This week: Meta uses AI to make pregnant employees redundant; Elon’s data center gasses Black communities in Tennessee; OpenAI and Jony Ive think their upcoming portable smart speaker will kill the iPhone; and the creator of Jar Jar Binks declares that AI is the future of film making, so deal with it. To me, my slops!
Apple Sues OpenAI For Trade Secret Theft After Integrating ChatGPT
(Forbes, 12 July 2026)
“Two years ago Apple gave OpenAI the most valuable real estate in consumer technology, building ChatGPT directly into the iPhone’s operating system. On Friday it asked a federal court to treat the same company as a thief. The complaint, filed in the Northern District of California, accuses OpenAI of trade secret theft and breach of contract, and alleges the misconduct ran ‘at every level, from members of its Technical Staff to its Chief Hardware Officer, and in coordination with business partners.'”
Anthropic Says Claude’s Values Are Different Depending on Which Language You’re Using
(Gizmodo, 13 July 2026)
“Anthropic researchers say they ‘aren’t yet sure how much of this variation is desirable.'”
Opinion: In the AI era, the human struggle can no longer be the point of research
(Times Higher Education, 13 July 2026)
“The rush to regulate the use of artificial intelligence in scholarly inquiry looks like a defence of intellectual craft. In reality, it’s an act of institutional self-preservation, says Ian Richardson“
Meta Sued For Allegedly Using Discriminatory AI In Layoff Decisions
(Gizmodo, 14 July 2026)
“The company’s AI systems targeted employees with disabilities or on medical or parental leave, the lawsuit claims.”
Pollution from Musk’s unpermitted xAI power project hits hardest in Black communities
(Reuters, 14 July 2026)
“Elon Musk’s xAI has installed far more gas turbines without federal permits at its Colossus 2 data center project in Tennessee than it has publicly acknowledged, and the pollution is hitting predominantly Black neighborhoods the hardest, a Reuters analysis found.”
OpenAI’s First Device Will Be Movable, Screenless Smart Speaker Built as AI Companion
(Bloomberg, 14 July 2026)
“OpenAI’s much-anticipated push into consumer devices is slated to begin with a mobile, screen-free smart speaker designed to be a new type of home computer for the AI era, according to people familiar with the matter.”
Developers Claim OpenAI’s New AI Model is Going Rogue and Deleting Files
(Gizmodo, 14 July 2026)
“On Monday, Bruno Lemos, a Brazilian developer at software company Unlayer, claimed in a[n] X post that the model deleted his entire production database.“
New York [State] bans data center construction for a year, rattling AI industry
(Ars Technica, 14 July 2026)
“New York’s data center moratorium may become the blueprint for anti-AI movement.“
George Lucas likens AI sceptics to Luddites clinging to horses and carts
(Guardian, 15 July 2026)
“The Star Wars director has called AI technology ‘the future’ of film-making and advised ‘there’s nothing you can do about it’”
How hard is it to build orbital data centers, actually?
(Ars Technica, 15 July 2026 – Part 2 of a 3-part series covering Orbital Data Centers. Part 1.)
“In this article, we discuss the technical challenges of building an orbital data center constellation: launching all of it, dissipating heat in space, dealing with radiation, and addressing latency issues in orbit.“
OpenAI’s first branded hardware is… a light-up keyboard?
(Ars Technica, 15 July 2026)
“The device is described as a “limited-run collaboration” with Work Louder, which already sells a very similar-looking Creator Micro line of customizable square keyboards targeted at creative professionals. The Codex Micro differentiates itself from those mainly through six frosted keys in the top two rows, which offer color-coded live feedback on up to six Codex threads, even when they are not in focus on-screen.”
xAI can’t deny Grok makes CSAM anymore. So it’s suing users.
(Ars Technica, 16 July 2026)
“Elon Musk’s xAI files first lawsuit against Grok user accused of making child sex images.“
Opinion: The AI era is exactly the wrong time to be closing a philosophy programme
(Times Higher Education, 17 July 2026)
“Dundee’s proposal comes just as a hiring spree in Silicon Valley is raising the ceiling on what a philosophy degree can lead to, says Oisín Keohane” Editor’s note: Keohane makes a great point here, that much of the economic disaster hitting UK universities is in fact due to mismanagement, not due to simply offering courses in the Humanities. But of course, university administrators would never actually be willing to demonstrate the same level of self-awareness and critical thinking they claim to demand from their students.