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November 2, 2026

Category: Legal Law

How do I report Workplace discrimination?

Experiencing Workplace discrimination can be stressful, but knowing how to report it is essential for protecting your legal rights. Discrimination may involve unfair treatment because of race, disability, age, religion, sex, family status, or other protected characteristics recognized under human rights legislation. These laws carry exceptional legal authority and generally take priority over conflicting legislation, ensuring

Can harassment lead to unjust dismissal Canada claims?

harassment lead to unjust dismissal Canada claims Can harassment lead to unjust dismissal Canada claims? The short answer is yes, because workplace harassment can directly affect the fairness of an employee’s termination or even force an employee to resign. In the context of Unjust dismissal Canada, harassment is not just a workplace conduct issue; it

Can employees challenge termination without cause?

Employees often wonder if they can legally challenge Termination without cause. In Canada, this type of termination is generally allowed as long as employers comply with statutory and contractual obligations, including providing notice or pay in lieu of notice. However, employees do have the right to contest terminations if they believe their legal or contractual

How is severance pay calculated for federal workers?

severance pay calculated for federal workers Calculating severance pay for federal workers is an important aspect of employment law in Canada, as it ensures that employees who are terminated without cause receive fair compensation. Federal employees work in sectors that are governed by the Canada Labour Code, including banking, telecommunications, railways, airlines, and interprovincial trucking.

Are workplace harassment lawyer fees negotiable?

Workplace harassment lawyer fees When dealing with mistreatment or discrimination at work, many employees hesitate to take legal action because of financial concerns. One of the most common questions people ask is, are workplace harassment lawyer fees negotiable? The truth is, in many cases, they are. Legal representation can be costly, but workplace harassment lawyers

“You are evil”: GirlsDoPorn ringleader Michael Pratt sentenced to 27 years

“For almost a decade, the Defendant led the scheme to systematically coerce and defraud women into engaging in filmed sexual activity for profit,” the sentencing recommendation said. “A sentence of 260 months is warranted, given the longevity of the scheme, the amount of profit, and the extent of the damage to the victims.” Pratt’s plea

Trump’s attempt to fire FTC Democrat gets a boost from Supreme Court

1935 Supreme Court is key precedent The key precedent in the case is Humphrey’s Executor v. United States, a 1935 ruling in which the Supreme Court unanimously held that the president can only remove FTC commissioners for inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office. Trump’s termination notices to Slaughter and Bedoya said they were

EchoStar to sell spectrum to SpaceX after FCC threatened to revoke licenses

SpaceX’s complaints to the Federal Communications Commission have helped the satellite company land a $17 billion deal to buy spectrum licenses from EchoStar. The deal consists of up to $8.5 billion in cash and up to $8.5 billion in SpaceX stock, EchoStar said. SpaceX also agreed to pay $2 billion worth of interest payments on

Warner Bros. sues Midjourney to stop AI knockoffs of Batman, Scooby-Doo

Midjourney could slow down the cycle and “minimize” these allegedly infringing outputs, if it cannot automatically block them all, WB suggested. But instead, “Midjourney has made a calculated and profit-driven decision to offer zero protection for copyright owners even though Midjourney knows about the breathtaking scope of its piracy and copyright infringement,” WB alleged. Fearing

“First of its kind” AI settlement: Anthropic to pay authors $1.5 billion

Authors revealed today that Anthropic agreed to pay $1.5 billion and destroy all copies of the books the AI company pirated to train its artificial intelligence models. In a press release provided to Ars, the authors confirmed that the settlement is “believed to be the largest publicly reported recovery in the history of US copyright

Harvard beats Trump as judge orders US to restore $2.6 billion in funding

A federal judge sided with Harvard University in its lawsuit against the Trump administration, ordering the US government to unfreeze about $2.6 billion in funding. The judge’s ruling also criticized the Supreme Court for issuing orders that seem to set precedents aside “without much explanation.” Like various other rulings against the Trump administration, the Harvard

Court reinstates fired FTC Democrat, says Trump ignored Supreme Court precedent

A Democrat who was fired from the Federal Trade Commission by President Trump was reinstated to her position yesterday in an appeals court ruling. Trump’s firing of Commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter violated Supreme Court precedent, said yesterday’s ruling from the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. A District Court judge ruled

FCC chair teams up with Ted Cruz to block Wi-Fi hotspots for schoolkids

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr is teaming up with Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) to block funding for Wi-Fi hotspots for schoolchildren. Cruz convinced the Senate to kill the FCC’s hotspot program in May. While Cruz’s proposal didn’t make it through the House of Representatives, Carr is now taking action to stop the program’s implementation.

Delete, Delete, Delete: How FCC Republicans are killing rules faster than ever

The Federal Communications Commission’s Republican chairman is eliminating regulations at breakneck speed by using a process that cuts dozens of rules at a time while giving the public only 10 or 20 days to review each proposal and submit objections. Chairman Brendan Carr started his “Delete, Delete, Delete” rule-cutting initiative in March and later announced

Revolving door: Ex-senator becomes cable industry’s top lobbyist

Rule-cutting and mergers on cable agenda As the NCTA’s new head, Gardner will be representing the interests of Comcast, Charter, and other cable companies. He can be expected to continue the group’s long-term fight against government regulations applied to cable TV and broadband providers. He won’t have much trouble convincing the current FCC chairman, Brendan

Ars Live: Consumer tech firms stuck scrambling ahead of looming chip tariffs

And perhaps the biggest confounding factor for businesses attempting to align supply chain choices with predictable tariff costs is looming chip tariffs. Trump has suggested those could come in August, but nearing the end of the month, there’s still no clarity there. As tech firms brace for chip tariffs, Brzytwa will share CTA’s forecast based

CBS caved to Trump—now he’s seeking punishments for ABC and NBC

Fresh off his thorough victory over CBS News, President Trump is taking aim at ABC and NBC. “Why is it that ABC and NBC FAKE NEWS, two of the absolute worst and most biased networks anywhere in the World, aren’t paying Millions of Dollars a year in LICENSE FEES,” Trump wrote on Truth Social last

Elon Musk sues Apple and OpenAI, revealing his panic over OpenAI dominance

“There is no telling how long this exclusive arrangement will last,” X said, warning the court that OpenAI’s rivals “suffer harm every moment they are illegally denied access to these prompts.” X suggests that Apple has no valid pro-competitive reason to give ChatGPT such exclusivity and seemed stung that Apple allegedly rejected xAI’s request to

Texas suit alleging anti-coal “cartel” of top Wall Street firms could reshape ESG

This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, non-partisan news organization that covers climate, energy, and the environment. Sign up for their newsletter here. Since 2022, Republican lawmakers in Congress and state attorneys general have sent letters to major banks, pension funds, asset managers, accounting firms, companies, nonprofits, and business alliances, putting them

FTC claims Gmail filtering Republican emails threatens “American freedoms”

Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson accused Google of using “partisan” spam filtering in Gmail that sends Republican fundraising emails to the spam folder while delivering Democratic emails to inboxes. Ferguson sent a letter yesterday to Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, accusing the company of “potential FTC Act violations related to partisan administration of Gmail.” Ferguson’s

FCC chairman helps AT&T cement dominance with $23 billion spectrum deal

The FCC’s threat drew widespread backlash from across the political spectrum. The conservative Free State Foundation told the FCC that the move would create “regulatory uncertainty” for carriers, while consumer advocacy groups warned it would harm competition and wireless users. The AT&T/EchoStar deal was “inevitable in light of Chairman Carr’s determination that immediate intensity of

“ChatGPT killed my son”: Parents’ lawsuit describes suicide notes in chat logs

During those chats, “ChatGPT mentioned suicide 1,275 times—six times more often than Adam himself,” the lawsuit noted. Ultimately, OpenAI’s system flagged “377 messages for self-harm content, with 181 scoring over 50 percent confidence and 23 over 90 percent confidence.” Over time, these flags became more frequent, the lawsuit noted, jumping from two to three “flagged

Intel details everything that could go wrong with US taking a 10% stake

However, the US can vote “as it wishes,” Intel reported, and experts suggested to Reuters that regulations may be needed to “limit government opportunities for abuses such as insider trading.” That could reassure investors somewhat, Rich Weiss, a senior vice president and chief investment officer of multi-asset strategies for American Century Investments, told Reuters. Without

Judge unhappy with FCC’s “vague and uninformative” response to DOGE lawsuit

We contacted the FCC and will update this article if it provides a response. The plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction said the FCC, led by Chairman Brendan Carr, “acted favorably on several Starlink initiatives” while Musk and DOGE exerted influence within the agency. That includes “open[ing] an investigation against SpaceX competitor EchoStar,” which holds

DOGE accused of copying entire Social Security database to insecure cloud system

“Commissioner [Frank] Bisignano and the Social Security Administration take all whistleblower complaints seriously,” the agency said. “SSA stores all personal data in secure environments that have robust safeguards in place to protect vital information. The data referenced in the complaint is stored in a long-standing environment used by SSA and walled off from the Internet.

