MLB restricts using dugout iPads for AI-assisted in-game strategy; Associated Press via ESPN, July 17, 2026

 Associated Press via ESPN; MLB restricts using dugout iPads for AI-assisted in-game strategy 

"Major League Baseball is restricting iPad usage in dugouts to prevent the tablets from running artificial intelligence to help make strategy decisions, and former reliever Adam Ottavino said the New York Mets' use of technology helped prompt the move.

The tablets have access to video and league-provided data, and also included a custom tab where teams could access other programs. MLB made the custom tabs inaccessible to teams starting Wednesday night, when the second half of the season started.

"In many cases, the custom tab had expanded the use of the dugout iPads beyond their originally intended purpose to include recommendations regarding substitutions, pitch calling, and other in-game decisions traditionally made by players and coaches," MLB executive vice president of baseball operations Morgan Sword wrote in a June 11 memo to general managers, assistant GMs and video coordinators.

The memo, first reported by The Athletic, was obtained by The Associated Press.

"I read the article and I was like, I can't believe what I'm seeing," New York Yankees captain Aaron Judge said. "Teams are making decisions off of AI? Man, that's just crazy."

Hackers Expose How AI Music App Suno Stole Decades Worth of Copyrighted Music; Futurism, July 17, 2026

 Maggie Harrison Dupré, Futurism; Hackers Expose How AI Music App Suno Stole Decades Worth of Copyrighted Music

The evidence is damning.

"A hack revealed in detail how AI music generating app Suno scraped millions of songs, likely including copyrighted ones, from across the web to feed into its AI model, 404 Media reports.

Suno, which is currently embroiled in multiple ongoing copyright lawsuits, has already admitted in response to legal action that it used “essentially all music files of reasonable quality that are accessible on the open internet” to train its music-generating AI."

An Ohio woman took in two strangers. Then she saw their ‘wanted’ photos.; The Washington Post, July 18, 2026

 Dan Morse, The Washington Post, ; An Ohio woman took in two strangers. Then she saw their ‘wanted’ photos.

"Just 25 percent of Americans say most people can be trusted, down from 47 percent in the early 1970s, according to the long-running General Social Survey conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago. In a Pew Research survey of 25 countries last year, Americans ranked last in their likelihood of viewing fellow citizens as “morally good,” hitting just below 50 percent.

“In a country in which trust has been experiencing a long-term decline, here was this extraordinary act of trust,” said sociologist Bruce Carruthers of Northwestern University after being told of the case.

Social scientists have long studied why and how people trust. One big factor: People are more likely to trust those who reflect themselves. Carruthers said other characteristics of Behrman tilted toward trust, including an innate desire to help others and normally reliable street smarts."

I Got Slopped; The New York Times, July 16, 2026

  Kashmir Hill, The New York Times; I Got Slopped

"Amazon does not mind if people hawk A.I.-generated books on its platform, unless they are truly and deeply terrible."

A Spectacular Theodore Roosevelt Library Deep in the Badlands; The New York Times, July 17, 2026

 

Michael Kimmelman

Visuals by Will Warasila

, The New York Times; A Spectacular Theodore Roosevelt Library Deep in the Badlands

"You’d be hard-pressed not to like the new $450 million Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library. It’s an easy charmer and a spectacular work of ecologically minded architecture in the drop-dead gorgeous North Dakota Badlands.

The firm Snohetta in New York designed it. The building is 93,000 square feet of mass-timber and rammed-earth — a huge Hobbit house hugging the precipice of a grassy butte overlooking the tiny town of Medora, N.D.

Theodore Roosevelt National Park is five minutes away."

People of faith are finding a new moral guide in AI; The Washington Post, July 17, 2026

 David DeSteno is a professor of psychology at Northeastern University., The Washington Post; People of faith are finding a new moral guide in AI

"Artificial intelligence has fundamentally changed the way we get information. If you have questions about the factors that underlie a medical diagnosis or how best to invest your savings, asking an AI chatbot for guidance can give you quick, easy and often surprisingly accurate information in a conversational form. But people are also turning to AI to explore deeper questions than they might ask a physician, financial adviser or professor — questions that, for millennia, were the province of religion."

Rutgers University investigates ethics complaint against dean who billed the university for services offered by her company; WHYY, July 15, 2026

 P. Kenneth Burns , WHYY; Rutgers University investigates ethics complaint against dean who billed the university for services offered by her company

"Rutgers University is investigating a dean at its Newark campus for allegedly making thousands of dollars by doing business with the university through a company she co-owns with her sister.

Jacqueline S. Mattis, dean of the Rutgers-Newark School of Arts and Sciences, SASN, was paid $142,515 for services provided to Rutgers by her company, Easton’s Nook LLC, since she began her job in July 2020, according to records reviewed by WHYY News. The funds went to pay for writing workshops and retreats, some of which took place in Jamaica."

