GoPro [1]plans to expand into AI infrastructure through a $285 million merger with optical-photonics company Starman Optical, whose transceivers will give the action-camera maker a foothold in the fast-growing data center market. GoPro also plans to push into defense, robotics, aerospace, and government markets while continuing its existing camera business. Engadget reports:

> Starman's optical transceivers are expected to fall under its umbrella, "extending the Company's reach into the large and rapidly growing market for AI infrastructure in optical transceivers," according to a press release. GoPro is also planning a push into the defense, government, robotics and aerospace sectors, bolstered by the combined company's IP, optics and imaging capabilities.

>

> [...] As [2]Reuters notes , GoPro briefly reached a valuation of $4 billion on its first day as a publicly traded company in 2014. Its stock has struggled in recent years, but the share price received a boost on Monday when it was revealed that YouTuber and filmmaker Markiplier (Mark Fischbach) had become GoPro's largest individual shareholder after acquiring an 8.5 percent stake.

The move follows a similar pivot made by the struggling shoe retailer Allbirds in April when it [3]announced a pivot to AI compute infrastructure, sending the stock soaring more than 700%.



[1] https://www.engadget.com/2248633/gopro-says-its-moving-into-ai-data-centers-as-part-of-a-dollar285-million-merger/

[2] https://www.reuters.com/legal/transactional/gopro-be-acquired-by-starman-optical-285-million-deal-2026-09-01/

[3] https://news.slashdot.org/story/26/04/15/1646259/struggling-shoe-retailer-allbirds-pivots-to-ai-stock-explodes-more-than-700

Dyson is entering oral care with the $499 [1]CameraJet , a smart toothbrush that [2]uses a tiny camera and on-device AI to detect gaps between teeth and automatically blast them with mouthwash while you brush. Regular toothpaste and mouthwash will work with the CameraJet, but Dyson plans to sell its own non- or low-foaming formulas designed to give the toothbrush's camera a clearer view inside your mouth. The Verge reports:

> Just below the brush head is a tiny camera with a 100,000-pixel resolution and a strobing light. The toothbrush's AI analyzes 28 live images from the camera every second as part of a feature Dyson calls Gap Optical Targeting, without storing them on the device or sending them to the cloud. Within 100 milliseconds of a gap between your teeth being detected, the CameraJet emits a cone-shaped blast of mouthwash to clean out the space. Dyson uses a wider blast than what water flossers typically employ so it can effectively remove plaque with less pressure, making the CameraJet's flossing mechanism gentler on enamel and gums

>

> The replaceable brush heads use a combination of softer outer bristles that safely clean along the gumline and stiffer inner bristles that are better at scrubbing away tooth stains. The brush head oscillates nearly 1,000 times each second while the angle of oscillation is constantly changing to improve the effectiveness of your brushing. Pricing on replacement brush heads isn't known, but each one features an RFID tag so the CameraJet can track usage and alert you when a replacement is needed every three months.

>

> To ensure its mouthwash reservoir can effectively pump no matter how the CameraJet is held -- even upside down -- instead of sticking a tube into the reservoir, there's an air bladder inside the tank that slowly inflates to fill empty space, minimize air pockets, and maintain a constant pressure. An elaborate docking station recharges the toothbrush and can automatically fill its built-in 12.5ml mouthwash reservoir in just three seconds.



[1] https://www.dyson.com/oral-care/electric-toothbrush/camerajet/ceramic-ultra-blue

[2] https://www.theverge.com/tech/986737/dyson-camerajet-smart-toothbrush-live-camera-flosser-pricing-availability

BT [1]could make more than $2.7 billion by recycling copper from its aging UK landline network as BT subsidiary Openreach replaces legacy wiring with full-fiber broadband. Engadget reports:

> BT's recovered copper was previously valued at around $2 billion. But prices have surged, thanks to [2]rising global demand tied to AI data centers, renewable energy and electrification. With global demand expected to grow sharply over the next decade, the value of BT's copper could potentially exceed even that $2.7 billion estimate.

>

> The BT subsidiary Openreach is in the process of replacing its legacy copper network with full-fiber broadband, with plans to connect 30 million residences by the end of the decade. It's already recovered nearly 10,000 metric tons of copper in its latest financial year and over 22,000 metric tons since 2023. "Copper has become one of the most strategic materials in the modern economy," according to Openreach's head of sustainability, Abby Chicken.

>

> Unsurprisingly, BT isn't waiting to profit from the recovered metal. It has an agreement with EMR, a cable recycling company, and recently received $133 million up front for recovered copper.



