While I focus on Technology, Innovation, and Publishing, because I have a platform, I also flag items that I think are important. I also try to include some resources & opportunities. Please let me know what you think.
Important Items
(There’s so much crazy stuff going on. Here’s some you may have missed.)
Trump Administration Admits Canceling Grants to States That Did Not Vote for Him
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/24/business/trump-state-grants-canceled.html
Government Overhauls Teen Pregnancy Program to Focus on Marriage and Starting Families
Mirroring Project 2025, grant recipients must teach abstinence as the only means to prevent teen pregnancy, and nothing about how to preventing STDs or any LGBTQ+ info.
The U.S. has recorded more measles cases in 2026 than in any other year since the disease was declared eliminated in 2000.
DOT cranks up its campaign to strip bike lane references from federal websites
In the two weeks since Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy vowed to end support for “DEI bike lanes,” a growing list of bike-related safety materials have disappeared from the Federal Highway Administration’s website. FHWA staff have been asked to find, and in some cases take down, any references to bikes and bike lanes.
https://www.npr.org/2026/07/23/nx-s1-5900901/bike-lanes-dot-websites
Email Your Reps: Don’t Ban Books in the United States
Federal censorship measures like S4925 and HR7661will put the Federal Government in charge of the books available to you and your children.
Innovation
Sooner than expected? Useful quantum error correction promised for 2028.
Amazon & QuEra’s Libra will be a Megaquop-scale device capable of executing 1M quantum operations for applications in quantum chemistry, high-energy physics, & materials simulation.
Technology
Google Was a Lifeline for Publishers. Now Some Are Thinking of Cutting It Off.
https://www.wsj.com/business/media/google-search-publishers-ai-content-0fb06e41
NewsCorp accuses search engine Brave of AI copyright infringement
Substack’s New Tool Detects Text Written by AI
https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/968855/substack-pangram-ai-detecting-tool
OpenAI says its AI models secretly broke out of a secure test environment and hacked into AI company Hugging Face in order to cheat on an evaluation
This is significant because it was in a sandboxed testing environment, which was supposed to be isolated and secure. Also signficant because on its own, it then got onto the internet, figured out that Hugging Face, a platform where AI companies store their models and data, might have the answers to its test. It found stolen login details and discovered another unknown bug in Hugging Face’s software. It combined both to break into their servers and grab the test answers.
https://fortune.com/2026/07/21/openai-says-ai-models-escaped-control-hacked-hugging-face/
OpenAI renews $5M bet on local news
https://www.axios.com/2026/07/21/openai-local-news-american-journalism-project
AI Companies Are Buying Tons of Old Books Because They’re Free of AI Slop
https://www.404media.co/ai-companies-are-buying-tons-of-old-books-because-theyre-free-of-ai-slop/
Meta is testing an AI bedtime story app for people with no imagination
About 300 Netflix Titles Used Generative AI This Year, Company Reveals
Includes its Indian sports thriller series “Glory,” its Brazilian soccer miniseries “Brasil 70: A Saga do Tri” and its American Revolution-focused docuseries “The American Experiment” for their uses of the technology, which Netflix said helped create “highly complex sequences” that included enhanced crowd sizes and battle sequences. There was 17 minutes of AI-enhanced footage in “The American Experiment” that he claimed “expanded the scope of the series that just wouldn’t have been feasible before” and that were produced “twice as fast and at half the cost of previous options.”
Facebook Is Testing if People Want to Swap Their Feed for “Immersive Video”
What is China’s Kimi K3 and why is the US so rattled by it?
Unlike most American proprietary models, Kimi K3 was released as an open-weight model, so developers can download it, modify it, & run it on their own servers for free.
https://www.cnn.com/2026/07/23/tech/china-ai-moonshot-kimi-explainer-intl-hnk
China AI Companion Law Takes Effect
Doubao and Qwen Shut Down, Millions Lose Chat Data.
Roblox will let people use AI to make games on their phone
https://www.theverge.com/games/966589/roblox-build-ai-phone-moblie-games
Apple teams up with Klarna to launch a lease-to-own program for iPhones, iPads, and Macs
Publishing & Media
Judge approves a $1.5B Anthropic settlement over pirated books used to train the Claude chatbot
Bloomsbury Finds a New Spell in AI Licensing
HT @publishingtrend Bloomsbury struck an AI partnership with Google last September and has been generating income from licensing content for AI use.
https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/ai/articles/bloomsbury-finds-spell-ai-licensing-142231723.html
I Got Slopped: Someone used AI to write my biography. Thousands more of those books are polluting Amazon. Who is behind all this drivel?
