Apple skewers OpenAI's recruiting practices in bombshell lawsuit
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OpenAI has been on a recruiting tear, supercharging its headcount and yanking top AI talent from other tech companies. Now, Apple says the AI juggernaut has been playing dirty with its recruitment tactics.
The Cupertino tech giant accused OpenAI of stealing trade secrets in a lawsuit filed Friday that also targeted its hardware outfit, IO, and two former Apple employees who worked at OpenAI. The lawsuit marks a dramatic escalation in the AI talent wars, where competition for elite engineers has become almost as fierce as the race to build smarter models.
Legendary DP Robert Richardson on New Doc About His Life, Upcoming Film ‘Madden’ and Why Hollywood Should “Regulate and Embrace” AI
Robert Richardson, our guest on this episode of The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast, recorded in front of an audience at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in the Czech Republic, is one of the most admired cinematographers in Hollywood history.
An artist and craftsman of the first order, Richardson is best known for his many collaborations with three similarly revered filmmakers: 12 with Oliver Stone, including 1986’s Platoon, 1987’s Wall Street, 1989’s Born on the Fourth of July and 1991’s JFK; seven with Martin Scorsese, including 1995’s Casino, 2004’s The Aviator and 2011’s ; and five with Quentin Tarantino, including Kill Bill (2003’s Vol. 1 and 2004’s Vol. 2), 2009’s Inglourious Basterds, 2012’s Django Unchained, 2015’s The Hateful Eight and 2019’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood — in other words, every Tarantino film of the 21st century except for Death Proof, which Tarantino shot himself. Tarantino has said that in addition to his late film editor, Sally Menke, Richardson is “the greatest artistic collaborator of my life,” adding, “I have never had as much fun making movies as I have had since I started making them with [him].”
‘Death sentence’: Trump’s EPA to open habitats of endangered species to logging and mining
The Trump administration repealed a crucial part of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) on Friday, finalizing a new rule that will open habitats of imperiled wildlife to development, logging, mining and other uses.
For the last 50 years, the landmark environmental law included a broader understanding of the word “harm”, which ensured that not just the plants and animals themselves were protected but also the places that are critical to their survival. The inclusion of habitat in the “harm” definition was upheld by the supreme court in 1995, which ruled in support of old-growth forest protections relied on by endangered spotted owls.
Fallout 5, The Elder Scrolls 6, Blade, and More: As Xbox Layoffs Hit Hard, What's Going on at Bethesda?
Bethesda was hit hard by this week’s Xbox layoffs, with cuts to The Elder Scrolls and Fallout developer Bethesda Game Studios, Doom developer id Software, and The Elder Scrolls Online developer ZeniMax Online Studios, among other parts of the business.
A Maryland WARN Act notice shows 213 employees were laid off from ZOS's office in Cockeysville, MD, and 166 from ZeniMax Media Inc. in Rockville, MD, for a total of 379. 96 staff who worked at id Software's office in Richardson, Texas, were cut, alongside a further 40 remote roles. While it’s difficult to pin down exactly what the affected staff were working on at these studios because there are blended teams across Bethesda locations, the WARN numbers undoubtedly make for difficult reading.
Canada’s Bill C-36 tackles AI privacy. Is it enough?
Vancouver, Canada: In an era of artificial intelligence, deepfakes and data-driven decision-making, Canada is moving to revise its privacy laws through Bill C-36, the Protecting Privacy and Consumer Data Act.
Announced in June, Bill C-36 is Canada’s first major overhaul of private-sector privacy legislation in more than 25 years. The bill explicitly recognises privacy as a fundamental right and also aims to give children’s personal information stronger protections, enhance deletion rights and require greater transparency where automated systems make significant decisions about people.
Union Video Game Workers ‘Extremely Disappointed’ With Xbox Leadership Following Layoffs (Gaming News Roundup)
Microsoft laid off 1,600 employees across its Xbox division this week, including hundreds of union video game workers represented by Communications Workers of America.
The workforce reduction comes in addition to what new CEO Asha Sharma calls the “most significant restructure” in the Microsoft division’s history. Microsoft announced approximately 4,800 total job cuts across the company Monday, including the 1,600 Xbox employees.
“When Microsoft sought to grow its video game division, corporate executives made an agreement with video game workers and their union, CWA, to respect their right to organize for a new day for workers across Microsoft’s video game studios,” said CWA President Claude Cummings Jr. “Although our union signed neutrality agreements with Microsoft, we have been extremely disappointed by a company that has slow-walked our members at the bargaining table, making CWA members wait for the protections of a union contract.
The era of automated, AI-enabled ransomware is here getty
Sysdig’s Threat Research Team last week documented what is to be the first known agentic ransomware operation, known as JadePuffer, involving an AI-driven extortion chain against an exposed instance of LangFlow open-source code. JadePuffer, a ransomware style operation, used an AI agent to carry out much of an intrusion chain, from reconnaissance and credential work to lateral movement, database encryption and even ransom note generation.
Former MP and Reality TV Star Ann Widdecombe Found Killed at Her Home, Man Arrested
Authorities in England have arrested a man in connection with the killing of right-wing British political and television personality Ann Widdecombe, after she was found dead with serious injuries at her home on Thursday.
Police said at a Friday evening news conference that a 26-year-old was apprehended in Newton Abbot, Devon. It is unlikely that the violent killing of 78-year-old Widdecombe was “a politically motivated crime,” Matt Longman, assistant chief constable at Devon and Cornwall, told the press on Friday evening. The case is not being treated as a terror attack, investigators said.
Graham Platner officially withdraws candidacy for US Senate in Maine
Graham Platner, the Democratic nominee for US Senate in Maine, officially withdrew his candidacy on Friday afternoon, ending a campaign laden with scandals.
Maine’s secretary of state confirmed Platner had filed the paperwork to remove his name from the November ballot, two days after Platner publicly said he planned to exit the race.
In a letter shared on social media outlining the populist ideals that underlined his meteoric rise to the national political stage and drew widespread support in the state, Platner called for the movement built under his name to continue. He expressed gratitude to those who supported him, and called for “a new kind of politics”.
Bluesky’s interim CEO, Toni Schneider, drops the ‘interim’
In March, Bluesky’s longtime CEO, Jay Graber, stepped down from that role to become its chief innovation officer. Graber was immediately succeeded by Toni Schneider, the founding CEO of Automattic, which is the company behind WordPress and Tumblr.
Schneider, who has led the company as interim CEO for the past four months, is now dropping the “interim” status and becoming its permanent chief executive.
“I’m four months into my interim CEO role at Bluesky, and it’s time for an update,” Schneider wrote on his personal blog. “Most importantly, as of today, the interim part of the title is gone. I’m loving the mission and the job, and I’m all in as Bluesky’s official CEO.”