A24 Addresses Copyright Strikes on Backrooms Fan Art After Director Kane Parsons Promises to Investigate; IGN, July 17, 2026

 VIRGINIA GLAZE, IGN; A24 Addresses Copyright Strikes on Backrooms Fan Art After Director Kane Parsons Promises to Investigate

'We will continue to support the artists.'

"A24 has issued a statement clarifying the numerous takedown notices filed on behalf of its brand after Backrooms director Kane Parsons promised he’d investigate.

A24 published their statement via Instagram on July 17, just two days after Parsons responded to a Reddit post from a user claiming their wallpaper pattern had been pulled from Redbubble over copyright infringement."

Multiple Investigations Refuted Trump’s Claims That Fraud Altered the Outcome in 2020; The New York Times, July 16, 2026

 Luke Broadwater, The New York Times ; Multiple Investigations Refuted Trump’s Claims That Fraud Altered the Outcome in 2020

Dozens of investigations, audits, recounts and court proceedings examined the 2020 election. None found the widespread voter fraud that President Trump claimed tilted the vote.

"After he lost the 2020 election, President Trump and his allies promoted a series of conspiracy theories about the integrity of the vote, claiming that the election was stolen from him through widespread voter fraud.

They alleged that China hacked voting machines through thermostats. They floated the notion that Italian satellites were directed to flip votes. They accused election officials of smuggling in votes for Joseph R. Biden Jr. in suitcases.

Each of these fantastical claims was debunked.

In fact, there were dozens of investigations, audits, recounts and court proceedings at the local, state and federal levels that examined the 2020 election, which experts said may have been the most scrutinized election in U.S. history. None uncovered the extensive voter fraud that Mr. Trump alleged had tilted the outcome of the election.

The Department of Justice and Mr. Trump’s own attorney general, William P. Barr, found the claims lacking. Cybersecurity agencies declared the 2020 election the most secure in history. States undertook audits and hand recounts, with none finding what Mr. Trump was alleging."

HOW THE SMITHSONIAN COULD FALL; The Atlantic, July 16, 2026

 Kelsey Ables, Photographs by Caroline Gutman, The Atlantic ; HOW THE SMITHSONIAN COULD FALL

"The Trump administration wants to control the Smithsonian, but it won’t be so easy."

White House Teleprompter Operator Bet on Trump Speeches, Kalshi Says; The New York Times, July 16, 2026

   Lauren McCarthy, The New York Times; White House Teleprompter Operator Bet on Trump Speeches, Kalshi Says

"A White House teleprompter operator used his position to win around $100,000 by placing bets on the prediction market Kalshi about what President Trump would say in his speeches, the company said on Thursday.

It was the latest accusation that someone had used inside information to make a profit on a prediction market like Kalshi and Polymarket, which have grown rapidly and transformed into cultural phenomena.

In this case, Kalshi said Gabriel Perez, a technical assistant to Mr. Trump, had placed wagers on common words that would appear in the president’s speeches, such as country names and economic terms. In March, when Kalshi’s surveillance systems flagged some of Mr. Perez’s trades, the company froze the funds in his account and referred the case to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the federal agency that regulates prediction markets."

FCC Officials Took Pricey Gifts From Paramount as the Company Needed Approval for Billion-Dollar Deals; ProPublica, July 15, 2026

 Corey G. Johnson , ProPublica; FCC Officials Took Pricey Gifts From Paramount as the Company Needed Approval for Billion-Dollar Deals

"Reporting Highlights

• Expensive Gifts: Despite regulating broadcast media, FCC commissioners have accepted pricey tickets to the Kennedy Center honors gala from CBS or its parent company, now Paramount.
• 
  
• Conflict of Interest: Ethics experts say that by accepting the gifts, FCC commissioners are compromising the agency’s impartiality and should avoid acting on Paramount’s pending merger.
• 
  
• Mixing Business and Pleasure: After voting for a Paramount merger, Commissioner Olivia Trusty took tickets worth over $12,000. FCC Chair Brendan Carr has accepted tickets worth at least $63,000.
• 
  

These highlights were written by the reporters and editors who worked on this story."

'Copyright trolls' pounce on Hawaiʻi arts social media accounts; Hawai'i Public Radio, July 13, 2026

 Cassie Ordonio, Hawai'i Public Radio; 'Copyright trolls' pounce on Hawaiʻi arts social media accounts

"Porter had signed an agreement with BVIRAL, a Tennessee-based licensing company that helps promote content creators but also monitors the internet to ensure its clients' videos are not being shared without their permission.

What Porter signed up for was not what he expected.

“I was under the impression that I was giving them the rights to use the videos for promoting my artwork on their pages,” he said.

