TIME Reveals the 2026 TIME100 AI List of the World’s Most Influential People in Artificial Intelligence; TIME, August 27, 2026

TIME PR , Time; TIME Reveals the 2026 TIME100 AI List of the World’s Most Influential People in Artificial Intelligence

"Today, TIME reveals the fourth annual TIME100 AI list, recognizing the 100 most influential people in artificial intelligence. 

The 2026 TIME100 AI issue includes one worldwide cover featuring listmakers, Sam Altman, Dario Amodei, Jeff Bezos, Doreen Bogdan-Martin, Marian Croak, Larry Ellison, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Paris Hilton, Lila Ibrahim, Arvind Krishna, Fei-Fei Li, Mira Murati, Elon Musk, David Sacks, Liz Shuler, Ilya Sutskever, and Eddie Wu. 

Published alongside the TIME100 AI are in-depth interviews with Thinking Machines Lab chief executive officer Mira Murati, Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union Doreen Bogdan-Martin and OpenEvidence founder and chief executive officer Daniel Nadler."

From Napster to Sampling to AI: Copyright Law’s Role as the Sheriff to Emerging Technology; JD Supra, August 25, 2026

Richard Busch , JD Supra; From Napster to Sampling to AI: Copyright Law’s Role as the Sheriff to Emerging Technology

"Copyright law rarely meets new technology at the start. More often, it arrives after technology, and those behind it seeking to push (or ignore) the law for monetary gain have already changed markets, habits, and expectations. In music, that pattern has repeated across many major technological shifts. This article focuses on several: digital sampling, which made fragments of existing recordings newly usable in the studio; digital downloads, which changed the economics of distribution; interactive streaming, which made all music available for license on demand; platform music libraries, which embedded music into social media tools; and artificial intelligence, where those building literally trillion dollar businesses have trained on copyrighted works, and used others’ voice and likeness. In each of these instances, creators and rights holders have had to ask courts, Congress, or regulators to apply existing legal frameworks to commercial realities.

My work in music copyright litigation has often involved a recurring collision between music, technology, and copyright law."

Bill Gates calls for ‘human-reserved’ jobs in face of AI takeover; The Guardian, August 26, 2026

 Mark Sweney, The Guardian ; Bill Gates calls for ‘human-reserved’ jobs in face of AI takeover

"Bill Gates has called for “human-reserved” jobs in certain sectors to prevent AI replacing them, and expressed concern that governments are not prepared for the impact the technology will have.

In a 6,000 word essay titled The turbulent AI era is here. The choices we make are critical, the billionaire Microsoft co-founder likened the need to spare roles from digital encroachment to how nature reserves operate to protect the environment.

“Many jobs will disappear forever,” he said, in his first lengthy piece on AI in three years. “I believe that as AI and robots improve, we’ll set aside certain things for only people to do.

“I’ve started calling this domain human reserved. I like the phrase human reserved because it makes me think of nature reserves – places where we could put buildings and roads, but we choose not to because the loss would be too great.”"

Ella Baron on AI and the drought – cartoon; The Guardian, August 23, 2026

 Ella Baron, The Guardian; Ella Baron on AI and the drought – cartoon

Pope Leo XIV: In age of AI, the family is the first school of humanity; Vatican News, August 22, 2026

Deborah Castellano Lubov, Vatican News; Pope Leo XIV: In age of AI, the family is the first school of humanity

""Sound legislation should encourage scientific and technological creativity while safeguarding fundamental human rights and freedoms.  It should protect users from exploitation, preserve personal privacy, ensure transparency in the use of emerging technologies and guarantee that they strengthen democratic institutions."

Pope Leo XIV expressed this conviction to the International Catholic Legislators Network in the Vatican on Friday.

Reflecting on legislation, the Pope reiterated that “robust legal frameworks, independent oversight, informed users and a political system that does not abdicate its responsibility are required.”

He observed that such oversight can operate at multiple levels — local, national and international — facilitating open discussion of “the ethical frameworks involved and subjecting them to shared standards of social justice,” ensuring "that no single ideology or interest dictates the values embedded in artificial intelligence systems."

At the same time, the Holy Father underscored, the rapid development of artificial intelligence risks creating new forms of technological dependence, with poorer nations increasingly reliant on wealthier ones.  

