Tech dictators: Google will turn off search for schools that reject AI

Tech dictators: Google will turn off search for schools that reject AI

The New York Times reports: Google announced Tuesday that early next year it would turn off artificial intelligence tools in its popular software for K-12 students, unless school administrators explicitly choose to make such tools available. Executives at the tech giant said they wanted to be responsive to educators and parents who have asked for more control in how children interact with A.I. But there is a catch: Schools that choose to restrict A.I. entirely will also lose access to…

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Google researchers are fighting the company to warn the world about AI risks

Google researchers are fighting the company to warn the world about AI risks

The Washington Post reports: Workers inside Google’s artificial intelligence division are pushing executives to release them from non-disparagement agreements, arguing that they must be free to inform the public about the risks of the technology they are working to advance, according to sources inside the company. In London — a major base for its AI division, Google DeepMind, which grew out of the 2014 acquisition of a British start-up — some staff members are forbidden by their employment contracts from…

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Anthropic warns that it’s very close to recursive self-improvement capability, aka self-building AI

Anthropic warns that it’s very close to recursive self-improvement capability, aka self-building AI

TechCrunch reports: While much attention has focused on the updated financials Anthropic revealed in its revised S-1/A on Monday (revenue is soaring, but so are expenses), the AI lab dropped another little bombshell in the fine print. The filing seems to warn that the company is on the cusp of creating a model capable of recursive self-improvement (RSI). RSI is the point at which AI grows so good at training itself that it spawns a dramatic acceleration of AI capabilities….

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AOC quietly lays the groundwork for 2028

AOC quietly lays the groundwork for 2028

Joe Perticone writes: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) has been campaigning furiously in the final stretch of this midterm election cycle, visiting states across the union to boost a range of candidates who hope that the charismatic congresswoman’s considerable name I.D. will help them run up the numbers against their Republican opponents. It’s usually helpful for a party star to campaign with others, especially in this attention economy, and Ocasio-Cortez is being a good team player here. But campaigning hard now…

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Justice Kagan confronts a broken Supreme Court

Justice Kagan confronts a broken Supreme Court

Jesse Wegman writes: Like a lot of Americans, I’ve grown accustomed to Supreme Court justices speaking out much more frequently and informally than they once did. Yet still there was more than one moment in a public conversation Elena Kagan had at Catholic University last month when I almost couldn’t believe what I was hearing. The justices like to say that their opinions speak for themselves. In the old days, they nurtured the mystique of their delicate yet elevated position…

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Pete Hegseth has made over half the military want to quit early

Pete Hegseth has made over half the military want to quit early

The New Republic reports: The Trump administration’s hyperpoliticized military environment apparently has thousands of active-duty military members looking toward the exit. A survey by Common Defense Civic Engagement, a grassroots veterans organization, found that 53 percent of active-duty service members want to leave because their service is becoming more politicized. Another 45 percent of polled respondents shared that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s policy changes and the ensuing instability had made them consider leaving their stations sooner rather than later. The…

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What happened to our cousins, the Neanderthals?

What happened to our cousins, the Neanderthals?

Carolyn Y. Johnson writes: For most of our evolutionary history, humankind was made up of many human kinds. Take the last 100,000 years or so. The oft-caricatured, big-browed Neanderthals roamed across Europe and into western Asia. The mysterious, towering Denisovans hunted and gathered in Asia. The diminutive, hobbit-like Homo floresiensis dwelled on an Indonesian island. The last of Homo erectus had just died out in Java. Our species, Homo sapiens, was merely another variation on the type. It’s tempting to…

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A self-obsessed president has nothing to offer America

A self-obsessed president has nothing to offer America

Rolling Stone reports: Donald Trump on Monday delivered his closing argument ahead of the midterm elections. He wasn’t in one of the critical swing states Republicans need no win in order to keep their majorities, or even one of the red states at risk of slipping into Democrats’ control. He chose a location that embodied his own self of self-obsession, corruption, and federal mismanagement: the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. He might even rename it after himself. “This is a massive…

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Trump vows to protect Musk, while floating pre-emptive staff pardons

Trump vows to protect Musk, while floating pre-emptive staff pardons

Axios reports: President Trump said Monday he’d move to protect Elon Musk if Democrats investigate the SpaceX and Tesla CEO after the midterm elections. He also suggested the possibility of pre-emptive pardons for staff and others around him if Democrats pursue investigations. Why it matters: Trump is positioning himself for a combative final two years in the White House, as polls increasingly point to the prospect of a significant blue wave. What they’re saying: In an interview for the “Pod…

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How the midterms could lead to the president getting elected by popular vote

How the midterms could lead to the president getting elected by popular vote

Stephen Wolf writes: Tuesday’s elections could have a major—yet largely overlooked—consequence for American democracy: Democrats could gain control of enough state governments to pass an agreement that would require the president to be elected by popular vote. Under the proposal, known as the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, member states agree to assign their electoral votes to the presidential candidate who wins the most votes nationwide. Crucially, participants would only switch over to this system once states that collectively account…

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Supreme Court quickly rejects Trump effort to target alleged noncitizen voters in California

Supreme Court quickly rejects Trump effort to target alleged noncitizen voters in California

NBC News reports: In a loss for President Donald Trump, the Supreme Court on Monday swiftly rejected the administration’s request that California separate out up to 20,000 mail-in ballots that officials allege could be submitted by noncitizens. In a brief order without explanation, the court turned away an emergency request the Trump administration filed just hours earlier in an unusual last-minute flurry of election litigation. Lower courts had also ruled against the Trump administration. The court acted so quickly that…

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Former FBI chief in Chicago sues DOJ, claiming he was pressured to investigate Trump’s foes

Former FBI chief in Chicago sues DOJ, claiming he was pressured to investigate Trump’s foes

The Guardian reports: The former head of the FBI in Chicago has accused the Trump administration of pressuring him to investigate the president’s political opponents and making him a “scapegoat” after a major federal case against anti-ICE protesters fell apart. Douglas DePodesta, who served as FBI special agent in charge from 2024 until July 2026, alleged in a federal lawsuit filed on Monday that the Department of Justice (DoJ) had engaged in “misconduct” and “malfeasance” in its pursuit of unjust…

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Big AI’s $140 million election machine became ‘politically toxic’

Big AI’s $140 million election machine became ‘politically toxic’

The Lever reports: One of artificial intelligence firms’ biggest super PACs has been forced into near irrelevance amid an outpouring of public backlash to the AI boom. Research shared exclusively with The Lever shows that the affiliated PACs of Leading The Future — a pro-AI industry group backed by Big Tech leaders — have bowed out of tight Congressional races this general election cycle as Leading The Future largely becomes regarded as a “politically toxic entity that candidates and donors…

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Why Pope Leo’s thinking on AI is the clearest among world leaders

Why Pope Leo’s thinking on AI is the clearest among world leaders

Gary Marcus writes: In my view, Pope Leo XIV is by far the clearest thinker on AI among prominent world leaders. It was a genuine thrill to meet him yesterday. It is understatement to say that I am a huge fan of his Encyclical on AI, the Magnifica Humanitas. It goes beyond words that I was able listen to him yesterday in person, from just a few feet away. He gave a brilliant, short speech, which you can find here….

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