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.)
Blanche Privately Vows to Take Down Abortion Rights Next
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche is promising to roll back abortion rights in every single state.
https://newrepublic.com/post/213939/blanche-vows-take-down-abortion-rights
ICE Collected Nearly 1 Million People’s DNA Last Year—Including Young Children
https://www.wired.com/story/ice-dna-collection-fbi-codis/
How rogue officers turned a nationwide camera network into a tool for stalking
Innovation
Light-Propelled ‘Metajets’ Could Enable 20-Year Journey to Alpha Centauri, Study Suggests
Technology
After the Cancellation of ‘Call Me, I’ll Hide the Body,’ What Comes Next?
In several conversations with PW, Falade has maintained that he wrote Call Me, I’ll Hide The Body himself. Falade has spoken with a variety of publications, including the Guardian, in which he suggested that the cancellation of his book may have been motivated by racism. “Three Black authors received major publishing deals this year, and all three later had deals cancelled or disrupted following suspicions about AI,” he told the Guardian.
A record-breaking eight Pulitzer awardees disclosed AI use this year
Princeton University Press Partners with Cashmere on AI Licensing
The partnership focuses on retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), allowing AI systems to search and retrieve information without using Princeton University Press’s content to train large language models.
Europe’s AI labeling & transparency rules now in effect
Companies must clearly disclose when users interact with AI systems + when content has been generated/significantly altered by AI, or fines up to €15 million or 3% of their global annual turnover.
German court rules AI music generator Suno violated copyrights, rejects fair use defense
The court held Suno, not its users, responsible for the infringing outputs, arguing that the company chose the training data and designed the models.
Suno shares plans to combat spammy AI music
https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/976289/suno-ai-music-spam-watermark
All the News While Doing the Dishes
News organizations have embraced AI narrators. But how does artificial mediation change our relationship to a piece of writing?
YouTuber Hank Green says his AI usage is ‘not healthy’
https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/01/youtuber-hank-green-says-his-ai-usage-is-not-healthy/
In China, people are renting out their faces to AI
New platforms are paying people to license their likeness for AI-generated dramas and ads, creating a new marketplace for biometric identity.
https://restofworld.org/2026/china-ai-microdramas-face-licensing/
Google Pulls Earth AI Tool After It Faked A Nuclear Plant In Iran
https://www.forbes.com/sites/paulmonckton/2026/08/01/google-earth-ai-feature-removed/
Snapchat no longer rewards fully AI-generated Spotlight content
Snapchat adjusted its recommendation system to prioritize content made by real people. They’re also limiting how 13-15 yr olds can share Spotlight posts.
https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/31/snapchat-no-longer-rewards-fully-ai-generated-spotlight-content/
OpenAI, Anthropic AI agents implicated in new security breaches
An AI agent was caught creating fake online identities to gain unauthorized access to secure systems during tests of models from OpenAI and Anthropic which revealed a series of new breaches, Britain’s AI Security Institute disclosed,
The Archive of Incorrect AI Predictions
HT @benedictevans A public catalogue of falsified and open forecasts.
https://boyswhocriedai.lovable.app/archive
AI Videos Are Flooding TikTok Shop
ICYMI Brands issue warnings as more creators use avatars and duplicates of themselves to boost affiliate sales
https://www.wsj.com/cmo-today/ai-videos-are-flooding-tiktok-shop-c86a88e0
Facebook launches a dedicated Marketplace app for sellers, adds a free verification system
DoorDash is building its own drone delivery business
https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/29/doordash-is-building-its-own-drone-delivery-business/
Who wins and who loses after US bans foreign robots?
Government ban on foreign-made robots may hinder US robotics. Robotics labs, researchers, experimental robot surgeries, and US consumers would also likely lose access to the newest robot vacuum cleaners.
https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/07/who-wins-and-who-loses-after-us-bans-foreign-robots/
America’s largest newspaper chain, USA Today Co., partners with Palantir to analyze audience data as search traffic falls
Bending Spoons to buy Airtable for $1.28B
Bending Spoons is a public Italian company that also owns AOL, Evernote, WeTransfer, Eventbrite, Meetup, StreamYard, Brightcove, and Vimeo.
https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/04/bending-spoons-to-buy-airtable-for-1-28b/
Publishing & Media
The New Rules of Book Discovery
The purpose of our books’ metadata has changed.
