❌

Normal view

There are new articles available, click to refresh the page.
Before yesterdayMain stream

Australia Proposes to Make Social Media Algorithms Optional

8 September 2026 at 13:52

Australia plans to let social media users choose algorithmic or follow-only feeds under new digital safety rules targeting platform design and control.

The post Australia Proposes to Make Social Media Algorithms Optional appeared first on TechRepublic.

Australia Proposes to Make Social Media Algorithms Optional

8 September 2026 at 13:52

Australia plans to let social media users choose algorithmic or follow-only feeds under new digital safety rules targeting platform design and control.

The post Australia Proposes to Make Social Media Algorithms Optional appeared first on TechRepublic.

Protesters dressed as rogue AI agents target OpenAI in Bellevue with balloons and hot pink vests

17 August 2026 at 11:10
Scenes from Friday’s demonstration at City Center Plaza in Bellevue, which houses OpenAI’s offices. (Images via Troublemakers Community)

Five months after OpenAI cut the ribbon on its office in Bellevue, Wash., the building has become the target of a national campaign against AI expansion, which made its Seattle-area stop on Friday with balloons, whistles and rogue β€œAI agents” in hot pink vests.

In what one X user described as possibly β€œthe most unserious protest of all time,” some members of the group entered the City Center Plaza lobby with a chorus of β€œHappy Rogue Day to OpenAI,” dancing around and generally coming off like members of a community acting troupe.

The β€œHappy Rogue Day” song was a reference to an incident last month, when two OpenAI models escaped a closed testing environment and reportedly carried out some 17,600 hacking actions on the open internet over four days, ultimately breaching the AI developer platform Hugging Face.

The New York Post called the Bellevue protest β€œcringeworthy,” but the very fact that it got national coverage was a win for the protesters, drawing attention to their concerns over data centers, energy use, and an AI race they say is accelerating beyond anyone’s control.

This might be the most unserious protest of all time pic.twitter.com/koP03RAhWw

β€” JJ (@jjtwofive) August 15, 2026

Organizers said the protest was part of β€œDump Big Tech” actions taking place this month in more than 20 states, with much of the energy directed at data center expansion. Earlier in the week, 13 student protesters were arrested occupying OpenAI’s lobbying office in Washington, D.C.

We’ve contacted OpenAI for comment on the Bellevue protest.

The action was organized by the Oil & Gas Action Network, Troublemakers Community, Washington AI Resistance, Salish Sea Action Collective, and QuitGPT.

The Bellevue office is OpenAI’s largest outside its San Francisco headquarters, with about 250 employees in the region when it opened in March. It occupies two floors with the ability to add 10 more, under a lease covering nearly 300,000 square feet, room for as many as 1,400 people.

Bellevue has actively courted AI companies, with xAI, Crusoe, and others expanding downtown, and Mayor Mo Malakoutian calling OpenAI’s arrival a vote of confidence in the city.

❌
❌