The scale of unauthorized or previously unknown actions by AI agents keeps getting bigger by the day. More than 100 organizations have now received a metaphorical knock on the door from OpenAI after it discovered their AI agents have in some way tampered with their systems, while other AI labs are finding the same uncomfortable discoveries.

An Arizona man’s 10-year manslaughter sentence has been tossed in a case where a video generated by artificial intelligence portrayed the deceased victim addressing a judge before the punishment was imposed.

In a decision released Wednesday, the Arizona Court of Appeals concluded Gabriel Paul Horcasitas must be resentenced in the 2021 shooting death of Christopher Pelkey because the AI video wasn’t reliable.

The court found the video crossed the line, saying it didn’t reflect actual events and presented statements made in the footage as coming directly from the victim.

“Indeed, rather than document an event or recording a particular moment, the AI video presents a depiction of the victim and his thoughts created from the imaginings of the victim’s sister,” the three-judge panel wrote.

Jessica Gattuso, an attorney who represented victims in the case, and Kristen Reller, Horcasitas’ lawyer, declined to comment Thursday on the decision.

Reller had argued Superior Court Judge Todd Lang violated due process protections by relying on AI evidence. Gattuso and prosecutors told the appeals court that the lower-court judge didn’t err, saying the footage was an accurate representation of Pelkey’s character.

In what’s believed to be a first in U.S. courts, Pelkey’s family used AI to create a video of his likeness to give him a voice. Pelkey’s sister, Stacey Wales, raised the idea of her brother speaking for himself after struggling to figure out what he would say.

Wales expected an appeal on the sentence and was disappointed the AI video was cited as the reason, saying her only goal was to humanize her brother for the judge. “It feels unfair because there is a convicted murderer sitting in prison that has blankets and walls of protection around their rights. Where are the rights for the victim?” Wales said.

A victim appeals lawyer has told the family that using AI again could result in another appeal. “We will continue to let his voice be heard in whatever allowable medium we can convey that through the court system,” Wales said. The AI-generated victim impact statement was played during a May 2025 sentencing hearing after nine of Pelkey’s family members and friends stood before the judge describing how emotionally devastated they were by his killing.

Authorities say Horcasitas, 55, fatally shot Pelkey, 37, during a November 2021 road rage encounter at a stoplight in Chandler, a suburb of Phoenix. Pelkey, who was unarmed, was shot after getting out of his truck and walking toward Horcasitas’ vehicle.

Horcasitas was convicted of manslaughter in Pelkey’s death and endangerment for a gunshot that struck another vehicle at the intersection during the encounter.
The AI rendering of Pelkey said he wished he could still be with his friends and family, voiced a belief in forgiveness and said it was a shame Horcasitas had encountered him because “in another life, we probably could have been friends.”

The video didn’t request a specific prison sentence.

Horcasitas’ appellate lawyer argued her client had no meaningful opportunity to rebut material in the AI-generated video.

It’s not clear if attorneys or the court were aware in advance that an AI-generated video would be used. But attorneys representing Pelkey’s family said in court records that Arizona law does not require victims to disclose statements they plan to make in court to prosecutors, defense attorneys or the judge — and that victims can exercise their rights by speaking before the court or submitting statements that are written or recorded on audio or video.

In a statement Thursday, the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office said its prosecutors knew the victim’s family would address the court during sentencing but weren’t aware of the nature of it.

While the use of AI within the court system is expanding, it’s typically been reserved for administrative tasks, legal research and case preparation. In Arizona, it’s helped inform the public of rulings in significant cases.

But using AI to generate victim impact statements marks a new tool for sharing information with the court outside the evidentiary phases.

Reller told the appeals court that the video doesn’t disclose who wrote the words used by the AI version of Pelkey and wasn’t backed up with evidence establishing that its contents accurately reflected Pelkey’s views. It also had an “undue emotional weight” and conveyed an authenticity that wouldn’t have been there had a family member read the same words aloud, Reller said.

