Since 2017, Iason Gabriel has worked at the tech giant, trying to anticipate – and think through – the impact of AI. But as commercial and geopolitical pressures escalate, can ethicists make any difference?
By Robert P Baird. Read by Simon Darwen
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© Illustration: The Guardian
© Illustration: The Guardian
© Illustration: The Guardian
T-Mobile canceled some longtime subscribers' free-line promotions as part of a forced migration to new rate plans, spurring complaints from customers yesterday. T-Mobile admitted the problem and blamed it on technical errors that it is trying to fix.
The forced plan changes were controversial to begin with, particularly as many longtime users are being hit with price hikes of $6 per line. The unexpected loss of free lines for some of those users could raise prices by a much higher amount if the change isn't reversed.
There is good news, though. T-Mobile told Ars today that it was a mistake and that the company is working to fix the problem. Of course, it's not always easy for telecom customers to get the proper resolution even after a company admits to an error publicly. But given T-Mobile's statement today, we hope the firm will fix the problem for all impacted customers with as little hassle as possible.
© Getty Images | Erik McGregor
The Federal Communications Commission will vote to repeal the National Television Ownership Rule that is supposed to prevent a single broadcast station owner from reaching more than 39 percent of all TV households in the US. The proposed change sets up a likely court battle over the FCC claim that it has authority to repeal a limit set by Congress.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has already treated the rule as more of a suggestion. In March, the Carr FCC granted a waiver allowing Nexstar Media Group to buy Tegna in a deal that let it reach over half of TV households. The Carr FCC argued that Congress gave it authority to modify or waive the rule.
Carr now plans to repeal the 39 percent limit and replace it with a "case-by-case review" of each proposed merger, the chairman announced today in an op-ed published on Breitbart. The change would make it easier for the FCC to pick and choose which station groups get to surpass the limit. Under Carr, this would likely benefit news companies that provide favorable coverage for President Trump.
© Getty Images | Heather Diehl
For months, artists and activists have been calling on the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, to act on the AI boom as datacentres pop up around the country. Today he made a major speech at the University of Sydney addressing copyright, the regulation of datacentres and the future of AI in Australia
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© Photograph: The Guardian
© Photograph: The Guardian
© Photograph: The Guardian
Nature, Published online: 15 July 2026; doi:10.1038/s41586-026-10781-4
An encyclopedia of more than 92 million enhancer–gene regulatory interactions created as part of the ENCODE4 project provides a valuable resource for future studies of gene regulation and human genetics.Meta's AI-fueled layoffs of 8,000 employees targeted workers with disabilities and those who took protected medical or family leaves, alleged a lawsuit filed by 26 employees who were selected for termination. Meta used internal AI tools to select employees for layoffs, according to the complaint filed yesterday by 26 "Doe" plaintiffs in US District Court for the Northern District of California.
"Meta did not assemble the termination list through the considered judgment of managers who knew the work. Instead, Meta used a constellation of internal artificial-intelligence systems—including a system referred to internally as 'Metamate,' employee-trained 'second-brain' agents, keystroke- and activity-monitoring data, AI-token-usage dashboards, and algorithmically assisted performance ranking and calibration—to score, rank, and select employees for inclusion on the list," the lawsuit said.
Employees were allegedly graded, among other things, on how much they used Meta's AI tools. "Meta’s internal dashboards classified employees by their stage of adoption of its artificial-intelligence tools, using categories such as 'AI Native,' 'AI First,' and 'AI Enabled,'" the lawsuit said.
© Getty Images | NurPhoto
Nature, Published online: 10 July 2026; doi:10.1038/s41586-026-10853-5
Author Correction: Authigenic mineral phases as a driver of the upper-ocean iron cycle
Open Access  This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence.Nature, Published online: 08 July 2026; doi:10.1038/s41586-026-10796-x
A systematic evaluation shows that contemporary humanoid robots can perform laparoscopic surgical tasks through teleoperation, highlighting both their promise and key technical challenges before clinical deployment.Nature, Published online: 08 July 2026; doi:10.1038/s41586-026-10759-2
By integrating reinforcement learning with quantum error correction, a quantum computer continuously self-calibrates during computation, achieving record logical error rates and enhanced resilience to drift.Nature, Published online: 08 July 2026; doi:10.1038/s41586-026-10747-6
Pharmacological screening and behavioural assays in ants identify two specific neuropeptides that have key and opposite effects in regulating brood care, and that link nutritional state to age-dependent changes in parenting behaviour.Nature, Published online: 08 July 2026; doi:10.1038/s41586-026-10741-y
The biocultural heritage of the Amazon, its plant species, plant services and cultures are at risk from climate change.Nature, Published online: 01 July 2026; doi:10.1038/s41586-026-10730-1
An immunopeptidomics analysis identifies numerous Plasmodium T cell antigens that are conserved across malaria parasite species and expressed at several phases of the parasite’s life cycle, with possible applications in the development of a malaria vaccine.
ABC is urging viewers to write to the Federal Communications Commission and tell it to stop trying to "control who is allowed to appear" on The View. An ABC commercial that started airing yesterday asked viewers to submit responses to the FCC's call for public comment on whether the talk show is a “bona fide news interview program.”
"The View has welcomed your favorite guests and covered the issues you care about for nearly 30 years," ABC's ad said. "Now, the FCC wants to control who is allowed on the show. Viewers, use your voice. Tell the FCC to let the viewers decide."
For decades, the FCC has classified late-night and daytime entertainment talk shows as bona fide news for the purposes of their interview segments. This makes the shows exempt from the equal-time rule, which requires equal opportunities for opposing political candidates on non-news programming.
© Getty Images
Polymarket paid dozens of social media users to film themselves making fake bets for a promotion that aimed to convince people they can strike it rich on the prediction market, according to a Wall Street Journal investigation published on Saturday.
"In its push to draw users to its unregulated platform, Polymarket has flooded social media with videos like [George] Makihara’s, which appear genuine at first glance," the article said. "In reality, Polymarket built near-perfect copies of its website, then instructed creators to make simulated trades on those dummy sites and hide that they were being paid by Polymarket."
Makihara, a college student, posted a video in January "that showed him winning $100,000 on a wager that President Trump would publicly say the word 'McDonald's' that month." But trade data showed that no one on Polymarket won such a bet in January, according to the Journal. This was one of 145 bets that Makihara appeared to place on Polymarket between January and May, but all of those bets were fake, the article said.
© Getty Images | AFP/Martin Lelievre
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