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OpenAI says it’s working with Anthropic, Google on AI safety
OpenAI is working on steps to address artificial intelligence safety issues with its top competitors Anthropic PBC and Google DeepMind, escalating industry efforts to respond to a groundswell of concern
Google’s September Pixel Drop upgrades VIP contacts, scam detection, and Pixel Watch
Google's September Pixel Drop makes VIP contacts one tap away.
Google's Latest Pixel Drop Will Keep You More Connected To Your VIPs
Google has revealed the updates coming with the latest Pixel drop.
Google rolling out Android 17 QPR1 for Pixel
Android 17 QPR1 is rolling out to Google Pixel devices with the September 2026 Feature Drop and security patch.
Google just shared these fun Pixel 11 blueprint wallpapers [Gallery]
Google has shared some new blueprint-style wallpapers for the Pixel 11 series, and they look pretty awesome. Shared through the...
Looks like Samsung Gallery has already found its OneDrive replacement
As Samsung's partnership photo storage partnership with Microsoft winds down, the company is moving to Google to fill the gap.
Google Photos backup is coming to Samsung Gallery
A few weeks ago, Samsung announced that it would end support for Microsoft OneDrive integration with the Gallery app on Galaxy phones and tablets. Now, it has b
Amazon says Fire TV devices will be able to sideload Android apps again in upcoming update
Fire TV hardware will be able to sideload apps again with an upcoming Android software update for Amazon’s streaming hardware...
Community businesses need to show up in AI search, not just Google
Community businesses need to adapt to AI search to improve local visibility. It helps them connect with nearby customers and stay competitive as search behavior evolves.
China-Linked Hackers Exploit Chrome-Windows Zero-Day Chain to Deploy GRIMWEDGE
UTA0560 exploited a Chrome-Windows zero-day chain against NGOs to deploy GRIMWEDGE; APT31 used the same chain to install LONGTALE.
Meteor Pulse Launches Hiiiilo, an AI WhatsApp Receptionist
Kuala Lumpur agency Meteor Pulse has launched Hiiiilo, an AI-powered WhatsApp receptionist that answers, books and suggests add-ons for Malaysia...
Will Netflix’s Latest Horror Film Save Its Summer? And Introducing a New Data Source...
(Welcome to my weekly streaming ratings report, the single best guide to what’s popular in streaming TV and what isn’t. I’m the Entertainment Strategy Guy, a former streaming executive who now analyzes business strategy in the entertainment industry. If you were forwarded this email, please subscribe to get these insights each week.) All month, I’ve been polling you, my readers, on how we think the summer’s biggest blockbusters will do when they eventually land on streaming, and I wanted to share the results. First up, how readers think The Odyssey will perform when it comes to Peacock... People are pretty bullish that The Odyssey will smash it for Peacock. I don’t know that it will have as much rewatchability as Wicked did for kids, but we’ll see. It is now Universal’s highest-grossing film of all time. One note: almost half of Christopher Nolan’s films weren’t available for streaming the week The Odyssey came to theaters, including some of his biggest films like Inception, Dunkirk, Tenet, Oppenheimer and Insomnia. If you did want to watch the others, Prime Video had Memento and The Dark Knight trilogy, HBO Max only had The Dark Knight trilogy (even though Warner Bros. produced most of Nolan’s films), Hulu had The Prestige and Interstellar, and Paramount+ had Interstellar. So you needed at least two streaming subscriptions to catch the rest. Warner Bros. whiffed right here. I know they have long term licensing deals, but they should have tried to get as many Nolan films on HBO Max for launch as possible. Here are the results for Spider-Man: Brand New Day: The audience is a bit more mixed on this one, with everyone agreeing Spider-Man will swing to a big opening, but not necessarily elite or best all time. On to this week’s issue. Netflix continues searching for a hit straight-to-streaming summer film and Lioness and Ted Lasso allow me to look at the difference between a “hit” and a ‘hit for them”. All that, plus new YA/teen melodramas on Prime Video and Netflix, the House of the Dragon finale, USA Network claims a big opening, more big NFL ratings, all the flops, bombs and misses, and a whole lot more. But we start with a fun new