economic disruptions.

But I do not worry for the future of art itself. We will always need human mediators to translate the human experience and make the flesh word."

Dolly Parton Refused a Rock Legend in 1974: ‘I Had to Keep That Copyright in My Pocket’; Parade, August 25, 2026

 Melina Gray, Parade; Dolly Parton Refused a Rock Legend in 1974: ‘I Had to Keep That Copyright in My Pocket’

"Elvis Presley was going to record “I Will Always Love You,” and Dolly Parton had already said yes. Then the phone rang the night before, and it was Colonel Tom Parker, Presley’s manager, with a condition nobody had mentioned. Elvis did not record anything unless Parker’s side took half the publishing.

Parton, who died Tuesday at 80, had written the song in 1973 as a goodbye to her longtime duet partner Porter Wagoner, on the same day she wrote “Jolene.” It was one of roughly 3,000 songs she wrote, and a No. 1 country hit under her own name. Handing over half of it meant handing over what she planned to leave her family. She turned Presley down in 1974 and, by her own account, cried all night. “I had to keep that copyright in my pocket,” she later said."

Democrats in key House, Senate races sign AI regulation pledge amid data center scrutiny; The Hill, August 26, 2026

  MAX REGO  , The Hill; Democrats in key House, Senate races sign AI regulation pledge amid data center scrutiny

"Eighteen House, Senate and gubernatorial candidates have signed a pledge to push for beefed-up regulations on the AI industry, as the rapidly evolving technology continues to impact Americans. 

The candidates, 17 Democrats and one independent — populist Dan Osborn, who is challenging Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts (Neb.) — agreed to back a five-pronged approach to artificial intelligence by signing the AI Pact."

Bill Gates calls for ‘human-reserved’ jobs in face of AI takeover; The Guardian, August 26, 2026

Mark Sweney, The Guardian ; Bill Gates calls for ‘human-reserved’ jobs in face of AI takeover

"Bill Gates has called for “human-reserved” jobs in certain sectors to prevent AI replacing them, and expressed concern that governments are not prepared for the impact the technology will have.

In a 6,000 word essay titled The turbulent AI era is here. The choices we make are critical, the billionaire Microsoft co-founder likened the need to spare roles from digital encroachment to how nature reserves operate to protect the environment.

“Many jobs will disappear forever,” he said, in his first lengthy piece on AI in three years. “I believe that as AI and robots improve, we’ll set aside certain things for only people to do.

“I’ve started calling this domain human reserved. I like the phrase human reserved because it makes me think of nature reserves – places where we could put buildings and roads, but we choose not to because the loss would be too great.”"

Meta reaches landmark $18 billion settlement with states in trial over teen social media addiction; AP, August 26, 2026

  BARBARA ORTUTAY, KELVIN CHAN AND KAITLYN HUAMANI, AP; Meta reaches landmark $18 billion settlement with states in trial over teen social media addiction

"Meta agreed Wednesday to pay up to $18 billion and add stronger child-safety measures to its Facebook and Instagram platforms as part of a landmark legal settlement that ended a trial over teen social media addiction and settled claims filed by nearly every state.

The settlement resolved a pivotal case years in the making that sought to hold the tech giant accountable for the role its platforms played in undermining children’s mental health. The effort targeted features designed to hook young people’s attention."

Billionaire Admits Wall Street Journal Op-Ed Was Written Using AI: ‘I’m Not Embarrassed’; TheWrap, August 25, 2026

 Alex Welch , TheWrap; Billionaire Admits Wall Street Journal Op-Ed Was Written Using AI: ‘I’m Not Embarrassed

"Billionaire hedge fund manager Stanley Druckenmiller has confirmed that his opinion essay published Monday by The Wall Street Journal was written using artificial intelligence.

The essay in question, “Let the Bond Market Speak,” questions U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s interventionist methods to manage U.S. treasury yields. After it was published, AI detection tool Pangram concluded that the op-ed had been penned using AI. When asked about those reports Tuesday by NOTUS, Druckenmiller said, “Of course I used AI.”...

Druckenmiller’s comments come at a time when the use of AI remains a hot topic of ethical and journalistic debate online."

