The Seattle Times and Newsday have filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft, alleging their journalism was used without permission to train AI models like ChatGPT and Copilot. The suit claims these tools consume original reporting and generate imitative outputs that could financially undermine the news organizations that created the source material.
A new open-source project called OKF Agent Memory gives AI coding agents a standardized way to retain project knowledge across sessions, storing it as plain Markdown files with YAML frontmatter directly inside a repository's knowledge/ folder. Built on the Open Knowledge Format v0.2, it combines a spec, behavioral conventions, an agent skill layer, and a Go-based CLI/library for parsing, validation and search.
A commentary revisits a 2010 Harvard study showing people are happier focusing on the present, even boring tasks, than letting their minds wander. The author argues this problem has intensified in tech culture, where excessive optionality, social comparison, and startup hype make it hard for ambitious people to commit fully to their current path.
Shapefarm, a studio founded by former Hazelight developers, has released its debut couch co-op title Orbitals, drawing heavily on retro anime aesthetics reminiscent of Cowboy Bebop, Evangelion and Sailor Moon. The game follows two young space colonists, Maki and Omura, as they navigate a stranded colony threatened by radiation storms and reliant on respawn machines called IMs to survive.
New York City Public Schools banned student-facing AI tools for all K-8 classrooms this week, allowing only a limited set of approved programs for high schoolers, while Los Angeles Unified is enacting a similarly tighter policy for the 2026-27 school year. The move reverses the more permissive stance both districts adopted starting in 2023, after they initially banned ChatGPT outright when it launched in late 2022.
A new U.S. Census Bureau report finds that people aged 65 and older now outnumber young children worldwide for the first time. The bureau projects the share of people 65 and up will nearly double from 10.5% in 2025 to 19.6% by 2060, driven largely by falling birth rates and longer lifespans. Global population is expected to grow from about 8 billion to 10 billion by 2060, with over half that growth coming from the elderly population.
German company Isar Aerospace launched its Spectrum rocket from Andøya Space Center in Norway on Sept. 5, and about seven minutes later the vehicle reached an elliptical orbit. It was the rocket's second attempt, after a March 2025 debut flight failed less than a minute after liftoff due to a valve issue and loss of attitude control.
Rugged laptops such as Panasonic's Toughbook 40, Getac's B360 Pro, Dell's Pro Rugged 13 and Durabook's Z14I weigh far more than consumer models because of reinforced frames, sealed ports and outdoor-ready displays built to survive drops, dust and water. Despite carrying modern Intel Core Ultra chips and even optional discrete graphics, these machines still prioritize durability features like extra Ethernet ports or serial connectors over slimness or top-tier performance.
Siskiyou County rescuers pulled three young men off Mount Shasta after they used Google's Gemini chatbot to plan their climb. The group started at 3am, missed the noon turnaround guideline, summited at 7pm, and had to be rescued after spending the night in Mud Creek Canyon.
KeyAlarm is an indie iPhone app that lets users designate keywords, like 'Dentist,' so any calendar event containing that word automatically triggers an alarm rather than a silent notification. Users can set multiple alarms per event, assign alarms to entire calendars, and customize how far in advance each one fires. The app relies on Apple's new AlarmKit framework and requires iOS 26.
Best Buy is selling the 16-inch HP OmniBook X Flip 2-in-1 for $699, a 47% cut from its $1,329 list price. The convertible laptop features a 1920x1200 OLED touchscreen, a Ryzen AI 5 340 processor with integrated Radeon 840M graphics, 16GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD, along with a 65W GaN charger and dual Thunderbolt ports.
Vanessa Baden Kelly, a writer on the HBO series Lanterns, discussed the creative choices behind John Stewart's reworked family history introduced in a recent episode. She addressed fan reactions to the change, explaining the reasoning and influences that shaped the character's revised origin.