data announcement. Let’s dive right in! (Reminder: The streaming ratings report focuses on the U.S. market and compiles data from Nielsen’s weekly top ten viewership ranks, Luminate’s Top Ten Data, JustWatch and Reelgood interest data, Samba TV household viewership, company datecdotes, Netflix hours viewed data, Google Trends, and IMDb to determine the most popular content. While most data points are current, Nielsen’s data covers the weeks of August 3rd to August 9th, 2026. You can find a link to my terminology here.) Subscribe A New Data Source: Reelgood’s Data on Content Libraries Here’s a fun new treat for you. Reelgood—an online service and app that lets users track where shows or films are streaming—is providing data every month for the Streaming Ratings Report on the size of each streamer’s catalogue, along with the new shows and films for each streamer. Yay! Previously, I had pulled “new shows on streamers premiering on the first of the month”: While I liked that data cut, it was a big wonky since it didn’t show all of the new shows or movies that came to a streamer each month. Instead, I would have preferred something like this from Reelgood’s annual report: And now we have it! I’m going to feature Reelgood’s data monthly, showing both total catalogue size and new shows and films appearing on the charts. That’s going to make these two cool new charts. First, here’s the size of various streamers’ film catalogues… (By the way, Reelgood offered to make the charts for me, but I like doing that task by hand to understand the data better.) They also provided data back to last year. Here’s the number of films timeline: And here are the new films on each streamer for the month prior to Aug: As I get used to this data, I plan to keep tinkering with how I display it, but I’m excited to feature it monthly. Today, I’m sharing the film charts; next issue, I’m going to feature TV shows by streamer. Now, in full disclosure, Reelgood is a sponsor of this little-newsletter-that-could. But in my constant quest to figure out what streamer various shows and films are on, I was already a Reelgood user before this sponsorship. I go to their website all the time, and their data is very accurate on where shows are (or have been). Plus, I’ve been sharing their weekly top ten lists for years now, pre-sponsorship. For me, this is a great win-win, since I get to amplify a service I love, and I get a cool new data source to play with. Now, normally folks don’t usually mention their sponsors directly, but as I wrote before, as I start featuring ads in my newsletter, I plan to be extremely open about who is sponsoring my writing so you can trust what I write. Television - Two Big Returning Shows Look Set to Take Over The Charts One key question when it comes to judging streaming shows is whether a show is a “hit” or a “hit for them”. To be clear, the former means a show that’s one of the top shows on streaming, no questions asked. The latter means a show is one of the biggest, for a given streamer. That distinction makes a big difference! It’s really good to be one of the biggest shows on a streamer; it’s much better to be the biggest on streaming, despite the size of a streamer. Because, as we’ve seen now, nearly every streamer—while lacking the number of subscribers or usage of Netflix—can make hit TV shows: Paramount released Landman, whose first and second seasons were among the top two TV shows the year they came out. HBO Max’s The Pitt’s second season is the biggest show of the year so far. Love Island USA was the top show in 2025 for Peacock. And, crucially for today’s discussion: Wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy back in 2023, Ted Lasso was actually the top streaming show of the year according to Nielsen! So even Apple TV (formerly +) can make hit shows. It just doesn’t make them that often. And looking at the Nielsen charts this week, we have two prime candidates for this discussion: That’s right: Ted Lasso returned to Apple TV for its fourth season. Did it return in all its expected glory? Sure, though right now it’s still just a “hit for Apple TV”, but we’ll see how long it lasts on the charts. Its ten episodes are coming out weekly. (Smart choice, Apple!) Ted Lasso started out strong, actually making the Nielsen charts the week before new episodes dropped, which is a rare feat. (Shows like Stranger Things or Bridgerton have pulled that off. That’s terrific company to join!) On Nielsen, it opened to 