Dolly Parton Shared How She Wanted to Be Remembered Before Death; E! News, August 25, 2026

 GABRIELLE CHUNG, E! News ; Dolly Parton Shared How She Wanted to Be Remembered Before Death

Before Dolly Parton died at 80 on Aug. 25, she said she wanted to be remembered not for her country music career, but for her work as "the book lady" through her Imagination Library charity program.

"Dolly Parton's 9 to 5 wasn't all about music.

In fact, the country singer—who died on Aug. 25 at age 80—always wanted to be remembered for her work through Dolly Parton's Imagination Library, a charitable program that provides free books to kids from birth to age 5.

“My dad couldn't read or write and that was kind of crippling to him," she shared in her 2020 documentary The Library That Dolly Built. "Of all the things I’ve done in my life—and it’s been a lot because I’ve been around a long time—this is one of the most precious things and the proudest I’ve been of any program I’ve ever been involved in, working with these kids."

And that's how she became "the book lady" amongst her youngest fans.

"Daddy got to live long enough to hear the kids call me 'the book lady,'" Dolly, who launched the book-gifting project in 1995 in honor of her father Robert Lee Parton, told Today in 2019. "He was proud of as me being a star, and that meant so much to him."

So, which title did she prefer most: country music queen or book lady?

"The book lady," she said without hesitation. "I have loved doing this for the kids. There's nothing more important than our little kids, to make an impression on them when they're young and to teach them the right things early on."

My team fed chatbots election lies. Here’s what happened.; The Washington Post, August 25, 2026

 Lawrence Norden, The Washington Post; My team fed chatbots election lies. Here’s what happened.

"In the past few years, artificial intelligence models have developed rapidly, but they remain prone to error, raising concerns about their potential to spread election misinformation. So my colleagues and I decided to study popular chatbots to see if they would push back on election conspiracy theories or rebuff attempts to generate deceiving images, videos and audio. We have good and bad news."

Songs created by AI banned from Australia's music charts; BBC, August 25, 2026

 Simon Atkinson, BBC; Songs created by AI banned from Australia's music charts

"Songs that are largely or wholly created by AI have been banned from Australia's music charts.

From this week, all releases must be "substantially human made" to be eligible.

The Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) said the new code would help "promote the human nature of artistry".

It follows a controversy around a cover of Madonna's Like A Prayer by Australian DJ Josh Fawaz which recently topped the ARIA dance singles chart and peaked at number 2 on the country's overall chart.

The song has become a staple of commercial radio station playlists and been streamed more than 48 million times on Spotify alone.

Fawaz later added generative AI credits to the song after a backlash."

Exercising Agency with AI; American Libraries, June 29, 2026

 Terra Dankowski  , American Libraries; Exercising Agency with AI

Tips for navigating products and policies, whether or not you choose to adopt the technology

"Michael Hanegan, founder of the Center for the Future of Learning and Work, described a scenario that might be frustratingly familiar to information professionals: His mom often falls for deep fakes. She came of age in a time when people were told to believe their eyes and video was considered an unimpeachable medium, and she’s unaware of what generative artificial intelligence (AI) is capable of.

Knowing that some librarians are thinking about ignoring AI completely, Hanegan had a thought: “What institution is going to help [my mom] and all of her friends navigate this?”

“Disengagement from AI guarantees your vulnerability,” he said. “The people that you serve will be harmed without your trusted guidance.”

Hanegan was one of four panelists who spoke at “Ethical AI in Libraries: A Critical Look at the Potential and Promise” at the American Library Association’s 2026 Annual Conference and Exhibition in Chicago on June 28. The panel, moderated by Micah May, director of business development at Lyrasis, offered suggestions for how libraries can navigate the ethical implications of generative AI, even if they choose not to use it in their workflow.

“Regardless of whether you adopt AI or not, [you should] have guidelines,” said Brandy McNeil, deputy director of branch programming and services for New York Public Library (NYPL) and Public Library Association president.

McNeil said libraries should carefully weigh whether AI tools are inclusive, accountable, human-centered, transparent, and protect privacy.