Horcasitas’ lawyer contended the judge weighed the statements made in the AI-generated video when deciding on a sentence, but prosecutors argued Lang didn’t consider the footage when issuing the punishment.

Shortly before delivering the sentence, the judge commented that he “loved that AI” but didn’t say from the bench whether the video factored into his decision. Lang said he felt Pelkey’s “obvious forgiveness of Mr. Horcasitas reflects the character I heard about today.”

The family’s lawyers say the judge was already inundated with relevant information from Pelkey’s family and friends before the AI video was played — and that nothing in the video was inflammatory. They also said Pelkey’s previous attorney didn’t object to the AI video.

When I was on the executive team at a tech company, I was used to setting annual goals. It was an exercise the company went through every January, with monthly and quarterly comparisons against what had been planned. 

Owners of the new iPhone 18 Pro Max who are using the phone on AT&T’s network, take note: The telecom giant has issued an urgent warning instructing users to update to the latest version of iOS 27. Here’s what you need to know.

Households in the contiguous United States will pay thousands of dollars more for energy through 2040 because of federal policy changes since President Donald Trump returned to office, according to modeling released Friday by a nonpartisan think tank.

The Energy Innovation analysis found that households will pay an average of $6,500 more for energy, cumulatively through 2040. In five states, households will pay roughly $9,000 more: Oregon, Mississippi, South Dakota, Virginia and Wyoming.

The California-based think tank said there will be more demand for natural gas for electricity because the administration is canceling new clean energy projects and there will be more demand for gasoline for transportation because Trump and Congress are revoking policies that encouraged or created incentives for more efficient and lower-emissions vehicles. Higher demand drives prices up.

Electricity bills are already rising faster than inflation in much of the U.S., which is being blamed in some areas on demand from data centers. The Iran war has sent oil and gasoline prices sharply higher, too.

Contrarily, Trump has said his administration’s energy policies will make bills more affordable for families and businesses. White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers said Wednesday that lowering electricity prices remains a top priority and Trump is unleashing reliable energy like coal and natural gas to reverse the “catastrophic damage” Democrats did to the power grid by ramping up clean energy. A 2025 Department of Energy report, mandated by Trump, warned of increasing blackouts if the U.S. continued closing coal and natural gas plants.

“Joe Biden created a grid crisis; President Trump is fixing it,” Rogers wrote in an email. “If the Democrats had their way, these costly and unreliable renewable energy projects would still be failing our grid and our communities.”

The Republican president prioritizes fossil fuels to produce electricity, unlike Biden, who saw clean energy as a climate solution.

Jane Doe. 

U.S. employers added a disappointing 29,000 jobs and the unemployment rate ticked up last month, the government reported Friday, a month before voters go to the polls in pivotal midterm elections at a time of discontent over the high cost of living and the state of the economy.

Hiring dropped from a revised 133,000 in August, the Labor Department reported. The unemployment rate rose to a still-low 4.2% from 4.1% in August.

Economists had expected September payrolls to come in at 90,000.

Labor Department revisions also shaved 60,000 jobs off combined July and August payrolls. Average hourly wages were up just 3% last year from a year earlier — smallest year-over-year gain since May 2021.

The U.S. job market has proven resilient in the face of a series of shocks — trade wars, persistent inflation, high interest rates and a conflict with Iran that has driven energy prices higher. Friday’s jobs report is the last one that will come out before the Nov. 3 elections that will determine whether President Donald Trump’s Republicans maintain full control of Congress.

Futures for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq composite added to their gains after the data was released, while Treasury yields moved lower. The yield on the 10-year Treasury was 5.17%, down from 5.24% a day earlier.

The U.S. job market has recovered from a dismal 2025, but ordinary Americans remain unhappy about the economy and the high cost of living.

A Thursday poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds that only 17% of U.S. adults approve of Trump’s handling of the cost of living. Just 26% approve of his handling of the economy overall, marking a new low.

