Interesting. Follow the links.

https://www.bespacific.com/one-us-citizen-just-triggered-a-stunning-national-chain-reaction/

One US Citizen Just Triggered a Stunning National Chain Reaction

Glass Empire by W.A. Lawrence: “On August 31, 2026, USA TODAY reported that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security circulated a secret intelligence bulletin naming Laura Berlin’s website, “Who is Profiting from ICE?” 

I wonder what risk they foresee?

https://thenextweb.com/news/ice-boston-dynamics-spot-robots-procurement

ICE plans to buy Boston Dynamics robot dogs without running a competition

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement has posted plans to buy a fleet of Boston Dynamics robot dogs. The listing puts the spend at $1m to $2m. It also says ICE does not intend to compete the purchase.

Joseph Cox found the plan for 404 Media on Friday. It sits in the Department of Homeland Security’s Acquisition Planning Forecast System. That is a public database where federal buyers flag what they intend to purchase, months before they go out to market.

Anyone can read it. Almost nobody does.

… ICE wants the robots for “inspection, situational awareness, and hazard assessment in environments that may pose risks to personnel”. The capability “helps improve officer safety”, the record says. It lets the agency reach “dangerous, confined, unstable, or difficult-to-access areas”.

Rules. (Guidance for non-governmental records as well?)

https://www.bespacific.com/guidance-on-applying-the-federal-records-act-to-artificial-intelligence-materials/

Guidance on Applying the Federal Records Act to Artificial Intelligence Materials

NextGov/FCW via Ben Amata: “Recent guidance issued by the National Archives and Records Administration says that the use of artificial intelligence platforms “does not, in and of itself, result in the creation of federal records,” although it notes that AI inputs and outputs may still qualify for recordkeeping if they influence broader agency operations. In an Aug. 21-dated memo to agencies, NARA says that “whether an AI material is a federal record depends on the circumstances surrounding the creation, maintenance, and use of the materials, such as whether the agency relies on it in decision-making, uses it to conduct official business, circulates the material to others, or incorporates it into an agency system.” This memorandum explains how to apply the Federal Records Act (FRA) to existing Artificial Intelligence (AI) uses, with a focus on the use of AI platforms. It proceeds in two parts. Part I provides guidance to federal departments and agencies on how to apply the definition of a federal record to inputs, outputs, data, audit trails, software, and other materials involved in the use of AI (collectively, “AI materials”). It explains that agencies’ use of AI platforms does not, in and of itself, result in the creation of federal records. Subsequent use of AI-generated materials in agency business may result in the creation of federal records. This memorandum explains the factors agencies should consider when making these determinations. Specifically, whether an AI material is a federal record depends on the circumstances surrounding the creation, maintenance, and use of the materials, such as whether the agency relies on it in decision-making, uses it to conduct official business, circulates the material to others, or incorporates it into an agency system. Part II confirms that agencies may only dispose of AI-related federal records in accordance with a NARA-approved records schedule. It identifies existing General Records Schedules (GRS) that authorize agencies to dispose of AI-related federal records when they reach the specified retention period. Part II further explains that when agencies create federal records while using AI, these records may be “transitory” records that can be destroyed when no longer needed or “intermediary” records that may be destroyed upon creation of the subsequent record.”

Russia playing at “not war” again?

https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2026/09/01/rockets-fired-at-substation-in-brandenburg-in-suspected-deliberate-attack

Improvised explosive devices found near German power plant, police say

Several improvised explosive devices were found at a substation near a coal-fired power plant in Germany on Tuesday and several power lines were damaged, police and a grid operator said.

Operator 50Hertz said there was a "brief interruption of service" but all lines are now back in operation at the Preilack substation, which distributes power from the nearby Jänschwalde power plant.

Police said no one was hurt.

The apparent aim was to trigger a large-scale power outage in the area around the nearby coal-fired power plant. According to initial findings, however, this did not happen.

Old school makes a comeback… (But I never paid as much as $4.)

https://www.theregister.com/security/2026/08/24/security-vets-rally-around-4-paper-password-books-for-sale-in-australia/5291234

Security vets rally around $4 paper password books for sale in Australia

… Password books are something of a historical relic, phased out largely because of the scrutiny associated with using one and the now-gray-haired elders who once scoffed at the mere notion of such an opsec crime.

