California AG Rob Bonta is investigating OpenAI over the Hugging Face hack in July, after more than a dozen states joined Alabama in its investigation (Chase DiFeliciantonio/Politico)
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/09/04/california-investigation-openai-hugging-face-hack-01065800
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/09/04/california-investigation-openai-hugging-face-hack-01065800
POLITICO
California’s Rob Bonta investigating OpenAI over Hugging Face hack
The probe comes as new reports suggest the breach by autonomous artificial intelligence models went even further than first disclosed.
Sources: the US and China will discuss AI safety risks during talks planned for mid-September, with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent leading the US side (Laurie Chen/Reuters)
https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/us-china-gear-up-mid-september-ai-safety-dialogue-2026-09-04/
https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/us-china-gear-up-mid-september-ai-safety-dialogue-2026-09-04/
Nvidia says it plans to bring DLSS 5 to older RTX 40-series GPUs "once RTX 50 Series performance is more fully tuned" (Sean Hollister/The Verge)
https://www.theverge.com/games/989978/nvidia-dlss-5-rtx-40?view_token=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJpZCI6IjIySDNvM1hCa3AiLCJwIjoiL2dhbWVzLzk4OTk3OC9udmlkaWEtZGxzcy01LXJ0eC00MCIsImV4cCI6MTc4ODkyMTgwNCwiaWF0IjoxNzg4NDg5ODA0fQ.BN2FxrfXqE6iVeRYRH9YrV8MINvQ9T7aIhzVr7o_WGE&utm_medium=gift-link
https://www.theverge.com/games/989978/nvidia-dlss-5-rtx-40?view_token=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJpZCI6IjIySDNvM1hCa3AiLCJwIjoiL2dhbWVzLzk4OTk3OC9udmlkaWEtZGxzcy01LXJ0eC00MCIsImV4cCI6MTc4ODkyMTgwNCwiaWF0IjoxNzg4NDg5ODA0fQ.BN2FxrfXqE6iVeRYRH9YrV8MINvQ9T7aIhzVr7o_WGE&utm_medium=gift-link
The Verge
Nvidia will officially bring DLSS 5 to older GPUs — but won’t give gamers full control
The cat is out of the bag.
Microsoft court filings: an expert hired by publishers found that only ~60K of 8.2M Copilot chat logs contained at least 16 words in common with news content (Lauren Feiner/The Verge)
https://www.theverge.com/policy/990267/microsoft-openai-new-york-times-authors-lawsuit
https://www.theverge.com/policy/990267/microsoft-openai-new-york-times-authors-lawsuit
The Verge
Microsoft says virtually nobody was grabbing NYT articles through its chatbot
Publishers and authors are suing Microsoft and OpenAI on copyright grounds.
Sources: US negotiators used the promise of access to Nvidia's chips for an Armenian data center to broker a preliminary Armenia-Azerbaijan peace deal last year (Robbie Whelan/Wall Street Journal)
https://www.wsj.com/world/u-s-used-promise-of-nvidia-chips-to-broker-armenia-azerbaijan-peace-deal-b6c7cb6e?st=WcCKED
https://www.wsj.com/world/u-s-used-promise-of-nvidia-chips-to-broker-armenia-azerbaijan-peace-deal-b6c7cb6e?st=WcCKED
The Wall Street Journal
Exclusive | U.S. Used Promise of Nvidia Chips to Broker Armenia-Azerbaijan Peace Deal
Negotiators offered access to advanced AI hardware to help secure a preliminary agreement last year to end decades of conflict, the latest example of chip diplomacy.
Sources: India-based Slice, which has transitioned from a credit card-led fintech to a small finance bank, raised $100M at a ~$450M valuation, down from ~$1.4B (Moneycontrol)
https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/startup/slice-raises-100-million-from-neo-wealth-kado-global-and-moore-strategic-ventures-at-lower-valuation-of-450-million-14021886.html
https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/startup/slice-raises-100-million-from-neo-wealth-kado-global-and-moore-strategic-ventures-at-lower-valuation-of-450-million-14021886.html
Moneycontrol
Slice raises $100 million from Neo Wealth, Kado Global and Moore Strategic Ventures at lower valuation of $450 million- Moneycontrol.com
The downround, which marks a nearly 70% correction from Slice’s earlier valuation, comes after funding talks with Accel, Elevation Capital and Peak XV Partners, as reported by Moneycontrol, failed to materialise.