U.S. consumer confidence dropped this month to the lowest level in more than a decade, according to an index published by the Conference Board. One reason: More than 28% of the respondents told the business think tank that they expect fewer jobs to be available in six months, double the 14% who expect more.

The online jobs site Glassdoor reports that its employee confidence index, based on how workers view prospects for their own companies, dropped last month to the lowest level in records going back to the beginning of 2016, a period that includes a global pandemic. It was the index’s third record low this year.

“Employee confidence has been continuously grinding downward over the last year as workers grow increasingly anxious about everything from layoffs to AI,” said Glassdoor chief economist Daniel Zhao.

The public’s misgivings about jobs partly reflect an odd feature of the current labor market: Employers aren’t laying off many workers, but they aren’t hiring many either. A Labor Department measure of gross hiring — before subtracting those who quit or lose their jobs – has been stuck in a rut for more than two years.

So economists describe a “low-hire, low-fire” job market in which those who have jobs are mostly secure, but jobseekers struggle to find work. In August, the average unemployed person had been out of work for more than six months, the longest average stretch of joblessness since February 2022.

“People know that being laid off is unusually costly right now,” said Glassdoor’s Zhao. “They hear from their friends how long they’ve been out of work and had such a difficult time finding a job. That does make layoffs even more scary than usual.”

In that chilly environment, fewer workers are willing to quit their jobs. “They often feel stuck,” Zhao said. “Workers aren’t finding there’s opportunity on the open market to find a better job – one that pays more or offers better work-life balance.”

Last month, a recall was initiated for select lots of a pasta product sold at Walmart stores nationwide.

At 18, one of us—Juan Carlos—arrived at the Spanish indoor archery championship expecting to win. He was shooting better than he ever had. But he was an outsider in the Spanish archery community and was training with unorthodox methods at the time. He and his coach, who came from handball and gymnastics, had been the subject of much criticism.

Every founder is subject to burnout, even the founders of a massive lifestyle, retail, and media brand.

Independent agencies are claiming a growing share of the industry’s recognition. This year, Rethink was named Ad Age’s 2026 Agency of the Year and won both Independent Agency and Independent Network of the Year at Cannes Lions. Last year, eight of the 11 winners of Adweek’s 2025 Agency of the Year were independent. This reflects a broader shift. Large agencies still produce great work, but size no longer directly correlates with capability.

When I led global customer success at HubSpot, the customer base grew from roughly 70,000 to more than 220,000 in just four years. Growth at that scale stress-tests every assumption you make about your customer.

Shares of Nike Inc. are tumbling to fresh lows Friday morning after disappointing first quarter results and layoff plans.

Our oceans are incredibly hot, and that heat stress is a major threat to coral reefs. To truly protect corals, we need to address climate change as a whole. But in the meantime, scientists say they can give reefs a bit of relief simply by providing them with some shade.

The Democratic and Republican parties both have brand problems, so independent candidates across the country are using campaign logos specifically designed to let voters know they stand with neither of them. The new, must-have brand asset for independent candidates today is the word itself: independent.

The Humboldt Penguin, which lives on the Pacific coast of Chile and Peru, faces a lot of challenges, including warming waters, the flu, boat accidents, and fishing nets that can drown them. Those hazards have had a catastrophic effect on the population. Researchers found major breeding colonies for the bird in Chile dropped 63% over three years, according to The Associated Press.

The last pennies for general circulation were minted last year, but a newly passed bipartisan bill to formally sunset the 1-cent coin includes a single clause that keeps the penny alive, even if it’s just as a collectible.

On Tuesday, President Donald Trump brought many of the most powerful people in AI to the White House, including Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei.

In the early days of generative AI, it seemed as if the labs were so heads-down building large language models that they didn’t think much about the raw material they were using. After all, big data sets like Common Crawl already existed, and trawling the open web was how search engines had worked for decades.

October brings us leaf peeping, pumpkin spice, and a Halloween that includes something extra—and we’re not talking about candy.