Subtle forms of domination

"We must remain vigilant in this regard," he said, "lest innovation become another vehicle for ideological or economic colonialism."

Sadly, he lamented, "we are presented with a subtle form of domination when algorithms decide who is seen, and who remains invisible, when digital platforms shape public discourse without accountability, and when the dignity of workers is subordinated to the optimization of systems."  

Such developments, Pope Leo warned, "reveal a new face of the ancient temptation to domination and mastery without service."

The family as the first school of humanity

Against this culture of power, the Holy Father suggested, the Church proposes “the civilization of love.”"

The slow sucking sound of AI; Financial Times, August 19, 2026

 SOUMAYA KEYNES, Financial Times; The slow sucking sound of AI

"When AI has solved cancer and climate change, no one will be sniping about whether too much money and electricity were poured into the industry."

Legal Battle Over U.S. Copyright Chief Heats Up Again; Publishing Perspectives, August 4, 2026

Andrew Albanese, Publishing Perspectives; Legal Battle Over U.S. Copyright Chief Heats Up Again

"In the United States, a legal battle over the future of the nation’s top copyright officer, Register of Copyrights Shira Perlmutter, is heating up again. In a legal filing last week, Administration lawyers told a Washington D.C. court that a recent Supreme Court decision bolstered their case that President Trump has the power to fire Perlmutter. But in a filing of their own, lawyers for Perlmutter reiterate that the president lacks such authority, arguing that, as an appeals court ruled last fall, the law gives that authority to the U.S. Librarian of Congress.

The legal drama began last May, when Trump purportedly fired Perlmutter, just two days after the shock firing of Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden. The firing surprised and outraged stakeholders in the copyright and Intellectual Property communities, who have given Perlmutter high marks for her work at the office, including significant progress on a much-needed modernization effort.

More concerning, however, Perlmutter’s attempted firing came immediately following the prepublication release of the Copyright Office’s third and final part of a wide-ranging AI review, which argued for the rights of copyright owners—an opinion that appears to clash with the president’s AI goals."

Democracy is at stake when foolish humans bet on machines being intelligent; The Guardian, August 5, 2026

 Rafael Behr , The Guardian; Democracy is at stake when foolish humans bet on machines being intelligent

"We don’t need to know whether AI has crossed some theoretical threshold of self-awareness to see that it is dangerous and that its unregulated expansion is monstrously irresponsible."

Chegg Officially Wiped Out By AI; Tekedia, July 23, 2026

 Ako Tavershima, Tekedia ; Chegg Officially Wiped Out By AI

"The story of Chegg began in 2006 when they found a loophole in the study pattern of students and profitable business to exploit. Chegg began providing students with answers to their assignment problems and also questions and answers to known exam and quiz solutions...

The story of Chegg is not a one-off situation, it is the bubble effect of the impact of AI on learning and education."

Anthropic’s New AI Model Can Identify More Software Bugs Than Ever. Microsoft Is Struggling to Fix Them Fast Enough.; ProPublica, July 29, 2026

Renee Dudley, with research by Doris Burke, ProPublica; Anthropic’s New AI Model Can Identify More Software Bugs Than Ever. Microsoft Is Struggling to Fix Them Fast Enough.

Anthropic’s Mythos has flagged bugs faster than Microsoft can fix them. Documents reviewed by ProPublica reveal the tech giant's “mad dash” behind the scenes to patch holes before hackers can find and exploit them.

"“The problem now is that you can chain four low-level flaws, and that can equal a high severity,” said Vinh Nguyen, a senior technical adviser to Anthropic and a senior fellow for AI at the Council on Foreign Relations who formerly served as chief AI officer and chief data scientist at the National Security Agency. “If you’re Microsoft, the current triage strategy may be underpricing risks.”

In emailed responses to ProPublica’s questions, Microsoft stood by its approach, saying its triaging decisions are based on a number of factors, including exploitability and the impact on customers. The company presentation did not mention chaining, but a spokesperson told ProPublica that the technique “has long been considered as part of vulnerability assessment and risk analysis.”"

Apple accuses OpenAI of using stolen trade secrets to create its upcoming AI gadgets in new lawsuit; CNN, July 10, 2026

 Lisa Eadicicco, Hadas Gold, CNN ; Apple accuses OpenAI of using stolen trade secrets to create its upcoming AI gadgets in new lawsuit

"Apple sued OpenAI on Friday, alleging the AI company has stolen the iPhone maker’s trade secrets to develop its own yet-to-be-unveiled AI gadgets.