Scan.com, which uses AI to match patient referrals with imaging centers by availability, price, and specialty, raised a $220M Series C, including $90M in equity (Eve Bender/MobiHealthNews)
https://www.mobihealthnews.com/news/scancom-secures-220m-us-medical-imaging-expansion
https://www.mobihealthnews.com/news/scancom-secures-220m-us-medical-imaging-expansion
The US and UK sign an MOU to investigate and share info on organized crime syndicates behind online scam centers, many of which are based in Southeast Asia (Jonathan Greig/The Record)
https://therecord.media/scam-compounds-coordination-us-uk-memorandum
https://therecord.media/scam-compounds-coordination-us-uk-memorandum
therecord.media
US, Britain to coordinate on scam center takedowns
The U.S. Department of Justice and the U.K.'s National Crime Agency and Crown Prosecutor signed a memorandum to cooperate on cases involving Southeast Asian scam operations.
Microsoft says email spammers are adopting ASCII smuggling, an AI prompt injection tactic used to hide malicious instructions, to evade email platform filters (Dan Goodin/Ars Technica)
https://arstechnica.com/security/2026/09/once-popular-for-attacking-ai-ascii-smuggling-is-embraced-by-spammers/
https://arstechnica.com/security/2026/09/once-popular-for-attacking-ai-ascii-smuggling-is-embraced-by-spammers/
Ars Technica
Once popular for attacking AI, ASCII smuggling is embraced by spammers
A once-overlooked block of unicode that's invisible to humans is gaining ever wider use.
Source: Betaworks has a 5.5% stake in Hugging Face, worth ~$650M at its $11.9B acquisition price for stockholders; A.Capital says it could bag $1.5B on the sale (Yuliya Chernova/Wall Street Journal)
https://www.wsj.com/tech/betaworks-scores-with-hugging-face-deal-f359e3ec
https://www.wsj.com/tech/betaworks-scores-with-hugging-face-deal-f359e3ec
The Wall Street Journal
Exclusive | Betaworks Scores With Hugging Face Deal
John Borthwick’s venture firm wrote the first check Hugging Face ever received, and now owns a stake that could be worth $650 million. Other early investors also did handsomely.
Q&A with Kai-Fu Lee on China's open-model advantage, AI's impact on jobs, US export restrictions on chips, Chinese AI's role in developing countries, and more (Mishal Husain/Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2026-kai-fu-lee-weekend-interview/?accessToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJzb3VyY2UiOiJTdWJzY3JpYmVyR2lmdGVkQXJ0aWNsZSIsImlhdCI6MTc4ODU2NDY4OSwiZXhwIjoxNzg5MTY5NDg5LCJhcnRpY2xlSWQiOiJUS1RQV0tLSVVQUzgwMCIsImJjb25uZWN0SWQiOiI4OUM4OTNDMDhGOTQ0NThDQkQwQTQyREY1RDFCOTY0QyJ9.nLBC-9yf4-nPwNS-uFqtGKEZT4W6X3MXMOQKHqeF4Ws
https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2026-kai-fu-lee-weekend-interview/?accessToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJzb3VyY2UiOiJTdWJzY3JpYmVyR2lmdGVkQXJ0aWNsZSIsImlhdCI6MTc4ODU2NDY4OSwiZXhwIjoxNzg5MTY5NDg5LCJhcnRpY2xlSWQiOiJUS1RQV0tLSVVQUzgwMCIsImJjb25uZWN0SWQiOiI4OUM4OTNDMDhGOTQ0NThDQkQwQTQyREY1RDFCOTY0QyJ9.nLBC-9yf4-nPwNS-uFqtGKEZT4W6X3MXMOQKHqeF4Ws
Bloomberg.com
Former Google China Chief Kai-Fu Lee: China Will Win the AI Race for Reach
Would you pay top dollar for the very best AI model, or much less for one that’s six months behind? Former Google China chief Kai-Fu Lee thinks that tradeoff could give Chinese AI a global edge
In response to the "wiki incident", OpenAI says it is working on a framework for reporting misalignment incidents during training, evaluation, and deployment (@openai)