They might not be able to suggest a strong password for each of your many online accounts, and they won’t do you much good if your house is burgled, but you could argue that there is still value to be found in a pen-and-paper password vault.

That’s exactly the conclusion drawn by the thousands of social media users who flocked to a post this week from one Australian who found stacks of password books for sale in their local post office. 

(Hint: Google “password books”)

Coming soon to a doctor near you? (Are medical hallucinations really unexpected?)

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/aug/31/doctors-ai-scribes-get-names-of-drugs-and-diagnoses-wrong-nhs-watchdog-warns

Doctors’ AI scribes get names of drugs and diagnoses wrong, NHS watchdog warns

AI technology that listens to and transcribes patients’ consultations with doctors can put them at risk by getting the names of drugs and illnesses wrong, an NHS watchdog has warned.

In one case a woman was left badly shaken when the AI scribe’s summary of her conversation wrongly said she had demyelination – serious nerve damage that can lead to multiple sclerosis.

It was only when the patient, an NHS health professional, queried the AI tool’s record of the result of her MRI scan that the hospital corrected it to what it should have been – “null demyelination”.

I guess I’m more willing to call it war than most politicians.

https://www.politico.eu/article/russias-hybrid-war-on-europe-is-starting-to-look-a-lot-less-hybrid/

Russia’s ‘hybrid war’ on Europe is starting to look a lot less hybrid

Drones and explosives found in Germany linked to a suspected attack on Leipzig airport.  A naval drone shot down near a gas platform in the Black Sea. An assassination plot targeting a European defense executive.

Russia’s campaign against Europe looks increasingly brazen. Yet EU leaders remain reluctant to call it what a growing number of security officials say it increasingly resembles: war. Instead, they reach for a softer phrase — “hybrid war” — that allows the EU and NATO to avoid a military response.

That language is coming under growing criticism as Moscow steps up sabotage, cyberattacks and other operations across Europe. Security experts, diplomats and defense officials who spoke to POLITICO say the “hybrid” label risks understating the severity of the threat — and obscuring just how far the confrontation with Russia has already escalated.

Who are we talking to?

https://www.cnn.com/2026/08/30/middleeast/iran-trump-power-struggle-war-intl

A power struggle in Iran could decide when Trump’s war ends

… On one side stand pragmatists and technocrats led by President Masoud Pezeshkian, Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.

They back a conclusive agreement, pointing to a war-battered economy, an exhausting US naval blockade and damage to the nation’s infrastructure.

… On the other side stand hardline conservatives. Their ideology centers around a distrust of a Washington they see as hell-bent on destroying the Islamic Republic. For more than half a century they’ve warned against US intentions, and now they stand vindicated against their moderate opponents by Trump’s war.

… Mojtaba Khamenei has remained quiet amid the divide. It appears that he understands that choosing a side on negotiations with an unreliable Trump could harm his office just as he is working to secure legitimacy.

Geeks (hereby defined as Linux users) pass the age test by default?

https://www.tomshardware.com/software/linux/california-lawmakers-unanimously-pass-linux-exemption-from-age-verification-law-software-distributed-under-the-gpl-mit-bsd-and-apache-licenses-are-exempt

California lawmakers unanimously pass Linux exemption from age-verification law — software distributed under the GPL, MIT, BSD, and Apache licenses are exempt

California’s legislature has passed Assembly Bill 1856, exempting open-source operating systems from the State’s Digital Age Assurance Act months before the law is due to take effect on January 1, 2027. The Senate amended the Bill on August 21 before passing it on the 26th in a 39-0 vote, with the Assembly then accepting these changes in a concurrence vote the following day. The amendment ends almost a year of uncertainty surrounding whether Linux distributions and SteamOS would be forced to collect user age data during account setup alongside Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android. AB 1856 has now been sent to Governor Gavin Newsom, who signed the original act into law last October.

These amendments redefine the term “operating system provider” to exclude any person or entity that distributes an OS or application “under license terms that permit a recipient to copy, redistribute, and modify the software.” Any software distributed under the GPL, MIT, BSD, and Apache licenses satisfies that test, which removes the likes of Debian, Fedora, Ubuntu, Arch, and the BSD family from AB 1856’s scope.

I love interesting questions.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=7345958

Prompts as Papers: AI Conversations, Reverse Prompt Warrants, and the Fourth Amendment After Chatrie

In Chatrie v. United States, decided in June 2026, the Supreme Court held that the government conducts a Fourth Amendment search when it acquires a user’s cell-phone Location History from Google, however brief the window and however “voluntary” the opt-in. The decision arrived just months after federal agents obtained the first known search warrant compelling OpenAI to identify a ChatGPT user from the prompts he typed, the debut of what commentators have already named the “reverse prompt warrant.” This Article asks the question those two events put on a collision course: does Chatrie protect what Americans say to artificial intelligence?

The Article makes three contributions. First, it shows that every factor the Chatrie Court relied on (the revealing character of the records, their retrospective and panoptic availability, their diary-like intimacy, and the Court’s emphatic rejection of app-by-app “voluntariness”) applies with greater force to stored human–AI conversations than to location data. On that logic, the extension looks easy.

Second, the Article identifies why it is not. Neither Carpenter nor Chatrie had occasion to confront the branch of the third-party doctrine that governs conversations: the misplaced-confidence rule of Hoffa and White, under which the other party to a dialogue may freely reveal it. A chatbot provider is not a courier of the user’s words to someone else; its own model is the someone else. The government’s strongest argument, one it has not yet made, is that talking to ChatGPT is talking to Open-AI, and that a speaker assumes the risk that his interlocutor will betray him. The first courts to face the question have already divided in result: within a single week, one treated a defendant’s chatbot sessions as disclosure to a third party, while another protected a pro se litigant’s as her own work product because generative models are “tools, not persons”.

Third, the Article resolves what it calls the interlocutor problem: courts should classify the human–AI exchange as the user’s paper, a document drafted with a tool, rather than a communication with an-other party, a characterization supported by the text of the Fourth Amendment, by Justice Gorsuch’s property-based concurrence in Chatrie, by providers’ own contracts assigning output ownership to users, and by the positive law of more than half the states treating data as personal property. On that foundation, the Article builds warrant mechanics for reverse prompt warrants, step-wise particularity and probable-cause requirements of the kind Chatrie remanded and Justice Jackson’s concurrence sketched, and proposes a statutory overlay to close the gap the Stored Communications Act leaves for machine dialogue.

I learn something new, I think…

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=7329778

Ambient Copyright Fixation

Copyright protects works recorded “by or under the authority of the author.” For the first fifty years of the 1976 Copyright Act, authority came from deliberate actions: authors directed newer and better machines to be their scribes. Whether it was pen to paper or wake word to Alexa, authors provided intentional direction to machines to record, or “fix” in copyright parlance, their ideas.

Ambient recording devices break that fixation model. When an author gives a public speech, it is now captured by smart glasses, AI recording devices, and always-on cameras operated by others. Device operators upload and exploit the work, not authors. Current doctrine rewards the operator: if an author did not intend to fix the work, it is not under their authority. The minimally creative operator gains protection for having an ambient device in the right place at the right time. And if the device operator is insufficiently creative, they still win: neither side has a copyrightable interest, but only the operator has the copy to exploit. They will upload the work and reap the profits from a brilliant public performance of another. This cannot be justified under any normative theory of copyright. Ambient devices create a constant authorship-fixation gap.

This Article maps that authorship-fixation gap and proposes a new model for closing it: notice and adoption. Drawing from doctrines in cases, foreign jurisdictions, and digital platform infrastructure already operating at scale, the model requires those who would exploit ambiently fixed works to make efforts to notify the author. The author may then choose to adopt the fixation and claim copyright protection while potentially sharing rewards with the device operator. This is a natural extension of existing platform management of unauthorized works. In a world where ambient fixation is everywhere, copyright should stop rewarding whoever happens to operate devices and start rewarding those who create.

Are there any “allies” we haven’t threatened?

https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/us-threatens-britain-over-falklands-193710753.html

US threatens Britain over Falklands

The United States has threatened to oppose Britain's sovereignty over the Falkland Islands if Andy Burnham does not increase defence spending, The Telegraph can reveal.

I don’t think this meeting is as “not unusual” as they suggest.

https://www.ynetnews.com/article/h1u11prk00fg

Russia’s ‘Doomsday Radio’ erupts with coded messages after CIA chief’s Moscow visit

… It is still too early to know whether Ratcliffe’s visit had any effect on Russian policy. But one development that added to the sense of mystery surrounding the trip was the unusual activity of UVB-76, the enigmatic shortwave station often nicknamed “Doomsday Radio.” The station began operating in the Soviet Union in the 1970s on a frequency of 4,625 kilohertz. Its official purpose has never been publicly disclosed.

… According to The Moscow Times, the station’s buzzing was interrupted at least 25 times on Thursday, roughly a day after Ratcliffe’s visit to Moscow. The broadcasts included numbers, words and letter combinations. Among the words reportedly heard were “waitress,” “spray” and “existence.”

(Related)

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/ukraine-russia-war-live-putin-zelensky-uk-nato-missile-b3041389.html

Ukraine-Russia war latest: Putin fires nuclear-capable missile that could reach US days after CIA chief’s visit

You don’t need an articulable basis as long as you can force compliance with your desires. (Pretty much sums up recent government strategy...)

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/08/28/judge-blocks-pentagon-blacklist--anthropic-.html

Judge blocks Pentagon blacklist of Anthropic as supply chain risk

A San Francisco federal judge on Thursday ruled that the Pentagon’s blacklisting of artificial intelligence giant Anthropic earlier this year was illegal.

U.S. District Judge Rita Lin found that the Department of Defense violated the First Amendment by designating Anthropic a supply chain risk “based on a desire to make a public example” out of the company. Lin wrote that while the government is owed deference on matters of national security, its actions were not founded on any “articulable basis.”

Worth taking the time to read…

https://www.techdirt.com/2026/08/26/meta-just-paid-nearly-17-billion-to-make-sure-it-gets-to-write-the-kid-safety-rules-for-every-other-social-media-platform/

Meta Just Paid Nearly $17 Billion To Make Sure It Gets To Write The Kid Safety Rules For Every Other Social Media Platform

… As with the various rulings against Meta over the last few months, people are cheering this on, without realizing the damage it will do. We’ll explore why this is problematic in a moment, but just to highlight that I’m not alone in thinking so, both EFF and Fight for the Future are warning how bad this settlement is.  Here’s EFF:

Less logical, more likely?

https://www.rferl.org/a/baltics-russia-security-threat-eu-letter-nato-defense/33840594.html

Baltic States Arm For Russian Threat As Leaked Letter Shows Growing Fears

A letter seen by RFE/RL reveals growing concern about Russian aggression in the Baltic States, speaking of a "deteriorating security environment" amid an "increased frequency of airspace violations and drone incursions."

… Dated July 30, the letter was one of a series of alarm bells sounded about Russian aggression over the course of the summer that culminated in CIA Director John Ratcliffe's surprise visit to Moscow on August 25.

… This follows reporting by The Wall Street Journal on August 6 that cited US intelligence stating that Russia may test NATO resolve with a limited incursion as early as this fall.

Cheap? Imagine what ti could have cost.

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/meta-settles-with-us-states-over-social-media-harms-2026-08-26/

Meta reaches $16.68 billion settlement over social media harms to children

Meta Platforms, agreed to pay a maximum $16.68 billion as part of a settlement to resolve claims brought by states across the country that the company designed Facebook and Instagram to addict children, misled consumers about their safety, and improperly collected personal data of children ‌who used its platforms, court papers show.

The settlement was reached during a California federal trial over claims brought by 29 states, averting one of the highest-profile tests yet of allegations that social media companies harmed young users.

Meta also agreed to make changes for teenage users of Facebook and Instagram nationwide, including daily usage limits and nighttime blocks, court papers show.

(Related) With a bit more detail…

https://about.fb.com/news/2026/08/agreement-with-state-attorneys-general-supporting-teens/

Our Agreement With Bipartisan Attorneys General: Calling on TikTok and YouTube to Join Us in Supporting Teens

… Pending judicial approval, in participating US states and territories, these protections and controls will automatically apply to under-18s on Instagram and Facebook. The majority of the terms are required to remain in place for 10 years.

Sure looks like a war…

https://thenextweb.com/news/bitkom-german-firms-foreign-intelligence-cyber

87% of German companies were attacked last year, and Russia has caught up with China

Some 87% of German companies were hit by data theft, espionage, or sabotage in the past twelve months, up from 81% a year earlier, according to the industry association Bitkom, which puts the resulting damage at €289.2bn.

What is new in this year’s report is not the trend but the method, because Bitkom has combined its company survey with assessments from Germany’s domestic intelligence service, in a country where public sector defences have been under sustained pressure.

… The attribution finding is the one worth pausing on. Russia and China are each blamed for 46% of externally attributed incidents, with Russia climbing from 39% the previous year to draw level with China.

Russia overtaking its own prior figure by seven points in a single year is a substantial move in a dataset this size. It also fits a broader European pattern of Russian activity shifting from espionage towards disruption, which Dutch authorities have documented while seizing 800 servers tied to Russian hacking operations.

QED: Digital native kids are smarter than digital ignorant politicians.

https://theprint.in/world/teens-return-to-tiktok-after-worlds-first-usage-ban-data-show/3024495/

Teens return to TikTok after world’s first usage ban, data show

… Some 26% of children between the ages of 13 and 15 were on TikTok as of last month, just one percentage point below the rate prior to Australia’s groundbreaking rules coming into effect, the parental control software maker said. The rate for children between the ages of 10 and 12 is higher now than before the ban, according to the data.

Some aspects of an e-war are cheap, yet have global reach.

https://thenextweb.com/news/uk-power-plant-cyber-attack-iran-linked-hackers

Iran-linked hackers shut down a UK power plant for four days

A cyber attack shut down a small British power plant for four days in July. Hackers affiliated with the Iranian regime were responsible, according to the Telegraph.

Tony Diver, Rozina Sabur and Matt Oliver broke the story on Saturday. It is thought to be the first time hackers linked to Tehran have closed such a facility in the UK, they wrote. They described it as the most successful attack of its kind.

A British government spokesperson confirmed the incident to The Register on Monday.

Maybe we’ll protect the kids. Maybe.

https://thenextweb.com/news/new-zealand-under-16-social-media-ban-enforcement-gap

New Zealand joins the global push to keep under-16s off social media

New Zealand will introduce a bill requiring platforms to verify users are over 16, though two of three coalition partners oppose it and no vote will happen before November’s election. France’s under-15 ban takes effect on 1 September with its age verification mandate stripped out.

New Zealand will introduce a bill on Monday requiring social media platforms to check that users are over 16. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says penalties for non-compliance could reach 10% of a platform’s global revenue.

Logistics as a ‘minor’ target?

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2026/08/23/russia-targets-weapons-factories-in-new-campaign/

Russia sabotages weapons factories across Europe

… Russia’s attacks on weapons factories in the West are carefully orchestrated to fall just short of triggering Nato’s mutual defence clause

(Related)

https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/suspected-sabotage-attack-fails-disrupt-milrem-deliveries-ukraine-2026-08-19/

Suspected sabotage attack fails to disrupt Milrem deliveries to Ukraine

… The case is the latest in a series of suspected Russian hybrid operations targeting infrastructure, logistics networks and military-related businesses across Europe linked to support for Ukraine.

Russia has repeatedly denied Western allegations of sabotage and other hybrid activities in Europe.

Social media is becoming expensive to operate.

https://thehackernews.com/2026/08/tiktok-agrees-to-400-million-settlement.html

TikTok Agrees to $400 Million Settlement in U.S. Child Privacy Lawsuit

The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) announced on Friday that ByteDance-owned TikTok will pay $400 million to settle a 2024 lawsuit accusing the company of violating child privacy laws in the country.

… A complaint filed back in August 2024 alongside the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) accused the company of "massive-scale invasions of children's privacy" by knowingly allowing children under 13 to create TikTok accounts and unlawfully collecting data from those who used it in "Kids Mode."

A new product test or something more sinister?

https://thenextweb.com/news/ox-alpha-stealth-model-openrouter-anonymous-provider

A free AI model is winning over developers. And nobody knows whose servers it runs on

An anonymous model called Ox Alpha appeared on OpenRouter last week, free to use with a million-token context window, and developers have been impressed. OpenRouter’s own listing says prompts and completions are retained by the unidentified provider.

A model that nobody will take credit for is being tested across the industry.  Ox Alpha appeared on OpenRouter last Thursday as a stealth release from an anonymous third-party provider, free to use, with a context window of just over a million tokens.

The scale on offer is not modest. The open-source agent OpenCode said the model would be free for a week with near unlimited usage, and that its provider had capacity for 100 trillion tokens a day.

SciFi explains everything?

https://scholarship.shu.edu/law-on-film-s04/14/

Episode 61: Blade Runner & Blade Runner 2049 (Guest: Frank Pasquale)

“The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings.”

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=7305740

Artificial Intelligence, Autonomous Systems and the Future of Legal Responsibility

Fault-based and even strict-liability doctrines share an assumption that is quietly failing in the age of autonomous systems: that harm can be traced to a discrete, identifiable decision. Reinforcement-learned and continuously updated systems now generate outcomes that no designer selected, no operator approved, and no single dataset predicted. This article examines the resulting "emergent-behavior gap"-the doctrinal space in which an autonomous system's harmful output is neither a manufacturing defect, a negligent act, nor a foreseeable design consequence, but the product of adaptive processes that exceed the causal categories liability law was built to trace. Using comparative doctrinal analysis across the European Union, the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, South Korea, and Brazil, and engaging jurisprudence including OQ v Land Hessen (C-634/21), Mobley v. Workday, and Uber B.V. v. Aslam, the article argues that existing regimes-the EU's revised Product Liability Directive, U.S. state tort law, the UK Automated Vehicles Act 2024, and comparable Asian and South American frameworks-remain adequate for foreseeable-risk harms but structurally incapable of allocating responsibility for genuinely emergent ones. It proposes the Emergent Autonomy Liability Standard (EALS): a tiered architecture combining certification-anchored strict liability for classified risk profiles, mandatory behavioral logging ("autonomy black boxes") to preserve causal traceability, and a no-fault compensation fund, financed by risk-tiered contributions, for harms that resist reconstruction under either fault or strict-liability analysis. The article's original contribution is to reframe the AI-liability debate away from who controlled the system toward whether the harm is causally reconstructible at all, and to show why that distinction, not the degree of automation itself, should determine which liability instrument applies.

e-Moses says…

https://philpapers.org/rec/MEDTTC-2

The Ten Commandments of Computer Ethics in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

This chapter revisits Ramon C. Barquin’s seminal “Ten Commandments of Computer Ethics” in light of the transformative advances brought by artificial intelligence. While Barquin’s 1992 framework provided an accessible moral compass for computer professionals and users, today’s AI-driven technologies demand a fresh ethical interpretation. The chapter analyzes each commandment in the context of contemporary challenges, including algorithmic bias, generative AI, surveillance, misinformation, and autonomous decision-making. It highlights the enduring value of Barquin’s principles—such as integrity, fairness, and respect for privacy—while reinterpreting them to address novel issues of accountability, explainability, and human-AI collaboration. By bridging historical ethical guidance with present-day debates, the chapter demonstrates how the commandments can inform responsible AI governance and education. Ultimately, it argues that updating, contextualizing, and teaching these principles is essential for cultivating an ethical culture in the AI era, ensuring that technology serves humanity with justice, dignity, and transparency.

More on the Pew study…

https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/20/a-third-of-webpages-published-since-chatgpts-launch-show-signs-of-ai-authorship-study-finds/

A third of web pages published since ChatGPT launched were written by AI, study finds

Over one-third of web pages published after the release of ChatGPT show signs of being written by AI, according to a new study from Pew Research released on Thursday. The report corroborates other studies that detail how much of the web’s newer web pages are now either written by or “substantially edited” by AI, the firm says.

It also arrives shortly after internet infrastructure provider Cloudflare reported that bot web traffic had overtaken human web traffic — a milestone that was reached sooner than the company had estimated.

Pew’s data, however, is focused not on who or what is browsing the web, but on what is being browsed. And apparently, much of it is bots reading web pages written by other bots.

But no false citations?

https://www.bespacific.com/expert-witness-used-chatgpt-to-write-report-defending-company-in-deadly-explosion-lawsuit/

Expert Witness Used ChatGPT to Write Report Defending Company in Deadly Explosion Lawsuit

404 Media: “An expert witness testifying in a lawsuit about liability for a Houston explosion that killed three people and destroyed roughly 200 homes used ChatGPT to write significant portions of his “expert report.” The man, who was hired by the industrial product conglomerate 3M, exposed his AI prompts publicly. They showed that he asked ChatGPT to help him “create an exceptional expert witness report defending the standard of care at 3M,” and that the report should “show how 3M is 0% at fault for the explosion at Watson Grinding.” The incident shows that artificial intelligence has made its way into courtrooms not just in AI-generated legal briefings, hallucinated cases, and adversarial “prompt injections,” but in expert witness testimonies. Court transcripts, deposition documents, and discovery records shared with 404 Media show extensive AI use in an extremely high profile case, where multiple people died and hundreds of millions of dollars in total liability are at stake in ongoing litigation about the explosion. The case also shows that the specific prompts used to create this type of expert testimony can be discoverable during a case, and that those prompts can be quite embarrassing. (Prompts provided in the case are here)…”

And therefore AI will increasingly reference AI generated “facts.”

https://thenextweb.com/news/pew-ai-authorship-web-pages-study

Pew says 10% of the web now shows signs of AI authorship

Pew found strong signs of AI authorship in around 10% of a random sample of webpages in July 2026, rising to more than a third among pages published since ChatGPT’s release. Commercial domains carry most of it, at about 10% of .com against roughly 1% of .edu and .gov.

Perception is everything…

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2026/08/21/trump-bans-children-from-investing-in-esg/

Trump bans children from ethical investing

New White House-backed fund will ban ESG investments to protect under-18s from ‘political activism’

Inevitable.

https://www.bespacific.com/flock-has-a-powerful-new-ai-tool-for-police/

Flock Has a Powerful New AI Tool for Police

404 Media: “Flock’s surveillance cameras have already sparked outrage. WIRED reconstructed its next-generation AI system, already in use by some police, to confirm it goes much further than tracking license plates.  Vehicle surveillance giant Flock Safety has told the public for years that its technology “cannot recognize, identify, or track individuals.” It has now built a system that does both, an artificial intelligence tool for police that can identify drivers and track vehicles by their patterns of movement alone, WIRED has learned. Drawing on a network of cameras that logs the movements of drivers in more than 6,000 communities, the tool can pick out potential witnesses by how often their cars pass through a neighborhood, or surface a driver’s “associates” from the cameras they pass together. Because the system also reaches police case files, 911 dispatch logs, and commercial identity records, those plates can be turned into names, home addresses, and relatives. It can search for people in an area drawn on a map based on nothing more than a physical description. The software, originally called Nightshift and more recently renamed OS Investigate, ships with 69 prewritten prompts that officers can select, review, or edit, and then submit to the AI. Officers can also input prompts of their own. The suggested prompts sit in a cache of more than 450 files that WIRED found on Flock’s own website, served by its login pages to anyone who loaded them. The code describes 45 tools at the AI’s disposal, giving it access to plate scans and camera metadata, arrest records, case files, dispatch logs, ballistics results, and commercial databases that contain Social Security numbers, dates of birth, phone numbers, email addresses, relatives and associates. Flock says it is testing the product with a small group of law enforcement partners and describes it as still in development, with capabilities that may not reflect what it eventually sells. It arrives as the company faces bipartisan political pressure, a growing record of officers caught misusing its platform, and a wave of vandalism that has left cameras sawed off and lenses painted over in cities across the country…”

See also TechSpot: “…Flock’s fastest-growing business is 60 mph police drones that can read license plates from the sky. Privacy groups warn that flying plate readers could expand surveillance far beyond roadside cameras.. Flock is best known for the roadside cameras now operating in more than 6,000 US communities. But the company is increasingly betting on drones that can be dispatched to emergency scenes before police officers arrive. A Flock spokesperson said the firm has secured more than 200 DFR customers, including police departments and private companies. It’s also ramping up production of its US-designed drones, which will be built in Georgia. In an interview with the All-In podcast, CEO Garrett Langley explained that the drones sit in climate-controlled rooftop docks, usually on police precincts or fire departments. “When a 911 call happens, instead of sending an officer first, you can send a drone,” he said…”

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people to use nudify apps.

https://thenextweb.com/news/xai-minnesota-nudify-ban-doj-injunction-hearing

The Justice Department is backing xAI against Minnesota’s nudify ban

The US Department of Justice has stepped into a court fight on the side of Elon Musk’s xAI. It is backing the company’s challenge to a Minnesota law that bans AI “nudification” tools. A federal judge heard arguments on Wednesday and said he would rule soon, according to Courthouse News Service.

xAI wants a preliminary injunction to block the law while its lawsuit proceeds. The company sued Minnesota in July, arguing the statute violates the First Amendment. The case is X.AI LLC v. Keith Ellison, the state’s attorney general, before Judge Donovan Frank in the District of Minnesota.

The Justice Department filed a statement of interest on 18 August. It did not take a side on the injunction itself. Instead, it argued that the Minnesota law reaches further than federal law. It also warned that heavy state rules could slow the AI industry.

Clever approach?

https://thenextweb.com/news/australia-news-bargaining-incentive-passes-parliament

Meta, Google, TikTok, and LinkedIn now face an Australian news law whether they carry news or not

Australia’s parliament passed the News Bargaining Incentive on Thursday, closing a five-year argument that began when Meta worked out it could avoid paying for news by simply not carrying any. The new law removes that option.

Platforms with a significant search or social media service in Australia and more than A$250mn (about $178mn) in local advertising revenue now face a levy of 2.5% on that advertising revenue, whether or not they host a single news story. When the government first set out the scheme, the rate was 2.25%, and the list of names has grown since.

… The tax is not really meant to be collected, but it is designed as a price on refusing to negotiate, and a platform can reduce or eliminate it by striking commercial agreements with at least eight Australian news businesses.

Tools & Techniques.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/you-can-earn-your-google-al-professional-certificate-for-free/

You can earn your Google Al Professional Certificate for free - and I highly recommend it

After working through the first few modules, I had mixed feelings about recommending the course to earn a Google AI Professional Certificate, mostly because it starts with some inconveniences and annoyances. But after completing the course and considering what you get going through the whole thing, I highly recommend it.

And it’s still not a widely covered news event…

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/aug/17/meta-lawsuits-ai-cybersecurity

Meta’s legal jeopardy is growing by the day

… Twenty-nine state attorneys general accuse the company of knowingly designing addictive products that harm the mental health of children.

The accusations are similar to a suit brought by an individual earlier this year, a young woman, that the company had negligently operated defective products. She won her case.

Another state, New Mexico, brought a suit to trial against Meta earlier this year, accusing the company of knowing of and allowing for child sexual exploitation on its social networks. Meta also lost that case, and a judge imposed a nearly billion-dollar fine over the phases of the trial. The accusations by New Mexico’s attorney general bear less resemblance to Tuesday’s case than the young woman’s, focusing on crimes committed on Facebook rather than damage to a person brought on by their own use of the social network.

Is this not election interference?

https://apnews.com/article/polling-poll-fake-median-karen-bass-los-angeles-669c90cc77664546791185625d43ffda

Fake polling from mysterious company highlights danger of unvetted election surveys

 Locked in a competitive reelection race, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass declared on social media last week that a new poll was evidence that her campaign was “gaining momentum.”

Just a few days later, the truth emerged: The poll was fabricated.

The California results were among at least three “polls” across three states posted online this month by Median Strategies, a previously unknown organization that admitted to the Los Angeles Times on Monday that the purported results were fake. The company wrote before shuttering its website this week that it “was created as a short-term social experiment examining how purported polling information could enter and spread through the political information ecosystem without independent verification.”

The post offered no explanation of who was behind the “experiment” or for what purpose.

It’s confusing. Who is in charge? Who are we negotiating with?

https://www.ncr-iran.org/en/news/economy/irans-regime-shows-cracks-cabinet-infighting-oil-brokers-and-anti-irgc-protests/

Iran’s Regime Shows Cracks: Cabinet Infighting, Oil Brokers, and Anti-IRGC Protests

The clerical regime in Iran is rapidly transitioning from a state of chronic economic distress into complete administrative disintegration. Confronted by systemic institutional breakdowns, senior officials are openly admitting that the ruling apparatus is losing control.