In the suit, filed in the District Court of Northern California, Apple accuses OpenAI of trade secret misappropriation and breach of contract.

OpenAI last year announced it has been working with Apple’s former design chief on a hush-hush project to build devices meant to bring smartphone users into the age of AI.

The device is expected to be unveiled later this year – but the lawsuit could throw a wrench into those plans. The suit could also complicate OpenAI’s plans to go public soon in a massive, hotly anticipated IPO."

Beyond the Mirage: Beware of Generative AI and Hallucinations; New York State Bar Association (NYSBA), June 26, 2026

Cynthia Feathers , New York State Bar Association (NYSBA); Beyond the Mirage: Beware of Generative AI and Hallucinations

"The work of attorneys can be arduous. With demanding caseloads comes an openness to tools that can help us do our jobs more efficiently. The advent of online legal research was a game changer for attorneys decades ago. In recent years, generative artificial intelligence – AI that can create original content such as text, images, video, audio or software code in response to a user’s prompt or request – has begun to revolutionize legal practice.[1] This development has included the integration of AI into legal research and writing.

The focus here is on the risks inherent in popular generative AI models used to complete such tasks: They are prone to producing false legal information, so-called hallucinations, including false case citations and false reasoning, quotes and holdings. A nationwide epidemic of cases involving such fabrications has made the risks of unverified AI use well known. Hundreds of decisions have touched on this issue.[2] Thus, the legal profession has been alerted that blind faith in generative AI results is misplaced.

This article makes no attempt to be exhaustive as to the rapidly unfolding case law but does seek to highlight some emblematic decisions issued by state, federal, trial and appellate courts throughout the country over the last two years and to bring attention to the dangers of failing to check AI results...

Evolving technology is seductive in creating the illusion that it can save us from the hard work. But our ethical duties to our clients and the courts still require that we rigorously verify every case cited. When generative AI output becomes more reliable, new questions will arise about how far we can go in abdicating our lawyerly judgment to new technology.[20]

For now, New York attorneys should be aware of a new rule on AI adopted by the New York State Unified Court System. Effective June 1, Part 161 of the Rules of the Chief Administrator of the Courts permits the use of AI tools in preparing submissions to a court and does not require the disclosure of such use. However, Part 161 sets forth a model rule that does require attorneys using such tools to “carefully review” each submission and “independently ensure” that they do not contain “fabricated or fictitious cases, statutes, or other material.”[21]  Individual judges retain discretion to implement their own AI-related rules, adopt the model rule or impose no additional requirements through their part rules.

Perhaps soon we will see more standing orders on AI use and updated ethics rules nationwide targeting AI issues.[22]  In the meantime, in the use of AI, we can be guided by the new court rule and longstanding mandates regarding competence, diligence, accuracy and candor and the supervision of lawyers and nonlawyers."

Ford rehires human engineers after AI fails to match quality checks; BBC, June 29, 2026

 Liv McMahon , BBC; Ford rehires human engineers after AI fails to match quality checks

"Ford says it has hired back some human engineers after AI failed to match their skills and experience.

In a bid to reap the benefits of the tech, which developers claim can cut costs and boost productivity, the US carmaker adopted it across some parts of its operations including for quality checks.

But, according to Bloomberg, its executives said the firm has rehired more than 300 "veteran" quality inspectors in recent years to make up for the pitfalls of automated systems.

"Artificial intelligence is a fantastic tool, but it's only as good as the information you use to train it," Charles Poon, vice president of vehicle hardware engineering, told reporters.

"Over prior years, we didn't pay as much attention as we should have to the experience of our most knowledgeable engineers that have been with us through many product cycles," he said.

The US automaker is among many to have seized on the buzz around AI, particularly amid Wall Street fervour about the tech's potential to increase margins."

‘Five years in AI is an eternity’: Inside Pittsburgh’s work to govern a technology moving too fast to predict; Pittsburgh's Public Source, June 30, 2026

 Alice Crow , Pittsburgh's Public Source; ‘Five years in AI is an eternity’: Inside Pittsburgh’s work to govern a technology moving too fast to predict

"The city decided to work with it, creating standards for generative AI usage. The early policy, which became public in 2024 through a series of Public Source articles, was largely restrictive, designed to curb risky behavior like putting private resident data into commercial AI tools. 

