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X's Global Government Affairs team says it identified roughly 200,000 accounts tied to a Chinese bot network, with about 200 of them dedicated to spreading posts critical of AI data centers. The posts claimed the facilities were raising household electricity bills and straining power grids, echoing similar findings OpenAI reported in June about ChatGPT users seeking ways to sway American opinion on data centers.
X's Safety team identified a 200,000-account network of suspected inauthentic Chinese accounts, 200 of which spread AI-generated comics and posts criticizing AI data centers' impact on electricity prices and local power grids. The company said these posts used OpenAI-generated imagery and talking points that echoed illustrations from a June OpenAI report on similar China-linked influence efforts. X has suspended violating accounts but has not disclosed the identities of those involved or detailed the remaining 199,800 accounts' activity.
OpenAI has begun showing advertisements to users on its free tier and the 399-rupee ($4) Go plan in India, one of its biggest markets by user activity. The feature, already active in 38 countries including the US, Japan, South Korea and much of Europe, excludes users who are or are predicted to be under 18.
OpenAI confirmed that ChatGPT experienced a widespread outage on August 27, 2026, with many users reporting problems accessing the chatbot. The company later announced that services, including ChatGPT Workspace and Workspace Agents, were fully restored and functioning normally by 6:14 PM ET.
TechCrunch's evening event series StrictlyVC is holding its first New York gathering in two years, set for September 10 in the West Village. The lineup includes investor Keith Rabois discussing venture trends and his early OpenAI investment, plus a conversation between Collaborative Fund's Craig Shapiro and D.C. United CEO Jason Levien on sports as a business investment, with Tristan Walker also joining discussions on AI and community.
TechCrunch has announced that Anthropic's Head of Applied AI, Cat de Jong, and a senior OpenAI productivity executive will speak on the AI Stage at Disrupt 2026, running October 13-15 at San Francisco's Moscone Center. The sessions, sponsored by Google for Startups, will address enterprise AI deployment lessons, pricing strategy amid model commoditization, and rebuilding security for autonomous agents.
OpenAI, io Products, and former Apple employees Chang Liu and Tang Tan have filed a fresh petition seeking to have Apple's trade secret misappropriation lawsuit dismissed with prejudice. The move follows Apple's rebuttal defending the specificity of its claims after the defendants' earlier motion to dismiss argued the company failed to identify protectable secrets or prove harm.
OpenAI is said to be developing a persistent AI agent capable of running continuously rather than only responding to single prompts. The agent would maintain ongoing awareness of tasks and context over time, moving beyond the transactional chat-based model most assistants use today.
Adobe introduced AI Assisted Editor, a new Photoshop interface that lets users edit images through natural language prompts alongside the existing Pro Editor workspace. The company also unveiled a light adjustment layer, Instruct Edit with Masks, and a Markup tool for drawing edit instructions directly on images. These features are currently available in the $23-per-month Photoshop beta.
Google, OpenAI and more than 100 other companies signed a joint letter warning that AI-powered cyberattacks are set to grow more common in the near future. The letter calls on governments and industry to take stronger action to prepare for and counter this rising threat.
A new open-source project called Experiential offers an OpenAI-compatible gateway and router for agent workflows, letting teams route requests across hosted, bring-your-own-key, and local models through a single API. It includes controls over which users and agents can access specific models, spending limits, and a wizard that sets up a local gateway with a one-time API key in minutes. A hosted version is also available, supporting both OpenAI and Anthropic Messages API formats and integration with coding agents like Claude Code, Cursor, and Codex.
More than 100 companies spanning AI, cloud, finance and cybersecurity—including OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, Anthropic, AWS and CrowdStrike—signed an open letter urging coordinated action against AI-powered cyberattacks. The letter warns that AI-enabled attacks will grow more widespread and sophisticated as models improve, and calls on governments, industry and AI developers to build stronger defensive tools and monitoring systems.