14.4 million hours in its first week, and 16.6 million the week of 10-Aug. Here’s how that compares to previous seasons: Apple put out that this is their biggest TV launch through two days ever, and looking at the chart and Apple TV’s viewership history, I’d believe it. Here’s Apple’s top shows for season two and beyond: Other data tells a (mostly) similar story. Ted Lasso made Samba TV and it has elite IMDb scores, an insane 8.7 on 465K reviews. The only outlier is Luminate, where the latest season only had 7.4 million hours, and no other seasons made the top ten. As you’ll see below, that’s well below some other solid, but not spectacular shows like Sterling Point, Ride or Die or Furious. I’d be surprised if Ted Lasso isn’t bigger than those other shows, but it’s fine for different data sources to occasionally disagree. And while it’s sucky to bring this up, given that Warner Bros. produced this show, I do wonder how the streaming wars may have been different if Ted Lasso landed on HBO Max initially instead of Apple. I don’t think one show can make or break a streamer, but given HBO’s brand, it could have helped bring people to that streamer much earlier in its lifespan. (Though yeah, I don’t love calling out executives for passing on hit shows, since that’s just the nature of the job. Even the absolute best execs will pass on lots of successful shows. The key is not greenlighting the under-performers/misses.) The other show I’m thinking about in the “hit or hit for them” category is Lioness from Paramount+. Like Ted Lasso, its first season missed the charts, but it’s grown its audience since then. Here’s how season three opened: We’re just getting started with this issue, but the rest is for paid subscribers of the Entertainment Strategy Guy, so if you’d like to find out… How Lioness did on streaming... Two new melodramas for Netflix and Prime Video... Whether Netflix’s latest horror film saved its summer... Hulu’s Furious and Prime Video’s Ride or Die continuing their strong runs... The latest high profile showrunner to flop on streaming... All the flops, bombs and misses... And a whole lot more... ...please subscribe! We can only keep doing this great work with your support. Next week, we’ve got a double issue—since the week of 17-Aug had very few notable new shows or films—so I’ll look at HBO’s Lanterns, Prime Video’s Reacher, Netflix’s Tires, Outer Banks (which posted up huge numbers four years ago), an Aussie romance, and another baseball event (that didn’t resonate). And a bunch of movies like the latest dramedy from an Adam Sandler daughter, Don’t Say Good Luck, Camp Rock 3 on Disney Channel and Disney+, Michael on Starz, and more. Later this month, we’ve got a ton of shows and films to analyze! Movies will be the big story, featuring a box office bomb (Supergirl on HBO Max) and an “underperformer” (The Mandalorian and Grogu on Disney+) contending with a bunch of star-studded straight-to-streaming films like Netflix’s The Whisper Man (Adam Scott, Michelle Monaghan and De Niro!), Mayday on Apple TV+ (Ryan Reynolds and Kenneth Branagh!), The Runner (Gal Gadot) and The Last Sunrise (Eva Longoria and Maia Reficco) on Prime Video. Plus, a ton of TV shows have sophomore seasons coming out. Will The Gentleman put up big numbers on Netflix or suffer from a sophomore slump? Leanne and Beauty in Black on Netflix seem small, but they both might be bigger than you think. Hulu has a bunch of shows: a new season of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives (the first after all the controversy last year) and the second season of Chad Powers (from Peyton Manning’s production company and starring Glen Powell). This one flopped last year; can it score a touchdown this year? Same goes for FX’s Adults, which I didn’t track last year; will it hit this year? Peacock’s The Office spinoff, The Paper and Apple TV’s Dark Matter also return for second seasons. And Netflix has more Untold specials featuring Vince Young, Raygun (that horrible breakdancer) and Mr. T. Long term, Paramount+ is rebooting yet another franchise, Clueless, and I’m somewhat bullish on this new show. The talent attached (Alicia Silverstone) and creative Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage (of The O.C. and Gossip Girl) also feel solid...if they make it funny like the original.
Google finally lets all engineers use Anthropic's Claude
Google engineers can finally use one of Anthropic's strongest coding models for internal work.