Authors celebrate “historic” settlement coming soon in Anthropic class action

Authors are celebrating a “historic” settlement expected to be reached soon in a class-action lawsuit over Anthropic’s AI training data. On Tuesday, US District Judge William Alsup confirmed that Anthropic and the authors “believe they have a settlement in principle” and will file a motion for preliminary approval of the settlement by September 5. The

Ars Live: Consumer tech firms stuck scrambling ahead of looming chip tariffs

And perhaps the biggest confounding factor for businesses attempting to align supply chain choices with predictable tariff costs is looming chip tariffs. Trump has suggested those could come in August, but nearing the end of the month, there’s still no clarity there. As tech firms brace for chip tariffs, Brzytwa will share CTA’s forecast based

Senator castigates federal judiciary for ignoring “basic cybersecurity”

US Senator Ron Wyden accused the federal judiciary of “negligence and incompetence” following a recent hack, reportedly by hackers with ties to the Russian government, that exposed confidential court documents. The breach of the judiciary’s electronic case filing system first came to light in a report by Politico three weeks ago, which went on to

Bank forced to rehire workers after lying about chatbot productivity, union says

As banks around the world prepare to replace many thousands of workers with AI, Australia’s biggest bank is scrambling to rehire 45 workers after allegedly lying about chatbots besting staff by handling higher call volumes. In a statement Thursday flagged by Bloomberg, Australia’s main financial services union, the Finance Sector Union (FSU), claimed a “massive

Is it illegal to not buy ads on X? Experts explain the FTC’s bizarre ad fight.

After a judge warned that the Federal Trade Commission’s probe into Media Matters for America (MMFA) should alarm “all Americans”—viewing it as a likely government retaliation intended to silence critical reporting from a political foe—the FTC this week appealed a preliminary injunction blocking the investigation. The Republican-led FTC’s determined to keep pressure on the nonprofit—which

4chan refuses to pay UK Online Safety Act fines, asks Trump admin to intervene

4chan’s law firms, Byrne & Storm and Coleman Law, said in a statement on August 15 that “4chan is a United States company, incorporated in Delaware, with no establishment, assets, or operations in the United Kingdom. Any attempt to impose or enforce a penalty against 4chan will be resisted in US federal court. American businesses

Developer gets 4 years for activating network “kill switch” to avenge his firing

“The defendant breached his employer’s trust by using his access and technical knowledge to sabotage company networks, wreaking havoc and causing hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses for a U.S. company,” Galeotti said. Developer loses fight to avoid prison time After his conviction, Lu moved to schedule a new trial, asking the court to

Trump says US will take 10% stake in Intel because CEO wants to “keep his job”

Intel has agreed to sell the US a 10 percent stake in the company, Donald Trump announced at a news conference Friday. The US stake is worth $10 billion, Trump said, confirming that the deal was inked following his talks with Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan. Trump had previously called for Tan to resign, accusing the

Starlink wants billions in grants, but state governments aren’t cooperating

Since reducing costs was one of the Trump administration’s stated goals, and states are complying with that mandate, they have a fighting chance to get their updated plans approved even if they face challenges from SpaceX. The NTIA seems to be “motivated by its desire to be able to return a significant amount of the

Deeply divided Supreme Court lets NIH grant terminations continue

The dissents The primary dissent was written by Chief Justice Roberts, and joined in part by the three Democratic appointees, Jackson, Kagan, and Sotomayor. It is a grand total of one paragraph, and can be distilled down to a single sentence: “If the District Court had jurisdiction to vacate the directives, it also had jurisdiction

Net neutrality advocates won’t appeal loss, say they don’t trust Supreme Court

Court ruled broadband isn’t telecommunications Although the Obama-era FCC won on this point in the District of Columbia Circuit in 2016, a Supreme Court ruling in 2024 gave courts more power to block rules when judges disagree with an agency’s interpretation of federal statutes. Judges at the 6th Circuit subsequently decided that broadband must be

Trump confirms US is seeking 10% stake in Intel. Bernie Sanders approves.

Trump plan salvages CHIPS Act he vowed to kill While chipmakers wait for more clarity, Lutnick has suggested that Trump—who campaigned on killing the CHIPS Act—has found a way to salvage the legislation that Joe Biden viewed as his lasting legacy. It seems possible that the plan arose after Trump realized how hard it would

Trump admin says it convinced UK to drop demand for Apple backdoor

The UK has dropped its demand that Apple create a backdoor for government security officials to access encrypted data, according to US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. Gabbard wrote in a post on X last night that she has “been working closely with our partners in the UK… to ensure Americans’ private data remains

SpaceX says states should dump fiber plans, give all grant money to Starlink

Starlink operator SpaceX is continuing its fight against state plans to expand fiber broadband availability. After saying the Trump administration should deny a Virginia proposal, SpaceX is taking the same approach in a fight against Louisiana. SpaceX made its view known to the Louisiana Office of Broadband Development and Connectivity in a filing, which was

Elon Musk’s “thermonuclear” Media Matters lawsuit may be fizzling out

“Perhaps the Defendants will establish otherwise later in these proceedings,” Sooknanan wrote. “But at this stage, the record certainly supports that inference,” that the FTC was politically motivated to back Musk’s fight. As the FTC mulls a potential appeal, the only other major front of Musk’s fight with MMFA is the lawsuit that X Corp.

T-Mobile claimed selling location data without consent is legal—judges disagree

Carriers claimed selling data didn’t violate law Instead of denying the allegations, the carriers argued that the FCC overstepped its authority. But the appeals court panel decided that the FCC acted properly: Sprint and T-Mobile (collectively, “the Carriers”) now petition for our review. Neither denies what happened. Instead, they argue that the undisputed facts do

NASA plans to build a nuclear reactor on the Moon—a space lawyer explains why

These sought-after regions are scientifically vital and geopolitically sensitive, as multiple countries want to build bases or conduct research there. Building infrastructure in these areas would cement a country’s ability to access the resources there and potentially exclude others from doing the same. Critics may worry about radiation risks. Even if designed for peaceful use

Trump strikes “wild” deal making US firms pay 15% tax on China chip sales

A former adviser to Joe Biden’s Commerce Department, Alasdair Phillips-Robins, told Reuters that the levy suggests the Trump administration “is trading away national security protections for revenue for the Treasury.” Huawei close to unveiling new AI chip tech The end of a 90-day truce between the US and China is rapidly approaching, with the US

Sam Altman finally stood up to Elon Musk after years of X trolling

Musk claimed the request was to “ensure OpenAI was not being taken advantage of or corrupted by Microsoft,” but two weeks later, he appeared on national TV, insinuating that OpenAI’s partnership with Microsoft was “improper,” OpenAI alleged. Eventually, Musk announced xAI in July 2023, and that supposedly motivated Musk to deepen his harassment campaign, “this

Meta backtracks on rules letting chatbots be creepy to kids

After what was arguably Meta’s biggest purge of child predators from Facebook and Instagram earlier this summer, the company now faces backlash after its own chatbots appeared to be allowed to creep on kids. After reviewing an internal document that Meta verified as authentic, Reuters revealed that by design, Meta allowed its chatbots to engage

US may purchase stake in Intel after Trump attacked CEO

Why Intel may be into Trump’s deal At one point, Intel was the undisputed leader in chip manufacturing, Bloomberg noted, but its value plummeted from $288 billion in 2020 to $104 billion today. The chipmaker has been struggling for a while—falling behind as Nvidia grew to dominate the AI chip industry—and 2024 was its “first

Trump admin ranks companies on loyalty while handing out favors to Big Tech

We contacted the White House today and will update the story if it provides any comment. Ending “weaponization” Public Citizen wrote that “President Donald Trump spent much of his 2024 presidential campaign claiming his prosecution by multiple authorities and subsequent conviction for his crimes are unfair ‘weaponization’ of law enforcement. Corporate executives in the technology

Starlink tries to block Virginia’s plan to bring fiber Internet to residents

Noting that its “project areas span from mountains and hills to farmland and coastal plains,” the DHCD said its previous experience with grant-funded deployments “revealed that tree canopy, rugged terrain, and slope can complicate installation and/or obstruct line-of-sight.” State officials said that wireless and low-Earth orbit satellite technology “can have signal degradation, increased latency, and

US government agency drops Grok after MechaHitler backlash, report says

xAI apparently lost a government contract after a tweak to Grok’s prompting triggered an antisemitic meltdown where the chatbot praised Hitler and declared itself MechaHitler last month. Despite the scandal, xAI announced that its products would soon be available for federal workers to purchase through the General Services Administration. At the time, xAI claimed this

Wikipedia loses UK Safety Act challenge, worries it will have to verify user IDs

Wikipedia’s parent organization lost a challenge to the UK Online Safety Act but can bring another case if the government tries to force it to verify the identity of Wikipedia users. The High Court of Justice in London dismissed claims from the Wikimedia Foundation, which challenged the lawfulness of the categorization system used to determine

China tells Alibaba, ByteDance to justify purchases of Nvidia AI chips

Beijing is demanding tech companies including Alibaba and ByteDance justify their orders of Nvidia’s H20 artificial intelligence chips, complicating the US chipmaker’s business in China after striking an export arrangement with the Trump administration. The tech companies have been asked by regulators such as the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) to explain why

Musk threatens to sue Apple so Grok can get top App Store ranking

As more recent evidence of allegedly bad-faith conduct, OpenAI noted that Musk signed a letter calling for a moratorium on all AI development in 2023. That six-month pause on all AI development may have bought Musk time to catch up with ChatGPT, as he was at that time plowing ahead with his plans to release

YouTube backlash begins: “Why is AI combing through every single video I watch?”