In actuality, Porter gave BVIRAL rights to pursue copyright claims on his behalf.

Now, people who typically support artists by posting those artists' works on social media are getting hit with takedown notices.

The issue illustrates unintended consequences when artists sign contracts with companies like BVIRAL that file copyright claims against businesses that also work with artists."

Current and former employees sue Meta, alleging discrimination in using AI to conduct layoffs; CNBC, July 14, 2026

 Jonathan Vanian, CNBC ; Current and former employees sue Meta, alleging discrimination in using AI to conduct layoffs

"A coalition of current and former Meta employees have sued the social media giant, alleging that the company used artificial intelligence in its latest round of layoffs in a way that was discriminatory.

In a lawsuit filed Monday, plaintiffs allege that Meta violated various protected-leave laws and discrimination acts related to pregnancies and disabilities, among others, and said they wish to pursue their claims individually in arbitration."

City Bar Urges Senate Judiciary Committee to Reject Todd Blanche as U.S. Attorney General; New York City Bar, July 13, 2026

 New York City Bar; City Bar Urges Senate Judiciary Committee to Reject Todd Blanche as U.S. Attorney General

"In a letter to the Chairman and Ranking Member of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, the New York City Bar Association urges the Committee to reject the nomination of Todd Blanche to serve as Attorney General of the United States.

“Mr. Blanche has taken actions that we believe make him unfit to lead an ethical and independent department of justice that is essential to our nation’s democracy,” the City Bar writes. “Mr. Blanche’s record – particularly the actions he has undertaken as Deputy Attorney General and Acting Attorney General – conclusively demonstrates his lack of commitment to the integrity, professionalism and independence that the Senate should require and the American people should expect of the highest law enforcement official in the land.”

The City Bar writes that despite Mr. Blanche’s formal credentials, his actions, both as Deputy Attorney General and as Acting Attorney General, have “repeatedly demonstrated that his primary loyalty is not to the United States Constitution or the rule of law but to President Donald J. Trump, whom Mr. Blanche previously represented as a private attorney and whose personal interests he has continued to protect. As a result, his actions have been detrimental to the Department of Justice and the rule of law. Specifically, Mr. Blanche has compromised the integrity and independence of the Department he has been nominated to lead.”"

Book publishers sue Google for copyright infringement over Gemini AI training; The Guardian, July 14, 2026

 Emma Loffhagen , The Guardian; Book publishers sue Google for copyright infringement over Gemini AI training

Group of major publishers accuses the tech giant of ‘one of the most prolific infringements of copyrighted materials in history’

"A group of major publishers have filed a lawsuit against Google, accusing the company of illegally using millions of copyrighted books to help build its Gemini artificial intelligence models, in “one of the most prolific infringements of copyrighted materials in history”.

The case, filed in federal court in New York, has been brought by three publishers – Hachette Book Group, Cengage Learning, and Elsevier – and bestselling American author Scott Turow.

The publishers argue that Google repurposed books that had been supplied for limited services such as Google Books, Google Play Books and Google Scholar. Those services allowed Google to use the works in specific ways – for example, to display searchable snippets or sell ebooks – but not, the lawsuit claims, to copy them for training commercial AI products."

'The Trojan Teddy Bear': The promise and peril of childhood in the age of AI; NPR, July 14, 2026

 Greg Rosalsky, NPR; 'The Trojan Teddy Bear': The promise and peril of childhood in the age of AI

"What happens when kids grow up with AI?

AI is already a part of childhood. Recommendation algorithms curate what many kids watch and listen to. Chatbots stand ready to answer questions like, "Are monsters real?" or "Why is the sky blue?" They can help with homework, tell bedtime stories, or even feel like a friend. And companies are racing to embed AI into toys, nurseries, classrooms, and eventually robots that live alongside families.

In a new book, Human Raised: Nurturing Connection, Curiosity & Lifelong Learning in the Age of AI, author Dana Suskind grapples with what the rising tide of artificial intelligence means for raising kids. On the one hand, she acknowledges that the technology offers promise as, for example, a productivity enhancer and time saver for parents, a monitoring and research tool that can give parents and scientists valuable data on child development, and an interactive tutor that might help some kids learn.

But Suskind worries about what happens if AI begins replacing the kinds of human interactions that young brains evolved to learn from.

In fact, Suskind says, her original, working title for the book was, "The Trojan Teddy Bear," a warning that AI companions may seem cute and cuddly — but they carry hidden risks for child development. She ultimately went with Human Raised because she wanted to emphasize the positive — and irreplaceable — role that parents, teachers, and caregivers play in molding young ones.

"If we want children to be able to continue to connect with each other and with other human beings, to be able to think critically, to be able to navigate the human world, we're gonna need to make sure that kids have a distinctly human-raised early childhood," Suskind says."