Googlebook pre-orders finally have a date: Here's when you can buy one
Google's first Googlebooks will be available to pre-order on September 21.
Google finally sets a date for Googlebook pre-orders
Planning on getting a Googlebook? Google has officially revealed when you'll be able to place your pre-order.
Google Maps on Android Auto is finally getting a speedometer that’s always on
Last week's bug was actually a feature
Samsung launches ‘Re-Newed’ Galaxy S26 series, $1,099 for Ultra
Samsung is now selling its Galaxy S26 series flagships at a discount with refurbished models available for around $200 off....
Samsung pokes fun at iPhone to Android switching drama in reality star-packed ad [Video]
Switching from iPhone to Android is a process that’s getting continually better and, in a new ad, Samsung pokes fun...
Pre-Orders For The Android-Based Googlebook Laptops Open On September 21
Gemini Intelligence is at the heart of the operating system powering Google's upcoming laptops.
Samsung reportedly considers early ‘Galaxy Z TriFold 2’ release in wake of iPhone Duo
In the wake of iPhone Duo, Samsung is reportedly considering an early release for a Galaxy Z TriFold sequel. The...
Googlebook pre-orders start on September 21
After previously teasing a fall timeframe, Google is set to open pre-orders for Googlebooks on Monday, September 21.
Google’s official Pixel 11 series cases are already on sale
Following last month’s launch, Google’s official Pixelsnap cases for the Pixel 11 series are already on discount at Amazon.
Google rolls out Motion Assist bubbles to Pixel, Samsung
After announcing earlier this month, Google has rolled out Motion Assist to Pixel and Samsung phones running Android 17.
What we know about Lenovo’s mysterious third Googlebook ahead of tomorrow’s NYC media event
Tomorrow morning in New York City, Google is finally taking the stage to pull back the curtain on Googlebook - well, for invited media, that is. Over the last few weeks, the leaks have been flowing...
Google Maps rolling out Android Auto speed limits and speedometer that show even without navigation
While the speedometer has been hit or miss for some Android Auto users as of late, Google Maps is now...
Google Wallet for Android getting vertically stacked card list
Following the homepage redesign and fullscreen passes revamp this year, Google Wallet is trialing a vertically stacked card list.
Top AI companies have discussed creating their own standards body
Anthropic, Google and OpenAI have discussed creating an AI industry standards body, people familiar with the situation told CNN.
Kansas Faces Growing Demand for Nurses as Workforce Trends Reshape Healthcare Needs
Aging populations, rural care gaps, and workforce shortages drive demand for nursing education and career advancement across the state.Kansas Ci...
5 Budget Android Phones You Should Consider Instead Of The Google Pixel 11
Considering a Google Pixel 11 smartphone, but feeling put off by the $900 price tag? Why not consider these five much cheaper Android phone alternatives.
Anthropic selects Nasdaq for IPO, Business Insider reports
Sept 13 (Reuters) - U.S. tech startup Anthropic has selected Nasdaq for its potential initial public offering, Business Insider reported on Sunday, citing a person familiar with the company's plans. (Reporting by Ananya Palyekar in B...
City Hall Construction Is Squeezing Old Town Businesses. Alexandria Is Looking for Ways to Help.
Businesses beside Alexandria City Hall say the years-long renovation is cutting foot traffic and parking. The City is now considering parking help, promotion and other relief.
Movies & Series Launches Expanded Arabic-First Entertainment Discovery Platform for Egypt and MENA
Movies & Series has launched an expanded Arabic-first entertainment discovery experience that brings films, television, cinema releases, str...
Broadcom’s Anthropic Ramp Puts Google’s TPU Business in a Different Light
Broadcom’s September 2 results show custom AI hardware turning into substantial sales. On the accompanying call, management said it expected to accelerate Ironwood shipments to Anthropic in the fourth quarter. That puts Google’s TPU technology at the center of a relationship whose economics differ for Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO) and Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL). Broadcom can sell […]
Google Health's mistakes are a grave warning for Apple’s new AI-powered Health app
Fitbit users know how this turns out
Video: Rare Mastodon Tooth Found in California Creek
Brigid Lynch, a geologist, was conducting a field survey in San Mateo County, Calif., when she saw a strange object sticking out from the creek. After a reverse Google image search, and an expert’s confirmation, she learned she had found a Pacific mastodon molar.