Among concerned users fighting to block AI age checks is the petition starter, an anonymous YouTuber who runs a monetized account exploring video game lore called “Gerfdas Gaming” (who, for simplicity’s sake, we’ll refer to as Gerfdas). Gerfdas told Ars that YouTube’s appeal process “raises major privacy concerns,” leaving YouTubers wondering, “where is this sensitive

Reddit blocks Internet Archive to end sneaky AI scraping

“Until they’re able to defend their site and comply with platform policies (e.g., respecting user privacy, re: deleting removed content) we’re limiting some of their access to Reddit data to protect redditors,” Rathschmidt said. A review of social media comments suggests that in the past, some Redditors have used the Wayback Machine to research deleted

New executive order puts all grants under political control

On Thursday, the Trump administration issued an executive order asserting political control over grant funding, including all federally supported research. The order requires that any announcement of funding opportunities be reviewed by the head of the agency or someone they designate, which means a political appointee will have the ultimate say over what areas of

Trump wanted a US-made iPhone. Apple gave him a gold statue.

Once again, Apple escapes Trump’s iPhone pressure Since Trump took office, analysts have suggested that Cook might be the tech CEO best prepared to navigate Trump’s trade war. During Trump’s last term, Cook launched a charm offensive, wooing Trump with investment commitments to avoid caving to Trump’s demands for US-made iPhones while securing tariff exemptions.

Tornado Cash sold crypto “privacy”; the US saw “money laundering.”

Some of Storm’s instant messages that his defense team wanted to use at trial. But Storm fought back. In a trial in Manhattan over the last few weeks, his defense team has introduced text messages showing that Storm was glad to have the North Koreans identified. As he put it, “I’m glad those f*ckers are

Nvidia warns of “disaster” if it has to put kill switch and backdoor in chips

Nvidia said there are no backdoors or kill switches in its chips, denying an accusation from the Chinese government. The company also urged policymakers to reject proposals for backdoors and kill switches. “There are no back doors in NVIDIA chips. No kill switches. No spyware. That’s not how trustworthy systems are built—and never will be,”

Trump admin warns states: Don’t try to lower broadband prices

The Trump administration is telling states they will be shut out of a $42 billion broadband deployment fund if they set the rates that Internet service providers receiving subsidies are allowed to charge people with low incomes. The latest version of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) FAQ on the grant program, released today,

Meta illegally collected data from Flo period and pregnancy app, jury finds

A federal jury found on Friday that Meta violated the California Invasion of Privacy Act, the state’s wiretap law, by collecting data from a period-tracker app without user consent. Plaintiffs in a class-action case proved by a preponderance of evidence that Meta intentionally eavesdropped on and/or recorded conversations using an electronic device, said a verdict

Trump claims Europe won’t make Big Tech pay ISPs; EU says it still might

We asked the White House and European Commission for more details today and will update this article with any new information. If the White House fact sheet’s reference to network usage fees has at least some truth to it, it may refer only to a tentative agreement between Trump and von der Leyen. The overall

Tesla awards Musk $29B in attempt to “keep Elon’s energies focused on Tesla”

The Tesla board approved the interim award yesterday, with recusals from Musk and his brother, Kimbal. The Tesla board is still working on “a longer-term CEO compensation strategy, which we plan to put to a shareholder vote at the November 6 annual meeting,” the letter said. The interim award would vest in two years, and

China claims Nvidia built backdoor into H20 chip designed for Chinese market

The CAC did not specify which experts had found a back door in Nvidia’s products or whether any tests in China had uncovered the same results. Nvidia did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Lawmakers in Washington have expressed concern about chip smuggling and introduced a bill that would require chipmakers such as

Trump suspends trade loophole for cheap online retailers globally

But even Amazon may struggle to shift its supply chain as the de minimis exemption is eliminated for all countries. In February, the e-commerce giant “projected lower-than-expected sales and operating income for its first quarter,” which it partly attributed to “unpredictability in the economy.” A DataWeave study concluded at the end of June that “US

Backpage scandal ends in largest US payout to trafficking victims

Survivors, or their representatives, must submit claims by February 2, 2026. To receive compensation, claims must include at least one document showing they “suffered monetary and/or behavioral health losses,” the claims form specified. Documents can include emails, texts, screenshots, or advertisements. Claims may be further strengthened by sharing receipts from doctors’ visits, as well as

Delta denies using AI to come up with inflated, personalized prices

Delta scandal highlights value of transparency According to Delta, the company has “zero tolerance for discriminatory or predatory pricing” and only feeds its AI system aggregated data “to enhance our existing fare pricing processes.” Rather than basing fare prices on customers’ personal information, Carter clarified that “all customers have access to the same fares and

RIP Corporation for Public Broadcasting: 1967–2026

Despite the protests of millions of Americans, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) announced it will be winding down its operations after the White House deemed NPR and PBS a “grift” and pushed for a Senate vote that eliminated its entire budget. The vote rescinded $1.1 billion that Congress had allocated to CPB to fund

ChatGPT users shocked to learn their chats were in Google search results

Faced with mounting backlash, OpenAI removed a controversial ChatGPT feature that caused some users to unintentionally allow their private—and highly personal—chats to appear in search results. Fast Company exposed the privacy issue on Wednesday, reporting that thousands of ChatGPT conversations were found in Google search results and likely only represented a sample of chats “visible

YouTube’s selfie collection, AI age checks are concerning, privacy experts say

Privacy experts are demanding transparency after YouTube announced it would test using AI to estimate user ages in the US ahead of a wider rollout of the age check system. Throughout the first half of August, YouTube will begin interpreting “a variety of signals” to determine if certain users are under 18. No new user

US moves to ban shady subscription auto-renewals after FTC court loss

Picking up where the FTC left off, lawmakers announced the Click to Cancel Act, which requires companies to “provide a simple, direct mechanism to cancel a subscription and immediately stop charges.” It also requires companies to obtain clear and direct consent before signing customers up for auto-renewals. John Breyault, vice president of public policy, telecommunications,

Substack’s “Nazi problem” won’t go away after push notification apology

Moxon has switched to Ghost for his independent blog, The Reframe, an open source Substack alternative that woos users by migrating accounts for users and ditching Substack’s fees, which take a 10 percent cut of each Substacker’s transactions. That means users can easily switch platforms and make more money on Ghost, if they can attract

VPN use soars in UK after age-verification laws go into effect

Also on Friday, the Windscribe VPN service posted a screenshot on X claiming to show a spike in new subscribers. The makers of the AdGuard VPN claimed that they have seen a 2.5X increase in install rates from the UK since Friday. Nord Security, the company behind the NordVPN app, says it has seen a

AI in Wyoming may soon use more electricity than state’s human residents

Wyoming’s data center boom Cheyenne is no stranger to data centers, having attracted facilities from Microsoft and Meta since 2012 due to its cool climate and energy access. However, the new project pushes the state into uncharted territory. While Wyoming is the nation’s third-biggest net energy supplier, producing 12 times more total energy than it

How the Trump FCC justified requiring a “bias monitor” at CBS

The Federal Communications Commission’s approval of CBS owner Paramount’s $8 billion merger with Skydance came with a condition to install an ombudsman, which FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has described as a “bias monitor.” It appears that the bias monitor will make sure the news company’s reporting meets standards demanded by President Donald Trump. “One of

Trump caving on Nvidia H20 export curbs may disrupt his bigger trade war

But experts seem to fear that Trump isn’t paying enough attention to how exports of US technology could threaten to not only supercharge China’s military and AI capabilities but also drain supplies that US firms need to keep the US at the forefront of AI innovation. “More chips for China means fewer chips for the

Meta pirated and seeded porn for years to train AI, lawsuit says

Evidence may prove Meta seeded more content Seeking evidence to back its own copyright infringement claims, Strike 3 Holdings searched “its archive of recorded infringement captured by its VXN Scan and Cross Reference tools” and found 47 “IP addresses identified as owned by Facebook infringing its copyright protected Works.” The data allegedly demonstrates a “continued

California backs down to Trump admin, won’t force ISPs to offer $15 broadband

Boerner said her goal with the bill “was always a basic broadband service” that would be affordable. “There are lots of packages out there in the world that people choose to get because they’re being price-conscious and they choose the service level that they need,” she said. We asked Boerner about pressure from broadband industry

A power utility is reporting suspected pot growers to cops. EFF says that’s illegal.