The crucial medical question that AI can’t answer; Stars and Stripes, July 13, 2026

 JAMES N. WEINSTEIN AND OGAN GUREL, Stars and Stripes; The crucial medical question that AI can’t answer

"In our research on AI and clinical decision-making, we’ve studied what happens when systems are trained to optimize medical outcomes but are blind to human values. In plain English, today’s AI is very good at telling you what usually works for people like you with similar demographics and medical histories. It is far less capable of understanding what you are trying to protect, avoid or prioritize."

White House Directed Patel to Oversee Investigation Involving Times Reporting; The New York Times, July 11, 2026

 Devlin Barrett, Glenn Thrush and Maggie Haberman, The New York Times ; White House Directed Patel to Oversee Investigation Involving Times Reporting

The F.B.I. director spent about eight hours at the White House Friday focused on the effort, which led to the subpoenaing of several Times reporters who wrote about the security of Air Force One.

"The White House directed Kash Patel, the F.B.I. director, to oversee a leak investigation into reporting by The New York Times about security issues with the new Air Force One, leading to a flurry of subpoenas to several Times reporters Friday night, according to people with knowledge of the situation."

Justice Department Subpoenas New York Times Journalists Who Reported About Trump's New Plane; Reason, July 13, 2026

 JOE LANCASTER , Reason; Justice Department Subpoenas New York Times Journalists Who Reported About Trump's New Plane

The government says the reporters are not targets of the investigation, but such subpoenas can still have a chilling effect on the press.

"Officials are often overly aggressive in pursuing leaks of classified information, but President Donald Trump remains in a league of his own.

"The Trump administration issued subpoenas on Friday to several journalists for The New York Times," Michael M. Grynbaum wrote Saturday for the paper, "after the news outlet reported this week on security concerns involving President Trump's new Qatari-donated Air Force One."

The subpoenas—which "in some cases" were "delivered by federal agents who showed up at reporters' homes"—"seek to force the reporters to testify before a federal grand jury in Manhattan on Wednesday," Grynbaum added. The summonses were issued by Jay Clayton, who currently serves as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York and has been nominated as the next director of national intelligence.

"The appearance of federal law enforcement agents on the doorstep of news reporters should shock the conscience of any American who believes in the Constitution and the press freedom it protects," New York Times deputy general counsel David McCraw said in a statement. "This brazen act should be seen as nothing more than an attempt to prevent the public from knowing what is happening in their country by intimidating journalists from doing their jobs.""

Publishers, Authors File Class Action Lawsuit Against Google; Publishers Weekly, July 13, 2026

 Jim Milliot , Publishers Weekly; Publishers, Authors File Class Action Lawsuit Against Google

"Publisher Hachette Book Group, Cengage Learning, and Elsevier, as well as author Scott Turow, are the named plaintiffs in the lawsuit, and the claims are being brought on behalf of themselves and a proposed class of authors and publishers. The suit follows an attempt by HBG and Cengage to join the Google Generative AI Copyright Litigation lawsuit first brought by a group of illustrators and writers in 2023, and which Google has been challenging the right for the publishers to participate.

With the new lawsuit, Cengage and HBG have withdrawn their motion to take part in the 2023 suit, observing that Google could assert that a three-year statute of limitations pertains to the class member claims. In light of that possibility, Hachette and Cengage “determined that they must take action to protect claims that appear to be outside the putative class in this action,” according to the motion to withdraw from the original suit.

Among the highlights in the new lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, are that Google executives knew publishers would consider some of its plans to copy books as illegal, and despite facing huge potential monetary damages (a Google document notes the company “faced $10Bs-$100Bs” in potential fines) but went ahead and made copies anyway.

Publishers are especially annoyed that Google is using books that publishers provided the company to build its Google Books search service as part of an agreement to settle a long-running legal battle, per the complaint. While Google can use the books to provide “snippets,” the complaint states, “publishers and authors never authorized Google to copy the works they received for Google Books for the completely separate purpose of training its AI models and building a multi-billion dollar competing business.” The suit also goes after books that are part of Google Play Books for authorize resale and Google Scholar for research."

The New York nurses replaced by AI: ‘It should concern every patient who cares about quality of care’; The Guardian, July 13, 2026

 Michael Sainato, The Guardian; The New York nurses replaced by AI: ‘It should concern every patient who cares about quality of care’

"After nearly four decades in her job, Shuler is one of 12 nurses who was laid off Sunday after being replaced with AI-powered software, according to the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA), which represents nurses at the hospital...

National Nurses United (NNU), the parent union of NYSNA, has been raising the alarm about the effects AI will have on nurses. Shuler’s case would be one of the first AI-related layoffs handled by the union.

The union developed an AI bill of rights for patients and nurses, has been pushing for protections and guardrails in contracts and through legislation, and protested against employers using untested AI in patient care settings."