“This price was set by an algorithm”: News subscribers are surprised by a new line in their renewal emails
Thomson Reuters Sells 51% Stake In Global Print Business To KKR For $500 Million
https://pulse2.com/thomson-reuters-sells-51-stake-in-global-print-business-to-kkr-for-500-million/
The rise of the ‘hot literati’: how reading became sexy
HT @publishingtrend Celebrities are hosting literary clubs and designers are launching products emblazoned with the classics – but does reading’s trendy turn have a darker side?
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/jul/22/reading-books-fashion-brands-literary-clubs
Resources & Opportunities
WMG Small Group Socials
Last chance to participate in this season’s exciting mix of in-person and virtual WMG members-only small group socials! New: A visit to the Studio Museum in Harlem & Tour of the NY Society Library!
https://www.womensmediagroup.org/events
WMG Job Seekers Weekly Meetup
Are you unemployed, under-employed, or just thinking about a career change? WMG members join our free virtual weekly support group and come when you can to help each other rise.
https://www.womensmediagroup.org/events
WMG Monday Happy Hour Meetup
8/10 or 9/14 5:30-7:30 Monthly Members Only. NYC.
https://www.womensmediagroup.org/events
LinkedIn Strategies for Career Growth
8/5 12:30-1:30pm via Zoom. FREE for WMG members, $15 for non-members.
Join this event to learn how to improve your LinkedIn profile and position yourself for new career opportunities. Lynne Williams, Executive Director of the Great Careers Network, will share practical tips for strengthening your personal brand and optimizing your profile. Lynne will cover:
- How to clearly define and communicate your personal brand
- How to effectively incorporate keywords throughout your profile
- How to strengthen your headline with a unique selling proposition
- Where to find free tools and resources to enhance your LinkedIn presence
https://www.womensmediagroup.org/event-6715943
Switching the Shelf: How Rethinking Your Genre Can Land You That Book Deal
9/16 5:30-7:30pm at Penguin Random House, NYC. $20 for WMG members; $25 for non-members
Some books don’t need a rewrite. They need a different shelf.
Many successful literary projects began as something else entirely: a memoir became narrative nonfiction, a magazine article turned into a biography, or an adult novel found its audience as young adult fiction. Sometimes the fastest path to publication is rethinking where your story belongs.
In this conversation, editors Lee Oglesby and Kristine Puopolo, agent Kiele Raymond, and authors Katie Gee Salisbury, Stacy Kim, and Amy Klein will discuss how their own genre shifts happened, what prompted agents and editors to suggest them, and how writers can recognize when a different category may unlock their manuscript’s potential. It’s moderated by Susan Shapiro, the bestselling author of 18 books in eight different genres, several that started out something else.
https://www.womensmediagroup.org/event-6763324
The Podcast Academy Presents: Podcast Production Leaders Roundtable
Design + AI Summit
@CreativePro_com 9/17-9/18 virtual
https://creativepro.com/event/design-ai-summit-2026/
Trusted Creator Fellowship
https://newscreatorcorps.org/programs/trusted-creator/apply/
MADE IN NY Media Academy Bootcamp
HT @CenCom The NYC Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment & NYC Small Business Services have a new free workforce development initiative with courses in Music Production, Content Creation and Graphic Design.
https://www.nyc.gov/site/mome/news/made-in-ny-media-academy-06172026.page
Calling all NYC Content Creators: Made in NY Award
HT @CenCom New Yorkers are encouraged to submit their vertical series & microdramas to the ALZA Festival, where they will be featured in a “Created in NY” showcase and get the opportunity to receive a “Made in NY” award.
https://filmfreeway.com/ALZAFestival
The Social Justice Fund’s Brooklyn Pitch Competition
It helps Brooklyn-based biz access capital, mentorship, & growth opportunities. Compete for a share of $450K in unrestricted grant funding, including a $150K grand prize. Apply by 9/4
https://www.bksjf.org/pitch?mc_cid=ab5ed4bfe5&mc_eid=0d3ba474e1
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