In May 2020, Sacramento, California, resident Alfonso Nguyen was alarmed to find two Sacramento County Sheriff’s deputies at his door, accusing him of illegally growing cannabis and demanding entry into his home. When Nguyen refused the search and denied the allegation, one deputy allegedly called him a liar and threatened to arrest him. That same

Conduct rules are coming for Google and Apple in the UK

“The targeted and proportionate actions we have set out today would enable UK app developers to remain at the forefront of global innovation while ensuring UK consumers receive a world-class experience,” Cardell said. “Time is of the essence: as competition agencies and courts globally take action in these markets, it’s essential the UK doesn’t fall

Trump’s order to make chatbots anti-woke is unconstitutional, senator says

Earlier this summer, Grok shocked the world after Musk announced he would be updating the bot to eliminate a supposed liberal bias. The unhinged chatbot began spouting offensive outputs, including antisemitic posts that praised Hitler as well as proclaiming itself “MechaHitler.” But those obvious biases did not conflict with the Pentagon’s decision to grant xAI

Delta’s AI spying to “jack up” prices must be banned, lawmakers say

“There is no fare product Delta has ever used, is testing or plans to use that targets customers with individualized offers based on personal information or otherwise,” Delta said. “A variety of market forces drive the dynamic pricing model that’s been used in the global industry for decades, with new tech simply streamlining this process.

Skydance deal allows Trump’s FCC to “censor speech” and “silence dissent” on CBS

Warning that the “Paramount payout” and “reckless” acquisition approval together mark a “dark chapter” for US press freedom, Gomez suggested the FCC’s approval will embolden “those who believe the government can—and should—abuse its power to extract financial and ideological concessions, demand favored treatment, and secure positive media coverage.” FCC terms also govern Skydance hiring decisions

Trump, who promised to save TikTok, threatens to shut down TikTok

Donald Trump vowed to save TikTok before taking office, claiming only he could make a deal to keep the app operational in the US despite national security concerns. But then, he put Vice President JD Vance in charge of the deal, and after months of negotiations, the US still doesn’t seem to have found terms

White House unveils sweeping plan to “win” global AI race through deregulation

Trump’s plan was not welcomed by everyone. J.B. Branch, Big Tech accountability advocate for Public Citizen, in a statement provided to Ars, criticized Trump as giving “sweetheart deals” to tech companies that would cause “electricity bills to rise to subsidize discounted power for massive AI data centers.” Infrastructure demands and energy requirements Trump’s new AI

Ukrainians arrest alleged admin of major crime forum XSS

Yesterday, Ukrainian authorities arrested the suspected administrator of a notorious Russian-language crime forum, XSS.is. In an X post, the Paris Prosecutor’s Office announced that Ukrainian authorities detained the suspect after an investigation conducted with French authorities’ and Europol’s help that began almost exactly four years ago. XSS has been “one of the main hubs of

Whistleblower scientists outline Trump’s plan to politicize and dismantle NSF

Nearly 150 employees of the National Science Foundation (NSF) sent an urgent letter of dissent to Congress on Tuesday, warning that the Trump administration’s recent “politically motivated and legally questionable” actions threaten to dismantle the independent “world-renowned scientific agency.” Most NSF employees signed the letter anonymously, with only Jesus Soriano, the president of their local

Toy company may regret coming for “Sylvanian Drama” TikToker, experts say

A popular account on TikTok and Instagram stopped posting suddenly at the end of last year, hit by a lawsuit after garnering millions of views on funny videos using adorable Calico Critter dolls made for preschoolers to act out dark, cringe-y adult storylines. While millions of followers mourn the so-called “Sylvanian Drama” account’s demise, experts

xAI workers balked over training request to help “give Grok a face,” docs show

For the more than 200 employees who did not opt out, xAI asked that they record 15- to 30-minute conversations, where one employee posed as the potential Grok user and the other posed as the “host.” xAI was specifically looking for “imperfect data,” BI noted, expecting that only training on crystal-clear videos would limit Grok’s

FCC to eliminate gigabit speed goal and scrap analysis of broadband prices

“As part of our return to following the plain language of section 706, we propose to abolish without replacement the long-term goal of 1,000/500Mbps established in the 2024 Report,” Carr’s plan said. “Not only is a long-term goal not mentioned in section 706, but maintaining such a goal risks skewing the market by unnecessarily potentially

Researcher threatens X with lawsuit after falsely linking him to French probe

X claimed that David Chavalarias, “who spearheads the ‘Escape X’ campaign”—which is “dedicated to encouraging X users to leave the platform”—was chosen to assess the data with one of his prior research collaborators, Maziyar Panahi. “The involvement of these individuals raises serious concerns about the impartiality, fairness, and political motivations of the investigation, to put

GOP’s pro-industry crypto bills could financially ruin millions, lawmaker warns

It’s “Crypto Week” in Congress, and experts continue to warn that legislation Donald Trump wants passed quickly could give the president ample opportunities to grift while leaving Americans more vulnerable to scams and financial ruin. Perhaps most controversial of the bills is the one that’s closest to reaching Trump’s desk, the GENIUS Act, which creates

Trump sues Corporation for Public Broadcasting directors who refused to be fired

When contacted by Ars today, the CPB did not offer any comment on the Trump administration’s lawsuit but referred us to its June 8 statement on Moss’s ruling. “We are very pleased that the Court recognized CPB is an independent, nonprofit corporation, free from governmental control or influence,” CPB CEO Patricia Harrison said at the

EU presses pause on probe of X as US trade talks heat up

While Trump and Musk have fallen out this year after developing a political alliance on the 2024 election, the US president has directly attacked EU penalties on US companies calling them a “form of taxation” and comparing fines on tech companies with “overseas extortion.” Despite the US pressure, commission president Ursula von der Leyen has

Senate votes to kill entire public broadcasting budget in blow to NPR and PBS

CPB expenses in fiscal year 2025 are $545 million, of which 66.9 percent goes to TV programming. Another 22.3 percent goes to radio programming, while the rest is for administration and support. The CPB distributes over 70 percent of its funding to about 1,500 public radio and TV stations. Those stations pay fees to NPR

Trump to sign stablecoin bill that may make it easier to bribe the president

Some Democrats supported the GENIUS Act, arguing that some regulation is better than none as cryptocurrency activity increases globally and the technology has the potential to revolutionize the US financial system. But Hand told Ars that “we’ve already seen what happens when there are no protections” for consumers, like during the FTX collapse. She joins

Court rules Trump broke US law when he fired Democratic FTC commissioner

“Without removal protections, that independence would be jeopardized… Accordingly, the Court held that the FTC Act’s for-cause removal protections were constitutional,” wrote AliKhan, who was appointed to the District Court by President Biden in 2023. Judge: Facts almost identical to 1935 case The Supreme Court reaffirmed its Humphrey’s Executor findings in cases decided in 2010

Cocky cop jailed for stealing bitcoins had log of his crypto theft in his office

A former cop in the United Kingdom was sentenced to five and a half years in prison Wednesday after pleading guilty to covering up his theft of 50 bitcoins seized during an investigation into the now-defunct illicit dark web marketplace Silk Road. In 2014, the former UK National Crime Agency (NCA) officer, Paul Chowles, assisted

Will AI end cheap flights? Critics attack Delta’s “predatory” AI pricing.

