A legal battle is brewing, as two companies are suing to overturn the two-year ban. Last week, a legal battle over lab-grown meat kicked off in Texas. On September 1, a two-year ban on the technology went into effect across the state; the following day, two companies filed a lawsuit against state officials. The two companies, Wildtype Foods and Upside Foods, are part of a growing industry that aims to bring new types of food to people's plates. These products, often called cultivated meat by the industry, take live animal cells and grow them in the lab to make food products without the need to slaughter animals. Here's what we know about lab-grown meat and climate change Cultivated meat is coming to the US.

Politico became one of the first newsrooms last year to win a union contract that included rules on how the media outlet can deploy artificial intelligence. The PEN Guild, which represents Politico and its sister publication, environment and energy site E&E News, is now gearing up for another first. The union's members allege that the AI provisions in their contract have been violated, and they're preparing for a groundbreaking legal dispute with management. The outcome could set a precedent for how much input journalists ultimately have over how AI is used in their newsrooms. Last year, Politico began publishing AI-generated live news summaries during big political events like the Democratic National Convention and the US vice presidential debates.

Elon Musk is once again suing OpenAI and its chief executive, Sam Altman, resurrecting a legal battle against his former partners with a case that now claims they manipulated him into co-founding the artificial intelligence company. Months after abruptly withdrawing a similar lawsuit without explanation, Musk filed a new lawsuit on Monday in a northern California federal court. OpenAI denied the allegations in a statement to the Guardian, pointing to its previous blogposts about Musk's initial lawsuit earlier this year. Musk's latest complaint claims the case is a "textbook tale of altruism versus greed", repeating allegations in his previous suit that his former co-founders in OpenAI betrayed him by turning the company from a non-profit into a largely for-profit enterprise. "The perfidy and deceit is of Shakespearean proportions," it states.

Google has just been hit with a $32.5 million penalty for infringing on a patent held by Sonos. According to Law360, a California federal jury ordered the fine after determining that Google infringed on a patent Sonos holds relating to grouping speakers so they can play audio at the same time, something the company has been doing for years. US District Judge William Alsup had already determined that early version of products like the Chromecast Audio and Google Home infringed on Sonos' patent; the question was whether more recent, revamped products were also infringing on the patent. The jury found in favor of Sonos, but decided a second patent -- one that relates to controlling devices via a smartphone or other device -- wasn't violated. They said that Sonos hadn't convincingly shown that the Google Home app infringed on that particular patent.

A woman successfully used ChatGPT to encourage her landlord to fix a washer and dryer that had been out of order for over two years. The washing machine of a New York City apartment was fixed soon after 28-year-old Svetlana sent a legally charged chatbot letter to her landlord. Svetlana, who did not wish to reveal her last name, claimed the bot was'super-smart' after quoting specific sections of New York rent law to back its case. She said: 'That's the beauty of ChatGPT; the ability to collaborate, bounce ideas, put thoughts into a cohesive piece of writing. The New York resident first had qualms with her landlord after receiving a rent increase notice of 0.4 per cent, from $1,389 to $1,395 (£1116 to £1121).

Former federal prosecutor Trey Gowdy gives his take on the Alex Murdaugh trial and Hunter Biden's attorney calling for criminal probe of the laptop on'The Story.' High-profile lawyer Abbe Lowell again entered the national spotlight this week representing Hunter Biden in the legal battle involving his infamous laptop, and Lowell's hiring signals how seriously Biden is taking his situation, an attorney tells Fox News Digital. "Abbe is not cheap, and you don't bring in Abbe unless you want to go to war or prevent one," said the source who's worked with Lowell. He hasn't been charged with anything, but they're trying to prevent that because that would be bad for [President] Biden and Hunter." Lowell made a splash this week with letters urging prosecutors to launch state and federal investigations into John Paul Mac Isaac, who he accused of "unlawfully" accessing the younger Biden's personal data on his laptop after it was left at his repair shop in 2019. Former President Donald Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani, Steve Bannon and other notable Biden critics were also listed in the lawsuit for their role in disseminating the information to the public. Mac Isaac chose to work with President Donald Trump's personal lawyer to weaponize Mr. Biden's personal computer data against his father, Joseph R. Biden, by unlawfully causing the provision of Mr. Biden's personal data to the New York Post," Lowell wrote Wednesday.

For Sonos, 2020 began in dramatic fashion. While the tech world was focused on CES, the company made a splash by suing Google for allegedly infringing five of its wireless speaker patents. Sonos said this was just a small portion of Google's overall infractions, noting that both Amazon and Google likely violated about 100 patents each. Google counter-sued in June, and Sonos filed more charges in September. Sonos is well within its rights to defend its patent portfolio -- and the company has been working on wireless music-streaming tech for longer than just about anyone, so it's entirely possible its claims have merit.

UPDATED Arizona police report that the safety driver involved in the March's fatal Uber crash was streaming a television show on Hulu before the autonomous test car struck and killed a homeless woman, 49-year-old Elaine Herzberg. On the face of it, the report appears to contradict the driver's claim that she was monitoring the Uber interface on the modified Volvo's dashboard immediately before the accident, which took place at night on 18 March, in Tempe. According to the local Police Department, the safety driver's account was playing'The Voice' for about 42 minutes, ending at 9.59pm, the approximate time of the crash. Video footage from inside the car showed her looking down for seven of the 22 minutes before the collision. The police say that the accident would have been "entirely avoidable" had the driver, 44-year-old Rafaela Vasquez, been watching the road.

Uber Technologies Inc.'s incoming chief executive officer, Dara Khosrowshahi, inherits an embattled global business with crises sprawling across continents. Since Uber's founding in 2009, the San Francisco-based company has tested the world's tolerance for disruption and rule-breaking. The company's toe-stepping ways, overseen by co-founder and former CEO Travis Kalanick, helped the ride-hailing company grow to more than 600 cities and a $69 billion (about ¥7.45 trillion) private valuation. But the startup's aggressive approach left a trail of self-inflicted wounds along the way. Those controversies -- including raising doubts about a passenger's rape, the use of software meant to evade law enforcement officials, an intense human resources investigation sparked by sexual harassment charges, and a fierce legal battle with Alphabet Inc.-- ultimately felled Kalanick after some of Uber's largest investors asked for his resignation in June.

Welcome to California Inc., the weekly newsletter of the L.A. Times Business Section. That tailwind Wall Streeters are feeling is Friday's news that Americans stepped up their shopping last month. The Commerce Department said retail sales increased 0.4%, suggesting consumers are poised to spur faster growth in the April-June quarter after the economy barely expanded in the first three months of the year. Consumer prices rose a modest 0.2% after a 0.3% drop in March. Above the crowd: On Monday, a new terminal aimed at celebrities and wealthy travelers will open at Los Angeles International Airport.