https://x.com/openai/status/2096133504417616165
https://x.com/openai/status/2096133504417616165
X (formerly Twitter)
OpenAI (@OpenAI) on X
How we think about the “wiki incident,” where our agents wrote to several internet sites: it’s past time for us to define standards for when and how we share misalignment incidents, not just misal…
Businesses in China are experimenting with ways to package and market AI tokens to ordinary consumers, including as credit card rewards and telecom plan bundles (Kinling Lo/Rest of World)
https://restofworld.org/2026/china-ai-tokens-consumer-rewards-credit-cards-telcos-deepseek/
https://restofworld.org/2026/china-ai-tokens-consumer-rewards-credit-cards-telcos-deepseek/
Rest of World
Chinese businesses are giving away AI tokens with coffee, credit cards, and dumplings
Five unexpected ways computing power is entering everyday life in the country.
Anthropomorphic portrayals of AI models as rogue agents can obscure the responsibility that companies like OpenAI have for incidents like the Hugging Face hack (Robert Hart/The Verge)
https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/987566/ai-civilizations-opeai-hugging-face-hack
https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/987566/ai-civilizations-opeai-hugging-face-hack
The Verge
The rise of AI ‘civilizations’ and the fall of corporate responsibility
The internet fights over anthropomorphism around the Hugging Face hack.
Swiss Re: global premiums for insuring data centers will likely reach $20B-$30B/year by 2030; ~40% of US data-center capacity is located in tornado-prone areas (Jean Eaglesham/Wall Street Journal)
https://www.wsj.com/finance/the-next-big-opportunity-in-data-centers-insuring-them-f133f3cb
https://www.wsj.com/finance/the-next-big-opportunity-in-data-centers-insuring-them-f133f3cb
The Wall Street Journal
The Next Big Opportunity in Data Centers: Insuring Them
From tornadoes to power cuts, artificial-intelligence hyperscale data centers are exposed to a dizzying array of potential threats during their construction and operation.
Trump admin debuts arcade.gov with a deportation-themed Snake clone and a Tetris-like wall-building clone; Tetris says it takes IP infringement "very seriously" (ABC News)
https://abcnews.com/Politics/white-house-launches-arcade-computer-game-lets-players/story?id=136214362
https://abcnews.com/Politics/white-house-launches-arcade-computer-game-lets-players/story?id=136214362
ABC News
White House launches Arcade.gov with computer game that lets players 'deport' migrants
The White House announced the launch of what it called "Arcade.gov," a website of five versions of classic computer games promoting the president's agenda.
The Seattle Times and Newsday sue OpenAI and Microsoft, alleging the companies trained AI on their journalism; Microsoft and OpenAI are funders of Seattle Times (Todd Bishop/GeekWire)
https://www.geekwire.com/2026/seattle-times-sues-microsoft-and-openai-alleging-they-trained-their-ai-on-its-journalism/
https://www.geekwire.com/2026/seattle-times-sues-microsoft-and-openai-alleging-they-trained-their-ai-on-its-journalism/
GeekWire
Seattle Times sues Microsoft and OpenAI, alleging they trained their AI on its journalism
Microsoft was sued Friday by the parent company of its hometown daily newspaper, The Seattle Times Co., which joined with Newsday to accuse the Redmond tech giant and OpenAI of using their journalism to train their artificial intelligence models.