Although Delta’s AI pricing could increase competition in the airline industry, Slover expects that companies using such pricing schemes are “all too likely” to be incentivized “to skew in the direction of higher prices” because of the AI pricing’s lack of transparency. “Informed consumer choice is the engine that drives competition; because consumers won’t be

Permit for xAI’s data center blatantly violates Clean Air Act, NAACP says

In an SELC press release, LaTricea Adams, CEO and President of Young, Gifted and Green, called the SCHD’s decisions on xAI’s permit “reckless.” “As a Black woman born and raised in Memphis, I know firsthand how industry harms Black communities while those in power cower away from justice,” Adams said. “The Shelby County Health Department

Grok’s “MechaHitler” meltdown didn’t stop xAI from winning $200M military deal

Grok checked Musk’s posts, called itself “MechaHitler” xAI has been checking Elon Musk’s posts before providing answers on some topics, such as the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. xAI acknowledged this in an update today that addressed two problems with Grok. One problem “was that if you ask it ‘What do you think?’ the model reasons that as

Chinese firms rush for Nvidia chips as US prepares to lift ban

Chinese firms have begun rushing to order Nvidia’s H20 AI chips as the company plans to resume sales to mainland China, Reuters reports. The chip giant expects to receive US government licenses soon so that it can restart shipments of the restricted processors just days after CEO Jensen Huang met with President Donald Trump, potentially

Why Gov. Greg Abbott won’t release his emails with Elon Musk

The language Abbott’s office used appears to be fairly boilerplate. Paxton’s office, in an explanation of the common-law privacy exception on its website, mentions that “personal financial information” that doesn’t deal with government transactions “is generally highly intimate or embarrassing and must be withheld.” But Bill Aleshire, a Texas-based attorney specializing in public records law,

Reddit’s UK users must now prove they’re 18 to view adult content

“Society has long protected youngsters from products that aren’t suitable for them, from alcohol to smoking or gambling,” Ofcom said. “Now, children will be better protected from online material that’s not appropriate for them, while adults’ rights to access legal content are preserved. We expect other companies to follow suit, or face enforcement if they

Two guys hated using Comcast, so they built their own fiber ISP

Now, Herman is paying $80 a month to his own company for symmetrical gigabit service. Prime-One also offers 500Mbps for $75, 2Gbps for $95, and 5Gbps for $110. The first 30 days are free, and all plans have unlimited data and no contracts. “We are 100 percent fiber optic,” Baciu told Ars. “Everything that we’re

US may get its own glitchy version of TikTok if Trump’s deal works out

“Even if Beijing would choose to overlook the recent tariff hikes and ratcheting up of US export controls on chip technologies, they still wouldn’t grant export licenses for the algorithms,” Capri said. US version of TikTok may be buggy Trump claims that he has found US buyers for TikTok, which Bloomberg reported is believed to

Mike Lindell lost defamation case, and his lawyers were fined for AI hallucinations

Lawyers representing MyPillow and its CEO Mike Lindell were fined $6,000 after using artificial intelligence in a brief that was riddled with misquotes and citations to fictional cases. Attorney Christopher Kachouroff and the law firm of McSweeney Cynkar & Kachouroff were fined $3,000, jointly and severally. Attorney Jennifer DeMaster was separately ordered to pay $3,000.

Linda Yaccarino quits X without saying why, one day after Grok praised Hitler

And “the best is yet to come as X enters a new chapter” with xAI, Yaccarino said. Grok cites “growing tensions” between Musk and CEO It’s unclear how Yaccarino’s departure could influence X advertisers who may have had more confidence in the platform with her at the helm. Eventually, Musk commented on Yaccarino’s announcement, thanking

Everything tech giants will hate about the EU’s new AI rules

The code also details expectations for AI companies to respect paywalls, as well as robots.txt instructions restricting crawling, which could help confront a growing problem of AI crawlers hammering websites. It “encourages” online search giants to embrace a solution that Cloudflare is currently pushing: allowing content creators to protect copyrights by restricting AI crawling without

Trump’s DOJ seems annoyed about having to approve T-Mobile’s latest merger

DOJ approval “reads like a complaint” The DOJ’s unusual statement about the wireless industry oligopoly shows that the Justice Department staff and antitrust chief “clearly did not want to approve this,” stated Harold Feld, senior VP of consumer advocacy group Public Knowledge. The press release “reads like a complaint,” not an announcement of a merger

T-Mobile follows orders from Trump FCC, ends DEI to get two mergers approved

Update: Shortly after this article was published, the Department of Justice announced that it has closed its investigation into the T-Mobile/US Cellular deal and will not try to stop the merger. The FCC had not yet announced its own approval of the merger. Firm reassigns employees, scrubs DEI from training In March, T-Mobile obtained FCC

Cops’ favorite AI tool automatically deletes evidence of when AI was used

The AI tool could also possibly be “overstepping in its interpretation of the audio,” possibly misinterpreting slang or adding context that never happened. A “major concern,” the EFF said, is that the AI reports can give cops a “smokescreen,” perhaps even allowing them to dodge consequences for lying on the stand by blaming the AI

Verizon’s request to lock phones supported by police, opposed by users

With Verizon seeking permission to lock phones to its network for six months or longer instead of the current 60 days, a coalition of advocacy groups yesterday urged the Federal Communications Commission to reject the cellular carrier’s petition. “Phone locking distorts market competition, raises switching costs, and contributes to unnecessary e-waste,” the groups said in

Cloudflare wants Google to change its AI search crawling. Google likely won’t.

Ars could not immediately find any legislation that seemed to match Prince’s description, and Cloudflare did not respond to Ars’ request to comment. Passing tech laws is notoriously hard, though, partly because technology keeps advancing as policy debates drag on, and challenges with regulating artificial intelligence are an obvious example of that pattern today. Google

Court nullifies “click-to-cancel” rule that required easy methods of cancellation

FTC arguments rejected Summarizing the FTC’s arguments, judges said the agency contended that US law “did not require the Commission to conduct the preliminary regulatory analysis later in the rulemaking process,” and that “any alleged error was harmless because the NPRM addressed alternatives to the proposed amendments to the 1973 [Negative Option] Rule and analyzed

Grok praises Hitler, gives credit to Musk for removing “woke filters”

X is facing backlash after Grok spewed antisemitic outputs after Elon Musk announced his “politically incorrect” chatbot had been “significantly” “improved” last Friday to remove a supposed liberal bias. Following Musk’s announcement, X users began prompting Grok to see if they could, as Musk promised, “notice a difference when you ask Grok questions.” By Tuesday,

As California faces court battles, states scramble to save their climate goals

Where trucks congregate There’s also a policy tool called indirect source rules, or ISR. The rules are called “indirect” because they don’t regulate the vehicles themselves, but the facilities that attract emissions-heavy traffic, like large warehouses, ports, or rail yards. The rules hold the facilities owners or operators responsible for reducing or offsetting the pollution

What is wrongful dismissal? Ask an employment lawyer Scarborough.

employment lawyer Scarborough Wrongful dismissal is a term that often causes confusion for employees who have recently been let go from their job. It refers to a situation where an employer terminates an employee without providing reasonable notice or fair compensation in lieu of notice, as required by law or contract. If you’re unsure whether

Trump and Congress finalize law that could hurt your Wi-Fi

The 1,200 MHz between 5.925 and 7.125 GHz was allocated to Wi-Fi in April 2020 under then-FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. The Pai-led FCC rejected the mobile industry’s requests to use the band for cellular networks, saying that making the entire 6 GHz available to Wi-Fi on an unlicensed basis would promote “more efficient and productive

Trump’s tariff threat pushes Canada to scrap digital services tax

In a sudden reversal, Canada has caved and will remove its digital services tax after trade talks with the US suddenly fell apart this weekend. Blocked just hours before taking effect, the controversial digital services tax (DST) would have charged big US tech companies like Apple, Google, and Meta a 3 percent tax on all

Supreme Court to decide whether ISPs must disconnect users accused of piracy

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case that could determine whether Internet service providers must terminate users who are accused of copyright infringement. In a list of orders released today, the court granted a petition filed by cable company Cox. The ISP, which was sued by Sony Music Entertainment, is trying to overturn

Meta, TikTok can’t toss wrongful death suit from mom of “subway surfing” teen

Section 230 has so far failed to shield Meta and TikTok owner ByteDance from a lawsuit raised by a mother who alleged that her son’s wrongful death followed a flood of “subway surfing” videos platforms intentionally targeted to teens in New York. In a decision Monday, New York State Supreme Court Judge Paul Goetz largely

Pay up or stop scraping: Cloudflare program charges bots for each crawl

AI companies must buy in For Cloudflare’s plan to work, AI companies must sign up, too. However, while some AI companies may not see the incentive, Cloudflare has confirmed that it has partnered with AI companies on the initiative, which may benefit from having a simple interface to negotiate with content creators. Cloudflare suggested its

Ted Cruz plan to punish states that regulate AI shot down in 99-1 vote

Cruz blamed “outside interests” After the compromise fell apart, the Senate voted 99-1 for Blackburn’s amendment to remove the AI provision from the budget bill. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) cast the only vote against the amendment. “Cruz ultimately got behind Blackburn’s amendment early Tuesday, acknowledging that ‘many of my colleagues would prefer not to vote

Paramount accused of bribery as it settles Trump lawsuit for $16 million

Payout to future presidential library Paramount told us that the settlement terms were proposed by a mediator and that it will pay $16 million, including plaintiffs’ fees and costs. That amount, minus the fees and costs, will be allocated to Trump’s future presidential library, Paramount said. Trump’s complaint sought at least $20 billion in damages.