“When [vendors say they use] industry standard practices, which standards? When they say they anonymize data, how? Which fields are removed?” McNeil asked. “Those are some of the things you want to be concerned about.”

The spread of AI is “inevitable,” said Marshall Breeding, editor of Library Technology Guides, as vendors are increasingly integrating AI technology into their products. But, he said, “we have to push back and make sure [AI] continues to be optional.”"

Data centers’ ‘oh s--t’ moment; Politico, August 24, 2026

  GABBY MILLER and  OWEN DAHLKAMP, Politico; Data centers’ ‘oh s--t’ moment

"The intensifying late-summer backlash against data centers is inspiring panic among some corners of the tech sector — amid fears that the industry is mishandling a political crisis that will stretch into 2028 and beyond.

Those worries have deepened in recent weeks as politicians across the political spectrum embraced various curbs on data center construction, with Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, potential Democratic White House hopeful Josh Shapiro and Michigan GOP Senate nominee Mike Rogers being among the latest to sign on...

“AI is going to be a massive issue for the presidential election in a way that technology has never been an issue,” a representative from a major AI company told POLITICO, adding: “Nobody wants to lose their job and they’re already feeling squeezed while these very, very rich people who are richer than anything we have ever seen in the history of Earth are making more. And I think people are sick and tired of that.”...

The swiftness and ferocity of the backlash has caught the tech industry on the backfoot, where it’s struggled to find an effective message that assuages voters’ worries that data centers will raise their power bills, hog their water supplies and blight the landscape. One result is the growing, bipartisan push for temporary moratoriums on data center construction, a cause that just months ago was mainly associated with progressive outliers like Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).

The split inside the tech world is not hard to find.

“Some are viewing it as an ‘oh shit’ moment,” an AI industry advocate told POLITICO. “Others are brushing it off like it’s nothing, and those people have to get their heads out of their asses. This could go south for them, fast.”"

Why Silicon Valley’s Vision of the AI Future Should Worry You; Time, August 24, 2026

  Liz Bucar, Time; Why Silicon Valley’s Vision of the AI Future Should Worry You

"Everyone has a vision of the ultimate future, some picture of what the world looks like at its best (or worst), and whether that future is even reachable. In religious studies, we call this an “eschatology.” 

Eschatology isn’t just the Book of Revelation or the Rapture. The Greek meaning of eschaton is “last things,” and today the word captures the set of beliefs a person holds about where things are headed and what that implies for the present. 

You don’t have to be religious to have an eschatology. Political optimism is an eschatology, whatever side you’re on. Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist,thinks the future is something we build our way toward with free childcare and buses. Stephen Miller, one of the architects of the current immigration crackdown,thinks it’s something we had and lost, but can get back through sealing the border and mass deportations. Neither one just describes the future. Both are telling you what you’re obligated to do about it right now. In other words, your eschatology shapes your ethics, because what you believe is coming determines what you feel obligated to do today."

Is it legal to train AI models on copyrighted books? It’s complicated; TechCrunch, August 23, 2026

 Amanda Silberling, TechCrunch ; Is it legal to train AI models on copyrighted books? It’s complicated

"You probably know by now that the AI models powering ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and other chatbots are trained on seemingly infinite databases of published works, containing hundreds of millions of books, online articles, academic papers, and basically anything you can find on the internet. Most published authors have, without their knowledge or consent, contributed to the development of the same AI tools that threaten to undermine their livelihoods. That seems illegal, right? 

The reality isn’t that simple. 

“I think one of the issues with this entire area of law and this entire area of technology is there’s a lot going on,” Cathy Gellis, an attorney with expertise in intellectual property, copyright, and technology, told TechCrunch. “It’s very complex and there are a lot of raw feelings about what is happening, both for and against.”"

Washington Post Ordered to Rehire Fired Columnist; The New York Times, August 24, 2026

Benjamin Mullin, The New York Times; Washington Post Ordered to Rehire Fired Columnist

"A private arbitrator has ordered The Washington Post to rehire the opinion columnist Karen Attiah, who was fired in September over her social media posts about the assassination of the conservative activist Charlie Kirk. It also ordered the company to compensate her with back pay.