Pittsburgh updated its policy in 2025, designating Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat as its recommended tool for city employees, meaning data entered into Copilot stays within the city’s Microsoft system and isn’t used to train AI models, according to the policy. 

City employees are also being told which AI tools to use, what information to keep out of them and when to disclose that they’ve used the tech.

Today, as officials set those guardrails, they’re also leaving room for experimentation, asking how AI could improve city work."

‘There’s this deep mystery of what, actually, is this thing?’: the philosopher inside Google DeepMind AI; The Guardian, June 30, 2026

 Robert P Baird, The Guardian ; ‘There’s this deep mystery of what, actually, is this thing?’: the philosopher inside Google DeepMind AI

"After starting at DeepMind in 2017, Gabriel was, for a time, the only active philosopher working at a frontier AI lab. He quickly discovered that his background in moral philosophy and political theory gave him an unusual perspective in an industry dominated by engineers. Over the past decade, he has assembled a body of work that tracked, and in many cases predicted, the ethical challenges created by the surprising success of large language models (LLMs)...

More generally, Gabriel has been a leading advocate for the idea that the current wave of AI development demands not just new technical vocabularies but also new ways of thinking about our relationship to technology, and even to ourselves. As he put it to me recently, in one of several long conversations we’ve had over the past few months, “I can take any technological artefact and ask: is it wise? Is it just? Is it caring? And the answer is no. But the depth of the question when it comes to AI – including what kind of ethics is appropriate to it – is hard to overstate. I sometimes feel like it’s very hard to look at AI directly. There’s this deep mystery there, which is: but what actually is this thing? We have a very literal answer, but the literal answer doesn’t seem to necessarily provide a moral answer.”

AI helps read papyrus scroll burnt to crisp during Vesuvius eruption; The Guardian, June 24, 2026

 Ian Sample, The Guardian; AI helps read papyrus scroll burnt to crisp during Vesuvius eruption

[Kip Currier: How exciting to learn from this 6/24/26 Guardian article that AI has uncovered more text from an ancient scroll that was charred by Mount Vesuvius's eruption in 79 AD.

I included in my Ethics, Information, and Technology book a "benefits of AI" example from a couple of years ago of just a few words that had been gleaned by AI from one of these blackened scrolls. Now the world has access to "20 columns of previously hidden text covering more than a metre of charred papyrus without physically unrolling the scroll."

This example offers another persuasive argument, too, for the importance of preserving archival artifacts, even if the technologies of the time present roadblocks to discovery and new knowledge. Thankfully, these charred, seemingly impenetrable scrolls were preserved until emerging technologies like AI are now making new discoveries a reality.] 

"The surviving part of an ancient scroll that was burnt to a crisp when Mount Vesuvius erupted nearly 2,000 years ago has been virtually unwrapped and read with help from artificial intelligence.

Researchers uncovered 20 columns of previously hidden text covering more than a metre of charred papyrus without physically unrolling the scroll. The work discusses stoic philosophy on ethics, art and human behaviour and dates to the second or late-third century BC."

How to burst the AI bubble: Strike at its roots; Ars Technica, June 23, 2026

 JENNIFER OUELLETTE , Ars Technica; How to burst the AI bubble: Strike at its roots

Sci-fi author/tech journalist Cory Doctorow on his new book, The Reverse Centaur’s Guide to Life After AI.

"Doctorow is not virulently anti-AI; he uses AI tools regularly and sees potential in many of those tools as useful plugins or cool new apps. But he is nonetheless alarmed at all the hype surrounding AI, the enormous capital expenditures, the unrealistic expectations and self-serving messaging, and the potentially catastrophic economic consequences when the AI bubble inevitably pops...

Ars Technica: Why do you think AI is so appealing to political and business leaders in particular? 

Cory Doctorow: It’s not just that it makes for a good demo. AI really appeals to a fantasy that I think all of us have to some extent but that powerful people really have, of a world without people in it—because hell really is other people. You can’t get stuff done without other people helping you. You can’t have romance without a romantic partner. You can’t have social media without people to socialize with. You can’t play a board game, or do a startup, or build a bridge, or build a house, or do politics without other people. And other people stubbornly refuse to organize everything they do to make you happy.

