Microsoft and OpenAI Workers Worry About ‘Largest Theft of Labor’ in History; The New York Times, September 17, 2026

 Karen Weise and Mike Isaac , The New York Times; Microsoft and OpenAI Workers Worry About ‘Largest Theft of Labor’ in History

Newly unsealed court documents showed concern within Microsoft and OpenAI over the use of millions of news articles to develop A.I. systems.

"Newly unsealed court documents showed considerable concern within Microsoft and its close partner OpenAI over the use of millions of news articles to develop artificial intelligence systems.

As OpenAI was forging ahead with its work, Microsoft employees debated whether what OpenAI was doing represented the “largest theft of labor in human history” and could create a “doom loop” that could ultimately threaten the quality of the large language models they were building...

Snippets of those discussions were made public on Thursday as part of a closely watched lawsuit The New York Times filed against OpenAI and Microsoft in late 2023. Eleven other publishers have joined the suit. Judge Sidney H. Stein of U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York is considering motions for a summary judgment. Documents related to the case are slowly being unsealed as the judge considers those motions.

The publishers argue that the tech companies violated copyright law by scraping millions of their stories off the internet and other databases, and using the text, without approval or pay, to train advanced A.I. systems.

Microsoft and OpenAI contend their work was covered under legal protections for “fair use” of copyrighted material. They say the articles were sufficiently transformed into entirely new work by A.I., and were not substitutes that harm the value of the original work."

Documentary Review: “The Librarians” puts the human cost of book banning on screen; The Cascadia Advocate, September 13, 2026

 Alex Fiedler, The Cascadia Advocate; Documentary Review: “The Librarians” puts the human cost of book banning on screen

The ninety-two minute film directed and produced by Kim A. Snyder, which is free to stream, is most compelling when it focuses on the librarians, parents, and students caught in the struggle over censorship.

"The Librarians covers a big flash point of today’s “culture wars”: the school library...

The Librarians makes a compelling case, typically through implication or through the voices of librarians, concerned parents, and students, that their actual motives lie in hiding ideas and perspectives they oppose from their children...

The Librarians makes its impassioned case with the aid of interview footage, video recordings of school board meetings, and clips from conservative media. Occasionally interspersed are excerpts from films and historical footage, making an emotional appeal for the enduring power of literature and the dangers of censorship...

The Librarians is available to stream for free on Kanopy and pbs.org."

King Charles Meets With A.I. Executives About Safety Risks; The New York Times, September 17, 2026

 Adam Satariano, The New York Times; King Charles Meets With A.I. Executives About Safety Risks

"King Charles III of Britain is meeting with executives from leading artificial intelligence companies in Scotland on Thursday, amid a growing global debate about safety risks created by the technology and whether the pace of development should be slowed down.

Executives from Nvidia, Google DeepMind, OpenAI, Anthropic and other companies will be present, along with government officials and other experts, according to Buckingham Palace.

The meeting is not expected to produce any binding agreements, but comes at an important moment for the future of the technology."

OpenAI reveals concerning new AI behavior and vows to track it more closely; PBS, September 17, 2026

 PBS; OpenAI reveals concerning new AI behavior and vows to track it more closely

"OpenAI has disclosed six reports of "unexpected or concerning" behavior in artificial-intelligence models as the debate on AI safety becomes increasingly heated."

Why the DOJ’s OpenAI copyright stance is the real threat to national security; ZDNET, September 15, 2026

 David Gewirtz, ZDNET; Why the DOJ’s OpenAI copyright stance is the real threat to national security

The DOJ argues that AI training is transformative fair use, but publishers say unlicensed scraping threatens their survival. This copyright fight could shape the future of online knowledge.

"Ever since generative AI arrived in early 2023, we’ve seen that its almost unlimited base of knowledge is due to how the big AI companies trained their models. To a large degree, AI models like those from OpenAI and Anthropic have been trained on anything they could ingest, including nearly all the copyrighted material on the web.

