Stories from San Francisco · United States

A lawsuit alleges that Sam Altman, Greg Brockman, and OpenAI intentionally misled a stakeholder during the company's transition to a for-profit enterprise. Musk claims he was deceived into donating millions of dollars to the ChatGPT creator under the belief it would remain a nonprofit organization. Elon Musk has referred to Sam Altman as a scam, marking a shift from his previous status as Altman's idol. Security details for various billionaires were present at the trial location. The proceedings took place in a building where multiple high-profile individuals were gathered for the trial. Musk stated he contributed $38 million over several years to the organization when it operated as a non-profit charity. He alleges that OpenAI has since stolen the original charitable mission by opening a commercial arm in 2018.

Anthropic executives decided to withhold the Mythos software from the general public to share it selectively with big tech companies, banks, and AI rivals. The software was intended as an update to the Claude large language model rather than a dedicated cybersecurity tool.

Consumer confidence ticked up this month according to reports. However, the index remains below the long-term baseline where it has languished for more than a year. High prices are cited as a primary factor for the ongoing low confidence levels.

A Ninth Circuit panel affirmed the dismissal of a lawsuit against Meta regarding its role in the Myanmar genocide. The court's decision upheld the company's liability immunization, though the panel issued a caution regarding the scope of that protection.

The FCC's latest move regarding early license renewal is being scrutinized by First Amendment defenders. Telecommunications lawyer Andrew J. Schwartzman stated that calling for early license renewal can take years.

Bay Area Air Regulators are fining the Valero Benesha refinery more than $3 million for air quality, equipment, and operation-related violations. The Bay Area Air District cited issues including leaking pressure valves, excess emissions, and incomplete paperwork. This fine follows an $82 million penalty issued to the facility in 2024 regarding at least 15 years of unreported toxic emissions. The employer, Cloudera, has not yet responded to requests for comment regarding the matter. The refinery must comply with air quality regulations to protect the Bay Area. Valero will be required to publish quarterly emissions reports. Alexander Crockett, the Air District's chief attorney, is leading the case. The refinery is scheduled to go idle by the end of the month. The enforcement action follows a previous $82 million penalty.

Visa reported its strongest revenue growth since 2022 during its recent earnings release. Analysts are evaluating if this performance indicates continued US consumer spending despite interest rate fatigue. The report comes during the current earnings season. The data suggests the US consumer remains a driver of spending. Analysts are now evaluating whether the company can maintain this growth trajectory. The report indicates that the US consumer continues to spend despite broader economic pressures.

Internal documents from OpenAI have raised concerns regarding the company's profitability. The trial involving Sam Altman is being monitored for potential ramifications on the future of the company and the broader AI industry. Altman has reportedly agreed to restrain his social media activity following requests from a judge. OpenAI shares experienced a decline following reports of poor performance and high computing power procurement costs. The market volatility surrounding the company is reportedly impacting the broader technology supply chain. The source noted the situation as a major market movement. The market volatility may be linked to the recent release of DeepSeek's V4 large language model architecture. Analysts are comparing the performance of DeepSeek V4 against Google's Gemini models.

Developer Mitchell Hashimoto announced that the Ghostty open-source project will migrate away from GitHub. The decision follows frequent service outages on the GitHub platform.

OpenAI plans to release a new cybersecurity model designed to compete with Anthropic's Claude. American AI startup Poolside has released Laguna XS.2, a free open-source model designed for local agentic coding. The model is positioned as a high-performing option for developers.