Particularly if you’re rich and powerful, it’s very galling. So AI is very attractive. One of the reasons DOGE fired so many government workers was because it played into the fantasy that you can have a government without government employees. In the corporate sphere, it’s the fantasy of a business without workers, because every corporate leader is haunted by the secret fear that if they don’t show up for work, everything goes on just fine. But if the workers don’t show up, everything shuts down. Maybe they’re not really driving the car, maybe they’re strapped in the backseat with a toy steering wheel."

‘Peppa Pig’ Causes AI Stink: Concern As Beloved Hasbro Series Asks Child Actors To Sign Over Their Voices To Artificial Intelligence; Deadline, June 25, 2026

 Jake Kanter, Deadline; ‘Peppa Pig’ Causes AI Stink: Concern As Beloved Hasbro Series Asks Child Actors To Sign Over Their Voices To Artificial Intelligence

"Nearly 1,000 people have signed an open letter (copied in full below), organized by the Agents of Young Performers Association (AYPA), condemning AI terms on an “international children’s franchise.”

The open letter does not name Peppa Pig, and the AYPA declined to identify the series, but industry sources told Deadline that it refers to the beloved show.

The letter was also not specific about the clause in question, but theoretically, it could give Hasbro the power to clone a child’s voice and then use the AI-generated audio in Peppa Pig commercial assets.

Hasbro told Deadline that it was committed to protecting child performers, adding that it wished to approach discussions about artificial intelligence responsibly and transparently.

“Consent Must Be Treated With Care”

AYPA members are increasingly concerned about children being asked to effectively surrender their voice and image rights. Agents frequently ask the body for advice on AI clauses without naming specific projects.

The AYPA’s open letter said these clauses are often presented as a “take it or leave it” ultimatum, meaning children can lose out on work if their parents or guardians refuse to agree to the terms."

Congress wants artists to own their aesthetic; Politico, June 17, 2026

AARON MAK, Politico; Congress wants artists to own their aesthetic

"Artificial intelligence has made it incredibly easy to replicate the work of artists, with users generating images reminiscent of Dungeons & Dragons or Studio Ghibli characters.

Congress is now looking to protect people from having their artwork aped by AI. A bipartisan group of lawmakers recently introduced the CREATOR Act, which would grant visual artists control over how AI mimics their creative styles.

Existing intellectual property law generally doesn’t provide people with a right to their artistic styles. The CREATOR Act would significantly expand the scope of IP, and raises a number of unsettled questions about what exactly makes an artists’ work distinctive in a legal sense.

“There’s a lot of ambiguity about what we mean when we say ‘style,’” Cornell tech law professor James Grimmelmann told DFD. “Some elements of artistic style are things that are common in a genre … on the other hand, sometimes when we talk about artistic style, we really are referring to characteristics of somebody’s creations that are recognizably by them.”

The CREATOR Act would allow visual artists to sue those who purposefully use AI to profit from their creative styles without permission, as well as AI platforms that knowingly allow such conduct to occur."

Why AI Is Incorrigibly Didactic; The Atlantic, June 15, 2026

  Adam Kirsch, The Atlantic; Why AI Is Incorrigibly Didactic

"AI writing never challenges the way we think or see. It can’t do so, even if you explicitly ask it to. And this limitation reveals something important about the source of human creativity. All writing, all speech, has to follow conventions; to know how to use a language is to know how other people already use it. But it’s also possible to find new ways of using it, to say things in a way no one has ever heard before. This possibility exists because we can appeal to something more fundamental than language—our experiences of reality, which are so varied and surprising that language can never exhaust them...

An LLM “is simply generating the next token according to learned patterns. Yet from the outside, readers often perceive a distinctive voice.”

And that is why the rise of AI writing represents a great opportunity for literature, even as it makes life harder for professional writers. When photography was developed in the 19th century, it replaced painting for most utilitarian purposes; a camera could document what things looked like more accurately and cheaply than a painter could. But the art of painting didn’t die out. On the contrary, it entered a golden age: Freed from the obligation of realism, painters developed radical new ways of seeing, such as Impressionism, Cubism, and abstract expressionism. Now AI has the potential to liberate literature in the same way. In a world full of emptily competent prose, we need writers daring, challenging, and obstinate enough to tell us what it’s like to be human, “from the inside.”"