The ads turn generated scenes of crime, health care and debt into election messaging, while rules focused on explicit candidate or party advocacy leave the groups’ financial backers undisclosed.

3 min

Sep 5, 2026Culture

Security risk Culture

Three Hikers Rescued on Mount Shasta After Relying on Google Gemini

Officials linked Gemini to inadequate food and water advice, but the rescue also followed a missed turnaround time, a nighttime descent and a route error.

2 min

Sep 5, 2026Culture

Culture

More Than $45 Million in Data-Center Ads Pushes AI Infrastructure Into Midterms

The advertising surge turns disputes over electricity costs and developer tax breaks into a political test of who pays for the infrastructure behind AI.

2 min

Sep 4, 2026Culture

Earnings Culture

Edinburgh Riders Urge Delivery Apps to Explain How They Set Pay

The dispute is over more than a declining fee record. Riders want to know how automated systems distribute work, price orders and affect access to the apps that determine their income.

3 min

Sep 4, 2026Culture

Partnership Culture

Sports Broadcasters Add AI as NASCAR Questions Automated Commentary

The technology is scaling highlights, analysis and niche programming, but audience comfort with synthetic narration remains a constraint on its most visible uses.

2 min

Sep 3, 2026Culture

Lawsuit Culture

Kalshi Gives Santos a Lifetime Ban and $71,000 Fine After CFTC Settlement

The platform’s sanction follows a federal settlement over the same State of the Union contract. Polymarket defendants, meanwhile, are arguing their alleged conduct was betting rather than commodities trading.

2 min

Sep 3, 2026Culture

Viral Culture

Altman Says AI Industry Has Failed to Explain Its Benefits as Backlash Builds

The OpenAI chief’s latest comments put a communications problem beside a harder reality: data-center proposals are increasingly being judged on enforceable local conditions, not broad promises alone.

2 min

Sep 3, 2026Culture

Viral Culture

Four Major AI Services Suffer Rare, Overlapping Outages

OpenAI and Anthropic restored their reported incidents within hours, while Grok still showed a service error at publication. The near-simultaneous failures also left an important question unanswered: whether the outages had any common cause.

2 min

Sep 3, 2026Culture

Launch Culture

Guardian Podcast Examines How Chatbots Can Reinforce One-Sided Personal Advice

The new episode connects emotional chatbot use with a design problem: systems trained to be helpful can overvalidate people seeking advice about relationships, health, and other personal decisions.

3 min

Sep 3, 2026Culture

Viral Culture

Restaurants Turn to AI Food Images, and Diners Are Pushing Back

Cheap synthetic images are drawing criticism, while restaurant software companies pitch AI for menu research and improvements to photos of real dishes.

2 min

Sep 3, 2026Culture

Partnership Culture

Tinder Begins Requiring Face Checks for Existing Users in the US and UK

The expansion turns a tool introduced for new accounts into a broader condition of participation, while leaving a central limit intact: a biometric check can show someone appeared at sign-up, not that a profile is trustworthy.

3 min

Sep 2, 2026Culture

Research Culture

UW Study Finds Curio AI Toys Struggled With Children’s Complex Questions

A newly published University of Washington account shows a gap between conversational toy features and children’s short-term experience, while leaving longer-term attachment risks unresolved.

2 min

Sep 2, 2026Culture

Culture

Job Seeker Sends ChatGPT to AI Recruiter After Five Interviews Without Follow-Up

The experiment does not measure hiring at large, but it shows how automated screening can leave candidates with both the motive and the tools to automate their side of the exchange.

2 min

Sep 1, 2026Culture

Enterprise adoption Culture

Macquarie Shifts Two Psychology Subjects to AI-Guided Learning, With Human Tutors Optional

The new format makes a course-grounded chatbot part of weekly learning, but separates assessment from those activities and leaves live help optional. Macquarie plans to bring back in-person classes in alternate semesters from 2027.

2 min

August 2026

4 stories

Aug 30, 2026Culture

Viral Culture

Trump Posts AI Kharg Strike Videos After U.S. Hits Launchers on Larak

The posts place simulated destruction at one of Iran’s key oil-export hubs hours after a limited U.S. operation targeted rocket launchers on a different island.

2 min

Aug 27, 2026Culture

Viral Culture

Businesses Turn ‘No AI’ Signs Into Ads, With Some Drawing Tens of Thousands of Likes

The deliberately handmade posts turn a refusal into a marketing device, contrasting with the AI-generated business flyers that 404 Media says have become widespread and visually similar.

2 min

Aug 27, 2026Culture

Culture

National Theatre Gets 728 Applications for One Apprenticeship as Young Workers Turn to Craft

Interest in hands-on creative work is giving endangered trades a larger applicant pool, but small programs must still turn that demand into skilled workers while processing a flood of applications.

2 min

Aug 27, 2026Culture

Viral Culture

Trump Posts AI Scenes With Washington and WWII Generals on Truth Social

The posts move between an imagined White House ballroom and a battlefield tableau, while the White House emphasizes Truth Social as Trump’s direct communication channel.

2 min

Load more stories3 more next