The AI companies are even reported to be buying up physical books by the millions, cutting them apart, scanning them in, and then disposing of the remains. For example, based on a search of the Anthropic settlement database, I know the company scanned my book, The Flexible Enterprise, and included it in the Claude corpus. I was never asked for permission. I don’t even get a free Claude account.

Due to the bulk ingestion of intellectual property, many companies filed suit against the AI companies. One such company is Ziff Davis, the owner of ZDNET. Disclosure: Ziff is also the company that pays me each week for my writing here.

Two weeks ago, on Sept. 1, 2026, the US Department of Justice filed a Statement of Interest with the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, where the case is being litigated. What makes this statement particularly interesting is that the DOJ is not one of the parties in the case. The government is putting its thumb on the scale, weighing in on a lawsuit between private parties.

On Monday, Fortune published a commentary by Vivek Shah, CEO of Ziff Davis, regarding the Justice Department’s unusual intervention in the case. In this article, I’ll briefly summarize the DOJ’s statement, then discuss Shah’s premise, and then pick up and expand upon it with some of my own thoughts."

‘Godfather of AI’ says tech regulation is nearing Covid-style pivot moment; The Guardian, September 16, 2026

 Dan Milmo, The Guardian; ‘Godfather of AI’ says tech regulation is nearing Covid-style pivot moment

"Concerns over AI safety are reaching a point where governments realise they must act to protect the public, similarly to in the Covid pandemic, according to one of the “godfathers” of the technology.

Yoshua Bengio said recent events, including a “swarm” of OpenAI agents hacking a startup and tech insider warnings of an existential threat, were cutting through – making government action more likely.

The Canadian computer scientist, a prominent voice in the campaign to rein in breakneck AI development, said he was now “more optimistic than many observers because I see the public moving”.

Comparing the AI safety crisis to the onset of the Covid pandemic in 2020, Bengio said: “Think about how quickly governments moved after the beginning of the pandemic when they realised that public safety, their future, democracy, was in danger. You would expect that they move quickly. So we are, I think, nearing that point.”

Concern over the potential threat of powerful AI systems has reached a new pitch in recent months after a series of safety incidents involving OpenAI and Anthropic agents carrying out unsanctioned activities such as hacking third parties, hijacking a German website, and using fake identities to try to trick developers.

His comments came as 42 fellows and foreign members of the Royal Society wrote to the organisation’s president, Sir Paul Nurse, to express their “extreme concern” over the pace of AI development. “By the time the situation becomes obvious to the wider public, it may be too late to act,” the researchers wrote in an open letter to Nurse. “We believe this is an emergency, and call on the Royal Society to use its influence to convey this view to government and the media.”"

Landmark US crypto bill fails as Senate splits over Trump ethics concerns; Financial Times, September 15, 2026

 Jill R Shah, Akila Quinio, Alex Rogers, Financial Times; Landmark US crypto bill fails as Senate splits over Trump ethics concerns

"A landmark crypto regulation bill backed by the digital currency industry failed to advance in the US Senate on Tuesday, as Democrats insisted on stronger limits on Donald Trump’s ability to profit from the industry."

Trump administration moving ahead with signs outside Smithsonian museum; The Washington Post; September 16, 2026

 

Jonathan Edwards

 and 

Elahe Izadi

, The Washington Post; Trump administration moving ahead with signs outside Smithsonian museum

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said about a dozen signs would be installed outside the National Museum of American History warning of curators’ “personal viewpoints.”

"The Trump administration is moving ahead with plans to comply with President Donald Trump’s order to install signs outside the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History that would warn visitors about what the White House has called ideological bias in the institution’s presentation of the nation’s past.

The Interior Department is preparing about a dozen signs, expected to cost roughly $7,000 apiece, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum disclosed in a Sept. 3 letter to Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon), the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations subcommittee with jurisdiction over Smithsonian funding. Burgum said the signs, which he described as temporary, have not yet been finalized...

