Following the recent rollout of digital driver's licenses in Virginia and Oklahoma, Apple Wallet is expected to add support for Utah, Kentucky, and North Carolina in the near future. Utah has reportedly been detected in Apple's backend systems, Kentucky has completed a digital ID system upgrade tied to its planned launch, and North Carolina has publicly committed to Apple Wallet support by early 2027 as part of its new digital license system.
President Trump used a UN address to declare that the US government will replace the term "artificial intelligence" with "super intelligence" across official documents. He had previewed the change days earlier on Truth Social, arguing the existing term was inaccurate and inelegant, and floated alternatives like "Superior Intelligence" and "Extreme Intelligence" before settling on "super."
Paramount reached a settlement with a coalition of 12 state attorneys general, led by California's Rob Bonta, who had sued to block its $11 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. The company agreed to establish an editorial independence board overseeing CBS News and CNN, commit to 30 theatrical releases annually, and protect CBS News Broadcast writers from layoffs for five years while paying $17.5 million to the Writers Guild's health fund. The merger is now expected to close in early October, giving Paramount chief David Ellison control over franchises including DC and Harry Potter.
Music industry veteran Frank Babar, founder of NYC's Embassy Studios, shared his career journey and business philosophy in an interview for How Success Happens. He described signing a 25-year lease for his state-of-the-art recording facility during the pandemic simply because he had the leverage and opportunity to do so, tracing his path from warehouse worker to music mogul.
A retired judge acting as arbitrator ruled that Uber and driver Vu Tran must pay $40 million to the parents of Emily Normandin-Parker, a 23-year-old UCLA graduate killed after Tran dropped her and a friend at an illegal gore point on a California freeway following a dispute over a cleaning fee. The arbitrator found Tran's account of the incident largely incredible and said he showed more concern for his car than for his passengers' safety. Uber says the arbitrator wrongly held the company legally responsible.
A video of Vladimir Putin casting his ballot online in Russia's State Duma elections shows him using a Dell monitor and a Windows PC displaying the 'Activate Windows' watermark, indicating the copy of the operating system wasn't activated. The footage also shows Putin appearing unfamiliar with the interface, pausing and squinting as he navigates the voting process.
Fast Company's Impact Council published a reflection tied to the America 250 celebration, examining how the country's founding spirit of risk-taking has driven technological breakthroughs from aviation to computing. The piece argues that sustaining this innovative edge for another quarter millennium requires deliberate policy and industry choices rather than assuming continuity.
A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist has released a new work examining how governments and tech-driven bureaucracies are increasingly automating public administration, raising questions about accountability. The book, titled around the concept of an 'artificial state,' traces how digital systems have reshaped the mechanics of governance over recent decades.
A Kremlin-released clip of Vladimir Putin casting an online ballot in Russia's State Duma elections shows an 'Activate Windows' watermark on his screen, indicating unlicensed software running on what appears to be a Dell computer. The footage has spread widely online, with observers noting both the software issue and Putin's apparent unfamiliarity with the mouse. State media confirmed the vote covered the 9th State Duma, including newly annexed Ukrainian territories.
The FCC has granted Paramount a waiver of its 25% foreign-ownership limit for broadcast licensees, allowing sovereign wealth funds from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE to collectively hold up to 49.5% equity in the merged Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery entity. The commission says the funds will hold non-voting stakes, so they won't exercise formal control over the 28 broadcast stations involved. The underlying petition had actually requested approval for up to 100% foreign ownership.
The U.S. House approved H.R. 9340, the Ratepayer Protection Act, which amends the 1978 Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act to require state regulators and non-regulated utilities to consider adopting a federal standard within two years. Under the bill, data centers drawing 100 megawatts or more would have to cover the full incremental cost of generation, transmission, or distribution upgrades built to serve them, even if they later cancel their power contracts.
A philosophical essay contends that if materialism—the view that consciousness arises purely from physical processes—is correct, then large, complex systems of interacting people, like the United States as a collective entity, could plausibly qualify as conscious. The piece was published without full article content available, but the headline argument draws on longstanding debates in philosophy of mind about what physical conditions are sufficient for consciousness to emerge.
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