Daily dispatch

May 17, 2026

Issue filed May 17, 2026 · 24 headlines · By Oz Gultekin

Daily dispatch for May 17, 2026. 24 headlines from labour, tech, and policy feeds, rewritten by hand for the class war in progress.

№ 01 MIT Tech Review

Musk v. Altman week 3: Elon Musk and Sam Altman traded blows over each other’s credibility. Now the jury will pick a side.

In closing arguments of the Musk v. Altman trial, lawyers attacked each other's credibility over OpenAI's founding. A jury will now decide whether Musk's allegations of theft hold merit.
№ 02 The Guardian

What we learned from the cringey courtroom drama between Elon Musk and Sam Altman

A nine-person jury will decide if Elon Musk's allegations that Sam Altman stole OpenAI from its charitable mission are legitimate. The trial exposed years of bitter feuding between the two billionaires.
№ 03 The New York Times

OpenAI Trial Heads to Jury After Closing Arguments in Musk vs. Altman Case

Closing arguments concluded in the Musk v. Altman trial on Thursday. Nine jurors will begin deliberations next week in the blockbuster federal case.
№ 04 The New York Times

Ishmael Reed Is Writing a Play About Elon Musk

Ishmael Reed, the provocateur and playwright, is writing a play about Elon Musk and his fellow billionaires of Silicon Valley.
№ 05 VentureBeat

Salesforce rolls out new Slackbot AI agent as it battles Microsoft and Google in workplace AI

Salesforce launched a rebuilt Slackbot AI agent that can search enterprise data, draft documents, and take action on behalf of employees. The tool is now available to Business+ and Enterprise+ customers.
№ 06 TechCrunch

The OpenAI trial wraps up, and the Musk founder machine keeps spinning

The Musk v. Altman trial concluded this week with closing arguments circling a central question: can we trust the people developing artificial intelligence.
№ 07 The Verge

OpenAI keeps shuffling its executives in bid to win AI agent battle

OpenAI reorganized Friday, making president Greg Brockman the lead of all product efforts. The company is consolidating products to focus on AI agents and merge ChatGPT with Codex.
№ 08 The Guardian

‘I didn’t want to be the guinea pig’: inside tech’s AI-fueled manager purge

As tech companies slash workforces and invest billions in AI, middle managers face elimination. Workers report that AI-driven restructurings are eroding mentorship and career advancement paths.
№ 09 The New York Times

Cerebras, A.I. Chip Maker, Rises 89% in Market Debut as Tech IPOs Ramp Up

Cerebras, a Silicon Valley AI chip maker, surged 89 percent in its market debut Thursday. SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic are also taking steps toward going public.
№ 10 Ars Technica

Cisco announces record revenue and 4,000 layoffs in the same day

Cisco announced record revenue and 4,000 layoffs on the same day. The company's CFO said the cuts are not driven by cost savings.
№ 11 VentureBeat

Claude Code costs up to $200 a month. Goose does the same thing for free.

Claude Code costs up to 200 dollars monthly, sparking rebellion among developers. Goose offers similar AI coding capabilities for free, highlighting the expense of the AI revolution.
№ 12 TechCrunch

The haves and have nots of the AI gold rush

The mood around the current AI boom is grim, even within the technology industry itself. Sentiment about the sector's future remains decidedly pessimistic.
№ 13 TechCrunch

OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman takes charge of product strategy

OpenAI's latest reorganization makes Greg Brockman the lead of product strategy. The company plans to combine ChatGPT and its programming product Codex.
№ 14 The Guardian

Pity the poor AI data centers facing ‘discrimination’ | Arwa Mahdawi

AI data centers are diverting resources from regular people and facing local resistance. The industry is playing defense as communities push back against the infrastructure demands.
№ 15 The New York Times

OpenAI Bought Company That Offered A.I. Tools for Cloning Voices

OpenAI acquired Weights.gg, a platform for creating and sharing AI algorithms. The purchase gives OpenAI tools for voice cloning technology.
№ 16 The Verge

ArXiv will ban researchers who upload papers full of AI slop

ArXiv will ban researchers for one year if they upload papers full of AI slop. The platform targets papers with hallucinated references or unchecked LLM outputs.
№ 17 TechCrunch

Silicon Valley’s vacationland needs a new energy provider just as AI is driving prices up

Lake Tahoe, Silicon Valley's vacation destination, faces higher energy prices as AI drives electricity demand. The region needs a new power provider to meet surging consumption.
№ 18 The Verge

AI radio hosts demonstrate why AI can’t be trusted alone

AI radio stations run by Claude, ChatGPT, and other models demonstrated volatile personalities in recent experiments. The results show why AI cannot be trusted to operate independently.
№ 19 The Verge

Google updates its spam rules to include attempts to ‘manipulate’ AI

Google updated its spam policy to flag attempts to manipulate AI models in search results. The policy covers manipulation of AI Overview and AI Mode in Search.
№ 20 The Verge

OpenAI now wants ChatGPT to access your bank accounts

OpenAI will soon let ChatGPT access your bank accounts directly through Plaid integration. Users will see dashboards showing portfolio performance, spending, and subscriptions.
№ 21 TechCrunch

OpenAI launches ChatGPT for personal finance, will let you connect bank accounts

OpenAI launched ChatGPT for personal finance with bank account integration via Plaid. Users can view portfolio performance, spending, subscriptions, and upcoming payments.
№ 22 TechCrunch

Runway started by helping filmmakers, now it wants to beat Google at AI

Runway, an AI video generation startup, is betting that video generation leads to world models. The company believes being an AI outsider is an advantage in the race.
№ 23 The New York Times

Nvidia’s Future in China Remains Unclear After Trump-Xi Summit

Nvidia's future in China remains uncertain after the Trump-Xi summit. Chinese firms increasingly turn to domestic chipmakers like Huawei to reduce Western technology dependence.
№ 24 The New York Times

A.I. Safety Is So Back + Mythos Mayhem with Nikesh Arora + Hot Mess Express

Parts of the Trump administration now support AI safety regulation after years of dismissing it as doomer fear-mongering. The shift marks a significant change in policy stance.

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