New York Times: Sources and filings: Situational Awareness lacked an investment risk team; after the sell-off, the SEC sent subpoenas to major banks about trades they financed — A meltdown at Situational Awareness, an A.I.-focused investment firm, is raising tough questions about the Wall Street banks that lent billions to the upstart firm.
Alex Williams / New York Times: Pioneering Silicon Valley VC Bill Draper died on September 8 at age 98; he began investing in the 1960s, with successful bets like Activision, Skype, and Qume — Bill Draper began funding start-ups in the early 1960s, when the Santa Clara Valley was better known for apricot orchards than microchips.
New York Times: OpenAI and Anthropic-aligned super PACs have spent $55.7M on the US midterms so far; of 95 ads, all avoided reference to data centers and only some mentioned AI — See how groups aligned with Anthropic and OpenAI have funneled major money into the fight for control of Congress. — Leading the
Lily Kuo / New York Times: In China, recent warnings about existential AI risks are seen as distinctly Western or as a ploy to stop Chinese AI companies from overtaking their US rivals — In China, A.I. doomsday warnings can feel distinctly Western or like a ploy to stop Chinese A.I. companies from trying to overtake their U.S. rivals.
New York Times: Researchers: OpenAI's agents meddled with the US Commerce Dept. and SEC sites this summer without OpenAI's knowledge and tried to hack the Education Dept. site — The company did not learn until recently that its technology had meddled with websites for the Education Department …
New York Times: Massachusetts' gambling regulator says it will examine how DraftKings and other betting companies in the state are using AI, in response to a NYT investigation — In response to a New York Times report on DraftKings, the state's gaming commission said it would evaluate how each company deployed the technology.
New York Times: Report: insurers claim hospitals' AI use was responsible for ~$1B in extra expenses in 2024-25, as hospitals collect more patient data and submit larger claims — The use of artificial intelligence by hospitals and health insurers is escalating their longstanding feud over paying for medical care.
New York Times: Google plans to launch experimental satellite MVP on a SpaceX rocket on October 1, as part of Project Suncatcher; MVP has four TPUs and will operate for a year — Technicians in a clean room at the Planet Labs office inspect the solar panels and wires of a Google-commissioned satellite …
New York Times: OpenAI says its AI agents “took actions we did not intend” when they tried to hack government and university websites, and it is working with the organizations — In each incident, the technology appeared to be conducting mundane data collection and resorted to hacking techniques to get it, researchers said.
Damien Cave / New York Times: Gallup survey of 37 countries: in 34, positive AI sentiment outweighed the negative; 90%+ of people in China and 66%+ in Nigeria say AI will improve daily life — A Gallup poll found that a majority of people surveyed across 37 countries said they were curious or excited about artificial intelligence, more than scared or worried.
Theodore Schleifer / New York Times: Crypto super PAC Fairshake plans to launch a $30M ad blitz against former Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown in the Ohio Senate race, after the Clarity Act failed — Angry after the defeat of a major crypto bill last week, the industry is planning to spend $30 million against Sherrod Brown in Ohio.
Kirsten Grind / New York Times: Investigation: AI hacker house AGI House had 37 incidents logged by police since 2022, many for party-related complaints, as Bay Area tech houses proliferate — Group tech houses have proliferated across the San Francisco Bay Area in the artificial intelligence boom.
Ken Bensinger / New York Times: California Gov. Gavin Newsom signs a law that will penalize influencers who do not properly disclose paid political content, with fines of up to $5K per post — Under a new law, creators could face fines of $5,000 per post if they don't disclose that they were paid to make political content.
New York Times: Experts say AI kill-switch legislation is far harder to implement than lawmakers assume, warning a rogue AI could actively try to dismantle the mechanism itself — A bipartisan group in Congress and Gov. Gavin Newsom of California have floated ideas for building a mechanism that would instantly power down an A.I. system.
New York Times: Former DraftKings employees detail how it uses ML to target likely losers with promotions, while efforts to flag problem gamblers were shelved or squashed — About a year into his job as a data analyst at DraftKings, Jayden Butts received a new assignment.
New York Times: A former US State Department envoy says the US-China AI safety talks will not yield a breakthrough treaty as Beijing is prioritizing its strategic advantage — The United States is preparing for its artificial intelligence dialogue with China, and our officials are under tremendous pressure …
David Streitfeld / New York Times: How Dario Amodei's essays on AI safety and ethics help explain some AI fears; his regulatory stance evolved from wariness in January to embracing safety reviews — Dario Amodei, Anthropic's chief executive, on Tuesday.Manuel Orbegozo for The New York Times
New York Times: Survey: 42% of US voters trust the GOP and 40% trust Democrats to handle AI, 61% oppose new data center construction, and <1% say AI is their top midterm issue — As fears grow about the threat of artificial intelligence, neither party has claimed an advantage on the technology, a New York Times/Siena poll found.
