David Streitfeld , The New York Times; The Awesome and Alarming A.I. Visions of Anthropic’s C.E.O.
"If there’s any comfort to be had here, it may be this: Fear and hype rarely make for good forecasts. As always, the future is uncharted."
Friday, September 18, 2026
No more book bans: how Florida students are pushing rightwingers out of school boards; The Guardian, September 18, 2026
Anna North, The Guardian; No more book bans: how Florida students are pushing rightwingers out of school boards
Local communities are fighting back against the influence of conservative groups like Moms for Liberty in education
"By channeling anger against mask mandates in schools, the rightwing group Moms for Liberty, founded in Florida, built an outsized influence on school boards across the country in 2022. Soon, members began pressuring schools to remake their curricula along conservative ideological lines, erasing mentions of LGBTQ+ Americans, slavery, racism and more.
As a Black dad living in a historically Black part of Sarasota, Glover said he was especially disturbed by governor Ron DeSantis’s announcement that Florida schools would begin teaching students that some Black people benefited from slavery. “Now my children and the students in my community weren’t going to be learning about the true history of this country,” Glover said.
So the father of four decided to run for Sarasota’s school board this year. He is part of a larger movement of students, parents, teachers and concerned community members pushing back against the influence of groups like Moms for Liberty in Florida public education. They wanted schools that were safe and welcoming for all students, and that focused on learning rather than scoring points on the national political scene.
And last month, they won."
An M.I.T. Report Warns A.I. Is Causing ‘Cognitive Surrender.’ Universities Are in a Bind.; The New York Times, September 15, 2026
Mark Arsenault, Dana Goldstein, Alan Blinder and Sarah Mervosh, The New York Times; An M.I.T. Report Warns A.I. Is Causing ‘Cognitive Surrender.’ Universities Are in a Bind.
"The worries that artificial intelligence is degrading education have been building for months. Students are using it for everything, including cheating, and a recent report out of M.I.T. said it is triggering “cognitive surrender.”
Many university leaders are embracing A.I. with enthusiasm anyway.
As A.I. leaders warn about the dangers of their own technology, the dissonance between the optimism of university leaders and the fears of many students and professors may increase. Professors and students are often in a bind about what they should do: Use more A.I. to stay relevant, or dial back to preserve learning and thinking?
While some politicians and A.I. leaders are warning about possible doomsday scenarios for humanity as A.I. models advance, many campus leaders are focused on the existential threat the technology poses to universities."
Ohio leads the nation in library checkouts; Axios, September 18, 2026
Troy Smith, Sami Sparber, Axios; Ohio leads the nation in library checkouts
"Ohio leads the nation in public library borrowing, with residents having checked out more than 13 items per person in FY 2024, according to newly released federal data.
Why it matters: Ohio's library habit isn't new. The state has consistently ranked near the top nationally for circulation, including ranking No. 1 in 2015 and 2016 and No. 2 in 2017.
The big picture: Americans averaged 6.5 library checkouts per person in FY24 — meaning Ohioans borrowed more than twice the national rate, according to the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
That includes old-fashioned books and other physical items, plus e-books and other electronic materials.
By the numbers: Utah, Washington and Colorado are the only other states to top 10 checkouts per person."
Josh Shapiro wades into AI debate with call for ‘strict guardrails’; CNN, September 17, 2026
, CNN; Josh Shapiro wades into AI debate with call for ‘strict guardrails’
"Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro on Thursday called for greater federal regulation of artificial intelligence while criticizing President Donald Trump for minimizing concerns, saying “We cannot ignore the warning signs nor downplay the very real risks.”
“I am not a doomer. I don’t think that it is inevitable that AI is going to take over the world, or that someone will misuse it to kill us or to do harm,” Shapiro said at an AI summit in Pittsburgh on Thursday. “But I do have real concerns, as do many Pennsylvanians and many Americans, and I don’t think that the very real concerns of our neighbors that they overwhelmingly express about this technology is a hoax, as our president has called it.”
Debate about whether to regulate the rapidly advancing technology has escalated amid calls from industry leaders to slow down AI development. Democrats eyeing potential White House runs in 2028, like Shapiro, are grappling with how to approach AI amid increased concerns about the technology’s progress, and President Barack Obama recently encouraged those considering running for president in the coming years to prioritize AI policy in their forthcoming agendas."
Thursday, September 17, 2026
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...
Can anyone really own the beat behind reggaeton; Marketplace, September 16, 2026
Kimberly Adams and Alex Schroeder, Marketplace; Can anyone really own the beat behind reggaeton
"A copyright lawsuit in the music industry that has targeted Bad Bunny, Karol G, Daddy Yankee, and hundreds of other artists hit a wall in early September.
A federal judge in California threw out one of the case’s central claims — that the syncopated rhythm at the heart of reggaeton music is protected by copyright.
You might know this beat as “dembow.” But even if you don’t — you’ve probably heard it.
For more on the details of the case, “Marketplace Morning Report” host Kimberly Adams spoke with Jennifer Jenkins, a professor at the Duke University School of Law and author of the book "Music Copyright, Creativity, and Culture."
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."
Wednesday, September 16, 2026
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
and
, The Washington Post; Trump administration moving ahead with signs outside Smithsonian museumInterior 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."
Tuesday, September 15, 2026
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.”"
Monday, September 14, 2026
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."
Saturday, September 12, 2026
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."
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