Law
Why Disney's Most Scandalous Deal Is Such a Grim Development
The Industry Disney's Deal With OpenAI Is So Much Worse Than You Think The $1 billion partnership allows users to create A.I.-generated images of the company's iconic characters. That's not going to end well for anyone. Enter your email to receive alerts for this author. You can manage your newsletter subscriptions at any time. You're already subscribed to the aa_Nitish_Pahwa newsletter.
This Group Pays Bounties to Repair Broken Devices--Even If the Fix Breaks the Law
Fulu sets repair bounties on consumer products that employ sneaky features that limit user control. Just this week, it awarded more than $10,000 to the person who hacked the Molekule air purifier. Companies tend to be rather picky about who gets to poke around inside their products. Manufacturers sometimes even take steps that prevent consumers from repairing their device when it breaks, or modifying it with third-party products. But those unsanctioned device modifications have become the raison d'รชtre of a bounty program set up by a nonprofit called Fulu, or Freedom from Unethical Limitations on Users.
Doom studio id Software forms 'wall-to-wall' union, with a majority of employees voting in favor
Parent company Microsoft has already recognized the effort. Id Software, the company behind Doom, has voted in favor of forming a wall-to-wall union. The term wall-to-wall refers to a union that includes every employee, regardless of duties. The vote wasn't unanimous, though a majority did vote in favor of the union. The union will work in conjunction with the Communications Workers of America (CWA), which is the same organization involved with parent company ZeniMax's recent unionization efforts .
The Morning After: Tech's biggest losers of 2025
Get in, loser, we're going judging. Honestly, compiling the biggest losers for Engadget is more fun than talking up the winners . While we reviewed nothing as atrocious as those ill-fated AI assistant gadgets from 2024, AI companies and services straddled both the winner and loser podiums. The losers might be you, the American consumer. In the US, anyone wanting a drone will have to find something that isn't made by DJI.
OpenAI and Microsoft sued over murder-suicide blamed on ChatGPT
OpenAI and its investor Microsoft have been sued over a Connecticut murder-suicide in the latest case to blame ChatGPT for dangerous psychological manipulation of users. OpenAI and its investor, Microsoft, have been sued over a Connecticut murder-suicide in the latest case to blame the popular ChatGPT chatbot for dangerous psychological manipulation of users. The lawsuit turns on the actions of a 56-year-old man who lived with his 83-year-old mother in Greenwich, Connecticut, and had been conversing for months with the chatbot over his fear that he was under surveillance and people were trying to kill him. In August, according to police and the state medical examiner, Stein-Erik Soelberg killed his mother, Suzanne Adams, then took his own life. Soelberg's dialogue with ChatGPT convinced him that he had made the chatbot conscious, and that he had been implanted with a "divine instrument system" in his neck and brain, which related to a "divine mission," according to a complaint filed Thursday in California Superior Court in San Francisco, where OpenAI is based.
Trump orders creation of litigation task force to challenge state AI laws
The administration will also attempt to prevent states with "onerous" AI laws from accessing broadband funding. WASHINGTON, DC - DECEMBER 11: U.S. President Donald Trump displays a signed executive order in the Oval Office of the White House on December 11, 2025 in Washington, DC. The executive order curbs states' ability to regulate artificial intelligence, something for which the tech industry has been lobbying. On Thursday evening, President Donald Trump signed an executive order calling for a single, nationwide regulatory framework governing artificial intelligence at the expense of the ability of different states to regulate the nascent technology. "To win, United States AI companies must be free to innovate without cumbersome regulation," the order states. As was expected after a draft of the order leaked earlier this week, the centerpiece of the document is an "AI Litigation Task Force whose sole responsibility shall be to challenge state AI laws inconsistent" with the president's policy vision.
Trump Signs Executive Order That Threatens to Punish States for Passing AI Laws
The order creates a Justice Department task force to challenge state AI laws and directs the Commerce Department to pull future broadband funding from states that pass "onerous" legislation. President Donald Trump signed a highly anticipated executive order on Thursday that sets in motion a plan to establish a national regulatory framework for artificial intelligence while undercutting states' abilities to enact their own rules. The order, titled "Ensuring a National Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence," creates an AI litigation task force within the Justice Department to directly challenge state AI laws the administration finds to conflict with federal policy. It also directs the Department of Commerce to craft guidelines that could make states ineligible for future broadband funding if they pass "onerous" AI laws. The push for sweeping federal preemption of state AI laws has largely been fueled by AI investors, conservative policy shops, and tech industry trade groups.