TL;DR: AI assistants prepare to make smartphone apps obsolete as they take direct control of our devices, while OpenAI unveils plans for its own chips and a LinkedIn-crushing job platform. Meanwhile, tech leaders shower Trump with flattery at White House dinner, French publishers actually share AI revenue with journalists, and AI recreates lost Orson Welles footage. Plus: Elon Musk eyes trillionaire status with new Tesla pay plan, doomers insist AI will definitely kill us all, fake influencers fool politicians, and Boston Dynamics teaches its robot to walk and grab with one AI brain.
AI to replace smartphone operating systems
Modern AI assistants are positioning themselves to become the central operating system of all personal computing devices, potentially making traditional smartphone apps and interfaces obsolete. Qualcomm’s Alex Katouzian predicts “the operating system that you’re used to working with on a phone and the apps that you launch — the way that you actually do things — will start to disappear in the background, where your assistant will actually start doing things for you.” The future may bring AI-powered glasses or bracelets that coexist with users throughout the day, making smartphones seem as outdated as flip phones.
Source: The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/08/technology/personaltech/ai-iphones-android-smartphones.html
French publishers share AI wealth with journalists
While US newsrooms license content to AI companies with no direct compensation for individual reporters, French publishers are pioneering a different approach. Trade unions have negotiated agreements ensuring journalists receive direct payments when their work appears in AI training data or responses, with Le Monde allocating a quarter of its AI licensing revenue to staff without a ceiling. The model guarantees that reporters whose stories train GPT models get a cut of the profits, raising questions about whether similar arrangements could emerge in America.
Source: Nieman Journalism Lab
Tech titans grovel before Trump at White House dinner
The nation’s most powerful tech CEOs engaged in a public display of flattery during President Trump’s White House AI dinner. Microsoft’s Satya Nadella praised Trump’s policies, AMD’s Lisa Su lauded “the amount of acceleration” from the administration, and OpenAI’s Sam Altman called Trump “a very refreshing change” while promising to “invest a ton in the United States.” The cringeworthy round of compliments highlighted how dramatically the industry’s relationship with Washington has shifted since Trump’s return to power.
Source: The Verge
https://www.theverge.com/policy/772760/tech-ceos-ai-trump-white-house-dinner
AI resurrects lost Orson Welles masterpiece
Amazon-backed Showrunner announced plans to use AI to reconstruct 43 minutes of lost footage from Orson Welles’ follow-up to Citizen Kane. The project marks “the tech’s further encroachment onto Hollywood” as the company builds toward becoming “the Netflix of AI”, where users can create fan fiction versions of existing intellectual property. The controversial initiative highlights AI’s growing role in creative industries amid ongoing debates over copyright and artistic authenticity.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/orson-welles-lost-movie-ai-1236361881
AI doomers predict certain death for humanity
Prominent AI extinction theorists Eliezer Yudkowsky and Nate Soares are publishing a book titled “If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies” with the subtitle explaining why superhuman AI would eliminate all humans. When asked directly about their personal fate, both answered promptly: “yeah” and “yup” to dying from AI, with Yudkowsky imagining “something about the size of a mosquito or maybe a dust mite landed on the back of my neck, and that’s that.” Their grim certainty reflects a belief that humanity won’t take the necessary precautions to prevent an AI catastrophe.
Source: WIRED
https://www.wired.com/story/the-doomers-who-insist-ai-will-kill-us-all
OpenAI breaks up with Nvidia, launches chip production
OpenAI announced it will produce its own AI chips for the first time next year through a partnership with Broadcom, following the strategy of tech giants like Google and Meta. The move addresses “insatiable demand for computing power” and reduces reliance on Nvidia, with Broadcom’s CEO referencing a mystery customer committing to $10 billion in orders. The chips will be used internally rather than sold to external customers, marking OpenAI’s push toward hardware independence.
Source: Financial Times
https://www.ft.com/content/e8cc6d99-d06e-4e9b-a54f-29317fa68d6f
OpenAI declares war on LinkedIn with job platform
OpenAI announced plans for an AI-powered hiring platform called the OpenAI Jobs Platform, launching by mid-2026 to directly compete with LinkedIn. CEO of Applications Fidji Simo promises to “use AI to help find the perfect matches between what companies need and what workers can offer,” with dedicated support for small businesses and local governments seeking AI talent. The move represents OpenAI’s ambitious expansion beyond ChatGPT into multiple new markets including potentially browsers and social media.
