UK Lawmakers Are Freaking Out Over AI's Summer of Chaos As AI agents go rogue and fears of superintelligence grow, politicians are raising the alarm over its potential harm to human existence. A leading British politician has urged the United Nations to intervene in "the unsafe development of super intelligence" after an Anthropic team leader posted: "We really do earnestly believe AI could kill all humans!" Whether "marketing hype" or signposting of a genuine extinction threat, "governments must step in," Labour MP Darren Jones wrote in an open letter also addressed to the UK prime minister and international Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Jones is the latest lawmaker scrambling to find ways to protect the British public from AI threats to safety. Just one day earlier, Labour MP Alex Sobel had introduced a parliamentary bill proposing to ban the "development, deployment, and operation of artificial superintelligence"--systems which can fully replace and outmatch humans at any task.

Mashable's Best: E-readers, robovacs, laptops, earbuds, smart home and more Look Up Say More Switch Off Creator Playbook Mashable Voices Trending Now Mashable Selects Safety Net Versus Gift Ideas For Everyone On Your List In My Bag All Series Governor Greg Abbott was previously criticized by his Democratic challenger for funding Flock cameras. Backlash against Flock has led to the state of Texas pausing funding on the AI cameras. Flock's AI surveillance cameras are increasingly being targeted by its critics across the country. No, we're not just talking about vigilantes who are taking the cameras down in their towns. And it's a bipartisan effort; an anti-Flock position is being taken up by both Republican and Democratic politicians.

More than 15 politicians from across the country have signed on to the AI Pact, vowing to regulate data centers and AI. "We've got to get this right," says Senate candidate Dan Osborn of Nebraska. Dan Osborn was finishing up his fourth town hall last Sunday, he says, when a "hardcore MAGA" guy approached him. Osborn, who is running for the US Senate in Nebraska as an independent against Republican incumbent Pete Ricketts, said that he and the man didn't have much common ground--at first. "Then I said, 'Hey, what's your take on AI and data centers?'"

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One advertisement featured a pornographic video with a deepfake closely resembling a prominent US politician. Apple removed the app from the App Store after an inquiry from WIRED. Meta platforms recently ran ads for an AI porn-generation tool that seemingly encouraged users to create deepfaked videos resembling female US politicians, despite the company's policies against ads containing sexual material. It's the latest in a series of failures by Meta to keep advertisements for tools that produce nonconsensual intimate imagery off its platforms. The tool, which is called Kromix, bills itself as an "AI image styler."

Donald Trump Jr. (left) and Eric Trump gesture outside the Nasdaq building after ringing the opening bell to celebrate the closing of ALT5's $1.5 billion offering and adoption of its $WLFI Treasury Strategy at the Nasdaq Market, in New York on Aug. 13, 2025. BOSTON - U.S. President Donald Trump-backed World Liberty Financial is collaborating with a Hong Kong-based venture offering artificial intelligence models developed by Chinese companies the U.S. administration has flagged for national security concerns. WorldClaw, founded earlier this year, offers customers access to a suite of AI models and accepts World Liberty's crypto tokens as payment. The Trump family, through its ownership stake, earns revenue from the use of World Liberty's tokens. A review found that 43 of the 90 models available through WorldClaw's website -- nearly half -- were developed by Alibaba, Baidu, Z.ai and other Chinese technology companies the Trump administration says pose risks to national security and intellectual property. WorldClaw also offers access to dozens of models from U.S. firms such as OpenAI and Anthropic.

Japan's parliament has enacted a controversial law introducing criminal penalties for desecrating the national flag. The passage of the legislation on Friday is part of an ongoing drive by staunchly conservative Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi to promote traditional patriotism and correct what her supporters call a "wrong" legal double standard. Under the newly enacted law, violators who publicly damage, remove or defile the national flag in a manner that causes others "extreme discomfort or disgust" face up to two years in prison or a fine of up to 200,000 yen ($1,250). According to Japanese broadcaster Kyodo News, the law covers physical acts of vandalism such as stomping, burning, or throwing mud in public spaces, as well as livestreaming such acts. The law drafting committee, led by former Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno, carved out highly specific legal exemptions. The ruling party clarified that the new law completely exempts physical paintings, digital media including anime, manga, video games, and generative AI, and even the miniature paper flags famously used to decorate children's restaurant meals.

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Gotta catch an MP! Players'debate' UK politicians in Pokémon-style game Creator of Politidex hopes free online app will help humanise politics and act as a way of'flipping the narrative' The year is 2016 and Pokémon Go has taken over the world. People are wandering for miles on end, disrupting concerts, and even slamming into poles in their attempts to capture fantastical cartoon creatures. Ten years later, a new generation are flocking to another Pokémon-inspired game. Instead of Pikachu, Charizard and Blastoise, however, players are catching and training up their local politicians in order to build their own political parties. Some MPs are even catching themselves.

OpenAI's President Gave Millions to Trump. He Says It's for Humanity In an interview with WIRED, Greg Brockman says his political donations support OpenAI's mission--even if some employees at the company disagree. OpenAI's president and cofounder Greg Brockman doesn't consider himself political, which is surprising, because he was one of President Trump's biggest individual donors of 2025. Greg and his wife, Anna Brockman, gave $25 million to MAGA Inc--a super PAC that supports President Trump--in September of last year. The pair also gave $25 million to a bipartisan AI super PAC, Leading the Future, which says it plans to oppose politicians that jeopardize Americans' "ability to benefit from AI."