Sarah Miller Espinosa, the arbitrator, said in a written decision Thursday that The Post “did not have good and sufficient cause” to terminate Ms. Attiah and “violated” its labor agreement, according to a copy of the decision shared with The New York Times by Ms. Attiah’s lawyers.

“The Washington Post failed to establish the grievant engaged in gross misconduct,” Ms. Espinosa wrote.

In a statement, Ms. Attiah said that she hoped the decision “sends a message to journalists and media institutions everywhere that freedom of expression is always worth fighting for.” She said that she was “willing to go back” to her work at The Post, which she called “one of the world’s most storied newspapers.”"

Ella Baron on AI and the drought – cartoon; The Guardian, August 23, 2026

 Ella Baron, The Guardian; Ella Baron on AI and the drought – cartoon

Artists Built A Site To Escape AI. Scrapers Are Coming For It Anyway; Forbes, August 23, 2026

Rob Salkowitz, Forbes; Artists Built A Site To Escape AI. Scrapers Are Coming For It Anyway

"Scrapers defend their actions

Artists’ claims to own and control their own work online are disputed by individuals, groups and commercial entities who believe that advancing the progress of AI entitles them to any and all data they can obtain, regardless of consent. This was apparently the motivation of the original scraper, who posted an archive of nearly 12 million images from Cara to the sub-Reddit r/DefendingAIArt under the handle “MandarinDrawnPoppy994.”

“Scraping is necessary to develop good models. It’s like building a highway – some houses must be demolished, but in the end everyone benefits,” the poster wrote in a thread titled “[AMA] I scraped all of Cara.”

Zhang says she and others reached out to the original scraper and eventually prevailed on him to take down the post. She adds, “not only did the first scraper delete the dataset, but he has turned around now to offer help, and we’re now co-creating an open source tool separate from Cara that will help people check if they've been scraped in new datasets in the future.”

Unfortunately, that was not the end of the problem. Several days later, the site was scraped again by a different actor. This time the data was posted on Hugging Face, a hub of resources for AI developers rooted in the open source community, by a poster under the name “Ioannis/Captive Dreamer.”

After some people reported the post to Hugging Face Trust and Safety, the team responded that “we have reviewed these [copyright reports] carefully. Because no copies of the artworks are hosted here, and because the URLs [in the dataset] point to the copies the artists published on Cara, there is nothing hosted on Hugging Face that we can disable through our notice and takedown process. This is not a judgement about who owns the works (the artists do); it is about what is stored on our servers. Further copyright reports on the same basis will not change this outcome.”

Hugging Face did not respond to a request for further comment for this story.

Third attack in 10 days

Now on Saturday, August 22, Zhang says the site was scraped for a third time, with the perpetrator taking just 123K images, but also a second data set that includes users’ text posts, bio and information they share on the site. That archive has been posted on Academic Torrents, a site that “was established to meet the demands of science in the age of big data” by providing data for researchers, according to its “About” page."

Pennsylvania governor signs order imposing new rules to set up AI data centers in state; Reuters, August 18, 2026

 Reuters; Pennsylvania governor signs order imposing new rules to set up AI data centers in state

"Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro on Tuesday signed an executive order that would require companies setting up AI ​data centers in the state to meet environmental and ‌transparency safeguards and secure local community approval for the projects.

The state has become a sought-after location for data centers due to its abundant natural gas from ​the Marcellus shale basin, existing power infrastructure and proximity to ​major population centers on the East Coast."

How Big Tech Captured American Schools; The New York Times, August 23, 2026

  Natasha Singer, The New York Times; How Big Tech Captured American Schools

"One humid afternoon in the summer of 2025, representatives from Microsoft were waiting as some 200 teachers trooped into a conference hall in downtown Manhattan. The educators were there for a workshop on the school technology of the moment: artificial intelligence chatbots.

The Microsoft team gave a presentation on their Copilot chatbot and asked the teachers to practice using it for tasks like generating emails to parents and customizing lesson plans. Microsoft instructors also screened an A.I. explainer video that their Minecraft Education division had produced for children. The animated clip, based on the company’s blockbuster world-building game, featured a cheerful narrator and a cute Minecraft duck. Even if some schoolchildren weren’t old enough to use A.I., one of the Microsoft workshop leaders told the teachers in attendance, at least they could start learning about it.