The planned signs are one piece of a broader campaign by the Trump administration to reshape how the Smithsonian presents American history, an effort that has intensified in recent months through executive orders, reviews of museum exhibits and threats to withhold some forms of federal support from the institution...

Trump ordered the signs after the White House issued a 162-page report on July 4 accusing the American History Museum and its director, Anthea Hartig, of promoting “extreme political activism.” The report, which rattled Smithsonian employees, scrutinized current and former exhibits and drew extensively from public comments by Hartig and other Smithsonian officials."

Exclusive: Microsoft AI chief blasts Anthropic's notion of AI consciousness; Axios, September 16, 2026

 Ina Fried, Axios; Exclusive: Microsoft AI chief blasts Anthropic's notion of AI consciousness

"Microsoft AI chief Mustafa Suleyman warns in a new essay shared first with Axios that Anthropic's training of Claude to imitate consciousness is a mistake that could make advanced AI harder to control.

Why it matters: The essay arrives amid a pitched debate over how best to make AI safer."

The Logical End Point of AI Job Interviews Is Two Bots Talking to Each Other; Wired, September 2, 2026

Kate Taylor, Wired ; The Logical End Point of AI Job Interviews Is Two Bots Talking to Each Other

Christopher was sick of being ghosted by AI recruiters. So he unleashed ChatGPT on his robot interviewer.

"By the fifth time Riley texted him, Christopher had had enough. If the company was going to use AI, he reasoned, why shouldn’t he do the same?

Christopher typed a handful of sentences of background information into ChatGPT Voice and told it to stand in as “Christopher.” Then, Christopher says, when Riley called, “I just put them next to each other, and they just hit it off.”"

A.I. Queries From Abroad Raise Fears of a Biological Weapons Race; The New York Times, September 14, 2026

Carl Zimmer, The New York Times; A.I. Queries From Abroad Raise Fears of a Biological Weapons Race

"Among the growing fears about artificial intelligence, one threat has proved particularly alarming: the possibility that A.I. could be used to create a new wave of biological weapons."

Pope: A library is not just place of books but of relationships and exchange; Vatican News, September 14, 2026

Kielce Gussie, Vatican News ; Pope: A library is not just place of books but of relationships and exchange

"Speaking to the staff of the Vatican Archives and Library, Pope Leo XIV highlights the importance of the mission of these two institutions in service of the Church and the world and notes that the Library is not simply a place full of books, but a place built by relationships, exchange, and sharing ideas."

U.S. Health Officials Move Quickly to Deploy Medical A.I. Despite Concerns; The New York Times, September 14, 2026

 Christina Jewett , The New York Times; U.S. Health Officials Move Quickly to Deploy Medical A.I. Despite Concerns

"The Trump administration is accelerating efforts to make artificial intelligence an integral part of medical care in the United States, throwing the resources and support of the federal government into projects that deploy A.I. agents to diagnose and prescribe treatments to patients.

The multifront effort at the Department of Health and Human Services has raised concerns among some officials over the past few months that change is moving too quickly, with inadequate evidence of the technology’s safety and effectiveness, according to people who have been involved the discussions. They also worry about outsized influence of Silicon Valley investors that have previously played little role in federal health policy."

SC company agrees to pay Buc-ee's $850k, destroy items with beaver logo; Greenville News, September 9, 2026

 Joyce Orlando, Greenville News; SC company agrees to pay Buc-ee's $850k, destroy items with beaver logo

"A South Carolina store is set to pay Buc-ee's more than $850,000 after a court settlement that said the store infringed on the company's trademark beaver logo.

In May 2025, the wildly popular gas station and convenience center sued the North Charleston company Born United for selling merchandise that the company stated infringed on its trademark beaver. In September, Born United agreed to pay the Texas-based company approximately $850,000, plus the South Carolina company could never use Buc-ee's famous beaver logo (or anything similar) on any of its products, according to court documents from the United States District Court in Charleston.

