OpenAI's chief global affairs officer Chris Lehane thinks the 2028 presidential election could be a defining moment for AI. And he wants politicians to start developing policies that address Americans' concerns about the technology, rather than simply paying lip service to anti-AI sentiment and the backlash against data centers. In a new essay, Lehane compares AI's potential to reshape the economy to President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal, the 1930s set of federal programs and reforms enacted after industrialization and the Great Depression shattered the old economic order. He observes that Americans today feel similarly anxious about losing control over their economic futures and urges politicians to find a 'compelling third path' that allows people to share in AI's benefits. He lays out five policy priorities, spanning worker protections and education to AI safety and data center development. The essay comes on the heels of a stunning Democratic victory in the midterm elections, in which Democrats flipped control of Congress amid widespread voter frustration over the cost of living. Kate Brennan, who leads AI and corporate power policy at the AI Now Institute, told TechCrunch that Lehane's rhetoric marks a notable shift from OpenAI's policy agenda last year, which focused on accelerating AI development, reducing regulatory barriers, and expanding infrastructure....

'[Fox] bears responsibility for these losses by constantly and consistently putting on the Dumocrat opposition, and worse,' the president wrote on Truth Social. Later in the night, he called in to Fox News, where he congratulated the Democrats on their results. Trump made clear that he doesn't think the historic blowout was a reflection of his popularity, writing, 'I wasn't on the Ballot and if I was, we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE!' He then posted a picture of a red baseball hat with the word VETO embossed on the front. Matt Walsh, a right-wing podcaster, called the results 'a political catastrophe of historic proportions' and Trump 'an 80-year-old lame-duck president.' Walsh blamed Trump's decision to start a war with Iran and his focus on trivial matters like attempting to rename artificial intelligence super intelligence and the White House ballroom. Mike Flynn, the disgraced former national security adviser who was among the most prominent voices pushing bogus conspiracies about the 2020 election being stolen, also blamed Trump, writing on X, 'Someone needs to look in a mirror.' Flynn also blamed Christians for not showing up to vote....

On Tuesday, Apple rolled out a potentially controversial set of Audio Intelligence features into testing with the first developer beta versions of iOS 27.3 and watchOS 27.3. The betas bring four new AI features that allow Apple Watch Series 12 wearers to detect important sounds, identify songs, catch up on conversations, and take notes. After just a day with Apple's Siri Recaps feature on my Apple Watch, I can already see how its value may ultimately outweigh any creepiness factor that comes from the AI-powered audio recording and summarization it provides. However, I also see areas where AI-assisted note-taking can go too far, capturing things that aren't worth remembering, and where there's room for improvement. The first two, sound and song detection, don't represent potential privacy concerns; they are designed to detect either important sounds ' like an alarm or doorbell ' or identify a song using Shazam's technology. The former helps deaf and hard-of-hearing users navigate the world, and the latter is something we've already done with our iPhone for nearly two decades now....

The robotaxi company will offer rides directly through its own smartphone app, like it does in other cities. Uber confirmed to TechCrunch Wednesday that it still plans to host Waymo robotaxis on its app for as long as the two companies agree. Waymo did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Mawakana's comments come after reporting earlier this year by the Financial Times that Waymo was looking to get out of its deal with Uber, which was set to expire in May 2028. Mawakana told Bloomberg that Waymo initially partnered with Uber because the ride-hail giant offered scale. But the experience for riders has been 'a little bit of a crapshoot,' she said, especially because riders never know for sure if they're going to hail a robotaxi or a human-driven car....