TikTok Reaches $100M+ Settlement with Alabama Over Safety

TikTok and its Chinese parent company, ​ByteDance, have reached ‌a settlement with Alabama over allegations they designed ​the platform ​to addict children and misled ⁠consumers about its ​safety, marking the ​company's first deal with a state as it fights ​similar claims nationwide. Under ​the settlement, Alabama will receive ‌a ⁠minimum of $100 million, due to the state within 45 days, ​with ​the ⁠potential to receive up to $300 ​million if certain ​conditions ⁠are met, the Alabama Attorney General's office ⁠said.

Australia Prime Minister Says OpenAI Agent Hacked Healthcare Website

Australia’s prime minister said an artificial intelligence agent developed by ChatGPT-maker OpenAI hacked into a government health care website in June, the latest example of a cybersecurity breach perpetrated with cutting-edge AI. There was no evidence that personal health information was stolen, but an investigation is ongoing, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said at a Wednesday news conference while attending the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

U.S. Government Wants to Join Musk in Fighting EU Fine Against X

The U.S. government said it had formally sought to join a legal challenge filed by billionaire Elon Musk to dismiss a fine of €120 million ($136.51 million) by the European Union against ​his social media platform X. EU tech regulators fined X late last year for breaching ​online content rules, the first sanction under a landmark legislation that has ⁠drawn criticism from Washington.

White House Asks OpenAI, Anthropic to Delay Sharing with UK Government

The White House has asked OpenAI and Anthropic not to share their new artificial intelligence models with the U.K. government’s testing agency until the models have gone through testing with the U.S. government, according to a person familiar with the matter and a senior U.S. administration official, both of whom were granted anonymity to describe the request. The request, which came from the Office of the National Cyber Director, puts companies in the difficult position of having to choose between withholding their models from U.K.’s AI Security Institute – one of the most well-resourced government testing agencies in the world which previously enjoyed privileged early access to models – or risk upsetting the Trump White House.

OpenAI Systems Tried to Hack Into Government, University Websites

OpenAI’s artificial intelligence went rogue this year in at least four additional incidents, hacking and trying to break into government and university websites without being instructed to do so, according to researchers and government officials. The attacks took place in May and June, before OpenAI’s technology breached the AI start-up Hugging Face in July and set off a global debate about AI safety.

Leaders of AI Companies Urge UN Members to Push for Regulation

Leaders of several major artificial intelligence companies told United Nations members that robust international efforts to regulate the technology are required amid escalating concern that AI could pose a significant risk to humanity. Sam Altman, the chief executive of ChatGPT maker OpenAI, addressed leaders in the U.N. Security Council chamber, saying the pace of AI progress could “accelerate rapidly,” and calling for “extreme care” and for nations to work together in deciding how to regulate the technology instead of concentrating power in the hands of a few firms.

British Regulator Investigating Pornhub for Compliance with Age Checks

Britain's media regulator Ofcom said it had ​opened an investigation into whether adult content platform ‌Pornhub has complied with its legal duties to prevent children from seeing pornography. Under Britain's Online Safety Act, platforms are ​required to put in place age checks to ​prevent under-18s accessing pornographic content.

Criminal Hacking Group Claims Access to Data on FBI Personnel

A prolific criminal hacking group said that it had stolen a large tranche of sensitive personnel information belonging to thousands of FBI officials in what would amount to a stunning breach of private data for the nation’s top law enforcement agency. The hackers, who call themselves ShinyHunters, said the records were stolen from an online jobs portal for the bureau and included names of current and former agents as well as applicants and corresponding home addresses, phone numbers, names of spouses, certain medical information and other data.

EU Data Privacy Regulator Fines Google $463 Million

The lead EU data privacy regulator for most of the biggest Internet ‌companies fined Alphabet's Google €403 million ($463 million) after an inquiry into its processing of location data, policies the search engine said have since been updated. Ireland's Data Protection Commission said it found Google had infringed European Union ​privacy rules known as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) through three of its specific features – 'Web & ​App Activity', 'Location History' and 'Location Accuracy' — from 2018 to 2020.

Banks Warn Using AI for Online Shopping Increases Fraud Risks

Using AI agents for online shopping could increase the risk of scams, fraud and ​data-privacy breaches, banks including NatWest and Bank of America said, as they set out principles for developing the technology. Technology companies including OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and Meta are increasingly promoting AI chatbots as shopping tools, envisioning a future in which shoppers ​use AI agents to select products and make purchases on their ​behalf.