As researchers begin applying AI to understand animal communication, bioethicists warn it could give humans new ways to manipulate, exploit, and harm animals (Morgan Meaker/Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-09-04/ai-s-next-ethical-dilemma-should-humans-talk-to-animals?accessToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJzb3VyY2UiOiJTdWJzY3JpYmVyR2lmdGVkQXJ0aWNsZSIsImlhdCI6MTc4ODU5MTI2NiwiZXhwIjoxNzg5MTk2MDY2LCJhcnRpY2xlSWQiOiJUS1RTTzBSMjRVODYwMCIsImJjb25uZWN0SWQiOiIwNEFGQkMxQkYyMTA0NUVEODg3MzQxQkQwQzIyNzRBMCJ9.hjuVWuvnk50kQIpiRPsoTF4ZBtQlEN-J_CO18jEmzX4
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-09-04/ai-s-next-ethical-dilemma-should-humans-talk-to-animals?accessToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJzb3VyY2UiOiJTdWJzY3JpYmVyR2lmdGVkQXJ0aWNsZSIsImlhdCI6MTc4ODU5MTI2NiwiZXhwIjoxNzg5MTk2MDY2LCJhcnRpY2xlSWQiOiJUS1RTTzBSMjRVODYwMCIsImJjb25uZWN0SWQiOiIwNEFGQkMxQkYyMTA0NUVEODg3MzQxQkQwQzIyNzRBMCJ9.hjuVWuvnk50kQIpiRPsoTF4ZBtQlEN-J_CO18jEmzX4
Bloomberg.com
Talking to Animals Is AI’s Next Ethical Minefield
AI could transform our understanding of other species. It also risks giving humans powerful new ways to manipulate, exploit and harm them.
The data center backlash is challenging Texas' pro-business approach; Wood Mackenzie: Texas has more data center capacity under construction than any US state (Stephanie Findlay/Financial Times)
https://www.ft.com/content/fff531fc-988c-4016-9b5b-25f2274f4d47?accessToken=zwAAAaBq_GUskdP_9TH8mIxAFtObWyXyJ09NRw.MEYCIQD09lhipznFC83rVxTx4ztMI_rtYxuK-2xpbJltH0yV8AIhALEtjnwE4yew40b3WfYJRD1cEh2sBy9ecksnl-0qFESV&sharetype=gift&token=2310df83-b6ea-4b36-9b05-d4b985b00bbf&syn-25a6b1a6=1
https://www.ft.com/content/fff531fc-988c-4016-9b5b-25f2274f4d47?accessToken=zwAAAaBq_GUskdP_9TH8mIxAFtObWyXyJ09NRw.MEYCIQD09lhipznFC83rVxTx4ztMI_rtYxuK-2xpbJltH0yV8AIhALEtjnwE4yew40b3WfYJRD1cEh2sBy9ecksnl-0qFESV&sharetype=gift&token=2310df83-b6ea-4b36-9b05-d4b985b00bbf&syn-25a6b1a6=1
OpenAI quietly updates its evaluation metrics for GPT-6 Astra, making changes that appear to favor Astra and continuing to revise other metrics after launch (Emily Forlini/Fortune)
https://fortune.com/2026/09/04/openai-quietly-boosts-some-of-astras-evaluation-metrics-amid-rare-delay-in-publication-of-the-modeblog-post-announcement/
https://fortune.com/2026/09/04/openai-quietly-boosts-some-of-astras-evaluation-metrics-amid-rare-delay-in-publication-of-the-modeblog-post-announcement/
Fortune
OpenAI quietly boosts some of Astra's evaluation metrics, and continues to change others post-launch | Fortune
It's unclear what delayed OpenAI's official blog post on Astra. But when it did appear, some performance figures had changed in Astra's favor.
Sources: Travis Kalanick's Atoms is developing robotaxi tech and hired Anthony Levandowski after acquiring his company Pronto; Uber has invested $100M in Atoms (Rafe Rosner-Uddin/Financial Times)
https://www.ft.com/content/8a708224-3a37-4d23-9f5c-158a73216018
https://www.ft.com/content/8a708224-3a37-4d23-9f5c-158a73216018