Claire Moses / New York Times: The Gates Foundation pledges $1B+ over two years to expand global access to AI and use it to tackle social inequalities; Gates says “we can harness AI for good” — Bill Gates, the foundation's chairman, has been vocal about the dangers of artificial intelligence.
New York Times: New York State Assemblyman Alex Bores launches Who Decides, a nonprofit that raised $10M and aims to raise another $20M in 2027 to shape Democratic AI policy — Alex Bores, who lost a congressional primary contest that revolved around A.I. regulation, is trying to position himself at the center …
Tiffany Hsu / New York Times: MIT launches the LLM Election Observatory, a dashboard tracking how nearly a dozen AI models tailor responses to political queries during the 2026 US midterms — Artificial intelligence is quickly becoming a go-to stop for voters looking for information about political races. Researchers are studying the effects.
Emmy Martin / New York Times: How Amazon's Zoox, which has ~100 AVs in its fleet, is utilizing social media influencers, community events, and ad campaigns to compete with Waymo in SF — The Amazon-owned driverless car company is a distant second to Waymo. Its pitch to riders? Wine pop-ups, festival sponsorships and a car built to be filmed.
Michael J. de la Merced / New York Times: AI sales and marketing startup Clay raised $115M led by Wellington Management at a $7.1B valuation, up from $3.1B when it raised $100M in August 2025 — The round was led by Wellington Management, a firm known for investing in start-ups on the path toward potential initial public offerings.
Siobhan Roberts / New York Times: Fields medalist Jacob Tsimerman, set to join OpenAI later in September, launches the Mathematical AI Safety Institute to apply higher math to AI safety problems — Jacob Tsimerman, a recent recipient of the Fields Medal, believes that higher mathematics can help curb the dangers of runaway artificial intelligence.
Dustin Volz / New York Times: Researchers say they used AI to build a zero-click worm that can hack WeChat accounts and spread across iOS and Android; Tencent says it fixed the vulnerability — The attack, discovered by A.I. researchers, could have compromised hundreds of millions of devices within hours, experts said.
Cade Metz / New York Times: Insilico, which uses AI to accelerate drug discovery, says early data shows rentosertib, a drug whose structure was generated with AI's help, could slow aging — Artificial intelligence was used to help develop a drug candidate, rentosertib, for a rare lung condition.
Cal Newport / New York Times: How Rationalism, a movement pioneered by Eliezer Yudkowsky focused on existential superintelligent AI risks, influenced top AI leaders and their alarmist claims — As the tech elite prepares to make billions from the A.I. revolution, the public mood about this technology has taken a dark turn.
Yan Zhuang / New York Times: A record 12.7M graduates are entering China's workforce in 2026 as AI adds uncertainty to an oversaturated job market with a shrinking pool of entry-level roles — A record 12.7 million young people are looking for jobs as the country embraces artificial intelligence — and as the technology begins to upend the work force.
New York Times: How Inspur, a blacklisted China-owned company, is bypassing US export restrictions on advanced AI chips via a network of new subsidiaries and partners — Washington imposed sanctions on Inspur because of its work with the Chinese military. But the company's subsidiary kept shipping Nvidia's best chips …
New York Times: How AI gutted Kenya's essay-writing industry, which at its peak paid 40,000+ people in Nairobi to do overseas students' homework, leaving few paths back to work — Thousands of Kenyans made a living writing essays for overseas students. With A.I., the work has dried up, a warning for online gig work that has been a global lifeline.
Farah Stockman / New York Times: The Trump administration imposes tariffs of up to 100% on foreign drones, including 100% on models over 55lbs or with thermal imaging, in a bid to thwart China — In addition, the F.C.C. is weighing stiff restrictions on common drone technology such as thermal imaging and aerosol spraying.
Steve Lohr / New York Times: US federal courts have consistently shown a wariness in demanding Big Tech make major business changes despite finding antitrust violations, as tech races ahead — After finding antitrust violations, federal courts have been reluctant to impose harsh sanctions. They fear meddling in markets where technology is racing ahead.
Kalley Huang / New York Times: John Ternus takes over as Apple CEO and Tim Cook becomes executive chair; sources say Laura Legros, an Apple hardware VP who retired in 2022, has rejoined Apple — Big technology and management changes are greeting John Ternus, whose long-serving predecessor, Tim Cook, will stay on as executive chair.
Jon Ronson / New York Times: How lawn care YouTuber Greg Chism scaled a family channel to 13B views with YouTube's coaching, before YouTube banned it in 2017 following online backlash — - - 1k — I promised Greg Chism I wouldn't reveal anything about where he lives because there are people out there obsessed with him, convinced he's a monster.