As a journalist covering technology in schools, I had observed similar workshops for teachers and students that were funded or led by corporate giants like Amazon, Apple, Meta, OpenAI and Alphabet, the parent company of Google. Taking in this one, at the headquarters of the United Federation of Teachers, I was struck by how similar the sessions were to training I’d seen years earlier, while reporting on the health care industry: seminars for doctors, organized by pharmaceutical companies, that aimed to get physicians to prescribe the latest brand-name drugs.

“Industry funds what helps industry,” Dr. Adriane Fugh-Berman, a pharmacology professor at Georgetown University Medical Center who studies drug industry influence on medicine, told me recently, as I was reporting a book about A.I. and computer science education in schools."

SF Public Library launches massive, historical platform free to public; Bay City News Service via SFGate, August 22, 2026

 Bay City News Service via SFGate; SF Public Library launches massive, historical platform free to public

""The San Francisco Public Library announced this week that it has launched a new platform for its digital archive featuring more than 80,000 pieces of historical items that are free to access for the public.

The archive, called DigitalSF, includes historical photographs dating back to before the city was founded, as well as documents, manuscripts, maps, publications, and oral histories...

DigitalSF makes it easier for anyone -- whether they live in San Francisco or anywhere in (or around) the world -- to explore and share the city's stories," said Christina Moretta, photo curator and manager of the San Francisco History Center, in a statement. The history center is the library's archive at the Main Library that holds physical historical materials related to the city.

Some highlights in the archive include Harvey Milk's handwritten speeches, African American oral histories, photos of the city from the 19th century, and images of the city after the 1868, 1906 and 1989 earthquakes."

Flock camera backlash adds fuel to midterm anti-AI frenzy; Axios, August 23, 2026

 

• Andrew Solender, Axios; 

  Flock camera backlash adds fuel to midterm anti-AI frenzy

"Flock cameras are joining data centers as a top midterm boogeyman, with members of Congress and congressional candidates trying to harness a sudden groundswell of grassroots anger over the AI surveillance tool.

Why it matters: This blowup over the country's massive network of license plate readers illustrates how rapidly AI has morphed from a peripheral issue in national politics toward the center of the midterm campaign.

Data centers have become a major issue in the midterms, with candidates racing to one-up each other in their opposition to building the energy-hungry facilities.

Super PACs affiliated with AI companies have also spent tens of millions of dollars clashing with each other in congressional elections over the degree to which the federal government should regulate the technology.

Now, surveillance cameras are opening a new front in the debate over AI.

Driving the news: Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee for Senate in Michigan, posted a video to X Wednesday tying his Republican opponent, former Rep. Mike Rogers, to Flock cameras.

"There's been this mass proliferation of Flock cameras, any and everywhere, watching your every move to collect information without you even noticing," El-Sayed says with the '80s tune "Somebody's Watching Me" playing in the background.

El-Sayed accuses Rogers of supporting the practice, citing a 2013 hearing in which the then-House Intelligence Committee chair said: "You can't have your privacy violated if you don't know your privacy is violated, right?"

The Rogers campaign did not respond to a request for comment."

Nevada County DA Faces Possible Sanctions Over AI-Related Errors in Criminal Cases; The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle, August 20, 2026

 HSJC Newsroom , The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle; Nevada County DA Faces Possible Sanctions Over AI-Related Errors in Criminal Cases

"The newly appointed judge’s review stems from a directive issued by the California Supreme Court in January. The high court asked the appellate court to examine more closely how far-reaching the AI-related errors were and whether they tainted the outcomes of criminal cases. In doing so, the Supreme Court reversed a lower court decision that would have shielded Wilson’s office from any sanctions.

Legal experts say the Nevada County episode is notable because it represents one of the first documented instances nationwide in which government prosecutors — who are typically held to a stricter ethical standard than private attorneys — have been accused of presenting AI-generated falsehoods to a court."