xAI data center gets air permit to run 15 turbines, but imaging shows 24 on site

Before xAI got the permit, residents were stuck relying on infrequent thermal imaging to determine how many turbines appeared to be running without BACT. Now that xAI has secured the permit, the company will be required to “record the date, time, and durations of all startups, shutdowns, malfunctions, and tuning events” and “always minimize emissions

Judge: You can’t ban DEI grants without bothering to define DEI

Separately, Trump v. Casa blocked the use of a national injunction against illegal activity. So, while the government’s actions have been determined to be illegal, Young can only protect the people who were parties to this suit. Anyone who lost a grant but wasn’t a member of any of the parties involved, or based in

NYT to start searching deleted ChatGPT logs after beating OpenAI in court

News orgs will soon start searching ChatGPT logs The clock is ticking, and so far, OpenAI has not provided any official updates since a June 5 blog post detailing which ChatGPT users will be affected. While it’s clear that OpenAI has been and will continue to retain mounds of data, it would be impossible for

Everything that could go wrong with X’s new AI-written community notes

If AI note writers “generate initial drafts that represent a wider range of perspectives than a single human writer typically could, the quality of community deliberation is improved from the start,” the paper said. Future of AI notes Researchers imagine that once X’s testing is completed, AI note writers could not just aid in researching

Nudify app’s plan to dominate deepfake porn hinges on Reddit, docs show

As Clothoff’s growth appears unstoppable, the user explained to Der Spiegel why he doesn’t feel that conflicted about using the app to generate fake nudes of a famous singer. “There are enough pictures of her on the Internet as it is,” the user reasoned. However, that user draws the line at generating fake nudes of

FCC chair decides inmates and their families must keep paying high phone prices

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr has decided to let prisons and jails keep charging high prices for calling services until at least 2027, delaying implementation of rate caps approved last year when the FCC had a Democratic majority. Carr’s office announced the change yesterday, saying it was needed because of “negative, unintended consequences stemming

GOP budget bill poised to crush renewable energy in the US

An early evaluation shows the administration’s planned energy policies would result in the drilling of 50,000 new oil wells every year for the next few years, he said, adding that it “ensures the continuation of land devastation… the poisoning of soil and groundwater due to fossil fuels and the continuation of gas blowouts and fires.”

Senate GOP budget bill has little-noticed provision that could hurt your Wi-Fi

Michael Calabrese of New America’s Open Technology Institute told Ars that 6 GHz and CBRS “are the most vulnerable non-federal bands for reallocation and auction.” While the spectrum for auctions is to come from frequencies between 1.3 and 10.5 GHz, much of that spectrum will be off-limits either because it’s specifically excluded or because it would

Trump’s FTC announces merger condition that prohibits advertising boycotts

The proposed consent order, which is subject to a 30-day public comment period, would resolve an administrative complaint filed by the FTC against Omnicom and Interpublic. The FTC complaint alleges that the merger would violate US antitrust law and Section 5 of the FTC Act, which prohibits unfair methods of competition. FTC complaint mirrors Musk’s

Anthropic destroyed millions of print books to build its AI models

But if you’re not intimately familiar with the AI industry and copyright, you might wonder: Why would a company spend millions of dollars on books to destroy them? Behind these odd legal maneuvers lies a more fundamental driver: the AI industry’s insatiable hunger for high-quality text. The race for high-quality training data To understand why

Stung by customer losses, Comcast says all its new plans have unlimited data

With Comcast trying to figure out how to stop losing broadband customers, the cable firm yesterday announced new plans that are available nationwide and do not have data caps. Comcast said it is offering “four simple national Internet tiers that include unlimited data and the advanced Xfinity WiFi Gateway for one low monthly price.” Customers

Supreme Court upholds Texas porn law that caused Pornhub to leave the state

Justice Elena Kagan filed a dissenting opinion that was joined by Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson. Kagan said that in similar cases, the court applied strict scrutiny, “a highly rigorous but not fatal form of constitutional review, to laws regulating protected speech based on its content.” “Texas’s law defines speech by content and tells

In a wild time for copyright law, the US Copyright Office has no leader

In the meantime, the Copyright Office is in the odd position of attempting to carry on as though it wasn’t missing its head. Immediately after Perlmutter’s dismissal, the Copyright Office paused issuing registration certificates “out of an abundance of caution,” according to USCO spokesperson Lisa Berardi Marflak, who says the pause impacted around 20,000 registrations.

Supreme Court overturns 5th Circuit ruling that upended Universal Service Fund

Finally, the Consumers’ Research position produces absurd results, divorced from any reasonable understanding of constitutional values. Under its view, a revenue-raising statute containing non-numeric, qualitative standards can never pass muster, no matter how tight the constraints they impose. But a revenue-raising statute with a numeric limit will always pass muster, even if it effectively leaves

Book authors made the wrong arguments in Meta AI training case, judge says

An interesting wrinkle that may have stopped authors from invoking market dilution as a threat in the Meta case is that Chhabria noted that Meta had argued that “market dilution does not count under the fourth factor.” But Chhabria clarified “that can’t be right.” “Indirect substitution is still substitution,” Chhabria wrote. “If someone bought a

Judge: Pirate libraries may have profited from Meta torrenting 80TB of books

It could certainly look worse for Meta if authors manage to present evidence supporting the second way that torrenting could be relevant to the case, Chhabaria suggested. “Meta downloading copyrighted material from shadow libraries” would also be relevant to the character of the use, “if it benefitted those who created the libraries and thus supported

Is DOGE doomed to fail? Some experts are ready to call it.

Whether Trump’s appointees can manage DOGE without Musk’s help or his appointees remains to be seen, as DOGE continues to seek new hires. While Musk’s appointed DOGE staff was heavily criticized from day one, Kamarck noted that at least Musk’s appointees appeared “to have a great deal of IT talent, something the federal government has

After a week, Trump Mobile drops claim that Trump phone is “made in the USA”

The Trump phone was announced last week with a claim that the device would be made entirely in America, and people were rightly skeptical. Trump Mobile’s $500 T1 Phone “is a sleek, gold smartphone engineered for performance and proudly designed and built in the United States for customers who expect the best from their mobile

Media Matters sues FTC, says agency is retaliating on behalf of Elon Musk

The lawsuit alleged that Media Matters’ free speech rights are being violated “as state governments and now a federal agency have employed sweeping governmental powers to attempt to silence and harass an organization for daring to speak the truth.” Media Matters said that under the First Amendment, it has “a privilege against disclosure of materials

Key fair use ruling clarifies when books can be used for AI training

“This order doubts that any accused infringer could ever meet its burden of explaining why downloading source copies from pirate sites that it could have purchased or otherwise accessed lawfully was itself reasonably necessary to any subsequent fair use,” Alsup wrote. “Such piracy of otherwise available copies is inherently, irredeemably infringing even if the pirated

Judge denies creating “mass surveillance program” harming all ChatGPT users

Hunt’s fears are not unfounded, Corynne McSherry, legal director for the digital rights group the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told Ars. “The discovery order poses genuine risks to user privacy in itself and as a precedent for the many other lawsuits around the country,” McSherry said. “And it is emblematic of a broader problem: AI chatbots

Ted Cruz can’t get all Republicans to back his fight against state AI laws

Blackburn said she agreed with Cantwell that the AI regulation proposal “is not the type of thing that we put into reconciliation bills.” Blackburn added that lawmakers “are working to move forward with legislation at the federal level, but we do not need a moratorium that would prohibit our states from stepping up and protecting

“Have we no shame?”: Trump’s NIH grant cuts appallingly illegal, judge rules

“Where’s the support for that?” Young asked. “I see no evidence of that.” Meanwhile, a lawyer representing one of the plaintiffs suing to block the grants, Kenneth Parreno, seemingly successfully argued that canceling grants related to race or transgender health were part of “a slapdash, harried effort to rubber stamp an ideological purge.” At the

Mocked Trump Mobile yanks coverage map that ignored Trump renaming Gulf of Mexico

But the new mobile empire could collapse at any moment. Trump Mobile’s website repeatedly warns customers that its use of the Trump trademark can “be terminated or revoked,” while noting that “Trump Mobile, its products and services are not designed, developed, manufactured, distributed or sold by The Trump Organization or any of their respective affiliates

To avoid admitting ignorance, Meta AI says man’s number is a company helpline

Although that statement may provide comfort to those who have kept their WhatsApp numbers off the Internet, it doesn’t resolve the issue of WhatsApp’s AI helper potentially randomly generating a real person’s private number that may be a few digits off from the business contact information WhatsApp users are seeking. Expert pushes for chatbot design

