An Army of Paid Creators Is Carpeting the Web With Political Content; The New York Times, September 22, 2026

Ken Bensinger and Stuart A. Thompson, The New York Times ; An Army of Paid Creators Is Carpeting the Web With Political Content

Unlike celebrity influencers with large followings, these creators produce a blizzard of videos for a fraction of the cost of traditional online campaigns and, in the process, shift public conversation.

"Judging from his TikTok feed, Drew was struggling to get by as a young man living near Dallas. Grocery bills were skyrocketing, he said, and he was looking for thrift stores to help keep costs down.

In reality, according to his LinkedIn profile, Drew was a man from Utah named Alex Forrester, who said he was now in Florida. “All of it was paid for,” he said in a video posted in late June, which was later deleted. “I don’t even live in Texas,” adding an expletive.

Mr. Forrester, who did not respond to requests for comment, is one of more than 100 content creators identified by The New York Times who in recent months have been paid as much as $30 per post by a progressive group to create videos about affordability for social media.

Similar campaigns this year have paid ordinary people to promote a Republican candidate for Los Angeles mayor, to oppose a regulatory bill pushed by the crypto industry and to call for tighter regulation of artificial intelligence. Early this month, an unidentified nonprofit group offered up to $1,500 for videos on TikTok, YouTube and Instagram that support “mail voting working correctly.”...

Functioning more like birdshot than a single bullet, these high-volume social media campaigns represent the new vanguard of modern political influence, saturating the internet with a topic until it is all but unavoidable. That can help game social media network algorithms so that they treat coordinated content as organic, spreading the message even wider. Built from dozens or hundreds of posts from accounts you’ve never heard of, they amount to an echo chamber on a budget.

“This is digital astroturfing, plain and simple,” said Samuel Woolley, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh who studies how new technologies can be used to manipulate public opinion on the web. “The more people see an idea online, the more inured to it they become and the more commonplace and acceptable it becomes.”"

The U.S. Is Still Winning the A.I. Race. Trump Could Blow It.; The New York Times, July 27, 2026

 The Editorial Board, The New York Times ; The U.S. Is Still Winning the A.I. Race. Trump Could Blow It.

"Americans often hear about China’s having surpassed the United States in the manufacturing of emerging technologies, including clean energy, electric vehicles and drones. Semiconductors are an important exception. In partnership with its allies in Europe and Asia, America designs and makes by far the best computer chips in the world.

Those chips are crucial to America’s economy and national security. They have enabled the development of the world’s leading technology companies and allowed the military to create advanced weapons. With artificial intelligence, these chips have become even more important. They are the engines that power frontier A.I. models.

China is working hard to catch up, and the United States should take steps to keep its advantage. Most important, it should continue to prohibit American companies from selling the most advanced chips and equipment to China. Over the past decade, presidents of both parties have worked with Congress to enact export controls. Those controls have been “existentially important,” Dario Amodei, the chief executive of Anthropic, the A.I. company, has said.

In his second term, however, President Trump has gone the opposite direction. He has relaxed controls on some advanced semiconductors and suggested he may go further. Nvidia, an American company that makes the most advanced chips, has lobbied for the ability to sell more to China and is likely to continue pushing. Yet this is a classic case in which a company’s interest runs counter to the national interest."

Teen, 14, Invents AI-Powered Device to Help Detect, and Potentially Treat, Crossed Eyes; People, April 26, 2026

Toria Sheffield, People; Teen, 14, Invents AI-Powered Device to Help Detect, and Potentially Treat, Crossed Eyes

 "An 8th grader in California has invented an AI-powered device to help detect — and potentially treat — strabismus, a condition commonly known as crossed eyes.

Aaryan Balani of Cerritos said he opted to develop the device since he personally suffers from strabismus. The 14-year-old developed the condition after bumping his head when he was five years old...  

The young science aficionado decided to develop EYEVA, a device that looks like a visor and alerts the wearer when their eye begins to wander.

"It will beep … and you're like, ‘Okay, now I need to be aware of my face," Balani explained, adding that, in theory, it could help the wearer permanently retrain their eyes.

Balani said he developed the device with a 3D printer, small cameras and AI. It went through five different prototypes and four months of tweaking."

OpenAI Buys Streaming Show ‘TBPN,’ Aiming to Change Narrative on A.I.; The New York Times, April 2, 2026

Mike Isaac, The New York Times ; OpenAI Buys Streaming Show ‘TBPN,’ Aiming to Change Narrative on A.I.

"On Thursday, OpenAI said it had bought “TBPN” for an undisclosed amount and would continue to support it as the show promoted the business of technology and media."

Pope Leo XIV’s important warning on ethics of AI and new technology; The Fresno Bee, November 15, 2025

Andrew Fiala , The Fresno Bee; Pope Leo XIV’s important warning on ethics of AI and new technology

"Recently, Pope Leo XIV addressed a conference on artificial intelligence in Rome, where he emphasized the need for deeper consideration of the “ethical and spiritual weight” of new technologies...

This begins with the insight that human beings are tool-using animals. Tools extend and amplify our operational power, and they can also either enhance or undermine who we are and what we care about. 

Whether we are enhancing or undermining our humanity ought to be the focus of moral reflection on technology.

This is a crucial question in the AI-era. The AI-revolution should lead us to ask fundamental questions about the ethical and spiritual side of technological development. AI is already changing how we think about intellectual work, such as teaching and learning. Human beings are already interacting with artificial systems that provide medical, legal, psychological and even spiritual advice. Are we prepared for all of this morally, culturally and spiritually?...

At the dawn of the age of artificial intelligence, we need a corresponding new dawn of critical moral judgment. Now is the time for philosophers, theologians and ordinary citizens to think deeply about the philosophy of technology and the values expressed or embodied in our tools. 

It will be exciting to see what the wizards of Silicon Valley will come up with next. But wizardry without wisdom is dangerous."

Police reports written with advanced tech could help cops but comes with host of challenges: expert; Fox News, September 24, 2024

Christina Coulter , Fox News; Police reports written with advanced tech could help cops but comes with host of challenges

"Several police departments nationwide are debuting artificial intelligence that writes officers' incident reports for them, and although the software could cause issues in court, an expert says, the technology could be a boon for law enforcement.

Oklahoma City's police department was among the first to experiment with Draft One, an AI-powered software that analyzes police body-worn camera audio and radio transmissions to write police reports that can later be used to justify criminal charges and as evidence in court.

Since The Associated Press detailed the software and its use by the department in a late August article, the department told Fox News Digital that it has put the program on hold. 

"The use of the AI report writing has been put on hold, so we will pass on speaking about it at this time," Capt. Valerie Littlejohn wrote via email. "It was paused to work through all the details with the DA’s Office."...

According to Politico, at least seven police departments nationwide are using Draft One, which was made by police technology company Axon to be used with its widely used body-worn cameras."