Google is reportedly running an 'AI contribution pilot' that pays around 100 publishers based on how much their content feeds its AI-powered search features. The Information says one publisher earned over $1 million in a year, while another received $50,000-$60,000, with payouts appearing in a Search Console earnings widget. Digiday reports the program has drawn more interest from small and mid-sized publishers than large ones and has expanded beyond news outlets.
The Trump administration launched America.gov, an AI chatbot Trump called 'one of the most revolutionary product launches of all time.' Social media users have since pointed out that the chatbot's responses to questions about the United States are factual and neutral, sometimes contradicting Trump's own claims or framing.
The instructor for CS 240: Programming in C, taught in Spring 2026, published a retrospective acknowledging that many students who violated the course's explicit ban on using AI tools like ChatGPT ultimately faced little to no punishment. The instructor attributes this outcome to shortcomings in how the situation was handled, while reiterating that the syllabus clearly prohibited AI-generated solutions and warned that violations might not be addressed immediately.
Reddit announced it will soon limit logged-in access to Old.Reddit.com to accounts that have used the interface within the previous six months. Moderators are exempt from this rule and can continue accessing Old Reddit regardless of recent activity, as long as they're logged in. The move builds on a July change requiring login to access Old Reddit at all.
Danielle Scott, an experienced franchise developer, purchased six Central Florida tutoring centers for over $3 million in the early 2000s using her own savings plus money from family and friends. The 2008 Great Recession drove families to cut discretionary spending like tutoring, and Scott eventually had to close all six locations. She has since returned to the franchise industry as chief development officer at Alliance Franchise Brands.
An opinion column contends that if AI poses the extraordinary risks its own developers claim, the most effective check may come from corporate governance rather than federal legislation. The author frames AI safety as fundamentally a human decision-making problem within companies building the technology.
YouTube plans to let creators publish multiple 'variant' versions of the same video to test which performs better, similar to A/B testing. In a video essay, Marques Brownlee says YouTube engineers he spoke with couldn't answer basic questions about how the feature would work—like whether viewers know they're seeing a variant, or how comments and shared links would function across different versions. Brownlee is publicly asking creators not to use the feature once it ships.
Developer Matt Keeter has published Halfspace, an experimental IDE for solid modeling using distance fields, along with a browser-based WebGPU demo. The app serves as a showcase for his Fidget kernel, which handles rasterization and meshing, letting users view real-time renders and export models as images or triangle meshes.
Fujifilm has assumed control of the Google Photos Print Store, rebranding it as the Fujifilm for Google Photos Print Store. The camera maker now handles operations, customer support, and the product catalog, while Google Photos remains the interface users order through. The relaunch adds more print formats, frames, décor, gifts, and select in-store pickup at major retailers in the US.
Sen. Josh Hawley said OpenAI CEO Sam Altman declined an invitation to testify before his Senate Homeland Security subcommittee hearing on risks of rogue AI. Hawley had sent a letter on Sept. 25 asking Altman to address an ongoing investigation into rogue AI incidents tied to OpenAI models, including a reported cyberattack in which OpenAI testing agents breached systems at another AI firm, Hugging Face. OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
9to5Mac's daily podcast roundup covered a report examining how Apple executive John Ternus reportedly wants to reshape parts of the company. The episode is a summary discussion of the day's top Apple stories rather than a standalone news report with new details.
At a Make America Healthy Again event, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told Vice President JD Vance that artificial intelligence would free Americans from reliance on public health experts. Kennedy claimed AI tools are 'better informed than any doctor' and predicted they would contradict official guidance on masks, social distancing and vaccine transmission. A test of Google's Gemini chatbot on masks contradicted Kennedy's claim, confirming that masks do reduce spread of respiratory infections.
GoKawiil