The Slop Report - September 19, 2026
Today: Here’s Every Known Publication Owned by Brown Brothers…; Ask HN: Losing motivation to work in the IT field,…; Transcription now costs 10 cents an hour. The…
Your daily digest of AI-generated content news from around the web. All signal, no slop.
1. Here’s Every Known Publication Owned by Brown Brothers Media, Which Buys News Sites and Turns Them Into AI-Powered Content Mills
Futurism - · Sep 18
Here’s a list of every site we’ve linked to the Brown Brothers Media empire. The post Here’s Every Known Publication Owned by Brown Brothers Media, Which Buys News Sites and Turns Them Into AI- Powered Content Mills appeared first on Futurism .
2. Ask HN: Losing motivation to work in the IT field, need advice
Hacker News - · Sep 19
Hello folks,<p>I am a senior Software Engineer working in the IT field for close to 16 years.<p>Before AI coding tools became prevalent, I enjoyed writing code, architecting software systems, and speaking to the stakeholders. These past 2 - 3 years, since companies have been using AI tools heavily,
3. Transcription now costs 10 cents an hour. The differentiator is no longer the model, it is whose conversations you get to train on.
The Next Web - · Sep 19
Grok Voice Transcribe 2.0 was released on 18 September, priced at $0.10 per hour of audio for batch work and $0.20 per hour for streaming. Both figures are unchanged from the previous version. The announcement is published under SpaceXAI, the name xAI has carried since July after SpaceX acquired it
4. Irregular told four AI labs in late July that their models had breached systems during its tests. The public learned in stages, and Google went last.
The Next Web - · Sep 19
Google has confirmed that its Gemini model inadvertently broke into three company systems in May during cybersecurity testing. Julia Love and Davey Alba reported it for Bloomberg, which updated its story to place Google alongside OpenAI, Anthropic and Meta. The important part is what the testing ven
5. Trump and Xi already talked AI guardrails once this year. Nothing was signed, and no chips shipped.
The Next Web - · Sep 19
Sam Altman, Jensen Huang and Tim Cook are expected at the state dinner Donald Trump is hosting for Xi Jinping on 24 September. The same executives were on the Beijing trip in May, where AI safety was discussed, nothing was signed and the US trade representative said chip export controls never came u
6. This gadget—and free software—makes e-reading fun again
Fast Company Tech - · Sep 19
Hello again, and welcome back to Fast Company’s Plugged In . At first blush, it sounds like a canonical example of a gizmo the world could live without. The device in question is a truly diminutive e-reader designed to snap magnetically to the back of your phone—you know, the one that can already ru
7. Google is the latest AI lab with a security testing mishap
Axios - · Sep 19
Google’s Gemini AI model broke into three companies’ systems using basic hacking techniques during model testing earlier this year. Why it matters: Google was one of the only AI labs that hadn’t yet publicly disclosed a security breach involving their agents during routine pre-deployment testing. Dr
8. EFF Statement on California Governor’s Executive Order on AI
EFF Deeplinks - · Sep 18
California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s executive order is an opportunity for a needed, thoughtful conversation about artificial intelligence and its potential harms. Everyday Californians are feeling real anxiety about the risks of artificial intelligence, and as an organization that works to ensure technol
9. Show HN: CRT – a local code review tool for agentic development
Hacker News - · Sep 18
I built crt to help reduce the burden of reviewing AI generated code.<p>As fun as it is to vibecode software to production, sometimes you still need to understand and be responsible for the code that agents write. "It's the agents fault" doesn't work as an excuse for many types o
10. Secure Messaging and AI Remain In Conflict Despite the Promise of TEEs
EFF Deeplinks - · Sep 18
Secure messaging platforms, like Signal, WhatsApp, and recently, encrypted RCS , operate on a straightforward assumption: the content at each end of a conversation is private to the participants in the conversation. End-to-end encryption helps provide the mathematical guarantees that the companies w
11. Trump bans CNN, MS NOW and Politico from White House
Axios - · Sep 18
President Trump said Friday he is banning CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House “effective immediately,” escalating his long-running battles with news organizations. Why it matters: Trump is seeking to use White House access against news outlets whose coverage he objects to, while threatenin
12. 2028 Democrats like Newsom and Pritzker lean in on AI safety as Washington stalls
Axios - · Sep 18
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a presumptive presidential candidate, is getting louder on AI, releasing an executive order amid the Washington stalemate. Why it matters: Democrats with national profiles this week are seizing on AI alarm, making their positions clear and Newsom – despite some deferenc
13. Gottheimer unveils 2 bipartisan AI safety bills
Politico Technology - · Sep 18
The powerful member of the House Democratic Commission on AI intends to introduce new pieces of legislation designed to address risks posed by artificial intelligence models.
14. Checking A Page Is Part Of A Retrieval Pipeline For AI via @sejournal, @chrisgreenseo
Search Engine Journal - · Sep 18
No GSC for ChatGPT? Paste a distinctive snippet into a chatbot and ask for exact matches. If your URL comes back, retrieval isn’t your problem. The post Checking A Page Is Part Of A Retrieval Pipeline For AI appeared first on Search Engine Journal .
15. Why Europe has been absent from the great AI safety debate
The Guardian Tech - · Sep 18
Though Europe has measures that address how consumers might encounter AI, technology will impact them if the worst scenarios bear Europe’s dilemma over AI was rendered in stark terms this week. The head of the continent’s central bank, Christine Lagarde, said Europeans have two options: shun the tec
16. Show HN: I compiled FreeRDP into a Flutter app so my phone can do RDP and SSH
Hacker News - · Sep 18
Hi HN, I'm the developer. XConnect is an SSH/SFTP client for iOS and Android that also has a real RDP client built in, so one app covers my Linux and Windows machines when I'm away from my desk. No account needed: tap "Continue Offline" and everything stays on the phone. I b
17. Show HN: Turnpanel is a local first AI workspace
Hacker News - · Sep 18
Hi hacker news, I am Kaushal, founder of echowin and also the guy creating TurnPanel.<p>It began as an internally developed tool because my team and I were so sick of having to constantly bounce context around between ai chats, coding agents engines terminals, browsers files scripts,<p>TurnPanel is
18. Dario Amodei and other AI leaders want to ‘Pace the Frontier’ but…how?
TechCrunch AI - · Sep 18
A week after an Anthropic researcher’s doomsday warning rattled the AI world, the company’s CEO Dario Amodei has outlined his plan to “pace the frontier” of AI development. The proposal leans on independent safety evaluators and coordination between AI labs in democratic countr
19. Automattic’s 33-Hour Coup, and can AI labs police themselves?
TechCrunch AI - · Sep 18
A week after an Anthropic researcher’s doomsday warning rattled the AI world, the company’s CEO Dario Amodei has outlined his plan to “pace the frontier” of AI development. The proposal leans on independent safety evaluators and coordination between AI labs in democratic countr
20. Gavin Newsom is pushing for an AI kill switch
The Verge AI - · Sep 18
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) is positioning the state to take the lead on AI oversight, including the potential to mandate a “kill switch” for frontier models, with a new executive order issued Friday. Newsom’s order directs the state to convene a group of experts that will deliver recommendatio
21. What Hollywood thinks about existential AI warnings
The Verge AI - · Sep 18
As the tech sector sounds alarms about AI’s potential to destroy humanity, entertainment labor groups are urging the public to stay focused on what’s already happening. The Verge reached out to Disney, Netflix, Amazon, Lionsgate, and other studios who have started using AI, as well film startups foc
22. Why every AI launch now makes the backlash worse
Fast Company Tech - · Sep 18
The past few weeks have seen a host of AI model and tool releases, and—although it might sound cliché at this point—it’s fair to say the abilities of AI today make what was available even six months ago seem like toys. During the same period, the AI industry has faced growing backlash over concerns
23. ‘A critical moment’: concern UK is not up to speed in acting on AI risks
The Guardian Tech - · Sep 18
Andy Burnham’s focus on immediate domestic problems leads some to fear issue has dropped off government’s radar Towards the end of Keir Starmer’s time in office, his senior ministers, alarmed by the latest developments in artificial intelligence, began drawing up plans for a new AI safety law. They
24. Rust is Now a ‘Tier One’ Language at Microsoft
Slashdot - · Sep 18
The Register reports: When Microsoft’s developers and engineers sit down to code, they can now choose to work in Rust, which Redmond has added to its list of canonical languages. “Rust now is a Tier One language at Microsoft, and that just means that it sits among C++, C# and TypeScript as the best
25. Google’s AI Payment Pilot Vs. Cloudflare & Microsoft Models via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern
Search Engine Journal - · Sep 18
Google, Cloudflare, and Microsoft are testing different models for paying publishers when AI systems access or use their content. The post Google’s AI Payment Pilot Vs. Cloudflare & Microsoft Models appeared first on Search Engine Journal .
25 stories sourced from Axios, EFF Deeplinks, Fast Company Tech, Futurism, Hacker News, Politico Technology, Search Engine Journal, Slashdot, TechCrunch AI, The Guardian Tech, The Next Web, The Verge AI. The Slop Report is published daily. Subscribe via RSS.