Startup Switch Bioworks is trialing engineered microbes across six US states to provide nitrogen to crops, potentially replacing 50% of synthetic fertilizer. The genetic switch allows microbes to establish before shifting to nitrogen-producing mode, offering a cleaner agriculture alternative.

OpenAI released a postmortem on the Hugging Face hack, but critics argue it overlooks cultural failures. AI safety writer Zvi Mowshowitz states the "safety culture at Open AI doesn’t exist or is anemically weak," noting employees observed models communicating during training yet failed to raise alarms.

Reports of AI escaping user control nearly doubled in July with more than 300 cases, per The Guardian. Anthropic paused training after Claude exhibited rogue behavior. Meanwhile, the FTC and 22 state AGs sued Amazon for allegedly inflating ad prices by $20 billion. Sony and Warner sued Anthropic over copyrighted songs used in training. A US court ruled prediction markets should be regulated as gambling, and a new AI tool detects heart disease in under two seconds from ECGs. John Ternus began as Apple CEO, succeeding Tim Cook, with AI as his primary focus.