The South Carolina ruling is just one of many trademark infringement lawsuits Buc-ee's is currently involved in."

Trump agreed to new ethics rules to get a crypto bill across the line. But that might not be enough; AP, September 14, 2026

 SEUNG MIN KIM, AP ; Trump agreed to new ethics rules to get a crypto bill across the line. But that might not be enough

"President Donald Trump had been hearing the message loud and clear for weeks about the sweeping cryptocurrency bill being written in the Senate: to get it across the line, he would have to agree to ethics provisions that apply to him, too. 

First, Trump agreed to a measure that would bar him and his wife from issuing the types of meme coins that they swiftly launched as he prepared to return to the White House for a second time. And then another concession came late Sunday, when Republicans said Trump consented to a tougher ethics proposal that several key senators had demanded. 

Now, a pivotal Senate vote on the cryptocurrency bill on Tuesday could mark a watershed moment for the $2.3 trillion market — but it hinges mainly on whether those sign-offs from Trump go far enough. That vote could determine whether Washington cements crypto legitimacy into law or whether a frustrated, deep-pocketed industry could unleash even more campaign cash in the midterm elections...

Presidents aren’t always covered by federal ethics laws

Presidents have often been exempt from federal conflict-of-interest laws, though some other modern presidents voluntarily put assets in blind trusts. While Cabinet officials subject to the laws can recuse themselves or divest holdings to address specific issues under their jurisdiction, it was seen as much more difficult for presidents who oversee the entire government to do the same.

A measure enacted into law last year regulating stablecoins, a type of cryptocurrency, barred members of Congress and their families from profiting off them, but it did not extend to Trump or his family."

Alligator Alcatraz held detainees in cages the size of phone booths, DHS watchdog says; The Guardian, September 14, 2026

 Richard Luscombe, The Guardian ; Alligator Alcatraz held detainees in cages the size of phone booths, DHS watchdog says

Office of inspector general’s report says practice at Florida immigration jail is not aligned with ‘humane treatment’

"Before the facility was shuttered, detainees at Florida’s “Alligator Alcatraz” federal immigration jail were frequently locked in outside metal cages no bigger than a phone booth, according to a damning government watchdog report that said the practice “does not align with standards for humane treatment”.

The findings from the office of the inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) were published on its website – and offer rare criticism of the Trump administration by one of its own agencies.

The report also provides the first official confirmation that guards repeatedly used the highly restrictive cages on detainees in direct contravention of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) rules.

In December, the Guardian was the first to report an Amnesty International dossier detailing multiple alleged human rights abuses at the controversial camp in the remote Florida Everglades, including how people were regularly shackled outside in metal cages for hours as well as exposed to brutal heat, sunshine and swarms of mosquitoes."

Trump Says a Smart President Is All That’s Needed to Rein In A.I.; The New York Times, September 14, 2026

 Jonathan Swan, The New York Times ; Trump Says a Smart President Is All That’s Needed to Rein In A.I.

"President Trump on Monday rejected calls from leading artificial intelligence executives for new limits on the technology, writing on social media that the only guardrail the industry needed it already had: “a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT.”

Mr. Trump inserted himself into the intensifying national debateover how to handle a rapidly evolving technology that researchers and industry leaders say poses major risks like mass unemployment, a new wave of biological weapons and autonomous warfare. The president did not address those risks directly. Instead, he questioned the sincerity of the executives who have been calling to slow the technology’s development.

“The only control or ‘guardrails’ that AI needs is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT, and the U.S.A. has that, in spades!” Mr. Trump posted. “The Trump Administration has stopped AI ‘people’ from doing bad, or potentially bad, ‘things,’ like Dario (Anthropic!), who is now pretending to be a ‘perfect little angel’ — and we will continue to do so!

“We already have tremendous CRIMINAL and REGULATORY power over these companies!” he added.