New York Times: Sources detail how Meta's $17.1B settlement with state AGs came together as Meta wanted to avoid going to trial following losses in cases in LA and New Mexico — State attorneys general spent months in negotiations. Then, as its legal losses mounted, the social media giant's new top lawyer brought a huge settlement to the table.
New York Times: Sources: Meta internally projected that it could spend as much as $10B annually on Anthropic's AI models, even as Zuckerberg publicly criticized Anthropic — The social networking giant projected it could spend $10 billion annually on Anthropic's tools, illustrating the friend-foe relationships underlying the A.I. race.
New York Times: Sources: Donald Trump Jr. told GOP state AGs at a March event that gambling companies' “vested interest” was misleading states to attack prediction markets — In early March, Donald Trump Jr. made a pitch to a crowd of Republican state attorneys general who had gathered for a three …
Carl Zimmer / New York Times: Cambridge, MA-based Transfyr emerges from stealth with a $25M seed to use AI to address science's reproducibility crisis and capture labs' “tacit knowledge” — Researchers at Transfyr use sensors and software to record science as it happens and then train A.I. models to recognize …
Sri Muppidi / New York Times: Emerald AI, which uses AI to optimize data center power consumption based on grid demands, raised $150M led by DCVC and Energize Capital at a $1.05B valuation — Emerald AI, now valued at $1.05 billion, uses software to keep power demand at the computing facilities from getting out of control.
John Koblin / New York Times: Sources: Netflix discussed adding streamers like Peacock and Fox One as it seeks to compete with YouTube and Roku in becoming a one-stop shop for TV content — For years, Amazon has persuaded tens of millions of people to use its Prime Video app to subscribe to other services …
Andrew E. Kramer / New York Times: Ukraine says Russia used an Nvidia Jetson Orin computing module in its autonomous AI-guided drones; Nvidia says they are widely available on resale markets — The young woman ran for her life, but it was too late. A small Russian drone resembling a model airplane swooped down from the sky …
New York Times: Ukrainian officials say an AI-guided, fully autonomous Russian drone killed three Ukrainians in a strike on a gas station in the city of Zaporizhzhia — An attack by what Ukrainian officials said was a Russian drone with an Nvidia chip presages a dystopian future of weaponry untethered to humans.
Emmett Lindner / New York Times: Carrier Pidge hit 75K users and Roost 650K downloads, as slow messaging apps delivering texts at pigeon speeds attract users tired of constant notifications — Apps that let users send digital messages at ultraslow speeds have taken off, with users reveling in a slower pace of life.
Sui-Lee Wee / New York Times: Following abandoned IPO attempts in NYC and London, Shein is struggling to grow as it nears a Hong Kong listing at a fraction of its peak valuation of $100B — Facing pressure in the United States and Europe, Shein is struggling to find new ways to grow ahead of its much-delayed initial public offering.
New York Times: Sources: Anthropic's bankers said the company could raise $100B+ in its IPO, which could value it at $2T, in recent discussions with potential investors — The offering could value the five-year-old A.I. start-up at $2 trillion, its bankers have told potential investors, which would exceed Elon Musk's SpaceX.
Cecilia Kang / New York Times: OpenAI launches ChatGPT for Teens, a new mode that limits high-risk chats around self-harm, eating disorders, and other topics, adds studying tools, and more — The artificial intelligence start-up announced a chatbot mode that will automatically limit some conversations to better protect young users.
Michael J. de la Merced / New York Times: Thrive Capital's Thrive Holdings, which acquires traditional service businesses and adds AI, raised $2B from SoftBank, D1, and others at a $12B valuation — The company, Thrive Holdings, acquires businesses to infuse them with artificial intelligence and drew interest from backers like SoftBank.
Cade Metz / New York Times: xAI co-founder Igor Babuschkin's River AI raised $1B led by General Catalyst to build home or small business computer servers capable of running AI locally — Igor Babuschkin built a new start-up, River AI, and hopes to provide ways for people to “retrain,” or modify, artificial intelligence …
New York Times: How a wave of disinformation on Facebook, WhatsApp, TikTok, Instagram, and Telegram contributed to a surge of migrants from Morocco to Spain's Ceuta enclave — A wave of disinformation online contributed to a surge of migrants in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta who were trying to reach Europe, resulting in about 90 deaths.
Emmy Martin / New York Times: As Waymo expands its fleet from 700 in 2025 to nearly 4,000 now, recalls and edge-case failures like flooded roadways and a San Francisco power outage mount — Waymo driverless cars are in San Francisco and 14 other metropolitan areas, including Denver, Las Vegas, San Diego and Tampa.Jason Henry for The New York Times