A Georgia Bureau of Investigation probe found that three Savannah police officers and one community service specialist improperly used the city's Flock automatic license plate reader system to track personal acquaintances and family members. All four were arrested last week, and two other employees had already been fired for similar conduct. Mayor Van Johnson publicly condemned the abuse, calling it a breach of public trust.
A technical guide argues that most retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) implementations are over-engineered, with teams reaching for embeddings, vector databases and reranking before checking if simpler tools suffice. It lays out decision factors—data freshness, corpus size and churn, query patterns, scale and team ML skill—to determine which retrieval approach fits, starting with plain full-text search like BM25, Elasticsearch or Postgres search before adding complexity.
Following up on his earlier SELF executable format that stores a program as a SQLite database, the author released self-httpd, a proof-of-concept web server whose code, website, routes, and visitor logs all live in a single SQLite file. The program reads its own instructions and writes new state, such as button-press logs, back into that same file transactionally, eliminating the need for separate folders like /var, /tmp, or /home.
Chris Malone, who led OpenAI's data center strategy after joining from Meta and Google in March 2024, has left the company. OpenAI confirmed it recently restructured its infrastructure organization, shifting oversight so that Malone no longer reported to President Greg Brockman but instead to VP Sachin Katti before his exit. The company says several other executives, including Uday Ruddarraju, Brent Mayo and Spas Lazarov, remain in charge of its data center efforts.
Malva is a search system that lets scientists query massive single-cell and spatial transcriptomic datasets using gene names, DNA sequences, or plain-language descriptions like 'cells expressing markers of neurodegeneration.' It combines a language model, a k-mer-based search index, and a metadata service to return annotated cell results in formats compatible with common analysis tools such as scanpy.
Adam Mosseri testified in Meta's multistate trial over child safety that he was unaware a company lawyer instructed Instagram employees to strip certain teen-safety statistics from a 2023 presentation before it reached him. The removed data showed teens viewed suicide, self-harm and eating-disorder content, as well as other 'non-recommendable' material, at significantly higher rates than adults. Mosseri said he never asked to be shielded from such information and understood lawyers' role as reviewing documents for legal accuracy.
The EPA has proposed amending the 1970 Clean Air Act to remove the 30-day public comment window required before construction begins on facilities classified as 'minor sources' of industrial pollution. The change would allow projects, including many AI data centers, to move forward with less advance public scrutiny.
Governor Josh Shapiro has pursued a strategy aimed at attracting artificial intelligence investment and jobs to Pennsylvania while simultaneously working to shield electricity ratepayers and nearby communities from the costs and disruptions data centers can bring. The approach seeks to balance economic development ambitions with consumer protection and local concerns as AI infrastructure expands rapidly across the country.
Chris Malone, who led OpenAI's data center buildout since March 2025, has left the company, according to CNBC. Malone previously worked as a distinguished engineer on infrastructure at Meta and Google before joining OpenAI to help manage its roughly $600 billion compute spending plan through 2030. OpenAI says it has reorganized its infrastructure team and maintains strong leadership despite the exit.
Chris Malone, who led OpenAI's data center operations, has exited the company. His departure adds to a growing list of senior executives leaving OpenAI as it accelerates infrastructure spending and moves toward a possible IPO.
TechCrunch has pushed back the cutoff for discounted TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 tickets to 11:59 pm PT on Tuesday, August 25, after attendees asked for more time. After the deadline, prices rise, with savings of up to $300 on individual passes and larger discounts for group registrations disappearing. Disrupt 2026 will run October 13-15 at Moscone West in San Francisco, featuring speakers from OpenAI, Anthropic, Replit, Amazon and Databricks.
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art disclosed that hackers accessed its network for four days before detection on July 11, 2025, compromising sensitive data belonging to customers and employees. Exposed information includes Social Security numbers, driver's license numbers, partial financial and payment card details, and health-related records such as diagnoses and treatment history. The museum only completed its investigation and began notifying affected individuals in late February 2026, more than a year after the intrusion was found.
GoKawiil