4 – Breaking News & Latest Updates 2026
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Lauren Feiner

Lauren Feiner

Senior Policy Reporter

Senior Policy Reporter

    More From Lauren Feiner

    America’s dangerous, messy deepfakes crackdown is here

    The Take It Down Act is in full force, but it could be a gift to government censors — not victims of image-based sexual abuse.

    Lauren Feiner
    Lauren Feiner
    Lauren Feiner
    A new bill aims to shield energy consumers from AI data center-related costs.

    Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) announced the Energy Cost Fairness and Reliability Act, which would put new requirements on “energy-intensive facilities,” in an effort to lower the strain on the energy grid. It doesn’t yet have co-sponsors, but hits on an issue that’s become central to many communities and elections.

    Lauren Feiner
    Lauren Feiner
    OpenAI endorses the Kids Online Safety Act.

    It joins a handful of other tech companies like Snap and Microsoft in supporting the bill, while major tech groups maintain opposition. The announcement comes as a key Senate committee prepares to move forward on its version of KOSA, after a House committee passed a largely overhauled version.

    Lauren Feiner
    Lauren Feiner
    The Take It Down Act comes into full force next week.

    The Federal Trade Commission reminded more than a dozen companies that it can soon begin enforcing the new mandate for platforms to remove nonconsensual intimate images within 48 hours of a valid request. The provision is one that critics fear could be enforced selectively or used to limit speech.

    Lauren Feiner
    Lauren Feiner
    OpenAI sued over ChatGPT’s ‘defective’ design that allegedly assisted an accused FSU shooter.

    The family of a victim of April’s mass shooting at Florida State University is suing OpenAI over its chatbot’s alleged role in encouraging the attack, which is already being probed by Florida’s attorney general. OpenAI spokesperson Drew Pusateri called the shooting a “tragedy” but said “ChatGPT is not responsible for this terrible crime.” More from Pusateri:

    “In this case, ChatGPT provided factual responses to questions with information that could be found broadly across public sources on the internet, and it did not encourage or promote illegal or harmful activity.”

    Lauren Feiner
    Lauren Feiner
    Don’t expect another Ticketmaster settlement anytime soon.

    “There are no ongoing settlement discussions,” according to an attorney for the states that kept litigating their winning antitrust case against Live Nation-Ticketmaster after the Justice Department settled. Those states remain focused on the upcoming remedies phase, and they’ll layout their initial demands in a couple weeks.