Google Says Gemini AI Models Hacked Three Other Companies

Google said that AI models in testing inside the company accessed the internet and hacked other companies, becoming the fourth major tech company to disclose such an incident in recent months. The search giant said that one of its Gemini AI models accessed the Internet and hacked into three other companies’ systems during an internal testing run in May.

California's Governor Signs Order Requiring AI 'Kill Switch'

California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, directed the state’s government to find ways to strengthen rules for artificial intelligence, as concerns mount over the technology’s safety. Mr. Newsom, a Democrat, signed an executive order requiring that cited possible measures that include embedding representatives of independent organizations within top AI labs to verify the safety of the technology and forcing companies to add a “kill switch” to automatically shut down the most advanced A.I. models.

DeepSeek to Brief UN Security Council on Risks Posed by AI

Chinese AI startup DeepSeek will be among the companies briefing the United Nations Security Council on the risks posed by artificial intelligence, two sources familiar ​with the matter said, as world leaders gather in New York for the annual ‌UN General Assembly. The 15-member Security Council is set to meet to discuss AI and international security, weeks after several AI industry leaders called for a coordinated slowdown of the development of the increasingly powerful AI systems, ​warning that they could soon improve on their own and slip beyond human control.

UN-Backed Panel's Report Urges Creating Safeguards on AI

The United Nations-backed Independent International Scientific Panel on AI urged world leaders and tech companies to implement new safeguards on artificial intelligence, with the concern that existing safeguards are “unraveling.” U.N. Secretary General António Gueterres welcomed the report and encouraged “external experts, including from frontier AI labs and AI safety institutes, to engage with the panel to help inform dialogue on such matters.”

Trump Announces Creation of 'AI Force,' Vows to Appoint 'AI Czar'

President Trump said he was launching a new unit focused on artificial intelligence after leading figures in the industry publicly sounded the alarm over the growing technology. The announcement marks the first time the president has suggested there could be a new federal government entity solely dedicated to AI, but it isn’t clear what role it would play.

U.S. Senators Debate Legislation Imposing 'Duty of Care' on AI

U.S. Senate negotiators are debating legislation that would require AI companies to demonstrate they are taking reasonable precautions to keep their tools from causing harm, according to a Senate aide ​and a lobbyist familiar with the talks. The senators are debating giving the U.S. commerce secretary the power to ​request proof that AI developers are taking reasonable steps to prevent harm, known as a "duty ⁠of care," according to the Senate aide and lobbyist.

Chinese State Media Says Calls for AI Slowdown 'Self-Serving'

Chinese state media accused leading US AI executives of using calls for slower development of frontier models to blunt competition from China, describing the push as a “self-serving” effort to preserve American dominance. An editorial published by state-owned China Daily said recent remarks from AI leaders in the US show how restrictions aimed at limiting China’s AI development are shifting to software after curbs on chips and equipment had failed to stop companies in the Asian nation from building competitive models.

Trump Labels Calls for AI Slowdown 'A Sick Conspiracy'

President Donald Trump dismissed the push for new guardrails to protect Americans from the rapid growth of artificial intelligence and warned of "a SICK conspiracy" that is turning people against AI and data centers in the United States. Trump made the comments in a Sept. 14 post on Truth Social as he lashed out against Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, who raised concerns about the unchecked pace of AI development and called for new guardrails in an essay published over the weekend.

Top AI Leaders Support Anthropic CEO's Call for Slowdown

Dario Amodei, the chief executive of Anthropic, called for a global slowdown of artificial intelligence development in a 3,800-word essay, just days after one of the company’s employees quit over concerns about the safety of the technology. Top executives of other major AI companies quickly signed on to the effort. Sam Altman, the chief executive of OpenAI; Elon Musk, whose SpaceX rocket company has been ramping up spending on A.I.; and Demis Hassabis, the chair of Google DeepMind, wrote in social media posts that they agreed on the need for a slower pace.

Microsoft Unveils Draft Code of Conduct for Its Own AI Tools

Microsoft unveiled a draft code of conduct for its in-house artificial intelligence that reflects growing industry concern that companies must keep future powerful AI under human control. The document, in the works for five to six months, would require Microsoft's ​AI to never resist correction or shutdown, to communicate in ways that humans can understand, ​and to consider any conduct violation to be a failure — an effort to ⁠address concerns that AI can go to dangerous lengths to accomplish a task.

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