David Isenberg’s This is the week that was in AI, from “Need to cut out a person …from an otherwise perfect group selfie? …AI chatbots are now able to do that…” to the “Latest A.I. Drug Discovery Unicorn.”
News from The Neuron
OpenAI’s Vision for 2026: Sam Altman Lays Out the Roadmap
The Future of OpenAI for 2026: OpenAI is turning the chatbox into an OS (apps), Codex into a real coworker, and “AI for science” into a measurable race…Hey friends! This is one of those weeks where the “product updates” are really “the next computing platform quietly snapping into place.”
December 19, 2025
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News from Lawfare
When AI Models Can Continually Learn, Will Our Regulations Be Able to Keep Up?
….there is still one hurdle that AI tools have yet to overcome: continual learning. An AI model may be trained on huge amounts of data, but once it is released as a finished product, it does not typically learn and grow as users give it more information or tasks to do.
December 18, 2025
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New from Lifehaker
Gemini Just Added More AI Image Editing Tools
The new feature gives you even more precision over your edits.
One of the ways AI models are rapidly improving is in their image editing capabilities…they can now quickly take care of tasks that would previously have taken a substantial amount of time and effort in Photoshop…. one of the main reasons Adobe has decided to introduce its own ChatGPT plug-ins.
Want your t-shirt to be blue rather than red? Need to cut out a person or an object from an otherwise perfect group selfie? …AI chatbots are now able to do cleanly and professionally, from just a text prompt.
December 18, 2025
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News from the US Department of War
Scarlet Dragon Links Military, Industry to Test Artificial Intelligence for Warfighters
On a cold December day, deep in a training area on Fort Bragg, North Carolina, soldiers, airmen, Marines and civilian industry partners came together to test the latest drone and counter-small unmanned aircraft systems technology, while rapidly sharing targeting data through the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency’s Maven Smart System.
Scarlet Dragon is the XVIII Airborne Corps’ premier innovation exercise, where new ideas and technologies are tested to solve current issues on the battlefield.
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News from Axios
The age of AI-powered cyberattacks is here
Anthropic this week uncovered what it says is the first documented case of a fully automated cyberattack.
Suspected Chinese state hackers used Claude Code to target about 30 organizations — including tech firms, banks, chemical manufacturers, and government agencies — and successfully broke into several.
December 16, 2025
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News from The Register
Browser ‘privacy’ extensions have eye on your AI, log all your chats
28 comment bubble on white
More than 8 million people have installed extensions that eavesdrop on chatbot interactions
Ad blockers and VPNs are supposed to protect your privacy, but four popular browser extensions have been doing just the opposite. According to research from Koi Security, these pernicious plug-ins have been harvesting the text of chatbot conversations from more than 8 million people and sending them back to the developers.
The four seemingly helpful extensions are Urban VPN Proxy, 1ClickVPN Proxy, Urban Browser Guard, and Urban Ad Blocker.
December 16, 2025
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News from Axios
How the AI boom is making your phone, PC and game console more expensive
AI is causing a Christmas crisis for computer users — which will hit everyone else in the pocket, literally and figuratively, as soon as next year….AI needs data centers, and those data centers need memory to support their heavy-duty computing. That insatiable demand has hit an inflection point, where the world’s memory makers have little choice but to cut off consumer supplies to feed more lucrative business demand. The rising prices and shortages are a tangible example of how the AI boom could impact you — even if you’re not using AI at all.
December 16, 2025
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News from The Hollywood Reporter
Hollywood Insiders Unite to Fight for Future of Industry With Launch of Creators Coalition on AI
The organization… hopes to act as a central coordinating hub to upgrade industry systems and institutions.
As Hollywood continues to grapple with the threat and adoption of AI, a group of 18 industry insiders have banded together to form the Creators Coalition on AI. The effort, a first of its kind, is backed by the signatures of more than 500, a diverse list growing by the hour that includes Oscar winners, filmmakers, show runners, writers, below-the-line talent and creative professionals from all corners of the business.
Known as CCAI, the group launches with a mission to serve as “a central coordinating hub to upgrade our industry’s systems and institutions.”
December 16, 2025
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News from Axios
Mattel and OpenAI delay making toys together
Mattel’s quiet delay of its first OpenAI-powered toy is the latest sign that enthusiasm for AI is colliding with rising safety, privacy and regulatory concerns.
