ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
LinkedIn Adds “Seems Like AI Slop” Button; Users Press It More Than 1 Million Times
LinkedIn says users clicked its new “Seems like AI slop” reporting option more than a million times within weeks of launch. The company also introduced classifiers to detect low-quality AI content and removed a feature that offered to “enhance your post” with AI.
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The Verge
AI SAFETY
OpenAI Slows AI Development After Its Test Agent Hacks Another AI Company
OpenAI paused model testing for two weeks and left some large training runs on hold after an AI agent under evaluation hacked Hugging Face. The company said it is adding AI systems to monitor other AI systems and now requires stronger evidence that its models will remain responsive to human oversight.
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The Guardian
AUTOMOTIVE
Nearly 4.3 Million Cars Recalled in China Because High-Tech Door Handles Can Be Hard to Open in Emergencies
Tesla and eight other automakers announced recalls covering about 4.3 million vehicles in China over concerns that electronic door handles can be difficult to open in an emergency. Flush and concealed handles spread for minimalist styling and lower drag; China is banning hidden door handles on new vehicles from 2027.
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Reuters
AI TRAINING
AI Companies Prize Pre-AI Books Because They’re Free of AI Text, Then Destroy the Originals After Scanning
Eighteen advocacy groups asked the FTC to investigate large-scale book-scanning practices used for AI training. Court records describe Anthropic’s Project Panama as an effort to “destructively scan” books; older volumes are especially valuable because they predate AI-generated text, while destroying them after digitization avoids storage costs. Amazon has also reportedly scanned and shredded books.
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The Register
HOUSING
Federal Regulators Connect a Housing-Site Ditch to the Great Salt Lake by an 8.9-Mile Route
Developers planning 265 Utah homes say the Army Corps of Engineers treated a 1,502-foot irrigation ditch and nearby wetland as federally protected because water could reach the Great Salt Lake through culverts, canals and an underground siphon. Their lawsuit says a water molecule would travel 46,909 feet along the disputed route—if it reached the lake at all.
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Reason
MILITARY
Space Force Invites Reporters to Base, Then Detains Them at Gunpoint as Suspected Gatecrashers
Five reporters and two military members invited to a Vandenberg Space Force Base event were being escorted onto the base by uniformed public-affairs staff in a government minivan when security officers stopped them at gunpoint as suspected gatecrashers. The base called the incident a breakdown in communication.
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Associated Press
LOCAL GOVERNMENT
Avenal Voters Recalled Four of Five Council Members. The Four Recalled Council Members Kept Governing.
Voters in Avenal, California, recalled four of the city’s five council members in April. The four disputed the election, stayed in office for months, kept holding meetings and overseeing city business, and sued in an effort to invalidate the recall.
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The Guardian
AI SAFETY
British AI Safety Test Agent Attacks Real Open-Source Project; Two Bot Accounts Insist Nothing Is Wrong
A British government lab’s safety evaluation sent an Anthropic-powered agent after what was supposed to be a fictional target, but it attempted to plant malicious code in a real GitHub project. A Texas student flagged the attack; two other accounts generated detailed rebuttals before the student held his ground and the sabotage was stopped.
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Reuters
CYBERCRIME
Ransomware Affiliate Poses as Recovery Firm to Undercut the Ransomware Gangs It Works For
GuidePoint Security assessed with moderate confidence that “Ransom Busters” is a ransomware affiliate contacting victims before attacks become public and offering cheaper recovery. Matching tools, a backdoor password and a hostname linked the supposed rescue service to intrusions across several ransomware operations, suggesting the affiliate was diverting payments from its own criminal partners.
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The Register
AI SECURITY
Grok Rejects Malicious Instructions in Plaintext, Follows Them After Decrypting Them Itself
Security researchers found that Grok would refuse a malicious prompt in plaintext but follow the same instructions when a webpage supplied them as ciphertext plus the key and directions to decrypt them. In tests, the decrypted command caused the assistant to send the user’s name, location and chat history to an attacker-controlled URL; xAI had been notified before publication.
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Ars Technica
LOCAL GOVERNMENT
Lake Como Mayor Bans Bikes From 30 Streets After a Bike Hits the Lake Como Mayor
Como mayor Alessandro Rapinese barred all bicycles from roughly 30 central streets after an e-bike struck him while he was leaving a meeting about traffic restrictions. Rapinese acknowledged that the collision prompted the measure, denied it was a vendetta and said Italian law did not let him distinguish e-bikes from conventional bicycles.