Botpool Create Launches AI Website Builder Backed by Human SEO Experts for Small Businesses
The AI website builder lets small business owners describe their business in plain language, publish a live site the same day, and start capturi...
Google Search Redesign, Business Profile Post Views
Google redesigned Search results across the EEA, Business Profile posts get view counts again, and ChatGPT Shopping now leans harder on product feeds.
Women’s Wellness Social to offer free evening of health and self-care in Fulton
FULTON — Oswego Health and Oswego County Opportunities (OCO) are inviting community members to attend the Women’s Wellness Social, a free evening focused on women’s health, wellness, and self-care, on Oct. 1 from 5-7 p.m. at Fulton Medical Center.The event will bring together local health and wellness organizations for an uplifting, community-centered evening featuring wellness talks, health screenings, movement activities, an oxygen bar, refreshments, giveaways, and opportunities to connect with local resources. × This page requires Javascript. Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings. kAm“%96 (@>6?’D (6==?6DD $@4:2= :D 56D:8?65 E@ >22E:@? 2?5 H6==?6DD C6D@FC46D 62DJ E@ 2446DD :? @?6 7C:6?5=J[ H6=4@>:?8 A=246[” D2:5 r2C@=J? w2?5G:==6[ 4@@C5:?2E@C @7 ~r~’D r2?46C $6CG:46D !C@8C2>] “(6 H2?E H@>6? E@ E265[ DFAA@CE65[ 2?5 6?4@FC2865]”k^Am#placement_726068_0_i{width:100%;margin:0 auto;}var rnd = window.rnd || Math.floor(Math.random()*10e6);var pid726068 = window.pid726068 || rnd;var plc726068 = window.plc726068 || 0;var abkw = window.abkw || '';var absrc = 'https://ads.empowerlocal.co/adserve/;ID=181918;size=0x0;setID=726068;type=js;sw='+screen.width+';sh='+screen.height+';spr='+window.devicePixelRatio+';kw='+abkw+';pid='+pid726068+';place='+(plc726068++)+';rnd='+rnd+';click=CLICK_MACRO_PLACEHOLDER';var _absrc = absrc.split("type=js"); absrc = _absrc[0] + 'type=js;referrer=' + encodeURIComponent(document.location.href) + _absrc[1];document.write('');kAm#68:DEC2E:@? :D 6?4@FC2865] %96 7:CDE d_ H@>6? H9@ AC6\C68:DE6C H:== C646:G6 2 4@>A=:>6?E2CJ 8@@5J 328]k^AmkAmpEE6?566D 42? E232[ J@82[ 2?5 2? @IJ86? 32Cj 2446DD 4@?G6?:6?E @?\D:E6 962=E9 2?5 H6==?6DD D4C66?:?8Dj 2EE6?5 3C:67 6IA6CE\=65 H6==?6DD E2=>F?:EJ C6D@FC46D 7@4FD65 @? >:?5[ 3@5J[ 2?5 @G6C2== H6==\36:?8]k^AmkAm{:89E 2AA6E:K6CD[ C67C6D9>6?ED[ 2?5 8:G62H2JD H:== 2=D@ 36 2G2:=23=6]k^AmkAmp4E:G:E:6D 2?5 $6DD:@?D 2C6 2D 7@==@HDik^AmkAmd\f A]>] — ~IJ86? 32C H:E9 %96 pBF2 $A2k^AmkAmd\dib_ A]>] — +F>32 H:E9 y@?2E92?[ r@?76C6?46 #@@>k^AmkAme\eib_ A]>] — +F>32 H:E9 y@?2E92?[ r@?76C6?46 #@@>k^AmkAme\ei`d A]>] — *@82 H:E9 #636442 rC2:8[ {@H6C pEC:F>k^AmkAmei`d\eib_ A]>] — |65:F>[ p?86=2 #:492C5D@?k^AmkAm%96 6G6?E H:== 762EFC6 =@42= @C82?:K2E:@?D DFAA@CE:?8 H@>6?’D 962=E9 2?5 H6==?6DD[ :?4=F5:?8 ~DH68@ w62=E9[ ~r~’D r2?46C $6CG:46D !C@8C2> @7 E96 }@CE9 r@F?ECJ[ uC:6?5D @7 #64@G6CJ[ !62467F= #6>65:6D[ uF=E@? *|rp[ ~r~ $pu[ ~r~ ~AE:@?D[ ~r~ w62=E9 t5F42E:@?[ w@@E6C rC6H[ w@A6 7@C w62E96C[ '@42= w@?6J[ 2?5 >62=\AC6AA:?8 C6D@FC46D 7@C 3FDJ H@>6? @? E96 8@]k^AmkAmu@C 255:E:@?2= :?7@C>2E:@? @C E@ C68:DE6C 7@C E96 6G6?E[ G:D:E %96 (@>6?’D (6==?6DD $@4:2=^~DH68@ w62=E9 @C 42== b`d\bch\de_`]k^Am googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('ad-2978731'); });
Here's how some Chicago small businesses are ramping up their use of AI
Mary Nguyen Aregoni, owner of the West Loop restaurant Saigon Sisters, started using Gemini, Google’s AI tool, early this year. She took free online courses about AI and a webinar from Goldman Sachs’ 10,000 Small Businesses program. “It's pretty easy and intuitive to use, but you have to know how to ask the right questions or prompt,” she says.
The politics and possibilities of ‘AI could kill us all’
I found myself fielding a lot of questions from folks who don’t usually talk much about AI this week. They were mostly along the lines of “do you think AI is going to kill us all?” or “how worried should I be about this human extinction stuff?” Motivating this wave of existential anxiety was the highly dramatic resignation of now-former Anthropic employee Jacob Coxon, who quit his job while publicly sharing his concerns about safety practices at the leading AI companies. More specifically, he declared that almost everyone at OpenAI and Anthropic, the leading AI labs, believes that there’s a decent chance the AI systems they’re producing could “kill us all” by the end of the decade, and the companies aren’t “acting responsibly.” Other AI safety researchers, including those still employed at Anthropic and OpenAI, all confirmed that yes, Coxon is correct, they’re all worried that their company’s products might prove fatal for the entire human race as well. Two more AI employees quit and joined the chorus. Now, the warning shot has been covered everywhere from the Wall Street Journal to Fox News to WIRED to the Guardian. I understand why all this sounds scary, but my response to those who have asked, has generally been: No, you don’t need to worry that AI will kill go rogue and kill us all. But that does not mean we shouldn’t worry, period. Far from it. The companies building AI products are now among the wealthiest and most powerful entities in the world. And they very much are building enormous engines of mass surveillance, extraction, and automation. They can and have allowed their AI systems to carry out felony hacks of other companies, provided the government with autonomously generated kill lists, and sold enterprise technology to firms around the world that is explicitly intended to replace jobs. But “AI” has done these things not because they have all-powerful minds of their own but, ultimately, because people have programmed, calibrated, and directed them to. In other words, it’s not AI we need to worry the most about. It’s the people and corporations working to profit from and gain power by deploying it. The technology is sophisticated, sure, and, especially in cybersecurity contexts, potentially disruptive to plenty of existing systems. But if we want to stop this predatory, profiteering, and extractive form of AI—and it’s worth noting that at this point, most people do—we absolutely can. A quick note/plea: I can only do all of this with the support of readers like you, so if you find value in independent, critical tech journalism and analysis, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. I want to keep as much of this un-paywalled as absolutely possible, and I need your support to do so. Many thanks to all who continue to chip in, it’s very much appreciated. Onward. Subscribe First, some context: AI industry folks like Coxon have been discussing the prospect that AI will destroy humanity for years. Even before the beginning of the AI boom, many working in the industry, from the executive staff to the rank and file researchers, have obsessed over ‘x-risk’, or the possibility that AI will become sentient or semi-sentient and move one way or another to exterminate humanity. This is ostensibly why Elon Musk bankrolled OpenAI in the first place, and is the grounds for his lawsuit alleging OpenAI betrayed its charter by abandoning its nonprofit status to become a commercial enterprise. Many AI engineers and startup founders have calculated their own personal p(doom), or the probability that the tech product they are working on will initiate an actual humanity-extinguishing apocalypse. 10-25% p(doom)s are pretty common. (I wrote about a long weekend I spent among these folks at one of their top conferences here, to give you an idea of their ideas and belief systems.) Sam Altman himself drove the narrative of the imminent rise of a super-powerful AI, or artificial general intelligence, to prominence by declaring that the technology he was building posed an existential risk to humanity. This idea is in other words baked into the DNA of modern AI companies and into the products they engineer. It’s also why the industry is routinely accused, by myself and others, of “doom marketing,” ie, using such proclamations and framings to impart the sheer power of the technology behind your product onto investors, partners, consumers, and the state. Some ambient understanding of this tendency may have helped prevent the press from repeating the claim every time one of the x-risk folks made it over the years, including when they quit their jobs at AI companies while doing so. Yet Coxon’s AI x-risk alarm has broken containment, as they say, and has exposed the idea to the mainstream media once again. This has happened, I think, for a number of reasons. First, when AI CEOs were going around saying AI might kill everyone in 2023, their companies were well-capitalized, but not nearly to the extent they are today. They were more easily dismissed as eccentric geeks of the sort that Silicon Valley is supposed to produce. Now, not only do their products have much greater market saturation, but people are more aware of a) the often unethical ways the executives and companies comport themselves b) the other adverse impacts of AI that have already arrived, and c) the physical cost of building these systems, particularly when it comes to data centers. Finally, toss in the constant stream of headlines in 2026 about AI models going rogue or potentially upending the world’s infrastructure. [ ](https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/with-the-backlash-to-data-centers) [ With the backlash to data centers, Flock and AI glasses, a mass opposition to big tech is underway. Silicon Valley is in denial. ](https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/with-the-backlash-to-data-centers) Brian Merchant · Aug 27 [ Read full story ](https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/with-the-backlash-to-data-centers) As a result, general sentiment was already overwhelmingly skeptical of AI and its overlords, so the table was pretty well set for someone to come along and say ‘just a reminder, the companies that are building the product that promises to take your job and leave a data center in your neighborhood also think that it might exterminate the human race’ and get a strong reaction from the media and the public. The question is: Should we understand this stuff as hype, strategically fanned to feed already swelling valuations? Is it doom marketing? Genuine cause for alarm that the infrastructure that undergirds modern life is facing a novel threat vector? Or reason to be sincerely worried that AI companies are amassing too much power, and that their products are genuinely dangerous? The answer, I’m afraid, is “yes.” Let me try to untangle all of this a bit, because arguments over how to navigate this moment are extremely heated right now, as they are essentially arguments over how to approach the politics of AI at a moment where there may be a unique opening for action. Those sympathetic to AI alignment concerns and x risk arguments—which increasingly includes a faction on the left who want to shut down AI over safety concerns—argue that people who dismiss AI as all hype have their heads in the sand. Meanwhile, critics of the x-risk narrative—which I might note includes a cadre of investors and tech folks on the right, too—argue that it is hype and can be used to further inflate valuations or for pursuing regulatory capture. The challenge is that many feel that dismissing AI as just hype or purely marketing also diminishes the urgency of taking on the AI industry as the novel and threat to labor, civil society, and the public sphere it is; others that by accepting the industry’s own terms, we imbue it with undue power and enable it. But let’s be clear: Declarations that AI is so powerful it might end the world are a kind of marketing, and anyone who says otherwise is just as off base as those who say that’s all that it is. If you don’t think that these sub-trillion dollar companies have higher-ups who noticed that when their founders talked about super-powerful dangerous AI they got spikes in media interest and phone calls from investors, or that those founders didn’t notice that themselves, and lean into certain narratives to advantage their products, then I don’t know what to tell you. Not all marketing is a Pepsi ad campaign with a celebrity spokesperson. Yet confronting the AI industry should certainly be considered an urgent project. Do I share the x-riskers’ fear that out-of-control, super-intelligent AI agents might end the world? I do not. I’ve read a good deal of AI extinction literature over the last couple of years and I have not come across a credible, step-by-step documentation of how exactly AI might move from self-recursively improving AI to killing every single human on the planet. Most of what I’ve read seems predicated on a sort of reverse Ian Malcolmian logic: Eventually, it