Source: TechCrunch
https://techcrunch.com/2025/09/04/openai-announces-ai-powered-hiring-platform-to-take-on-linkedin/
Elon Musk eyes trillionaire status with Tesla pay plan
Tesla’s board proposed a compensation package that could make Elon Musk the world’s first trillionaire if he increases the company’s market value eightfold over the next decade. The all-stock package could add around $900 billion to Musk’s current $400 billion net worth, requiring Tesla’s valuation to reach $8.5 trillion from today’s $1.1 trillion. Musk would need to remain at Tesla for at least seven and a half years to cash in any shares, making it the richest executive compensation in corporate history.
Source: The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/05/business/elon-musk-tesla-pay-trillionaire.html
The rise of AI welfare and robot rights
A growing field called “model welfare” is examining whether AI models deserve moral considerations and legal rights. Research organisations like Conscium and Eleos AI Research have emerged to study AI consciousness, while Anthropic hired its first AI welfare researcher and gave Claude the ability to terminate “persistently harmful or abusive user interactions.” The movement builds on decades-old questions about robot civil rights, now made urgent by advances creating seemingly conscious AI systems.
Source: WIRED
https://www.wired.com/story/model-welfare-artificial-intelligence-sentience
Fake influencer fools former Speaker Pelosi
AI-generated influencer Lil’ Miquela, who doesn’t actually exist, took a selfie with former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi at a San Francisco music festival. The incident highlights how “computer-generated celebrities are amassing millions of followers — and dollars,” with Brazilian AI influencer Lu of Magalu earning $34,320 per post from her eight million Instagram followers. The growing phenomenon of AI influencers earning real money raises questions about authenticity and disclosure in social media marketing.
Source: The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/03/style/ai-influencers-lil-miquela-mia-zelu.html
Boston Dynamics robot masters walking and grabbing with one AI brain
Atlas, the parkour-famous humanoid robot, has learned to control both walking and object manipulation using a single AI model rather than separate systems for locomotion and grasping. Toyota Research Institute’s Russ Tedrake explains that “the feet are just like additional hands, in some sense, to the model,” with the robot showing emergent abilities like instinctively recovering from dropped items without specific training. This unified approach represents a significant advancement in creating more naturally capable humanoid robots.
Source: WIRED
https://www.wired.com/story/this-humanoid-robot-is-showing-signs-of-generalized-learning
Google antitrust ruling delivers mixed verdict
A federal judge’s ruling on Google’s search monopoly delivered restraints without breakup, requiring the company to share some search data with competitors and restricting exclusive browser placement deals. Harvard’s David Yoffie called the ruling “a relief” for Big Tech firms, as it fell short of government requests to force Google to sell Chrome or share more valuable data. The decision signals how courts may approach reshaping antitrust law in the modern internet era.
Source: The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/03/technology/google-ruling-antitrust.html
Columbia trials AI to cool campus tensions
Columbia University is testing Sway, an AI debate programme that matches students with opposing views to discuss hot-button issues like abortion, racism, immigration, and Israel-Palestine. The AI “facilitates better discussions between them,” according to Carnegie Mellon researchers who developed the tool now used by over 3,000 students across 30+ universities. The partnership comes after years of escalating tensions at Columbia involving pro-Palestinian protests, police raids, and federal government pressure.
Source: The Verge
Digital dopamine addiction threatens young men
Congressman Jake Auchincloss warns that America is routing young men “to online sports betting, pornography and bot-infused social media platforms” where they receive “all digital reward, with no in-real-life effort.” He describes this as part of “the greatest cognitive offloading in the history of humanity” where societies struggle with adolescents whose “nucleus accumbens is highly sensitive” whilst their “prefrontal cortex, which is vital for controlling behaviour, is underdeveloped.” The combination creates aggressive novelty-seeking that digital platforms exploit.
Source: The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/04/opinion/digital-dopamine-irl.html
Synthesia’s AI avatars become unnervingly realistic
AI video company Synthesia has updated its avatars with more natural mannerisms, movements, and expressive voices that better preserve speakers’ accents, making them “appear more humanlike than ever before.” The technology creates “slick enough” presentations “to pass as a high-definition recording of a chirpy corporate speech” that would fool viewers who don’t know the original person. Soon these avatars will be able to talk back in real-time conversations, raising questions about distinguishing artificial from real interactions.
Source: MIT Technology Review
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