Why it matters: The slower-than-anticipated rollout reflects mounting unease over AI’s impact on teens and a series of missteps by other makers of AI toys.
Driving the news: Mattel, which has been silent about its plans since announcing the collaboration in June, confirmed to Axios that it won’t hit its original target to announce a product during 2025.
December 16, 2025
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News from Rest of World
We mapped the world’s hottest data centers
In 21 countries, all data centers are located in climates that are too hot.
….The ideal temperature range for data centers is 18 C to 27 C (64.4 F to 80.6 F). Hot temperatures, which require more expensive cooling, are among the biggest risk factors for data centers.
A growing demand for AI and the desire to store data within a country’s borders means that 600 data centers around the world are located in places that are considered too hot. In 21 countries, all the data centers are located in zones that experience average temperatures above 27 C.
December 15, 2025
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News from Tom’s Guide
After testing GPT-5.2 extensively, one thing is clear: this update goes beyond making ChatGPT smarter; it actively compensates for the ways people misuse it.
Here are the nine most common mistakes people make with ChatGPT — and how GPT-5.2 helps fix them.
1. Not using anything beyond the chat box…..
December 15, 2025
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News from Semafor
More Americans using AI at work, poll finds
The share of US employees who said they used AI at work at least “a few times a year” rose to 45% from 40% between the second and third quarters of this year, according to polling from Gallup taken in August. Those who reported using AI frequently rose from to 23% from 19% during the same period.
December 15, 2025
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News from Observer
This Startup Backed By OpenAI and the Jobs Family Is the Latest A.I. Drug Discovery Unicorn
Chai Discovery joins a growing wave of A.I. drug startups attracting backing from Silicon Valley’s biggest names.
Chai Discovery, a San Francisco-based startup backed by OpenAI, is the latest drug discovery company to benefit from a flurry of investments at the intersection of health care and A.I. In its latest funding round, the company raised $130 million to accelerate the development of new drugs. The Series B round, announced today (Dec. 15), was co-led by Oak HC/FT and General Catalyst. It brings Chai Discovery’s total funding to more than $225 million and more than doubles its valuation to $1.3 billion.
December 15, 2025
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News from Engadget
‘Slop’ is Merriam-Webster’s word of the year
2025 saw so-called AI slop spread through every nook and cranny of online life.
Merriam-Webster has selected “slop” for the dictionary company’s 2025 word of the year. The leading lexicographers define slop as “digital content of low quality that is produced usually in quantity by means of artificial intelligence.” We’ve seen an absolute deluge of AI slop this year, from fake movie trailers on YouTube to AI-generated bands on Spotify.
December 15, 2025
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News from CNN
US government launches ‘Tech Force’ to hire AI talent
The US government is launching an early career hiring and talent development program to bring more technology and artificial intelligence employees to the public sector, as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to modernize government systems and stay ahead in the global tech race.
December 15, 202
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News from Robert Reich
Again: Beware These Two Oligarchic Bubbles
They may already be bursting
AI is worrisome enough as is — its insatiable thirst for energy and water, its capacities to override the wishes of human beings, its potential to destroy the planet.
The immediate concern is that AI is becoming a financial bubble whose bursting will harm lots of innocent people including, perhaps, you.
December 15, 2025
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News from The Atlantic
American tech dominance is at risk
The U.S. has kept its edge in the global AI race for one simple reason: America has controlled the chips—until now. As Rogé Karma reports, President Donald Trump’s decision to lift export restrictions on Nvidia’s H200—the company’s second-most-advanced chip—opens the door for China to acquire hardware powerful enough to train top-tier AI systems.
December 15, 2025
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News from The Regulatory Review
The Political Limits of Algorithmic Governance
The Albanian government has announced that all supplier contracts—worth more than a billion dollars annually—will be selected by an artificial intelligence avatar. The goal is to eliminate corruption and bias by transferring discretion from people to code…. But … when democratic institutions falter, citizens may be too quick to welcome “algocracy”—that is, rule by algorithm—without protections for transparency or mechanisms to challenge algorithmic decisions. Without these safeguards, they predict, citizens will feel wronged and without recourse.
December 15, 2025
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News from Truthout
The US Economy Is Becoming Highly Dependent on a New and Untested AI Industry
Some AI companies are using techniques and financial products seen in the run-up to the great financial crisis of 2008.
….investment in AI is booming across industries, echoing the late-1990s dot-com era, with investors pouring billions into AI in the hope for a big payday. Nearly $1.6 trillion has been put into this technology since 2013, and Big Tech companies are expected to add over $400 billion into AI efforts before the year ends, with even bigger spending planned for 2026.,,,striking similarities between the AI market today and the dot.com bubble of the 1990s that imploded in 2000, resulting in massive losses ….not only would virtually every company be affected, but the entire economy could collapse like a house of cards.
December 15, 2025
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News from Observer
Built by and for People With Paralysis, This ALS Tech Gives A.I. a Human Voice
When British roboticist Dr. Peter Scott-Morgan was diagnosed with ALS in 2017, he was told the disease would gradually take his voice, his movement and, eventually, his place in the world. But….. As his body weakened, the Scott-Morgan turned to technology, experimenting with voice synthesis, gaze interfaces and avatar-based communication. His public transformation earned him the description of the world’s first “human cyborg,” but the label masked a deeper ambition: to redefine how disability and technologies like A.I. can evolve together.
December 15, 2025
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News from Lifehacker
Attackers Are Spreading Malware Through ChatGPT
Be careful with ChatGPT or Grok’s tech advice.
You (hopefully) know by now that you can’t take everything AI tells you at face value. Large language models (LLMs) sometimes provide incorrect information, and threat actors are now using paid search ads on Google to spread conversations with ChatGPT and Grok that appear to provide tech support instructions but actually direct macOS users to install an infostealing malware on their devices.
December 15, 2025
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News from The Wrap
Washington Post Stands Behind AI Podcast Plan Despite Staff Outcry
Post journalists have expressed frustration with the AI product’s errors and editorializing
“This is how products get built and developed in the digital age: ideation, research, design and prototyping, development, and then Beta,” a Post spokesperson told TheWrap. “Only if they prove to be successful for the customer do they then get launched. As stated clear on Your Personal Podcast, it is currently in Beta.”
December 15, 2025
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News from Semafor
Exclusive / ‘Iterate through’: Why The Washington Post launched an error-ridden AI product
The Washington Post began putting out AI-generated podcasts even after internal tests found that the AI tech introduced errors and bias into the publication’s reporting.
More than two-thirds of scripts generated by the feature, dubbed “Your Personal Podcast,” failed a metric intended to determine whether they met the publication’s standards, according to a readout of the tests shared with Semafor…. Mistakes … ranging from minor pronunciation issues to misattributed or fabricated quotes.
December 14, 2025
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News from AP
Militant groups are experimenting with AI, and the risks are expected to grow
….For extremist organizations, AI could be a powerful tool for recruiting new members, churning out realistic deepfake images and refining their cyberattacks, national security experts and spy agencies have warned.
Someone posting on a pro-Islamic State group website last month urged other IS supporters to make AI part of their operations. “One of the best things about AI is how easy it is to use,” the user wrote in English.
“Some intelligence agencies worry that AI will contribute (to) recruiting,” the user continued. “So make their nightmares into reality.”
December 14, 2025
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News from The Atlantic
The View From Inside the AI Bubble
In a small room in San Diego last week, a man in a black leather jacket explained to me how to save the world from destruction by AI. Max Tegmark, a notable figure in the AI-safety movement, believes that “artificial general intelligence,” or AGI, could precipitate the end of human life. I was in town for NeurIPS, one of the largest AI-research conferences, and Tegmark had invited me, along with five other journalists, to a briefing on an AI-safety index that he would release the next day. No company scored better than a C+.
December 14, 2025
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News from Educating AI
The Long Game: Why AI Implementation Is a Rebuild, Not a Rollout
This past Friday, I presented to the Ohio 8 Coalition—superintendents, tech directors, and union presidents from Ohio’s nine largest urban districts, including Cleveland, Columbus, Akron, Cincinnati, Dayton, Canton, Lorain, and Youngstown. This wasn’t another AI hype session. This was a room full of leaders responsible for hundreds of thousands of students, grappling with a disruption they didn’t ask for and a legislative deadline they can’t ignore.
My main message: We are in the middle of a 3-5 year rebuild. Anyone offering easy solutions hasn’t come to grips with the full complexity of what we’re facing.
December 14, 2025
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