Techmeme
May 26, 2026, 4:10 AM

Top News

New York Times:
Pope Leo XIV presents Magnifica humanitas, his encyclical on AI, calling for AI regulation, protection for children against hypersexualized AI images, and more  —  The document marks a powerful foray by the leader of the Roman Catholic church into the debate about the misuse or overuse of artificial intelligence.
More: Vatican, Ars Technica, New York Times, Simon Willison's Weblog, Washington Post, RNS, Vatican News, Agence France-Presse, The Overspill, The Atlantic, Implicator.ai, The Asia Business Daily, PCMag, Gizmodo, The Information, Daily Caller News Foundation, Time, Semafor, Deseret News, The Verge, Wall Street Journal, The Wrap, The Guardian, Axios, Human Events, NBC News, Al Jazeera, ZeroHedge News, Australian Financial Review, Mashable, The Daily Signal, Deadline, CBS News, Letters from Leo, Forbes, Reuters, Decrypt, Proactive, Seoul Economic Daily, Digital Trends, The Hill, Moneycontrol, Breitbart, CNBC, Ben Werdmuller, Telegraph, Business Today, Engadget, The Indian Express, WKYC-TV, The Pillar, Reuters, Variety, KTVZ-TV, Politico, Associated Press, Bloomberg, Mother Jones, Diane Montagna's Substack, and Straight Arrow
Océane Herrero / Politico:
Sources: Meta, Google, and Amazon executives met Vatican officials on April 29, as part of a quiet lobbying push ahead of Pope Leo XIV's first AI encyclical  —  As Leo XIV prepares his first encyclical, technology firms and Western diplomats have worked to make their case inside the Vatican.
Washington Post:
A section of the Pope's encyclical describing AI's unpredictability suggests influence from Anthropic, whose co-founder Christopher Olah attended the unveiling  —  In “Magnifica humanitas,” he fires a broadside against AI companies, warning of the technology's dangers in the same way Pope Francis did about climate change.
Joshua McElwee / Reuters:
Reuters:
Iranian state media: President Masoud Pezeshkian issues an order to reopen international internet access, after a blackout lasting 87 days, per Netblocks  —  Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian has issued an order to reopen international internet access, Iranian state media reported on Monday …
Adi Robertson / The Verge:
The US FTC settles with Cox, MindSift, and 1010 Digital Works for $930K over claims they falsely said they could use phone mics to spy on users for ad targeting  —  More specifically, it was fined for allegedly lying by claiming that it could. … An exceptionally weird controversy has come …
Lakshmi Varanasi / Business Insider:
X says it is cracking down on large accounts that have been gaming its revenue-sharing program by “programmatically reuploading content from smaller accounts”  —  X is introducing new strategies to rein in its copycat economy.  —  Elon Musk's social media platform is now cracking …
Bryan Hecht / The Boston Globe:
Massachusetts formally recognizes the App Drivers Union, which says it represents ~70,000 workers and is the first state-certified rideshare union in the US  —  Uber and Lyft drivers in Massachusetts have officially unionized, a first-in-the-nation move that now sets up what could be the final stage in a years-long organizing effort.
Reuters:
Tether plans to launch GELT, an “official” stablecoin representing the Georgian lari, with the support of Georgia's government in an unusual partnership  —  Tether, the world's biggest stablecoin issuer, plans to launch a crypto token representing the Georgian lari with the support …

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