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 …

Sponsor Posts

Command Line:
Bringing local models and sandboxed tools to Windows and GitHub Copilot  —  GitHub Copilot will soon determine when a task is best handled by on-device AI and when it needs cloud-scale models.
Will Reed:
The best sales leaders aren't job hunting.  Here's how to reach them without months of cold outreach.  —  Our team came from Box, Square, and Brex, so we already know the GTM leaders worth meeting.
Zoho:
Zoho Books now supports CT600 & Final Accounts Filing as an add-on in the FREE plan  —  Managing end-of-year filing for limited companies in the UK is often expensive and multi-layered.
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Salesforce data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Sources:
Qualcomm's CEO on the coming AI phone supercycle
Candid conversations with the leaders shaping what's next in AI and the broader tech industry. Hosted by Alex Heath, who has covered Silicon Valley for more than a decade.
Subscribe to Sources.
The Upstarts Podcast:
Bringing Back Mammoths And Building Noah's Ark 2.0 | Colossal's Ben Lamm
Veteran tech reporter Alex Konrad sits down with breakout entrepreneurs taking on the status quo to shake up their fields in AI, design, nuclear energy, space, and more.
Subscribe to The Upstarts Podcast.
Great Chat:
The launch industrial complex
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
Subscribe to Great Chat.
Big Technology Podcast:
Can AI Keep Growing Exponentially? Let's Ask SemiAnalysis — With Dylan Patel and Jordan Nanos
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
Larry Ellison's Media Ambitions & Kevin Roose on AI's Biggest Gamble
Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.
Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.
Training Data:
Google's AI Infrastructure Chief, Amin Vahdat, on the Physics & Economics of Frontier AI
Sequoia Capital partners host conversations with leading AI builders and researchers to develop a deeper understanding of the evolving technologies and their implications.
Subscribe to Training Data.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 4:10 AM ET, May 26, 2026.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

More News

Jennifer Maas / Variety:

Earlier Picks

@bookwormengr:
Nikkei Asia: