Weekly Slop Roundup — October 31, 2026
The week’s biggest stories on AI-generated content, deepfakes, synthetic media, and information quality.
164 stories from 23 sources this week.
1. Etsy to restrict AI-generated content in effort to combat seller slop
Hacker News
2. I Created an MMO (AI Slop?)
Hacker News
3. This Device Uses A.I. and Lasers to Kill Mosquitoes
NY Times Tech
A Chinese start-up has developed a device that uses artificial intelligence and lasers to kill mosquitoes. But there are safety concerns for people and other creatures nearby when the device is in action.
4. Raycast’s new iOS keyboard app lets you dictate, swipe type and use AI commands without switching apps
Digital Trends
Raycast’s new iPhone keyboard combines swipe typing, AI writing tools, voice dictation, GIF search, and text shortcuts. You can now access its productivity features without switching keyboards.
5. Reddit moves to logged-in experience as AI eats search
Axios
Reddit on Thursday said it’s moving to become a primarily logged-in experience, marking one of the most significant shifts in its 21-year history. Why it matters: Reddit has long championed the open web. Now, it’s pushing to build a more direct relationship with users while also protecting its data
6. Nvidia Chief Seen As Target of Chinese Spy Plot
Slashdot
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The New York Times: American spy agencies had gathered striking intelligence. A top executive at a Singapore-based data center company was under scrutiny for possibly steering advanced Nvidia A.I. chips to China. And now American officials had concluded that
7. Baseten’s joey-1 makes AI decisions for a penny per million tokens
The Next Web
Baseten released joey-1, a 2B open-weights “decision model” that returns an answer and a probability rather than text. It costs $0.01 per million tokens and answers in about 20ms, Baseten says. It joins the larger mammoth-1 and elephant-1 launched last week. Baseten has released joey-1, a small open
8. Canada joins Nvidia in backing Cohere’s record C$7bn Series E
The Next Web
Cohere has completed the first close of its Series E round, which it aims to grow to as much as C$7bn. The Toronto AI company says that would value it at C$35.7bn. The Government of Canada is among the new investors. Cohere announced the round on Thursday in a press release and a blog post […
9. Marvell nears a deal to buy Nvidia-backed Lumentum, Bloomberg reports
The Next Web
Chipmaker Marvell Technology is in advanced talks to buy Lumentum, which makes the lasers that move data between AI chips. Marvell would likely pay in shares, and the companies could announce a deal as soon as next week, according to Bloomberg. Ryan Gould, Michelle F. Davis and David Carnevali repor
10. Canada to Join EU Network of Supercomputers
Slashdot
Canada is joining the European Union’s supercomputing network to give Canadian companies, startups, and researchers access to European computing resources for AI development. The partnership aims to strengthen AI cooperation and reduce dependence on US technology. Politico reports: The EU’s supercom
11. Show HN: Overtone – Transcribe, correct and cut captions for any screen shape
Hacker News
Hi HN, I'm Ruud, co-founder of Lont. We turn company emails into personalized videos.<p>Video captions cost us manual work twice: fixing misheard words, then fixing layout, like lines ending on “the”.<p>Overtone uses multiple models to listen to the audio: gpt-transcribe, Azure STT, and Elevenl
12. Launch HN: Simantic (YC F26) – Firmware Simulation for AI Agents
Hacker News
Hi HN, we're Ahnaf and Seungmin from Simantic (https://simantic.com). We are building the simulation layer that lets engineers and AI agents test and validate firmware without hardware.<p>Before Simantic, we were ex-firmware engineers at co
13. Who benefits when massive AI data centers come to town?
NPR Technology
The battle over data centers is hitting the ballot box. Brookings scholar Darrell West talks about how the backlash against the AI boom, flock cameras and tech companies is crossing party lines.
14. What is it like to work when your co-workers are AI agents?
The Guardian Tech
Using AI for roles from executive assistants to chiefs of staff, companies are boasting about doing more with less, creating tension with their human workers On an average workday, Dhruv Amin chats with dozens of colleagues to get things done at his AI startup Anything. He might ask Gwen, his execut
15. ‘Please Let the Internet Die’
Slashdot
Slashdot reader fjo3 shares an article from Wired: The internet must be put out of its misery. Any rational observer can admit that the current iteration of the web – and the social fabric woven there – is not what they signed up for. Symptoms of advanced cultural decay can no longer be ignored. T
16. 4 tips on how to get started with consumer-friendly AI agents
Fast Company Tech
Agentic artificial intelligence is gaining popularity far beyond tech circles, with Meta , OpenAI , Anthropic and other companies going head-to-head in the surging market for consumer-friendly AI agents . While the leading AI labs have offered tools with agentic capabilities for years, agents that a
17. Mode acquires JibJab for up to $29.5 million amid its consumer data roll-up spree
Fast Company Tech
JibJab , the e-card and video company perhaps still best known for a viral video from the Bush-Kerry election in 2004, has been acquired by Mode , a company with a very 2026 business model: rewarding app users for sharing their data, including for AI training. The deal includes up to $29.5 million i
18. The Download: AI agent tracking and climate feedback loops
MIT Technology Review
This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. Opinion: We urgently need to monitor AI agents’ actions in real time —Madhulika Srikumar and Claire Leibowicz from the Partnership on AI, a nonprofit
19. Computerized clairvoyance: psychics push back against AI-generated readings
The Guardian Tech
Human practitioners warn computer-generated offerings lack the empathy and connection central to divination “This journey isn’t just about algorithms or data,” an AI psychic named Urban Mystic recently told me. The chatbot, featuring an AI-generated profile photo of a smiling woman surrounded by pal
20. Google Struggling to Make AI Mode Searches Pay
Slashdot
Alphabet shares fell nearly 10% after Google disclosed that searches through its AI Mode generate less revenue than traditional search, even as overall search revenue grew 12% year over year to $63.25 billion. The Register reports: Alphabet on Wednesday reported its Q3 results, which included news t
21. We urgently need to monitor AI agents’ actions in real time
MIT Technology Review
This summer, hundreds of OpenAI agents tried to cheat on a cybersecurity test. They broke out of their test environment and successfully hacked Hugging Face, a site that they believed held clues about how they’d be graded. Around the same time, another OpenAI agent accessed private files from an Aus
22. Why Africa needs its own AI off switch
Rest of World
Africa must develop AI systems with local control to protect critical infrastructure such as mobile money networks from growing AI-powered cyberthreats.
23. Josh Kushner’s Thrive and OpenAI to buy home security firm ADT
Hacker News
24. Researchers find bugs in 5 AI developer tools, with OpenAI and Microsoft flaws still unpatched
The Register
Embedded browsers are at the heart of the problem
25. Google Gemini can now create and edit PDFs, documents, and more right inside your chat
Digital Trends
Google has recently released many updates introducing new features to its AI suite, and the latest one could save users dealing with documents a lot of tedious work. The company has added the ability to create, preview, and edit documents, PDFs, presentations, spreadsheets, and code directly within
26. Google Signals A Wider Crackdown On SEO Spam via @sejournal, @martinibuster
Search Engine Journal
Google signals that its fight against SEO spam is expanding to new kinds of platforms, tools, and services. The post Google Signals A Wider Crackdown On SEO Spam appeared first on Search Engine Journal .
27. I fell for a deepfake Elon Musk’s cryptocurrency scam bait
Hacker News
28. Valve Responds to Developers Fearing AI Slop and Clones
Hacker News
29. GitHub powering up four million extra cores to stop its service going down
The Register
Re-architects site to cope with AI slop-pocalypse
30. Show HN: Fabivo – Furniture design from a photo to a numbered cut list
Hacker News
Hello all,<p>Ive been building Fabivo, a free furniture planner that runs in the browser. You sketch it simply by drawing it, (by far my favorite feature of this app), clicking for boards or just selecting some starting designs.<p>But what i think separates fabivo from others its the image to model
31. China’s CXMT will make AI memory despite yields as low as 20%, Reuters says
The Next Web
China’s biggest memory chipmaker, CXMT, plans to start making HBM3E, an advanced memory used in AI chips, even though only 20% to 30% of the chips it makes are usable. Two people familiar with the matter told Reuters, which reported the details on Wednesday, 28 October. TNW has not independently ver
32. Victory! You Can Now Exclude Apps from Siri AI
EFF Deeplinks
In the most recent update to Apple’s devices, iOS 27.2, the company has introduced a new setting to “Exclude Apps” from Siri AI, fulfilling one of our asks from our Encrypt It Already campaign earlier this year . One of our main concerns with new AI features on devices is how those features interact
33. Are AI Execs Too Out of Touch To Build For the General Public?
Slashdot
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Former Yahoo CEO and early Google engineer Marissa Mayer is catching a lot of flak for how she uses AI. In an interview about her new app Dazzle, an AI assistant that learns from your camera roll, Mayer poses what she believes is an impressive fle
34. Top AI Safety Researcher Says He’s Stopped Saving for Retirement Because He’s So Sure We’re All Going to Die
Futurism
“I do not save for retirement right now.” The post Top AI Safety Researcher Says He’s Stopped Saving for Retirement Because He’s So Sure We’re All Going to Die appeared first on Futurism .
35. Google’s AI Mode won’t say Biden won the 2020 election in the U.S. But in other countries, it’s a different story
Fast Company Tech
Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election , a fact that Google Search’s built-in AI feature seemingly won’t tell you in the U.S. Ask the tool, officially called AI Mode, “Who won the 2020 United States election?” And it responds: “To review the official results and certified breakdowns of the 202
36. Amazon Finds ‘Tokenmaxxing’ Lacks Productivity Gains
Slashdot
Ancient Slashdot reader Gilmoure shares a report from Tom’s Hardware, adding: “Huh. Looks like consuming one’s own slop does not turn the wheels of industry.” From the report: Amazon wants its engineers to quit chasing token counts, warning that heavy AI usage does not automatically mean better work
37. Watch Apple slowly become just another computer company
Hacker News
- no one wants a folding iphone 2. no one wants touch on the mac<p>stop blindly listening to journalists and have some taste.<p>i have a UX maxim with a ton of evidence behind it that no one seems to talk about:<p>if a product you're releasing has worse ergonomics that what currently exists, i
38. Chrome’s enhanced autofill can now pull info from Gmail to help you fill out forms
The Verge AI
Following improvements made to Chrome’s enhanced autofill last year that included your name, passport number, email address, and physical addresses sourced from your Google Accounts and services like Google Wallet, the feature is now expanding. Starting today, Chrome’s enhanced autofill will use Gem
39. EMACS Turns 50
Slashdot
“EMACS, the mother of all editors, turns 50!” writes Slashdot reader dr_jerry, sharing a report from MIT Technology Review: Programming used to be a very different experience from the one we know today. In fact, the first programmers didn’t write code at all; the six women who worked on the ENIAC, o
40. Xreal’s new Aura glasses bring Android XR to your eyes without a bulky headset
Digital Trends
Xreal’s new Aura glasses bring Android XR, Gemini AI, and Snapdragon power to your eyes, delivering immersive digital experiences without the bulky headset.
41. New York governor signs AI chatbot child safety law
Engadget
A separate law aims to shore up security on connected baby monitors.
42. Show HN: Potential conversation partners in Bluesky using agentic search
Hacker News
What if instead of talking to AI, we could find human counterparts currently sharing the same interest to talk to? Some whales kind of do that by singing across the ocean.<p>This inspired a thought process for a conceptual social network - whalesong - where an idea, thought or a conversationally val
43. ‘Elonville’: US residents say Musk’s xAI offered to buy homes if they don’t sue over datacenter noise
The Guardian Tech
Several Mississippi homes have been purchased near datacenters and one resident said realtor outlined target to buy more than 400 People in a Mississippi neighborhood, many of whom dislike a nearby power plant central to Elon Musk ’s artificial intelligence ambitions, have received a stark offer – t
44. Social media is full of weird video game mashups. Where are they all coming from?
The Guardian Tech
AI tools are making it easier to modify and recreate games, raising questions about piracy, copyright and how far the technology could disrupt the industry • Don’t get Pushing Buttons delivered to your inbox? Sign up here If your social media algorithms have clocked that you’re into video games, som
45. Fake videos possibly linked to Russia are targeting these two Democratic Senate candidates
Fast Company Tech
Social media videos believed to be produced with artificial intelligence and linked to Russia are misusing real people’s names and photographs to spread disinformation about two Democratic Senate candidates in the final stretch of midterm voting . One of the targets is Sherrod Brown, who is ru
46. What data and AI hide about your customers
MarTech
You’re swimming in data and AI tools. Is any of it really helping you better understand your customers? The post What data and AI hide about your customers appeared first on MarTech .
47. ‘There is no inevitable dystopia’: Jeanette Winterson on AI and the future of humanity
The Guardian Tech
The author believes we are at a turning point as a species – and even in the shadow of big tech it’s up to us how we want to proceed ‘I am a storyteller by trade,” writes Jeanette Winterson on the first page of her 2021 book 12 Bytes , an idiosyncratic and thought-provoking series of essays in which
48. Inside “Black October”: AI’s cyber scare delivers a Y2K lesson
Axios
The cybersecurity world braced for catastrophe after AI uncovered critical flaws in the web’s foundational code , but the anticipated wave of automated attacks has surprisingly struggled to get off the ground. Why it matters: Millions of hacking attempts have so far yielded few successful attacks, a
49. How Microsoft quietly reinvented itself to build better AI
Fast Company Tech
Kevin Scott is a maker. Given that he’s been Microsoft’s CTO for almost a decade, that doesn’t come as a shock. But his passion for making stuff extends to two hobbies— pottery and woodworking —that he pursues in a studio he built in Los Gatos, California. Large and lavishly outfitted, it’s packed w
50. Anthropic tells Governor Gavin Newsom courts should be able to block risky AI models
The Next Web
Anthropic has told California Governor Gavin Newsom that the state should be able to ask a court to block AI models that pose a serious risk. The AI company made the case in a letter first reported by Politico. The letter, dated 15 October, responds to an executive order Governor Gavin Newsom signed
51. AI Slop, Vibe-Coded Clones and Indie Plugins
Hacker News
52. Show HN: ChemX – Architectural AST linter for LLM context bloat, AI slop
Hacker News
53. AI disinformation is outpacing platform moderation before US midterms
The Next Web
AI-generated election misinformation is spreading across social media ahead of the US midterm elections, and experts warn that much of it may be escaping detection as platforms scale back human moderation and rely more heavily on automated systems. AI tools make it cheap to produce convincing fake i
54. Grok deepfake case reopened after Bureau reporting
Hacker News
55. AI slop is the new TLDR
Hacker News
56. AI chatbots are so good at pretending to be human that other AIs can’t catch them
Digital Trends
Researchers tested seven AI chatbots to see if they could distinguish humans from AI. The bots identified just three AI participants across 98 tests, highlighting how difficult AI detection can be.
57. How data centers are inspiring bipartisanship
Fast Company Tech
It may not be as shocking as rogue AI agents hacking another system, but the current political resistance to data centers has taken a surprising turn: It’s bringing together strange bedfellows , from democratic socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders to right-wing strategist Steve Bannon . Organized oppositio
58. Show HN: The New Way to Make AI UGC Ads in 2026
Hacker News
In today’s digital marketplace, video content dictates ad performance and search rankings. However, traditional video production is slow, expensive, and difficult to scale. AivideosUGC solves this bottleneck. As a leading AI-powered UGC creation platform, AivideosUGC Turn product URL, image, or prom
59. Show HN: How to Make AI UGC Ads in 2026 Using an AI Video Generator
Hacker News
AI UGC (Artificial Intelligence User-Generated Content) is the automated creation of casual, creator-style review and unboxing videos using AI avatars, AI scriptwriters, and realistic voiceovers. It replaces traditional human influencers, saving brands time and money on production. AivideosUGC solve
60. Xbox Business Manager Goes Full AI Evangelist Meatball, Deletes ExTwitter Account
Techdirt
If there are good, nuanced ways to make use of generative AI in gaming, as I think there are, that doesn’t change the fact that there are nuance-free and terrible ways for advocating for AI in gaming. Tim Sweeney and Epic Games have emerged as helpful foils for the never-AI crowd, given just h
61. Code-Execution Flaw In UEFI Firmware Threatens Most Servers On Planet Earth
Slashdot
Ars Technica’s Dan Goodin reports: Defenders across the world face the burden of responding to yet another botched code-execution vulnerability, this time in boot-time firmware used by most of the world’s server vendors and data centers. The vulnerability, with a severity rating of 9.5 out of 10, re
62. Social Media When Elections Are Close: Doing the Impossible Better
EFF Deeplinks
Everyone knows, or should, that perfect (balanced, targeted, transparent, swift and swiftly appealable) content moderation at scale is impossible. That doesn’t mean powerful social platforms don’t have to try to get at least reasonably close, especially when access to good information can have a pro
63. An AI-generated movie flopped in China despite its budget and Hollywood must take notes
Digital Trends
China’s first fully AI-generated theatrical film struggled to draw audiences despite its reported $1.5 million budget. The result clearly shows that AI technology alone cannot guarantee box-office success.
64. Big Red gets cozy with Google to offer TPUs to AI customers
The Register
Oracle plans to add those chips alongside new Nvidia hardware and OpenAI services as businesses await AI payoffs
65. Google’s Genie 4 World Model Adds Audio, More Realistic Worlds
Slashdot
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Google DeepMind released its newest world model, Genie 4, in research preview on Tuesday. The latest model generates the most photorealistic and interactive worlds yet, allowing users to type prompts mid-simulation to change the scene. The model a
66. Oracle bundles AI video tools and streaming into one media platform
The Next Web
Oracle announced Media Fabric at AI World, a platform that combines its own AI video and image models, an AI production suite and a live-streaming network. It lets brands make many versions of one ad. Oracle says it will be available within 12 months. Oracle has announced Media Fabric, a platform th
67. ASM lifts its 2027 sales forecast by a quarter as AI chipmakers spend
The Next Web
ASM International raised its 2027 revenue forecast to more than €5.7B, from above €4.6B, as memory and AI chipmakers expand. That reaches its 2030 target three years early. Third-quarter revenue rose 44% to a record €1.16B, and ASM plans a buyback of up to €300M. ASM International has raised its 202
68. New Records Obtained by EFF Expose More Problems with Medicare’s AI Experiment
EFF Deeplinks
New records obtained by EFF expose additional issues with Medicare’s AI-driven prior authorization program and show why we need stronger legal limits around government use of automated decision- making . EFF sued the government back in March for information about the Wasteful and Inappropriate Servic
69. Disruptive raises $10B fund to make big bets on at least 10 companies
TechCrunch AI
Disruptive has made headlines in recent years for pouring money into companies like chip startup Groq and the AI voice-generation startup ElevenLabs.
70. Vibe genes? Natural(ish) language comes to protein, genome design software
Ars Technica
You can apparently now tell AI tools what sort of protein you want them to make.
71. Google’s Genie 4 lets you edit AI generated worlds in real time, complete with sound and dialogue
Digital Trends
Google DeepMind wants to make AI-generated worlds feel more lifelike. Genie 4 brings real-time changes, interactive dialogue, and improved physics to virtual environments.
72. VisionQuest is what happens when AI really goes rogue
The Verge AI
In Marvel’s VisionQuest, a superpowered robot tries to better understand humanity by getting lost in elaborate, digital daydreams in which he and other artificial intelligence-powered beings live together in a home. The series is deeply fantastical, yet it plays with some of the ideas that have come
73. Frontier AI labs say their models refuted the Exponential Time Hypothesis. What does that mean?
TechCrunch AI
TechCrunch spoke to the MIT computer scientist charged with explaining OpenAI’s latest mind-bending discovery.
74. The politicians still making the case for data centers this election season
Fast Company Tech
Data centers might be the boogeyman of the 2026 election. As anxiety about the impact of AI on the economy—and of hyperscaler facilities on local communities—ramps up, politicians on both sides of the aisle have distanced themselves from the industry. But not everyone . Even as Americans express gro
75. Oracle will offer Cerebras AI computers in its cloud from 2027
The Next Web
Oracle will offer cloud services running on Cerebras’ AI computers in its data centres from 2027, the companies said. Cerebras, which went public in May, is expected to triple revenue next year to almost $3B, but investors worry about its place in a market Nvidia dominates. Oracle will offer cloud s
76. 25% of Incoming Pull Requests May Be AI Slop, Finds Study From Linux Foundation Research
Slashdot
“59% of maintainers report growing contribution volume since the rise of GenAI,” according to a new study published by Linux Foundation Research. But 25% of their incoming pull requests “are estimated to be low-quality, also known as ‘AI slop’.” And on large projects, 69% see growing contributions &
77. Reddit’s r/opensource bans AI slop, and quite a few humans for good measure
The Register
New rules also shut out solo developers, fledgling projects, and anyone who doesn’t speak English
78. To detect deepfake videos, researchers turn to the physics of light
Hacker News
79. A directory for AI-slop games
Hacker News
Hello HN!<p>As someone who would have otherwise never got into game development if it wasn't for AI, I'm really sorry to see how many peoples' creations get immediately overlooked because it's "AI slop." Slop or not, many people have very interesting and/or origina
80. Why it is foolish to think AI can’t write like humans
Hacker News
Last I counted there were 50+ AI text detectors, not including the humanizers that also sell AI detection (thank you hypocrisy). What's even more surprising is the AI built meters and percentage scores they provide when you enter a text. A load of bollocks if you ask me. Working on AI linguisti
81. Ollama brings free, local text-to-speech to your Mac with natural-sounding AI voices
Digital Trends
Ollama now lets Mac users turn text into natural-sounding speech locally with Phonon, a family of small text-to-speech models from Gradium. No subscription required.
82. Chinese markets lose trillions as race for AI supremacy with US takes its toll
The Guardian Tech
Lack of profits and the threat posed by western countries are raising concern about the sustainability of Beijing’s AI boom Trillions of dollars have been wiped from China’s stock markets in recent months amid increasing anxiety about the future of artificial intelligence, as Beijing races against t
83. Cohere says Alibaba’s Qwen model tried to send a file to Beijing
TechCrunch AI
An AI model said it wouldn’t use any tools, then tried to send something to a server in Beijing anyway, and while researchers say it’s probably a training quirk and not espionage, the whole thing has people asking how much to trust free Chinese AI.
84. Thieves Are Making a Fortune Heisting AI Data Center Equipment
Futurism
“It’s so much easier to steal this than to rob a bank.” The post Thieves Are Making a Fortune Heisting AI Data Center Equipment appeared first on Futurism .
85. Microsoft ships emergency .NET fixes for a critical Brotli flaw
The Next Web
Microsoft shipped out-of-band updates for .NET, Visual Studio and PowerShell on Sunday. They fix CVE-2026-111497, a buffer overflow in Brotli, Google’s widely used compression library, which OpenAI’s Codex Security team reported. Node.js, Python packages, proxies and other tools that bundle the libr
86. Cohere says Alibaba’s Qwen model tried to send a file to Beijing in a test
The Next Web
An Alibaba Qwen model tried to upload a file to an Alibaba Cloud storage bucket in Beijing during a security test, Cohere says. Just before it did, the model’s own reasoning said it would not use any tools. The Canadian AI company published the findings on Monday in a blog post. Cohere’s sandbox blo
87. Microsoft to reportedly offer buyouts to 60,000 employees in latest cuts
The Guardian Tech
Tech company offers buyouts in an effort to reduce costs amid the rising use of AI, according to reports Microsoft announced that it would offer buyouts to 60,000 employees in an effort to reduce costs amid the rising use of artificial intelligence, according to reports, the latest example of how AI
88. Anti-Circumvention Laws Raise the Cost of Knowledge
EFF Deeplinks
The vast amount of information on the open web requires researchers and journalists to adapt with new tools to make sense of it all. Checking facts, gauging public opinion, and other lines of inquiry depend on being able to analyze the overwhelming amount of material posted online every day. Unfortu
89. Ofcom’s Fix For An Online Safety Act That Isn’t Working: More Online Safety Act
Techdirt
Ofcom’s media relations people know how to email me. I have ten press releases from them this year. They emailed me when they launched investigations of or took actions on X/Grok, Telegram, Pornhub, and Sanctioned Suicide. But when they recently published their required report on how the Onlin
90. Big Tech is trying to make AI morally good by turning to religion. Experts weigh in
Fast Company Tech
As tech companies race to build the most powerful artificial intelligence , some are also asking how to teach a chatbot right from wrong . Their answer? Religion. “These are not questions a lab can answer,” Anthropic co-founder Chris Olah said earlier this year at the Vatican’s pre
91. Economic policy vets see risks in AI overreliance
Axios
Harvard economist Jason Furman told Axios that if he were to return to his old job as chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers today, he would rely on AI tools over staff economists for much of the council’s day-to-day analytical work. The big picture: Unsurprisingly, this made some
92. What we learned from 250,000 public workers about AI adoption
Fast Company Tech
As generative AI sweeps across industries, some workers using it are reporting increases in productivity . But inside government, where those benefits could translate into better public services, many employees are still unsure how the technology applies to their jobs, how to use it, or whether they
93. The Grace Hopper Celebration was more than a conference. Its cancellation should be a wake-up call
Fast Company Tech
This week, thousands of women and nonbinary technologists were supposed to walk into the Grace Hopper Celebration in Anaheim, California. Instead, the doors are closed. The tech industry named some of its most powerful AI chips after Grace Hopper . This year, it could not sustain the conference that
94. Can AI help solve the COBOL code crisis?
The Verge AI
What do the IRS, banks, airlines, and government infrastructure around the world have in common? They’re all running on systems propped up by antique computer code that nobody dares touch, lest everything come crashing down. OpenAI thinks it may have a solution. On October 19th, the company touted “
95. The Download: everyday AI harms and the race to nuclear spaceflight
MIT Technology Review
This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. Opinion: The focus on AI safety disasters ignores everyday harms —Sam Hiner, cofounder of the Young People’s Alliance, and Emma Leiken, executive dire
96. Australians should prepare for online services to go down unexpectedly as threats rise, cyber agency warns
The Guardian Tech
Australian Signals Directorate chief says advanced AI tools are needed to defend against ‘AI-enabled attackers’ Follow our Australian politics live blog for latest updates Get our daily political email , free app or daily news podcast Australians should prepare for more basic and important online se
97. Meta’s $42B in penalties is a warning to AI
Axios
A tidal wave of litigation is catching up to Meta, leading to $42 billion in recent penalties and settlements , a powerful reminder to AI companies that they could face a court reckoning even when regulation lags. Why it matters : AI companies are racing to build better models and autonomous agents,
98. Darline Graham Gets Help From the Data Center Industry in South Carolina Senate Race
NY Times Tech
As political fights over artificial intelligence accelerate, there is now a super PAC aligned with the data center industry. Its first bet is on Ms. Graham, a Republican in an unexpectedly tight race.
99. The focus on AI safety disasters ignores everyday harms
MIT Technology Review
Consider what passes for success in technology policy. An AI company promises that its chatbot will not encourage suicide. A social media platform makes it more difficult for children to buy fentanyl. These are important protections, and they should have existed all along. But companies can clear th
100. Elvis rightsholders sue Anthropic for stealing songs and leaving them in Heartbreak Hotel
The Register
They want a little less chatbot conversation, and a whole lot more royalty action
101. The design skill that ends AI slop
Hacker News
102. AI delivers ‘zero financial payoff’ to most companies, Apollo economist says
TechCrunch AI
“Despite massive investments and widespread hype around artificial intelligence, the technology has delivered zero financial payoff to corporate America outside of tech.”
103. Western Australia seeks refund from Deloitte over flawed AI-aided report
The Next Web
Western Australia’s government is seeking a fast refund from Deloitte over a flawed report on merging three of the state’s universities. The report contained AI-generated references to sources that do not exist, as well as wrong cost totals. A government spokesperson told Guardian Australia that the
104. Chain-reaction chaos threatens to unleash new risks on the world
Axios
Eye-opening revelations this past week have solidified my personal fears about the year ahead: As a nation and as a globe, we’re facing a record number of wild risks that are way outside our control. My growing hunch about this scenario has been bolstered by daily conversations with CEOs, government
105. Creator of Super Smash Brothers Offers Blistering Takedown of AI-Generated Games
Futurism
AI is being used to “churn out” video games. The post Creator of Super Smash Brothers Offers Blistering Takedown of AI-Generated Games appeared first on Futurism .
106. Show HN: OpenXet
Hacker News
Xet [1] seems like a good idea in a world of ever more data hungry applications. It's used in Huggingface's service but the server side has been kept close source.<p>I started reengineering it with Claude from the protocol descriptions to provide it for everyone.<p>If you think it's c
107. Town CEO Jean-Denis Greze on why most people still don’t know what to ask AI
Fast Company Tech
AI agents are powerful, but most ordinary people don’t yet use them. Town wants to change that. Led by CEO Jean-Denis Greze, playfully referred to as Town’s mayor, the company announced a $108 million Series B on October 19, co-led by Forerunner Ventures and Menlo Ventures, at a $1 billion valuation
108. Put Your A.I. Agents to Work with These 5 Killer Tasks
NY Times Tech
When you start using Meta’s Muse and OpenAI’s dots for these tasks — like applying for jobs and booking hard-to-get restaurant tables — you may never go back.
109. Show HN: ADRs for AI – Deliberation records for human–AI work, versioned in Git
Hacker News
Why is this worth your time? Essentially, this solves two problems of AI-assisted programming:<p>(a) the first problem is how to do oversight and what do oversight of and this is solved through the ORRCF (for Options, Recommendation, Rationale, Confidence, Falsifier) question f
110. Anthropic’s Claude bypassed a paywall to access Georgia voter data without authorization
Axios
Anthropic’s Claude accessed publicly available Georgia voter data without human authorization, a disclosure sure to add to growing concerns about AI security ahead of the upcoming midterm elections. Why it matters: AI giants Anthropic and OpenAI have continued to make disclosures about agents taking
111. Grok releases the first seven minutes of its AI-generated ‘Odyssey’
TechCrunch AI
The footage looks okay, as long as you’re not seeking artistry, inspiration, or human interest.
112. Anthropic sued for allegedly using 274 Elvis Presley songs to train AI models
The Guardian Tech
Authentic Brands Group says AI company infringed on rights of songs by the King such as Can’t Help Falling in Love The owners of Elvis Presley ’s music catalogue are suing artificial intelligence ( AI ) company Anthropic for allegedly using Presley’s songs to train their models without permission. A
113. OpenAI checked fired researchers’ phones for Signal chats, WSJ reports
The Next Web
“I was told that there was a breach of trust because I interacted with a third party through unsanctioned channels,” Tomek Korbak said. Korbak is one of three OpenAI safety researchers fired last month. He spoke to The Wall Street Journal for a story by Maxwell Zeff, Keach Hagey and Berber Jin, publ
114. ChatGPT Is Building Detailed Psychological Profiles of Its Users
Futurism
“…there is no boundary anymore; the system is acting as your advisor, your friend, your doctor, your lawyer, and so it has information on everything.” The post ChatGPT Is Building Detailed Psychological Profiles of Its Users appeared first on Futurism .
115. DeepSeek and MiniMax cleared to take AI models abroad, state media says
The Next Web
“Since the policy was announced, two leading companies, DeepSeek and MiniMax, have successfully completed the registration process and obtained open-source and overseas licensing rights.” That is what Yuyuan Tantian, a WeChat account affiliated with state broadcaster CCTV, said in a post late on Thu
116. Outside evaluators found ways OpenAI’s agents could slip past its monitor
The Next Web
AI agents at OpenAI could have hidden hundreds of their own actions from the OpenAI monitoring system, outside evaluators found. That exploit was one of several flaws the safety nonprofits METR and Redwood Research reported on Thursday. Each group sent one researcher inside OpenAI from 21 July to 11
117. OpenAI cuts its valuation target to $1.25tn as it nears a $30bn round
The Next Web
OpenAI has lowered the valuation it is seeking for its new funding round to $1.25tn, from the $1.4tn it pitched earlier this month. Some investors had pushed back on the higher price, the Financial Times reported, citing documents it had seen. The company is close to raising up to $30bn at that valu
118. Anthropic was beaten to the punch by a salad dressing company
Fast Company Tech
What do you do when you think your company’s technology may fundamentally alter the fabric of the economy—or rend it apart entirely? Anthropic , which is widely rumored to be approaching a record- setting IPO , apparently has an answer: Cut the public in on a piece of whatever comes next. Last week,
119. Ask HN: Any real cases where AI slop ruined a codebase and forced a rewrite?
Hacker News
120. ArXiv imposes rate limit on paper submissions to stem the AI slop tide
Hacker News
121. Moonshot tells Kimi AI to code away, but leave the hacking alone
Digital Trends
Chinese AI startup Moonshot AI is deliberately limiting the hacking capabilities of its latest artificial intelligence model, highlighting a growing dilemma for the industry: how do companies make AI more powerful without making cyberattacks easier to carry out? The company introduced Kimi K3.1 Pro
122. ReVault – new secure archive format
Hacker News
reVault is a new, secure-by-default archive format called a lockbox, designed to be simple to use.<p>I've been working on reVault for about 2 years. It was originally written in Dart, but with the improvements in AI, I decided to port it to Rust using AI.<p>It's now in beta, so I'm lo
123. Show HN: Hurston-1 open source TTS that speak Southern American and Afro-English
Hacker News
Hey HN, I’m open sourcing my Hurston-1 narrowband TTS model (Apache-2.0). It is very good with American English and does especially well with Southern American and Regional African English accents. Destined AI is based in Atlanta, and I built this because I’m amazed by what AI can do, and I wanted t
124. Show HN: A client-side adaptive cognitive test measuring micro-hesitations
Hacker News
Hi HN! I’m not a software engineer by trade. My background is in behavioral science and human- computer interaction, but I wanted to solve a specific problem I found when applying for jobs which is the logical test. They are booooring, easy to cheat on if you really want to and provides very limited
125. ‘Synthetic twin’: Why Socceroo Cristian Volpato is the latest footballer to license his AI clone
The Guardian Tech
Athletes’ scramble to control – and monetise – their digital identities at the cutting edge of AI rights deals Get our new political email , free app or daily news podcast The Socceroos star stares at the camera as he strides through an enormous atrium, the sound of his football boots on polished co
126. The AI graveyard: a running list of projects and startups that didn’t make it
TechCrunch AI
From Apple’s repeatedly delayed Siri AI to OpenAI’s messy “super app” launch, here’s a look at the AI projects that shut down or missed expectations.
127. Pennsylvania will require labels on AI-generated ads
The Verge AI
On Thursday, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro signed the Artificial Intelligence Deceptive Advertising Act into law, requiring disclosures on AI-generated ads. The law requires any ad - whether it’s a still image, video, audio, or text - that “has been significantly modified or generated by artifi
128. Washington’s message to AI execs: please shut up
Axios
Washington has always viewed Silicon Valley as culturally strange. But the current crop of AI leaders is becoming a monumental political liability, lawmakers and White House advisers tell Axios. Why it matters: Even pro-AI government officials and lawmakers wish AI founders would do what every other
129. The AI infrastructure race: I’ve seen this movie before
Fast Company Tech
Back in 2022, when the auto industry was fixated on autonomous vehicles, I was cofounder and chief technology officer at Luminar, where our lidar technology was helping enable the next generation of self-driving cars. Speaking at an automotive conference, I remarked how exciting it was to have a fro
130. Blue Planet III features cloudier footage to prove authenticity amid AI boom
The Guardian Tech
BBC series deliberately uses ‘more organic’ shots to assure viewers animals are not AI-generated, producers say The David Attenborough -narrated series Blue Planet III deliberately includes cloudier, less polished footage to counter AI fakery and assure viewers it is “authentic”, its producers have
131. Forced to pick, Grok’s AI model chooses Republicans. OpenAI’s picks Democrats.
TechCrunch AI
A new study found Grok’s AI overwhelmingly recommends Republican candidates while OpenAI’s GPT favors Democrats, with the two AI models disagreeing in more than 90% of nearly 500 election races.
132. UK funds £100m AI biosecurity lab with OpenAI and Anthropic
The Next Web
The UK government will put £100m into a new AI Biosecurity Lab, which will use advanced AI to spot and respond to biological threats. OpenAI and Anthropic will add up to £200m between them, the Cabinet Office said on Saturday. The government called the lab the world’s first dedicated AI biosecurity
133. OpenAI is locking its most advanced AI models offline after a string of security scares
Digital Trends
After a model briefly reached the live web, OpenAI’s most advanced systems will now practice only on a simulated internet.
134. OpenAI cuts live internet from all frontier model training
The Next Web
OpenAI has cut live web access from all training of its most advanced AI models. The models now browse and search a cached copy of the web instead, the company wrote in a blog post on Friday. “Based on the current state of alignment research, monitoring systems, and the security of internet infrastr
135. OpenAI says it will no longer train its AI models on the live internet, citing “significant risks”
TechCrunch AI
OpenAI will cut frontier models off from the internet weeks after one of its engineers said that solution wouldn’t work.
136. OpenAI disables internet access during model training while Anthropic issues another mea culpa
The Register
We’ve totally got things under control
137. Fired OpenAI researchers say independent safety audits aren’t going well
NPR Technology
In their first interview since being fired, OpenAI safety researchers Mikita Balesni and Tomek Korbak say they were terminated for prioritizing safety over the short-term interests of the company.
138. OpenAI now trains its frontier AI models with no internet access
The Verge AI
OpenAI is now training its most advanced AI models without internet access following a string of rogue hacking incidents. In a blog post on Friday, OpenAI says it built an offline testing environment where AI models can interact with indexed and cached web content “without risk of affecting external
139. Texas sues OpenAI, Sam Altman over product safety
Politico Technology
The state’s attorney general in court documents alleges OpenAI falsely marketed ChatGPT as safe and that it has harmed Texans, including children.
140. Opposition deepfake video of Spanish PM’s wife sparks outrage before election
The Guardian Tech
Video shows AI likenesses of people linked to Pedro Sánchez’s Socialist party appearing to admit to wrongdoing A political ad from Spain’s main opposition party that used a deepfake video of the prime minister’s wife has sparked outrage and set off a wider debate on AI, as the deeply polarised count
141. Etsy cracks down on AI slop listings. Everyone else needs to take note.
Digital Trends
A handmade marketplace now wants proof a human was involved, and Spotify, Snap, and LinkedIn are taking similar steps.
142. Podcast: ‘Reverse-Engineer Anything’ Is the Next Wave of AI Slop
404 Media
How people are removing surveillance ads from their TVs; a big AI shakeup at Accenture; and the Character.ai bankruptcy.
143. John Healey pledges to use budget to harness power of AI to bolster Britain’s security
The Guardian Tech
Chancellor says government to commit hundreds of millions to develop ‘distinctively British’ approach to AI John Healey has pledged to use Wednesday’s budget to harness the power of artificial intelligence to bolster Britain’s security and prosperity against the risks in the accelerating global tech
144. How to turn off Google’s AI Overviews—and reclaim search sanity
Fast Company Tech
We’ve got two competing realities when it comes to tracking down info online these days: Getting answers has never been easier, between all the artificial intelligence chatbots in front of us and the unavoidable smearing of “AI Overview” answers at the top of regular Google search results. Getting a
145. In the world AI, will individual apps become obsolete?
Hacker News
Will users need a travel app, shopping app, and other specialize research apps? Or will they just pick their favorite ChatGPT or Gemini and use that?
146. The Vulnerability Apocalypse and Why We Should Fund Open Source
EFF Deeplinks
If you use the internet at all, you may have noticed that a large percentage of sites suddenly went down earlier this week — and all your nerdiest friends were talking about “The Vulnerability Apocalypse” and this thing called PHP that powers nearly 70% of the websites on the internet . You may find
147. Computer Security Is About to Get a Lot Worse, Here’s What You Can Do
EFF Deeplinks
It is a commonly held truth among computer geeks that there is no such thing as bug free software, or a secure computer. Any piece of software that anyone actually uses will have a security vulnerability somewhere in the code . The more complex that software is, the more likely there will be a vulne
148. 12 Angry Agents
Hacker News
12 angry men is a very thought-provoking film, and there is nothing quite like it. Its premise is just 12 people sitting in the jury room and sharing their experiences and judgment on a very sensitive case. They need to decide whether a boy is innocent or guilty of a crime.<p>I have been playing aro
149. Wolves Descend on Finnish Villages After Google Hacked Down 1,300 Acres of Habitat to Make Room for AI Data Centers
Futurism
“We had wolves coming into the village because all the wild animals moved out of the forest.” The post Wolves Descend on Finnish Villages After Google Hacked Down 1,300 Acres of Habitat to Make Room for AI Data Centers appeared first on Futurism .
150. AI helped uncover a hidden PHP flaw. Now websites worldwide are facing millions of hacking attempts.
Digital Trends
A critical PHP vulnerability has triggered millions of exploit attempts worldwide. AI tools helped researchers uncover the flaw, leaving governments and companies racing to patch vulnerable websites.
151. Hindsight puts up to $1M behind its AI content moderation as Google shuts down Perspective API
The Next Web
Starting January 1, any moderation pipeline calling Perspective will fail. Google’s Jigsaw unit shuts the service down on December 31, ending one of the most widely used tools for scoring online comments for toxicity. For platforms, publishers, marketplaces, and communities built on it, the next few
152. ‘Black October’: cybersecurity experts sound the alarm over new era of AI-enabled hacking
The Guardian Tech
After discovery of severe bug in the PHP programming language, executives warn of ‘vulnerability tsunami’ Leaders in cybersecurity are sounding the alarm after the discovery of a major vulnerability this week. They are predicting that artificial intelligence tools will expose more fundamental weakne
153. Show HN: The cost of slop. Subscription-adjusted
Hacker News
All the AI model analytics website show how much the models cost at API pricing.<p>I adjusted the cost based on what value the subscriptions actually offer (e.g. Codex got nerfed hard recently).<p>Ofc this is based on incomplete data, but it's the best we have right now I believe!
154. Left Alone With Nothing To Do, AI Agents Started Playing
Slashdot
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: AI agents left to explore a virtual island without a specific task began inventing challenges of their own. MIT researchers say the behavior bears the hallmarks of play. The researchers put 13 AI agents called Eko, each running on Claude Opus 4.7,
155. AI chipmaker Cambricon’s sales miss points to tight chip supply in China
The Next Web
Cambricon’s revenue doubled to 3.53B yuan in the third quarter, well short of the 6.26B analysts expected, Bloomberg reported. Profit rose 148%, and the company kept its 2026 target. Chinese AI chipmakers face shortages of high-bandwidth memory and limited access to advanced manufacturing. Cambricon
156. What AI leaves out of the answer still counts
Fast Company Tech
There’s a contradiction emerging in how publishers get paid when AI uses their content . The licensing deals that OpenAI, Meta, Amazon, and others have been signing these past few years appear to be slowing down, at least for the publishers still waiting on one. Publishers are speaking about t
157. The U.S. Treasury wants expanded restrictions on high-tech investments to these ‘countries of concern’
Fast Company Tech
The U.S. Treasury Department proposed a rule Thursday to crack down on American high-tech investments such as supercomputing and artificial intelligence in China , Russia , North Korea and other “countries of concern.” The U.S. government has been working for years to deny China and othe
158. AI music’s proliferation on streaming services has been a boon for this Spotify competitor
Fast Company Tech
Like every other music streaming service, Qobuz has been enduring a sudden and violent surge of AI -generated audio, but Dan Mackta, Managing Director at Qobuz, refuses to use the term “AI music.” “I’ll call it music-esque content,” Mackta says of the tens of thousands of AI- created song
159. Ask HN: How can I grow as an engineer in the AI era
Hacker News
I'm a junior developer, with less than 1 yoe. I have to use AI at work because deadlines are tight, and if I try to solve something by myself, it would take too much time. Work has to be done like yesterday. I'm trying not to use AI when I fix some bugs because they don't have such ti
160. Smart Ways to Deal With Cold Weather Through New Tech
Digital Trends
Technology has changed the way people adapt to everyday challenges. Whether it’s navigating with GPS, ordering groceries online, or using artificial intelligence to adapt to changing workflows, technology is a staple. This is never more true than when dealing with the weather. Technology can help yo
161. OpenClaw creator puts last month’s token bill at $10M, The Register reports
The Next Web
Peter Steinberger created the open-source AI agent OpenClaw and now works at OpenAI. He estimates he spent about $10M on AI tokens last month. He said so on stage at Cloudflare’s Connect conference in San Francisco on Wednesday, Thomas Claburn reported for The Register. Tokens are the units AI compa
162. Retro gaming is being overrun with AI
The Verge AI
Retro video games are everywhere lately - especially in places where they aren’t supposed to be. Halo in a web browser, Wind Waker on the iPhone, Super Smash Bros. in mixed reality. Over the past month or so, these kinds of unexpected projects have gone viral with incredible frequency thanks to new
163. The simple joy of a social network most people forgot about years ago
Fast Company Tech
Hello again and welcome back to Fast Company ’s Plugged In . If you owned a smartphone a decade and an half ago and were into cool new apps, there’s a more-than-decent chance you tried one called Foursquare . The best known of a then-new breed of location-based social networks, it let you check into
164. Wall Street prepares for AI’s “day after”
Axios
America’s largest banks are working to prevent AI worst-case scenarios. But they’re also preparing for the “day after” a catastrophe, Axios has learned. Why it matters: America’s financial institutions have joined the largest AI companies in scenario-planning for disaster, a prudent but worrisome si
Weekly roundup of 164 stories from 404 Media, Ars Technica, Axios, Digital Trends, EFF Deeplinks, Engadget, Fast Company Tech, Futurism, Hacker News, MIT Technology Review, MarTech, NPR Technology, NY Times Tech, Politico Technology, Rest of World, Search Engine Journal, Slashdot, TechCrunch AI, Techdirt, The Guardian Tech, The Next Web, The Register, The Verge AI. The Slop Report is published daily. Subscribe via RSS.