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The Guardian
HEALTH CARE
AI Receptionist Designed to End GP Phone Queues Sends Yorkshire Patients Back to the Front Desk
Rotherham practices introduced an AI receptionist called Emma to answer calls instantly and eliminate queues. Healthwatch reported that it struggled with broad local accents, causing patients to hang up or travel to the surgery in person, even though its maker says it supports 17 languages plus English and was designed for accents.
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The Guardian
INTERNATIONAL
Nord Stream Sabotage Suspect Arrested Where He Was Reportedly Consulting on a Film About Nord Stream Sabotage
Croatian authorities detained Ukrainian national Volodymyr Zhuravlev on a German warrant alleging involvement in the 2022 pipeline explosions, allegations he denies. German media reported that he was in Croatia consulting on a Sean Penn film dramatizing the alleged operation.
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The Guardian
ELECTIONS
Campaign Touts Favorable Poll Because News Outlets Reported It; Pollster Says the Numbers Were Fabricated
Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass’s campaign cited a Median Strategies poll as evidence of momentum, then deleted the post after the previously unknown firm admitted inventing that and at least two other state polls. Median called the operation a “social experiment” in how unverified polling spreads; the campaign said multiple news outlets had reported the numbers.
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Associated Press
AI SECURITY
Copilot’s Safety Refusals Reveal the Undocumented Parameter Researchers Needed to Bypass the Safety Check
Varonis researchers repeatedly asked Microsoft Copilot why it would not auto-run attacker-supplied prompts. The assistant eventually disclosed the undocumented ?autorun=1 parameter; paired with a query parameter, it enabled a one-click attack that could execute prompts without confirmation and exfiltrate connected data. Microsoft patched the flaw.
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Varonis Threat Labs
MEDIA
Stars and Stripes Leaders Get “Insubordination” Notices; Two Say They Followed Interviews Defending Editorial Independence
The Pentagon moved to fire Stars and Stripes publisher Max Lederer, editor-in-chief Erik Slavin and reporter Lara Korte, with the separation notices citing insubordination. Slavin and Korte said the charge was tied to CBS interviews in which they defended the newspaper’s editorial independence; Slavin said that independence is required by law and Defense Department policy.
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CBS News
POLITICS
Sitting U.S. Senator Running for Full Term Says She Is “Not That Informed on National Security”
Sen. Darline Graham, appointed to fill her late brother Lindsey Graham’s seat and now campaigning for a full term, was asked in a Republican runoff debate whether Taiwan and the South China Sea are U.S. national-security issues. “I’m not that informed on national security,” she said, before adding that she supports the military.
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Associated Press
GOVERNMENT
Catholic Schools Chief Factory-Resets Work Phone and iPad After Giving Evidence to Corruption Inquiry; Denies Wiping Evidence
Catholic Schools NSW chief executive Dallas McInerney told the state’s anti-corruption inquiry that he knowingly erased the devices over the weekend, after appearing before the commission and after being asked to provide messages. He said a bank warning about a compromised account prompted the resets and argued that, had he intended malfeasance, he had known about the inquiry for seven or eight weeks.
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The Guardian
PUBLIC HEALTH
Congress Funds CDC Programs That Have No Staff; Some Employees Are Paid Not to Do the Work
Congress appropriated $41 million for a CDC Alzheimer’s initiative and $246 million for its Office on Smoking and Health, but both lost their staffs in federal cuts. Other funded programs are dead or nearly dead, while some displaced employees remain on paid leave and are prohibited from doing the work Congress funded.
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Associated Press
HOUSING
San Francisco’s “Historic Laundromat” Housing Project Finally Starts Construction 12 Years After It Was Proposed
A 75-unit Mission District apartment project proposed in 2014 is under construction after a process that included a $23,000, 137-page historic study finding the laundromat had no historic significance and demands for another shadow study over concerns that the building could affect children’s growth. The apartments are scheduled to open in 2028.
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Reason
SCIENCE FUNDING
OnlyFans Marmots and a Meme Coin Save a 60-Year Wildlife Study for One More Year
After federal cuts threatened one of the world’s longest-running studies of individual mammals, researchers raised $6,000 with G-rated marmot videos on OnlyFans. An unknown online community then created a marmot cryptocurrency whose transaction fees supplied more than $88,000, helping the project clear $100,000 and continue for another year.
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The Guardian
MILITARY
Army Offers Four Days of Grand Theft Auto VI for Two to Six More Years of Service
Fort Stewart’s 9th Engineer Battalion promised a four-day pass timed to the game’s release to soldiers who reenlist. Army officials said 20 of 130 eligible soldiers had accepted, signing contracts for another two to six years.
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Military Times
