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Sam Altman took the stand in his own defense this week, pushing back against accusations that he effectively stole a nonprofit. After two weeks of witnesses painting him as dishonest, Altman told the jury that OpenAI was built through hard work, and that a charity, in his words, simply cannot be stolen. Whether the jury finds that persuasive remains the central question.
Shifting to the physical world, Chinese robotics company Unitree is now selling a full-sized mecha robot to the general public. The GD01 is not a toy — it is a wall-smashing, human-pilotable machine that reflects just how quickly China's low-cost robotics industry has moved from dancing quadrupeds to something that looks like it rolled off a science fiction set.
And in the ongoing absence of federal AI legislation, a quieter institution may have the most practical answer. Libraries, long practiced in balancing public access, privacy, and intellectual freedom, are being held up as a model for how communities can govern AI use thoughtfully and equitably — a reminder that the best frameworks sometimes come from the oldest institutions.
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