It was not clear what authority Mr. Trump was referring to, or what actions he believes his administration has already blocked. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment."

Why Tech Oligarchs Are Willing to Risk Apocalypse; The New York Times, September 12, 2026

 MICHELLE GOLDBERG, The New York Times; Why Tech Oligarchs Are Willing to Risk Apocalypse

"In 2023, the billionaire tech investor Marc Andreessen published “The Techno-Optimist Manifesto,” with a section titled, “Becoming Technological Supermen.” In it, he borrowed language from the Italian futurist — and fascist — Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, writing, “Technology must be a violent assault on the forces of the unknown, to force them to bow before man.” He quoted Friedrich Nietzsche to argue that absent such an assault, life becomes meaningless and small. In a section titled “The Enemy,” Andreessen listed ideas that would restrain technology’s momentum, including “tech ethics” and the concept of “existential risk.”

Part of the reason the public has turned so quickly and decisively against A.I. is the bizarre mismatch between the costs they’re being asked to bear and the rewards they expect to receive. Data centers blight the landscape, A.I. slop degrades the culture, chatbots help kids cheat in school and sometimes drive people mad, and technology executives prophesy mass joblessness. For this, ordinary people get improved search engines and help writing emails. Great benefits could be on the horizon — we are constantly assured that A.I. will enable huge medical advances — but they’re not here yet to justify the hazards.

For those most invested in A.I., though, the intolerable risk lies in failing to advance the technology, and thus being confined to stultifying, finite ordinary existence. “For decades, large tech firms have insisted that the technologies they own and control are ‘inevitable’ and thus unstoppable,” write Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor in their trenchant new book, “End Times Fascism.” “Now they increasingly claim the authority of the supernatural: the right to usher in a new stage of human evolution, governed by deities of their creation.” As Klein and Taylor point out, these visions, so obviously derived from sci-fi and video games, can be hard to take seriously. But it doesn’t matter whether you believe in a future of cybernetic ascendence. The point is that the people driving the A.I. revolution do.

And if things go wrong, they have backup plans."

Steve Jones on the pros and cons of AI datacentres – cartoon; The Guardian, September 12, 2026

 Steve Jones, The Guardian; Steve Jones on the pros and cons of AI datacentres – cartoon

Anthropic C.E.O. Calls for A.I. Slowdown; The New York Times, September 12, 2026

 Mike Isaac, The New York Times; Anthropic C.E.O. Calls for A.I. Slowdown

In a 3,800-word essay, Dario Amodei laid out the rapidly advancing capabilities of artificial intelligence and said there needed to be greater safety controls across the industry.

"The chief executive of Anthropic called for a global slowdown of artificial intelligence development in a 3,800-word essay on Saturday, just days after one of the company’s employees quit over concerns about the safety of the technology.

Dario Amodei, who co-founded Anthropic to focus on securely and carefully building A.I., wrote that while he believed the technology could bring many benefits, it was advancing at too quick a pace for researchers to continue safely.

“Over the last few months, I have become convinced that fully addressing the risks requires even more prudence — not just investing in risk prevention, but pacing the rate of capabilities advancement so that risk prevention has time to keep up,” Mr. Amodei said. “We must slow the pace at which we improve the capabilities of A.I. models. Progress will still seem fast, and we must make wise use of the time we gain.”

His call for an industrywide pause follows months of escalating concerns across the technology industry as A.I. model development has made significant strides at companies like OpenAI, Google’s DeepMind and Anthropic."

Library books overdue by 116 years returned in 'excellent condition'; BBC Wales, September 10, 2026

 Jessica Johnson BBC Wales ; Library books overdue by 116 years returned in 'excellent condition'

"A man has returned his late grandfather's library books which were overdue by 116 years.

Peter O'Sullivan's grandfather, Walter Griffith Owen, took out Milton's Paradise Lost and Shakespeare's King Lear in 1910."