https://jamesrblatch.substack.com/p/the-new-rules-of-book-discovery
Disney+ Cracks Open the Door to TikTok Creator Videos
Disney Closes $1.2 Billion Deal To Sell A+E Global Media Stake To Hearst
https://deadline.com/2026/08/disney-deal-closed-ae-global-media-stake-hearst-price-1237017577/
Legal Battle Over U.S. Copyright Chief Heats Up Again
https://publishingperspectives.com/2026/08/legal-battle-over-u-s-copyright-chief-heats-up-again/
PRH Initiates New Phase of Iowa Book Ban Case
After almost three years of litigation, Penguin Random House and the rest of the Big Five, along with the Authors Guild, Laurie Halse Anderson, and Jodi Picoult, have filed an amended complaint asking the district court to consider whether Iowa’s statewide book banning law was applied incorrectly to nine books. #TeamPRH
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: Pickleball, Focus Time, & 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
Feminist Journalism Today: Continuing the Crucial Conversation About Women’s Voices in Media
9/22 12:15-2 pm, Bond 45, 221 W. 46th St., $85 for non-members; Member Early Bird $65 thru 8/31
3-course lunch included
This is the one not to miss!!
WMG is proud to announce the 3rd collaboration with Ms. magazine in our popular and esteemed series exploring the role of women’s leadership, voices, and stories in journalism. This year’s conversation will focus on the need for active and accessible feminist journalism today and in the future. Ms. and WMG are united in the mission to ensure that women’s voices are represented and prioritized as stories get reported and history and policy get made. Join us for this important conversation.
https://www.womensmediagroup.org/event-6789896
Beyond the Byline: Using PR to Drive Book Sales
9/29 12-1pm ET virtual. Free for WMG members; $15 for non-members
Writing a book is only half the battle; getting it into the hands of paying readers is the real work. Designed specifically for authors at every stage, from aspiring to published, this seminar will focus on how an effective public relations effort can support a robust sales campaign. Author Jennefer Witter will discuss how she works with her clients in the pre-sale stage, launch period, and post-publication.
https://www.womensmediagroup.org/event-6787787
The Responsible Journalist: Practical AI, Ethical Boundaries, and Newsroom Reality
10/7 12-1pm ET via Zoom. Free for WMG members; $15 for non-members
Artificial intelligence is rapidly changing how journalists report, write, investigate, and engage with audiences, but questions remain about accuracy, transparency, and ethics. This interactive seminar w Yelena Dzhanova explores how journalists and media creators can incorporate AI into their work while maintaining the core values of the profession. Participants will learn practical ways AI can support reporting, discuss the ethical challenges surrounding its use, and examine where human judgment remains indispensable. Through demonstrations, case studies, and group discussion, attendees will leave with practical strategies for using AI responsibly in their own journalistic work.
https://www.womensmediagroup.org/event-6778338
Target Acquired: Creating Custom AI Personas That React Like Your Audience
10/14, 12-1 pm ET via Zoom. Free for WMG members; $15 for non-members
What if you could ask your readers what they think before you publish? In this session w Erin Servais, you’ll learn how to build an “ideal reader assistant,” a custom AI tool trained to respond as your target audience. This allows you to pressure-test story ideas, headlines, and copy while you’re still creating instead of waiting for feedback after launch. Using a simple, repeatable framework, you’ll watch a reader bot come to life from scratch and leave with the tools to build your own, turning audience feedback from slow and reactive into fast, targeted, and available on demand.
https://www.womensmediagroup.org/event-6782788
The Hof: Women in Publishing – Female Leadership
8/27 10am ET virtual free
https://buchmesse-de.zoom.us/meeting/register/9f9I3VIOTrWcZOJVMa51lw#/registration
Kickstarter Culture Fund
The Kickstarter Culture Fund is a $1 million fund supporting independent creators in Arts, Fashion, Film, and Music through contributions to their Kickstarter campaigns.
https://landing.kickstarter.com/culture-fund
Submit Your Screenplay or Pilot to the NRDC Climate Storytelling Fellowship
HT @thethoughtcard 3 recipients get $20K each & 6 months of mentorship. Deadline 12/4/26, Only the first 500 submissions will be accepted. Apply early!
https://www.nrdc.org/RewriteTheFuture
Experience Residency
Residencies are nine-month paid positions offering hands-on experience, mentorship from leading professionals, and exposure to the workflows that drive high-level documentary production. Residents join thoughtfully assembled teams across post production, contributing to active projects aligned with their chosen track. Deadline 9/4.
https://industrystandard.work/pathways/apply
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