[1] https://www.engadget.com/2248735/bts-old-copper-network-could-be-worth-over-dollar2-billion/

[2] https://www.forbes.com/sites/arielcohen/2026/08/18/the-coming-copper-crunch/

An anonymous reader quotes a report from VentureBeat:

> The viral fervor we [1]saw earlier this year around OpenClaw, the open source AI harness that turns powerful language models into autonomous workers the user can message via their favorite channels (Telegram, iMessage, WhatsApp, Discord etc), has cooled off substantially from its peak in March 2026. But over the weekend, OpenClaw's creator Peter Steinberger and current team of co-developers gave the world -- especially enterprises -- a reason to look at it again, announcing OpenClaw 2.0, billed as [2]the most significant update to the harness and surrounding platform yet .

>

> OpenClaw 2.0 seeks to transform what began largely as a personal agent harness into something increasingly designed for teams, shared infrastructure and enterprise workflows. OpenClaw 2.0 introduces a rebuilt browser interface that brings conversations, files, approvals, configuration and live agent activity into a common workspace. It adds shared cloud sessions and multi-user collaboration. And it expands the security model with stronger sandboxing, role-based permissions, approval controls, secrets handling and auditing.

>

> Together, those additions move OpenClaw closer to being infrastructure that an organization could deploy for employees rather than simply a powerful agent an individual developer runs locally. They also sharpen a competitive question surrounding the project: whether OpenClaw has addressed the security and isolation concerns that helped inspire newer alternatives such as NanoClaw. The answer is increasingly yes at the capability level -- but not necessarily by default.

Over the past two months, OpenClaw has been "build[ing] OpenClaw with OpenClaw," shifting its team from individual local coding tools to a shared agent environment at team.openclaw.ai that can see what everyone is working on. Steinberger [3]called "multiplayer coding + infinite compute with nodes and cloud sessions" a "game changer," adding that local coding harnesses now "feel like relics of the past."

VentureBeat highlights a use case from Solvely CEO Colin Johnson that [4]shows how OpenClaw's multiplayer WebUI can improve collaboration between developers and AI agents. Instead of simply "messaging a bot," multiple developers can now join the same live session, see the same history and artifacts, and work "inside the same context." In Johnson's case, that meant a developer taking over his project could simply join the existing agent thread rather than rely on a separate handoff document. As he put it, "the session itself became the handoff document."



[1] https://it.slashdot.org/story/26/02/19/223226/openclaw-security-fears-lead-meta-other-ai-firms-to-restrict-its-use?sdsrc=rel

[2] https://venturebeat.com/technology/openclaw-2-0-is-here-what-it-means-for-enterprises

[3] https://x.com/steipete/status/2094290652649636173

[4] https://x.com/colinsolvely/status/2094624645760610589

Anthropic has reportedly [1]signed a $35 billion cloud-computing deal with Nvidia-backed Lambda for a roughly 350-megawatt Texas data center being developed by Hut 8. "Lambda will install Nvidia chips at the Hut 8 facility, with the arrangement designed to expand the pool of Nvidia computing resources available to power Anthropic's Claude AI products," reports Quartz. From the report:

> The arrangement is a further sign of how Nvidia is positioning itself as a facilitator of computing access across the AI industry. It also benefited Lambda, which counts Nvidia as an investor and was able to land a major Anthropic contract without having to independently source or lease the underlying data center space, according to the Journal.

>

> The data center covers roughly 350 megawatts of capacity, according to [2]Bloomberg . Hut 8, which began as a bitcoin mining company before moving into AI data centers, disclosed in July that an investment-grade customer had signed 15-year leases for its Texas campus, with a base contract value of $19.6 billion, without naming the tenant.

>

> The Lambda deal is the latest in a series of large computing agreements Anthropic has pursued. Last week, the company agreed to spend $45 billion to rent capacity from Nscale's West Virginia data center campus. It has also signed deals worth $50 billion with neocloud Fluidstack Ltd. and $45 billion with SpaceX, according to Bloomberg.



[1] https://qz.com/anthropic-lambda-nvidia-cloud-deal-35-billion-090126

[2] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-08-31/anthropic-seals-35-billion-cloud-deal-with-nvidia-backed-lambda

[1]TIME's 2026 list of the 100 most influential people in AI [2]omits Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and AMD CEO Lisa Su , despite both having appeared on previous editions and playing central roles in the hardware powering the AI boom. Nvidia's only representative this year is sustainability chief Josh Parker, while the list includes figures such as Ben Affleck and Paris Hilton alongside major tech executives and policymakers. Tom's Hardware reports:

> Broadcom CEO Hock Tan, Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra, SMIC co-CEO Liang Mong Song, and Huawei HiSilicon president He Tingbo all appear on the 2026 list, joined by Cerebras' Andrew Feldman, CoreWeave's Michael Intrator, and Nscale's Josh Payne. Together, the roster includes Nvidia's HBM supplier, two of its biggest GPU cloud customers, its custom-accelerator rivals, and China, which is trying -- and so far struggling -- to replace Nvidia altogether.

>

> Parker's profile, which appears under the Thinkers category, focuses on data center energy and water consumption, alongside Nvidia's tripling of Scope 3 emissions in two years, and the Rubin platform's shift to 100% liquid cooling. "Nvidia is at the center of the AI revolution," Parker told TIME.

>

> TIME editor-in-chief Sam Jacobs wrote in the list's accompanying article that selection was led by editor Ayesha Javed, and that the 100 honorees represent the year's "key storylines and who, in our opinion, are having the most influence in driving these developments." Now in its fourth year, this edition of the TIME100 AI appears to have focused especially on featuring the new additions to TIME's community of AI leaders, with Mark Zuckerberg, Demis Hassabis, Sundar Pichai, and Satya Nadella representing four other honorees, arguably deserving of a space on this year's list, churned out.

>

> Su's strong TIME back catalog makes her omission all the stranger still. The magazine named her its 2024 CEO of the Year, put her on the 2024 AI list and the main TIME100 in 2025, and included her among December's Architects of AI.



[1] https://time.com/collection/time100-ai/2026/

[2] https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/artificial-intelligence/jensen-huang-and-lisa-su-snubbed-by-times-2026-ai-list-paris-hilton-and-ben-affleck-among-others-make-the-list-as-architects-of-ai-are-totally-absent

California lawmakers have passed a bill that [1]would legalize plug-in "balcony" solar systems , allowing residents to connect small solar panels directly to a standard wall outlet after completing a simple online registration. The systems would be capped at 1,200 watts and must meet safety requirements designed to prevent power from feeding back onto the grid during outages. KQED reports:

> The legislation, [2]SB 868 , sailed through the state assembly and senate with bipartisan support. The bill now moves to the governor's desk for signature. The devices can be tented in a backyard, hung off a balcony or placed on a roof. Models range from as low as [3]$300 to [4]$2200 , depending on size. The bill would open the solar market to people who were previously left out: renters, people with unsuitable roofs, and those lacking the capital to build out a rooftop system, which can cost in the tens of thousands of dollars.

>

> [...] If signed into law by Newsom, the legislation would exempt plug-in solar devices from what critics say is a cumbersome and expensive interconnection application process, and replace registration with a free and straightforward online form. [...] The newly passed bill outlines several device requirements. The balcony solar systems must be capped at generating 1,200 watts per home, plug into a standard outlet, offset a customer's onsite electricity use and meet state and national electrical codes. They also must be certified by an outside safety organization like Underwriters Laboratories and have a feature that would prevent electricity from feeding back into the grid if there's a power outage.



[1] https://www.kqed.org/science/2001842/california-lawmakers-greenlight-solar-panels-you-can-plug-into-the-wall

[2] https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260SB868

[3] https://www.brightsaver.org/

[4] https://craftstrom.com/

[1]schwit1 shares a report from WCTV:

> Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said he's [2]removing Flock camera from state roadways . The [3]announcement comes amid a growing concern over the misuse of automated license plate readers. On Monday, DeSantis ordered all Flock cameras removed from what he calls the 'state highway system' within the next 30 days, which would include interstates like I-10 and I-75. That order led to several sheriff's departments like in Franklin, Liberty and Putnam Counties to announce they're ending their own license plate reader programs. According to the Florida Department of Transportation memo, if the cameras aren't removed from the state right-of-ways within 30 days, then the state government will take them down on their own. The memo also says FDOT will deny any other permits for cameras in the future.



[1] https://slashdot.org/~schwit1

[2] https://www.wctv.tv/2026/08/31/gov-desantis-set-remove-flock-cameras-state-roadways/

[3] https://x.com/TheChiefNerd/status/2094578905663295821

Researchers have [1]found that tiny electrical charges picked up by moving water droplets [2]may be damaging cars and buildings like the Eiffel Tower . In experiments, thousands of charged droplets degraded Teflon and corroded the copper beneath it, while uncharged droplets caused no comparable damage. C&EN reports:

> For years, researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research have studied how water droplets from rain, dew, ocean waves, and melting snow become electrically charged. They say the process is like tribocharging, which causes static when we rub certain objects together, such as a balloon on our hair or a sweater on our skin. "Water drops spontaneously become electrically charged when moving on different surfaces, such as plant leaves, insect wings, building walls, window glass, and plastic. This process, known as contact or sliding electrification, is analogous to tribocharging between solids," says study coauthor Zhongyuan Ni, a PhD candidate at Max Planck. "Water drops getting charged is not a new phenomenon, but for the past 200 years, people have not paid attention to this," Ni says.

>

> In 2023, Ni and colleagues set out to determine whether electrically charged water droplets affect the surfaces they contact. To find out, the team poured water over four common surfaces -- a plant leaf; polyvinyl chloride foam board; polystyrene glass; and perfluoro octadecyltrichlorosilane (PFOTS), a commonly used water-repelling coating -- and let it drip onto sheets of Teflon-coated copper tilted at 50 degrees. When the experiments began, the team would allow only a few dozen drops to fall onto the copper before using electron microscopy to examine it. The researchers repeatedly failed to find any evidence of decay. But one day, Ni just let the drops keep falling. "After thousands of drops, it looked like the drops were pinning onto the surface," he says. After inspecting the copper under the microscope, Ni got his first glimpse of the destructive strength of electrically charged water drops.

>

> After repeating the experiment several times with thousands rather than dozens of drops, the researchers found that the electrified water drops not only broke down the Teflon coating but also corroded the underlying copper. Up close, the copper sheets looked like scraped-up skin. But when the experiment was conducted with nonelectrified drops, neither the copper nor its Teflon coating was any worse for wear. Even though the drops contained only around 0.2 to 2.0 nanocoulombs of charge -- around one billionth of a standard unit -- the impact of the charged drops was significant.

"The finding is important because it suggests that the electrical state of a water droplet, not just its chemical composition, acidity, or mechanical impact, can influence how corrosion begins," says Guangwen Zhou, a professor of mechanical engineering at Binghamton University who was not involved in the study.

"This perspective could open up new approaches to designing protective coatings and materials that are more resistant to corrosion in environments where charged water droplets are present."



[1] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-10941-6

[2] https://cen.acs.org/physical-chemistry/surface-chemistry/electrically-charged-raindrops-corrosion-cars/104/web/2026/08

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica:

> President Trump yesterday demanded that the Federal Communications Commission [1]punish or rebuke an NBC journalist for saying he has "mixed results" in his election endorsements. In the latest example of how Trump is using the FCC to harass reporters and news organizations that he dislikes, he said Meet the Press host Kristen Welker "will be reported to the FCC for rebuke or punishment" for what he claimed was a "purposeful inaccuracy." "Kristen Welker, the Unpopular 'Hostess' of the once great Meet the Press, now considered Meet the Fake Press, just stated that Donald Trump has 'mixed results' on his Endorsements of Candidates, when the recent WINS of Darline Graham and Mike Mazzei, stand at 100% for the U.S. Senate, and 98% for the U.S. House, recently and over the longterm. How can anyone be allowed to say this, working for freely given Public Airwaves? Results are attached. Because of this purposeful inaccuracy, she will be reported to the FCC for rebuke or punishment," Trump wrote in a [2]Truth Social post .

>

> A separate [3]post from Trump yesterday said, "THE FAKE POLLS USED BY OUR CROOKED MEDIA ARE OUT OF CONTROL, AND SOMETHING MUST BE DONE ABOUT IT. FCC TO THE RESCUE! President DJT." Trump also [4]posted a rant on Friday about New York Times journalist Maggie Haberman, calling her "an unattractive person both inside and out" who "should be forced to turn over any and all money that she's made through her fake reporting on me." Trump referred to Haberman throughout his post as "Maggot Haberman." Trump's post about Welker included an image purporting to show he has near-perfect results in his endorsements this year. "The Press is a Disgrace to our Nation, and I hope that Chairman Brendan Carr, and the fine people of his Commission, will take this Threat to our Country very seriously," Trump wrote. Perhaps indicating that he will refer additional journalists for FCC punishment, Trump wrote that Welker "is not the only one. The Radical Left News is going out of their way to harass, demean, and libel anything 'TRUMP.'"

The FCC website [5]says the commission "cannot prevent the broadcast of any particular point of view," and that it "generally will not intervene" in complaints about "one-sided news reports" because "it would be inconsistent with the First Amendment to replace the journalistic judgment of licensees with our own."

As noted by Ars, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has "made it clear he [6]takes orders from Trump , abandoning his previous position -- which he [7]held under Democratic presidents -- that the FCC must operate independently of White House interference."

Carr could use the commission's regulatory authority over licensed broadcasters to open an investigation into Welker, potentially creating pressure on NBC and its affiliated stations through licensing proceedings or other FCC actions. The most likely vehicle would be the FCC's rarely enforced news distortion policy, which Carr has [8]repeatedly revived to target coverage he considers misleading; historically, however, the policy required an unusually high evidentiary bar and was seldom enforced.



[1] https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/08/trump-tells-fcc-to-punish-journalist-for-calling-his-election-results-mixed/

[2] https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/117184581053116309

[3] https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/117184527741564500

[4] https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/117175050400064794

[5] https://www.fcc.gov/media/radio/public-and-broadcasting

[6] https://yro.slashdot.org/story/25/12/17/1817255/fcc-chair-suggests-agency-isnt-independent-word-cut-from-mission-statement

[7] https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/01/21/1424225/brendan-carr-is-officially-in-charge-of-the-fcc

[8] https://yro.slashdot.org/story/26/07/30/1933258/abc-accuses-fcc-of-attempted-censorship

The FTC and 22 state attorneys general are [1]suing Amazon, accusing the company of [2]secretly inflating advertising prices through undisclosed changes to its auction system that may have extracted more than $20 billion from advertisers since 2019. "Amazon has millions of advertising customers who were misled into paying significantly higher prices," FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson said in a statement. "These higher costs were largely passed on to American consumers." CNBC reports:

> The complaint, which was filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, centers on Amazon's sponsored products ads, brands ads and display ads that run alongside search results on its sprawling webstore. Amazon has amassed the third-largest digital advertising business globally, trailing only Google and Meta. The company hauled in more than $68 billion in ads revenue last year, with the lion's share coming from sales of sponsored products ads. Third-party sellers who hawk their wares on Amazon's marketplace have recently criticized surging advertising costs on the site, including a string of recent policy changes, which led to some top merchants withholding their ad spend in a boycott. The company has traditionally used a "second-price" auction system, wherein it told advertisers they "only pay the least bid amount needed in order to win," the complaint states, citing Amazon's own marketing materials.

>

> The FTC alleges in its complaint that Amazon in 2019 changed its auction rules without notice by adding an undisclosed surcharge it referred to as a "soft reserve price," which led to higher ad prices. "Amazon made this surreptitious change to its auction because it was unhappy about how much revenue its advertising auctions were generating," the agency said in its complaint, which cites internal communications between Amazon ad executives. In one exchange, a company executive allegedly acknowledged it uses an "invented auction participant" to increase prices, the FTC said. The FTC and the states alleged Amazon's practices violate federal and state consumer protection laws, and they're seeking civil penalties, restitution and other unspecified damages.

In a [3]blog post , Amazon called the FTC's lawsuit "misguided" and said the complaint "fundamentally misunderstands how advertisers operate." The company added that the agency's lawsuit doesn't include evidence of consumer price increases.

"We've provided advertisers with guidance about our auctions and pricing in the main tools they use to manage their campaigns, and we continue to update that guidance," the company said. "We look forward to making our case in court."



[1] https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2026/08/ftc-states-sue-amazon-over-secret-ad-surcharge-scheme

[2] https://www.cnbc.com/2026/08/31/amazon-ftc-lawsuit-advertisers.html

[3] https://www.aboutamazon.com/company-news/amazon-ftc-sponsored-ads-lawsuit-response

According to [1]The Information (paywalled), Apple reportedly moved up the [2]release of new Mac mini and Mac Studio models after [3]unexpectedly strong enterprise demand for Macs capable of running AI workloads . MacRumors reports:

> Apple normally releases new Mac models in the autumn, closer to October or November, making this week's announcement unusually early, falling just before the anticipated arrival of new iPhone models. The Information says that the AI-driven boom in Mac Studio and Mac mini sales is behind the early launch. Apple noticeably promoted the ability to link multiple Mac Studios together into a single, more capable system for running large frontier AI models, a feature aimed at business and developer customers rather than everyday consumers.

>

> Apple highlighted the Mac mini and Mac Studio's shift toward business buyers in June, with a "Business at the Park" event involving executives from major companies Ford, Disney, and Anthropic. The Mac mini was said to be the "darling" of the event. Even so, enterprise's rush toward powerful desktop Macs more broadly took Apple by surprise.

>

> The company reportedly did not possess an engineering team dedicated to business customers or staff focused on developer relations, and lacked an enterprise AI strategy. Businesses that approached Apple asking to buy access to the company's Private Cloud Compute infrastructure were reportedly turned down. Apple is instead leaning on partners such as WebAI and Mount Thor, which provide AI tools and execution environments built on Apple hardware.



[1] https://www.theinformation.com/articles/apple-stumbled-ai-hardware-success-mac

[2] https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/26/08/25/1553245/apple-announces-new-mac-mini-with-m6-and-m5-pro-chips

[3] https://www.macrumors.com/2026/08/30/apple-unexpected-mac-mini-and-studio-demand/

Broadcom is [1]launching "TrueSource," an effort to [2]curate and secure open-source components used with its Tanzu platform , including Spring, RabbitMQ, and libraries across Java, Python, and Node.js. "The idea is to provide a set of solutions focused on providing clean and secure artefacts," Purnima Padmanabhan, vice president of Broadcom's Tanzu Division, told The Register. "We choose and build every Spring library, databases, other Java components," she said. The Register reports:

> Padmanabhan said that promise means VMware will also provide "TrueSource trusted artifacts" for code that is not part of Spring, including the wider Java ecosystem, Python, and Node.js. "Broadcom's curation process ensures that the libraries conform to a reference architecture and are supportable by the maintainers of record," according to a company statement. "Thousands of engineers across Broadcom's software divisions scan, fix, contribute to, and consume them every day."

>

> A VMware spokesperson told The Register the Broadcom business unit "will work with and support maintainers on open source software and we will provide fixes to open source upstream for any active projects." "With Spring and RabbitMQ, we are the maintainers. For other open source software, we will work with the maintainers. We believe that the community maintainers must remain the source of truth," the spokesperson said.

>

> This is just the sort of contribution that the open-source community wants vendors to do to reflect the value they extract from software they did not create alone. It's also the sort of thing vendors sometimes conclude they need to do to keep products based on FOSS viable.



[1] https://investors.broadcom.com/news-releases/news-release-details/broadcom-strengthens-spring-security-and-adds-coverage-java

[2] https://www.theregister.com/virtualization/2026/08/31/broadcom-pledges-to-lock-down-open-source-python-java-libraries/5293454

Kalshi has [1]issued its first-ever lifetime ban to former U.S. Rep. George Santos after concluding he failed to fully cooperate with an insider-trading investigation. He is also being fined $71,356, according to [2]a filing (PDF) on its website. Engadget reports:

> It was reported in June that Santos was under investigation from the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) over insider trading. Prediction markets like Kalshi allow users to buy contracts or shares in the outcome of events. Participants don't necessarily have to wait for an event to resolve before selling these contracts and cashing in.

>

> Santos allegedly bought contracts on Kalshi indicating that he would not attend this year's State of the Union speech after weather disrupted his travel plans. According to the CFTC, Santos then sold those contracts for a profit after claiming on social media that he would be in attendance. The former congressman is said to have made more than $17,500 through this scheme, which Kalshi reportedly detected and flagged to authorities. In July, Santos [3]agreed to pay over $35,000 to settle the CFTC's claims against him. The agency also issued him a three-year trading ban.

>

> Kalshi, however, doesn't plan to allow Santos back on its platform in 2029 (or anytime after that). The company confirmed to [4]The Wall Street Journal this was the first time it had given anyone a lifetime ban and that it did so because Santos didn't fully cooperate with its investigation. He can appeal the decision to the CTFC.



[1] https://www.engadget.com/2247629/kalshi-dishes-out-its-first-ever-lifetime-ban-to-george-santos/

[2] https://kalshi-public-docs.s3.amazonaws.com/regulatory/notices/KDA-2026-0006%20Santos%20Notice%20of%20Disciplinary%20Action.docx.pdf

[3] https://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/PressReleases/9276-26

[4] https://www.wsj.com/politics/ex-congressman-george-santos-receives-kalshis-first-ever-lifetime-ban-b50eeaf1

Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey is warning that advanced "frontier" AI models [1]could materially increase cyber risk across the global financial system by making attacks faster, cheaper, and more scalable. In [2]a letter to G20 finance officials, he said financial firms need stronger defenses and contingency plans for simultaneous disruptions. CNBC reports:

> Writing in his capacity as chair of the Financial Stability Board, an international body that coordinates policy and makes recommendations to national authorities, Bailey identified the potential impact of frontier AI -- which refers to the most advanced AI models -- on cyber risk as "the most immediate concern" for the financial system.

>

> "Frontier AI may have the ability materially to alter the speed, scale and economics of cyber risk, which could undermine market confidence system-wide, especially due to highly concentrated third-party service providers," Bailey said. "Recent developments have also highlighted to me that many jurisdictions do not have the protocols in place to manage the development, release, and deployment of advanced frontier AI models, heightening risks for the financial sector and beyond," he added.

>

> [...] Financial institutions and technology providers will need to improve vulnerability management, response and recovery capabilities -- "and prepare for more severe scenarios involving simultaneous disruption across multiple firms or shared technology dependencies," Bailey said. Alongside new AI models, Bailey cited "fragilities" in sovereign debt markets, the growing use of debt by investors in equity markets and stretched asset valuations, particularly AI-related investments, as among his concerns.



[1] https://www.cnbc.com/2026/08/31/bailey-frontier-ai-financial-stability-risk.html

[2] https://www.fsb.org/2026/08/fsb-chairs-letter-to-g20-finance-ministers-and-central-bank-governors-august-2026/

An anonymous reader quotes a report from 9to5Mac:

> Today is Tim Cook's [1]last day as Apple CEO , with John Ternus set to take over tomorrow. To mark his last day in the role, Cook penned an emotional memo to Apple employees today. In [2]the memo sent to employees this morning and obtained by 9to5Mac, Cook reflects on his time at Apple and thanks employees for all of their work. He also says he takes "enormous comfort in handing the helm to someone as brilliant and wonderful and capable" as John Ternus. "Few people understand what it takes to build products that change the world the way John does and I could not be more excited for his leadership," Cook writes.

"There is something truly special about Apple," writes Cook. "I am most proud of what an annual report could never capture. This place is proof that culture triumphs over everything. We share a belief that what we build matters, and that we have both the opportunity and the responsibility to leave the world better than we found it. That purpose is part of what makes this place extraordinary. Apple helps nurture it, but I believe it lived within each of you long before you arrived here. It is what brought you to this company and what continues to drive the work you do every day."

He continues: "Together, we have created something far greater than any one of us could have imagined or accomplished alone. And that's the secret to our success. We bring out the best in each other. We lift each other up. We have made it possible to leave our 'dent in the universe,' as Steve once described it, because of who we are and what we believe, because of what we value and how we see the world. How fortunate we are. How fortunate I am..."

Cook also thanked the Apple community in [3]a post on social media, writing: "Sending lots of love to the Apple community on my last day as CEO. My title changes tomorrow, but the love I have for the Apple community never will. Thank you for being a constant source of inspiration. My gratitude is endless, and I'm excited for the next chapter!"



[1] https://9to5mac.com/2026/08/31/read-tim-cooks-full-memo-to-apple-employees-on-his-last-day-as-ceo/

[2] https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/1w3gr2a/read_tim_cooks_full_memo_to_apple_employees_on/

[3] https://x.com/tim_cook/status/2094448088199078236

MapQuest's refusal to rename Lake Ontario as "Lake America" has sent its app surging up the charts, [1]making it the No. 1 navigation app in the U.S . and driving "hundreds of thousands" of new downloads. In contrast, Google Maps announced on Saturday that it was [2]complying with the Trump administration's name change. TechCrunch reports:

> The "OG of online mapping," as the company calls itself, [3]announced on Thursday that it would not change the name of Lake Ontario on its maps to Lake America, despite Trump's [4]executive order directing the U.S. Department of the Interior to update the lake's name in the U.S. geographic naming service. As a result, MapQuest's mobile app downloads soared, sending the iOS app to the No. 4 position on the U.S. App Store's Top Charts for apps (not including games) as of Monday morning on the U.S. east coast.

>

> MapQuest also reached the No. 8 position overall in the U.S. App Store across both apps and games, and it became the No. 1 Navigation app in the United States. In Canada's App Store, the app reached No. 2 overall as of Sunday evening. The 30-year-old company remarked that it received "hundreds of thousands" of new downloads since its decision to keep the name Lake Ontario in place, and saw its app's usage climb to 50 times above its normal levels.

"We took the same approach we did with the Gulf of Mexico: be part of the conversation, and give people an app that keeps the names they're familiar with," said Doug Berger, general manager of MapQuest, in [5]a statement . "Hundreds of thousands of people signaled to us this weekend that we got it right by downloading our app."



[1] https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/31/mapquests-app-surges-to-no-1-in-navigation-after-refusing-to-rename-lake-ontario/

[2] https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/08/30/1850233/google-maps-renamed-lake-ontario-to-lake-america---but-only-for-us-users

[3] https://x.com/MapQuest/status/2093038963196117303

[4] https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2026/08/honoring-the-american-history-of-the-great-lakes-and-renaming-lake-ontario-as-lake-america-3a36/

[5] https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260831810778/en/MapQuest-Surges-to-No.-1-in-the-Apple-App-Store-30-Years-After-Inventing-Online-Mapping

California's age-verification bill has passed in its legislature — but with its open-source carve-out intact, [1]reports the blog Linuxiac :

> Back in May, [2]we reported that California lawmakers amended Assembly Bill 1856 to carve open-source operating systems out of the state's upcoming age verification requirements. Three months later, that exemption survived the legislative process intact, and the bill has cleared both chambers of the California Legislature... sending the measure to Engrossing and Enrolling, the final legislative preparation stage before it can be presented to Governor Gavin Newsom...

>

> For operating systems that are covered, AB 1856 builds on California's Digital Age Assurance Act, which is scheduled to take effect on January 1, 2027. Under the current text, when an operating system runs on a device and includes an account setup feature, its provider must offer an interface that asks the account holder for the birth date, age, or both, of the device's primary user during account setup. The operating system must then be capable of providing a digital age signal to covered application stores and application developers through a reasonably consistent real-time API. Instead of exposing a precise birth date, the signal identifies one of four age ranges: under 13, 13 through 15, 16 through 17, or 18 and older... Covered application stores must request the signal from the operating system and make it available to developers.



[1] https://linuxiac.com/californias-age-verification-bill-passes-with-linux-exemption-intact/

[2] https://linuxiac.com/california-bill-adds-open-source-carve-out-to-age-verification-rules/

"OpenAI said on Friday that it plans to stop providing AI models to Cursor, the coding-tool company now owned by Elon Musk's SpaceX," [1]reports Reuters :

> "We are making this choice because we cannot be confident that SpaceX will use our technology within our terms of service, based on our experience with Elon Musk's companies violating contracts," OpenAI [2]said in a blog post ... However, Michael Truell, a co-founder of Cursor and now an executive at SpaceX, said on X that the company was speaking with the OpenAI team to resolve this issue.

>

> Hours after OpenAI's announcement, Anthropic, which rivals both firms but has an [3]ongoing partnership with SpaceX, said it planned to increase compute to support Claude models in Cursor, according to Tom Brown, one of the co-founders of the firm...

>

> In its blog post, OpenAI said that X, formerly known as Twitter and now part of SpaceX, had breached the terms of its contract with OpenAI after Musk acquired the platform. "To work with a large partner like SpaceX, we typically rely on custom contracts to ensure compliance with our terms of service and that the integration provides for safety at scale," the AI company added.

The article also notes Elon Musk's response Saturday in a post on X.com: "I couldn't care less."

> He accused Altman and OpenAI President Greg Brockman of being "untrustworthy," while repeating his assertion that they "stole an open source nonprofit."



[1] https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/openai-end-partnership-with-spacexs-cursor-2026-08-29/

[2] https://openai.com/index/our-decision-on-cursor-following-its-acquisition-by-spacex/

[3] https://www.reuters.com/business/anthropic-nears-first-quarterly-profit-agrees-pay-spacex-125-billion-monthly-2026-05-21/

In an Amazon News blog post, their HR leader [1]describes using AI to write 100,000 lines of code — 25 years after she last coded. "Do you know how empowering it is to realize that after 25 years away from coding, you can actually build again?" First she built a calendar app for her family, but then used Amazon's AI-powered coding tool Kiro to write an app for Amazon's internal "Everyone Can Build" event.

> We opened the competition to every employee on our team, and within just a few weeks, more than 1,500 people were building. I couldn't believe what they built. One employee built an app that turned a nearly four-hour manual process into a one-second automated check, saving tens of thousands of hours annually. Another made a desktop pet named Momo that keeps your tasks, reminders, and shortcuts a click away.

>

> Since then, I've written over 100,000 lines of code with AI. What I've found is that the more you work with these tools, the more natural the process becomes, and the more you realize they're expanding what you're capable of, not replacing it. You don't need perfection to start. You just need to dive in. When I decided to build the submission app for our team competition, I didn't know how to begin, so I asked our internal AI workplace assistant, called Aza. It pointed me to the right tools and helped me take the first step. From there, I opened Kiro and started building. When you give employees the ability and tools to solve problems themselves, they will surprise you with what they create...

>

> At Amazon, every employee has access to AI tools. Whether someone needs a quick answer, wants to move faster in their day-to-day, or is ready to try building something new, the resources are there. The more people use these tools, the more capable they become with them, and that experience carries forward in their careers... We also want to make it easy for people to build credentials that are recognized across industries. That's why AI training is free for every Amazon employee. Amazon covers the full cost of one AWS AI certification exam per year, with options ranging from foundational AI concepts to professional-level generative AI. Employees can choose the path that fits where they are in their learning journey.

Long-time Slashdot reader [2]theodp notes that 7 months ago Galetti also took to Amazon News to announce the [3]elimination of 16,000 corporate jobs , a move which [4]CNBC noted coincided "with a push to [5]invest heavily in artificial intelligence."

> The job reductions come just a few months after October's layoffs, [6]when 14,000 employees were let go across Amazon's corporate workforce. At the time, the company indicated the cuts would continue in 2026 as it found "additional places we can remove layers."



[1] https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/workplace/amazon-svp-ai-tools-employees-careers

[2] https://www.slashdot.org/~theodp

[3] https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/company-news/amazon-layoffs-corporate-jan-2026?utm_source=rss

[4] https://www.cnbc.com/2026/01/28/amazon-layoffs-anti-bureaucracy-ai.html

[5] https://www.cnbc.com/2025/10/31/tech-ai-google-meta-amazon-microsoft-spend.html

[6] https://www.cnbc.com/2025/10/28/amazon-layoffs-corporate-workers-ai.html