becomes smart enough and AI, uh, finds a way (to exterminate humanity). Are the AI companies also overstating and dramatizing what their products can do? Yes, pretty much all the time. They’re in a knife fight for market share and are trying to win customers and government contracts before their investors come knocking. And yet. They have concentrated enormous amounts of compute, have extensive data collection and surveillance capacities, have inserted themselves into the state in numerous capacities, including military kill chains, and they are being run by egomaniacal billionaires who are rushing to monopolize an entire new market. The way I think about their most recent frightening-seeming exploits is not as a “swarm of rogue AI agents building a new civilization” or whatever, but as corporations with a hitherto-unimaginable amount of compute at their disposal recklessly experimenting with automation programs, completely unafraid of any repercussions because we have been unwilling or unable to impose any on them. So I think we should welcome any newfound imperative to hold them accountable. I also think that ultimately, the AI critics, Pause AI folks, leftists, doomers, effective altruists, and, honestly, most of the public, want a lot of the same things: legitimate checks and limits on AI companies’ power, actual transparency into what the companies are doing, and for more of AI to be under public control. (Ultimately, a lot of what animates the x-risk fears are rooted in just that: a fear of losing control.) How we move towards all this, exactly, is the question of the day, and while there’s much to be argued over in terms of building a viable political platform to challenge the AI industry’s power, I do want to cast a vote against one particular approach. Not to pick on Chris here, as there are a lot of folks out there proposing stuff like this, and the policy ideas actually stem from AI safety groups. But not only would this be challenging to land politically (I can already hear the ‘China will beat us to AGI’ calls) and all but unworkable in practice, this approach is a) far too limiting, b) fails to address the current harms caused by AI and c) would likely only wind up serving Anthropic and OpenAI; it’s what regulatory capture looks like in action. Full model transparency is the floor for what should be on offer here. If these companies believe their products will kill us, the very least we deserve is to know how. It’s in the public interest. I would also argue we might get a lot of the way to stopping any currently envisioned robot apocalypse simply by forcing AI companies to assume liability, and to submit to the full brunt of the law. If Sam Altman were liable to be charged with a felony for approving the hack on Hugging Face1, if Google was forced to pay defamation fines each time it published a false and injurious AI Overviews, these companies might suddenly find cause to restrain their models’ output, and we might hear less about rogue AI. We would need to introduce new frameworks and available tools for tracking automated lawbreaking, to be sure, but I’d wager that little would frighten the AI companies more than actually being held accountable for what their products enable. To that end, Illinois has passed an AI liability law, which the industry fought tooth and nail, and Florida is considering one. The next steps would be towards moving AI under public control; again, it’s only reasonable, since everyone, not just AI insiders, should get a say over how a technology whose developers say might kill us is developed and deployed. Dismantling the whole industrial project as currently structured should be on the table, too, pending democratic input. But that’s for another post. For now, suffice to say that while I won’t be losing any sleep about an AI-enabled extinction event, Mr. Coxon and co. have given us an opportunity to underscore the urgency of the clear and present damage AI companies are doing, the extreme power they wield and the extent to which they hold themselves unaccountable, and the abundance of political capital there is out there for taking them on. Subscribe 1 Purely speculative! I do not know if he did or not.
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