Toy-maker Mattel accused of planning “reckless” AI social experiment on kids

Most obviously, AI models are still prone to hallucination, Kaur noted. And while Mattel’s AI toys are “unlikely to cause physical harm,” toys giving “inappropriate or bizarre responses” could “be confusing or even unsettling for a child,” he said. For parents, the emotional ties kids make with AI toys will also need to be monitored,

Trump suggests he needs China to sign off on TikTok sale, delays deal again

For many Americans, losing TikTok would be disruptive. TikTok has warned that US businesses could lose $1 billion in one month if TikTok shuts down. As these businesses wait in limbo for a resolution to the situation, it’s getting harder to take the alleged national security threat seriously, as clinching the deal appears to lack

xAI faces legal threat over alleged Colossus data center pollution in Memphis

“For instance, if all the 35 turbines operated by xAI were using” add-on air pollution control technology “to achieve a NOx emission rate of 2 ppm”—as xAI’s consultant agreed it would—”they would emit about 177 tons of NOx per year, as opposed to the 1,200 to 2,100 tons per year they currently emit,” the letter

Senate passes GENIUS Act—criticized as gifting Trump ample opportunity to grift

“Why—beyond the obvious benefit of gaining favor, directly or indirectly, with the Trump administration—did you select USD1, a newly launched, untested cryptocurrency with no track record?” the senators asked. Responding, World Liberty Financial’s lawyers claimed MGX was simply investing in “legitimate financial innovation,” CBS News reported, noting a Trump family-affiliated entity owns a 60 percent

X sues to block copycat NY content moderation law after California win

“It is our sincere belief that the current social media landscape makes it far too easy for bad actors to promote false claims, hatred and dangerous conspiracies online, and some large social media companies are not able or willing to regulate this hate speech themselves,” the letter said. Although the letter acknowledged that X was

Cybersecurity takes a big hit in new Trump executive order

The departments of Commerce, Treasury, Homeland Security and the National Institutes of Health were all compromised. A large roster of private companies—among them Microsoft, Intel, Cisco, Deloitte, FireEye, and CrowdStrike—were also breached. In response, a Biden EO required the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency to establish a “common form” for self-attestation that organizations selling critical

Trump fires commissioner of preeminent nuclear safety institution

Critics warn that the United States may soon be taking on more nuclear safety risks after Donald Trump fired one of five members of an independent commission that monitors the country’s nuclear reactors. In a statement Monday, Christopher Hanson confirmed that Trump fired him from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) on Friday. He alleged

Worst hiding spot ever: /NSFW/Nope/Don’t open/You were Warned/

Last Friday, a Michigan man named David Bartels was sentenced to five years in federal prison for “Possession of Child Pornography by a Person Employed by the Armed Forces Outside of the United States.” The unusual nature of the charge stems from the fact that Bartels bought and viewed the illegal material while working as

Trade war truce between US and China is back on

Both countries agreed in Geneva last month to slash their respective tariffs by 115 percentage points and provided a 90-day window to resolve the trade war. But the ceasefire came under pressure after Washington accused Beijing of reneging on an agreement to speed up the export of rare earths, while China criticized new US export

Biofuels policy has been a failure for the climate, new report claims

The new report concludes that not only will the expansion of ethanol increase greenhouse gas emissions, but it has also failed to provide the social and financial benefits to Midwestern communities that lawmakers and the industry say it has. (The report defines the Midwest as Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota,

Trump’s FTC may impose merger condition that forbids advertising boycotts

FTC chair alleged “serious risk” from ad boycotts After Musk’s purchase of Twitter, the social network lost advertisers for various reasons, including changes to content moderation and an incident in which Musk posted a favorable response to an antisemitic tweet and then told concerned advertisers to “go fuck yourself.” FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson said at

How to draft a will to avoid becoming an AI ghost—it’s not easy

“This could also invoke issues with contract, property and intellectual property rights, and right of publicity as well if AI replicas (image, voice, text, etc.) are being used without authorization,” Sheehan said. And there are likely more protections for celebrities than for everyday people, Sheehan suggested. “As far as I know, there is no law”

“Two years of work in two months”: States cope with Trump broadband overhaul

Butcher said Lutnick is exercising “authority as a central government over the rights and expertise of a state body, which I guess I don’t understand how the party’s values work anymore, but that to me feels like a pretty strange Republican imposition.” Butcher still expects significant fiber deployment Overall, Nevada’s plan was to use $416

Musk’s threat to sue firms that don’t buy ads on X seems to have paid off

Elon Musk’s strategy of suing or threatening to sue companies that don’t buy advertising on X has reportedly paid off in at least a few cases. A Wall Street Journal report yesterday said that Verizon and other companies started advertising on X after lawsuit threats. X sued some advertisers last year over what it claims

Hollywood studios target AI image generator in copyright lawsuit

The legal action follows similar moves in other creative industries, with more than a dozen major news companies suing AI company Cohere in February over copyright concerns. In 2023, a group of visual artists sued Midjourney for similar reasons. Studios claim Midjourney knows what it’s doing Beyond allowing users to create these images, the studios

New federal employees must praise Trump EOs, submit to continuous vetting

The administration says the plan will “drastically” speed up hiring while cutting costs. The plan said that efficiencies would be created by cutting down resumes to a maximum of two pages (cutting review time) while creating a pool of resumes that can be returned to so that new jobs won’t even need to be announced.

FCC threat to revoke EchoStar spectrum licenses draws widespread backlash

Incompas, a communications industry trade group, said that revoking the deadline extension “would undermine regulatory certainty and threaten to disrupt ongoing investments in advanced network infrastructure, including EchoStar’s important work to integrate Open RAN and satellite capabilities.” EchoStar, SpaceX, and VTel Wireless each submitted one last filing on Friday. SpaceX urged the FCC “to ensure

NIH scientists publish “Bethesda Declaration” rebuking Trump admin

Backlash to the idea was quick, with the World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus immediately calling it “unethical.” “Allowing a dangerous virus that we don’t fully understand to run free is simply unethical. It’s not an option,” Tedros said in a news briefing at the time. “A risk” In the letter on Monday, NIH

DOGE wins at Supreme Court; conservative majority ends limits on data access

Jackson said the ruling “sends a troubling message” that the court will depart from its usual legal standards “for certain litigants.” While other litigants seeking a stay “must point to more than the annoyance of compliance with lower court orders they don’t like, the Government can approach the courtroom bar with nothing more than that

Ex-FCC Chair Ajit Pai is now a wireless lobbyist—and enemy of cable companies

“DoD is concerned about the high possibility that non-Federal users will not adhere to the established coordination conditions at all times; the impacts related to airborne systems, due to their range and speed; and required upgrades to multiple classes of ships,” the 2023 report said. We contacted the Department of Defense and did not receive a

Lawsuit: DOGE, HHS used “hopelessly error-ridden” data to fire 10,000 workers

When plaintiff Catherine Jackson received her termination notice, she “was surprised to see recent performance ratings that were flatly incorrect,” the lawsuit said. Jackson worked in the Office of Child Care “supporting the state of Alaska and American Indian tribes in their implementation of programs that help low-income families afford childcare.” Jackson’s notice “reflected a

DOGE used flawed AI tool to “munch” Veterans Affairs contracts

According to a post on his blog, this was done with the approval of Musk before he left DOGE. “When he asked the room about improving DOGE’s public perception, I asked if I could open-source the code I’d been writing,” Lavingia said. “He said yes—it aligned with DOGE’s goal of maximum transparency.” That openness may

Estate of woman who died in 2021 heat dome sues Big Oil for wrongful death

There were at least 100 heat-related deaths in the state from June 26 to July 2, 2021, according to the Washington State Department of Health. That unprecedented stretch of scorching high temperatures was the deadliest weather-related event in Washington’s history. Climate change linked to the burning of fossil fuels intensified this extreme heat event, scientists

OpenAI confronts user panic over court-ordered retention of ChatGPT logs

In the copyright fight, Magistrate Judge Ona Wang granted the order within one day of the NYT’s request. She agreed with news plaintiffs that it seemed likely that ChatGPT users may be spooked by the lawsuit and possibly set their chats to delete when using the chatbot to skirt NYT paywalls. Because OpenAI wasn’t sharing

Ted Cruz bill: States that regulate AI will be cut out of $42B broadband fund

BEAD changes: No fiber preference, no low-cost mandate The BEAD program is separately undergoing an overhaul because Republicans don’t like how it was administered by Democrats. The Biden administration spent about three years developing rules and procedures for BEAD and then evaluating plans submitted by each US state and territory, but the Trump administration has

“In 10 years, all bets are off”—Anthropic CEO opposes decadelong freeze on state AI laws