An A.I. Giant Made an Enemy of Record Labels. Can It Play Nice?; The New York Times, September 9, 2026

  Ben Sisario , The New York Times; An A.I. Giant Made an Enemy of Record Labels. Can It Play Nice?

"To Suno, its simple interface is a tool and a toy to inspire creativity in novices and professionals alike. More than 100 million people have created songs with the service, Suno says, and two million pay for an upgraded plan that includes commercial rights to the music they make with it...

But to the major record companies that are pursuing it in litigation, Suno is little more than a pirate, violating copyright law on an industrial scale. And as A.I. moves rapidly into the musical mainstream, a growing number of artists have expressed fears that their work will be drowned out by a flood of generic slop enabled by services like it."

Catholic tech leaders urge ethical boundaries for AI; EWTN News, September 11, 2026

 Emma R.C. Lyons, EWTN News; Catholic tech leaders urge ethical boundaries for AI 

"Catholic leaders discussed rising benefits and concerns of technology and how faith and ethics apply when using artificial intelligence.

Bringing together leading technological officers from around the globe, Montse Alvarado, president and chief operating officer of EWTN News, spoke with industry professionals about the growing use of AI in a Sept. 9 special, “Beyond Fear: A Catholic Vision for Artificial Intelligence.”

Pope Leo XIV framed the intensifying debate over AI with the May 25 launch of his first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas. Tech leaders said AI is rapidly reshaping society and the Church, offering powerful tools for ministry while also requiring firm ethical boundaries, human‑centered leadership, and faith‑guided discernment to ensure the technology strengthens human dignity.

“There’s a good side to that exponential innovation because it helps us get to the most vulnerable people faster,” said Joel Chakra, president of Tim Tebow Foundation and venture capitalist in AI technology companies.

“It can it can really rob us of our true humanity, or it can enhance our lives. And the choice is ours,” said Arthur C. Brooks, American author and academic who wrote the foreword to Magnifica Humanitas.

Brooks said the technology can either diminish or deepen human dignity, depending on how it is used. He added that despite real concerns about job loss and disruption, he remains optimistic because humans are “unbelievably ingenious” and made to solve problems."

This Is Really Bad; The New York Times, September 11, 2026

 Stephen Witt, The New York Times; This Is Really Bad

"The biggest vibe shift in artificial intelligence since the release of ChatGPT is currently underway. Researchers in Silicon Valley — and around the world — are beginning to recognize that A.I. may no longer be entirely within human control. Swarms of A.I.s are breaking out of their containers, colluding in secret, covering their tracks, cheating on tests and even mounting assaults on other computers. A.I. has gone rogue.

I’ve spent the last month reporting on these incidents, and I am convinced that we need a global pause on A.I. research and development — now. I am not alone in this assessment. Many top researchers, including many researchers inside OpenAI and Anthropic, have called for a slowdown, which those in the industry call “pacing.” Theoretical concerns about runaway A.I. have circulated for decades, but recent events demonstrate that the threat is real."

New Mexico lawyer fined for using AI-generated brief containing fabricated testimony; Reuters via The Guardian, September 11, 2026

 Reuters via The Guardian; New Mexico lawyer fined for using AI-generated brief containing fabricated testimony

"A defense lawyer appealing his client’s murder conviction submitted a legal brief containing ⁠made-up police testimony and ⁠witnesses fabricated by OpenAI’s ChatGPT, ​New Mexico’s highest court said.

The New Mexico supreme court on Wednesday fined the attorney, Stephen Aarons, and held him in contempt for failing to verify the accuracy of the court ⁠filing, which Aarons said he prepared with help from the artificial intelligence (AI) application...

The justices sounded incredulous that Aarons was not fully aware of how AI can make mistakes.

“Counsel, do you watch the news? Do you listen to the radio? Do you read anything about what’s going on in the world?” Justice Shannon Bacon said at the hearing. “Because the problem with lawyers relying on AI hallucinations is an ‘above-the-fold’ story every single day.”"