On Thursday, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei argued against a proposed 10-year moratorium on state AI regulation in a New York Times opinion piece, calling the measure shortsighted and overbroad as Congress considers including it in President Trump’s tax policy bill. Anthropic makes Claude, an AI assistant similar to ChatGPT. Amodei warned that AI is advancing

Reddit sues Anthropic over AI scraping that retained users’ deleted posts

Notably, Reddit pointed out that Anthropic’s Claude models will help power Amazon’s revamped Alexa, following about $8 billion in Amazon investments in the AI company since 2023. “By commercially licensing Claude for use in several of Amazon’s commercial offerings, Anthropic reaps significant profit from a technology borne of Reddit content,” Reddit alleged, and “at the

OpenAI slams court order to save all ChatGPT logs, including deleted chats

“The court nevertheless required OpenAI to continue preserving API Conversation Data as well,” OpenAI argued, in support of lifting the order on the API chat logs. Users who found out about the preservation order panicked, OpenAI noted. In court filings, they cited social media posts sounding alarms on LinkedIn and X (formerly Twitter). They further

FCC Republican resigns, leaving agency with just two commissioners

Two commissioners of the Federal Communications Commission are resigning at the end of this week. For at least a little while, the FCC will have just two members: Chairman Brendan Carr, a Republican chosen by Trump to lead the agency, and Anna Gomez, a Democratic commissioner. Democrat Geoffrey Starks announced in March that he would

Trump is forcing states to funnel grant money to Starlink, Senate Democrats say

Lutnick’s announcement of the BEAD overhaul also criticized what he called the program’s “woke mandates” and “burdensome regulations.” Republicans like Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) have criticized a requirement for ISPs that accept subsidies to offer low-cost Internet plans to people with low incomes, though the low-cost rule was originally imposed by Congress in the law

Florida ban on kids using social media likely unconstitutional, judge rules

A federal judge ruled today that Florida cannot enforce a law that requires social media platforms to block kids from using their platforms. The state law “is likely unconstitutional,” US Judge Mark Walker of the Northern District of Florida ruled while granting the tech industry’s request for a preliminary injunction. The Florida law “prohibits some

ISP settles with record labels that demanded mass termination of Internet users

The Trump administration weighed in on Cox’s side, arguing that ISPs should not be held “liable for contributory copyright infringement for failing to terminate subscribers after receiving notices of infringement.” The Trump admin’s Department of Justice said that making ISPs liable for their customers’ infringement could “encourage providers to avoid substantial monetary liability by terminating

Unlicensed law clerk fired after ChatGPT hallucinations found in filing

College students who have reportedly grown too dependent on ChatGPT are starting to face consequences after graduating and joining the workforce for placing too much trust in chatbots. Last month, a recent law school graduate lost his job after using ChatGPT to help draft a court filing that ended up being riddled with errors. The

Trump bans sales of chip design software to China

Johnson, who heads China Strategies Group, a risk consultancy, said that China had successfully leveraged its stranglehold on rare earths to bring the US to the negotiating table in Geneva, which “left the Trump administration’s China hawks eager to demonstrate their export control weapons still have purchase.” While it accounts for a relatively small share

Elon Musk to exit government, upset that Trump bill undermines DOGE’s work

Last week, Musk posted that he was “back to spending 24/7 at work and sleeping in conference/server/factory rooms.” Lawsuits against Musk, DOGE continue Musk and the Trump administration are facing numerous lawsuits over the authority wielded by DOGE and the large spending cuts imposed by the new government entity. In one case filed by 14

Elon Musk counts the cost of his four-month blitz through US government

Musk, so used to getting his way at his businesses, struggled for control. At various points in his tenure he took on Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Transport Secretary Sean Duffy, and trade tsar Peter Navarro, while clashing with several other senior officials. Far from being laser-focused on eliminating waste, Musk’s

Google Maps can’t explain why it falsely labeled German autobahns as closed

Ars contacted Google to see if the glitch’s cause has been uncovered. A spokesperson remained vague, only reiterating prior statements that Google “investigated a technical issue that temporarily showed inaccurate road closures on the map” and has “since removed them.” Apparently, Google only learned of the glitch after users who braved the supposedly closed roads

After Supreme Court loss, ISPs ask Trump admin to block state affordability laws

A California bill would require $15 plans with download speeds of 100Mbps and upload speeds of 20Mbps. The broadband lobby groups’ filing said ISPs are also worried about “unnecessary anticompetitive regulations” proposed in Connecticut, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and West Virginia. Not all the pending state bills are specifically about

Texas AG loses appeal to seize evidence for Elon Musk’s ad boycott fight

If MMFA is made to endure Paxton’s probe, the media company could face civil penalties of up to $10,000 per violation of Texas’ unfair trade law, a fine or confinement if requested evidence was deleted, or other penalties for resisting sharing information. However, Edwards agreed that even the threat of the probe apparently had “adverse

Trump allies expect he’ll double down on tariffs after sweeping court block

Trump quickly appeals Trump has immediately appealed the ruling and is expected to take the case to the Supreme Court. He’s arguing that the court cannot define what constitutes a “national emergency,” which is a political question he believes only Congress can address. White House spokesperson Kush Desai has made it clear that Trump remains

Man who stole 1,000 DVDs from employer strikes plea deal over movie leaks

An accused movie pirate who stole more than 1,000 Blu-ray discs and DVDs while working for a DVD manufacturing company struck a plea deal this week to lower his sentence after the FBI claimed the man’s piracy cost movie studios millions. Steven Hale no longer works for the DVD company. He was arrested in March,

Trump admin tells SCOTUS: ISPs shouldn’t be forced to boot alleged pirates

Enhanced damages can be $150,000 per work, instead of the usual cap of $30,000. The jury in the case “was instructed that it could find Cox’s violations willful if Cox knew that its subscribers had committed infringement,” Sauer wrote. “That instruction was mistaken because it allowed the jury to award enhanced damages even if Cox

It’s too expensive to fight every AI copyright battle, Getty CEO says

According to Clegg, the only viable solution to the tension between artists and AI companies would be to give artists ways to opt out of training, which Stability AI notably started doing in 2022. “Quite a lot of voices say, ‘You can only train on my content, [if you] first ask,’” Clegg reportedly said. “And

NPR sues Trump over blocked funding, says it may have to shutter newsrooms

NPR and the local stations “bring this action to challenge an Executive Order that violates the expressed will of Congress and the First Amendment’s bedrock guarantees of freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and freedom of association, and also threatens the existence of a public radio system that millions of Americans across the country

Trump signs executive orders meant to resurrect US nuclear power

A large number of startups have proposed designs that should be far less prone to failure. Many of these are SMRs, or small modular reactors, which promise economies of scale by building the reactor at a central facility and then shipping it to the site of installation. But, as of yet, only a single reactor

New Orleans called out for sketchiest use of facial recognition yet in the US

According to police records submitted to the city council, the network “only proved useful in a single case.” Investigating the tension between these claims, the Post suggested we may never know how many suspects were misidentified or what steps police took to ensure responsible use of the controversial live feeds. In the US, New Orleans

FCC Chair Brendan Carr is letting ISPs merge—as long as they end DEI programs

Verizon’s letter said that because of the “changing landscape,” the firm “has been evaluating its DEI-related programs, HR processes, supplier programs, training programs and materials, and other initiatives.” Among other changes, Verizon said it “will no longer have a team or any individual roles focused on DEI” and will reassign DEI-focused employees to “HR talent

Labor dispute erupts over AI-voiced Darth Vader in Fortnite

For voice actors who previously portrayed Darth Vader in video games, the Fortnite feature starkly illustrates how AI voice synthesis could reshape their profession. While James Earl Jones created the iconic voice for films, at least 54 voice actors have performed as Vader in various media games over the years when Jones wasn’t available—work that

Meta hypes AI friends as social media’s future, but users want real connections

Meta declined to comment further on the company’s vision for social media’s future. In a statement, a Meta spokesperson told Ars that “the FTC’s lawsuit against Meta defies reality,” claiming that it threatens US leadership in AI and insisting that evidence at trial would establish that platforms like TikTok, YouTube, and X are Meta’s true

Verizon tries to get out of merger condition requiring it to unlock phones

Verizon also said that after it bought TracFone, there was “a sharp increase in the number of TracFone devices that deactivated before making enough payments for Verizon to recover the subsidy on the device.” Verizon: Do it for DOGE With FCC Republicans backing DOGE-style changes, Verizon name-dropped Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency in its

Did Google lie about building a deadly chatbot? Judge finds it plausible.

Judge not ready to rule on whether AI outputs are speech Google and Character Technologies also moved to dismiss the lawsuit based on First Amendment claims, arguing that C.AI users have a right to listen to chatbot outputs as supposed “speech.” Conway agreed that Character Technologies can assert the First Amendment rights of its users