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Anna Tong / Forbes: A look at Janitor AI, a romantic fantasy roleplay chatbot site run by three men that claims 2.5M DAUs and 15M total users, with 70% to 80% identifying as women  —  Despite its name, Janitor AI isn't selling productivity agents or enterprise copilots; it's serving up interactive erotic content …

Getty Images The New Yorker magazine’s recently published investigation into OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman posed a loaded question: can the people building this powerful technology actually be trusted? The report described a system where commercial incentives drive behaviour and oversight is treated as a nuisance. In Aotearoa New Zealand, there is a similarly urgent question: can the governance frameworks we are building to manage that technology be trusted to work? This is particularly relevant to the public service and government agencies, now being encouraged to embrace AI. At a recent International Research Society for Public Management conference, the global research community grappled with how AI can align with the public interest. A clear divergence is emerging. Some jurisdictions are building surveillance-heavy data systems, while others are constructing robust, binding systems to protect citizen consent. Aotearoa New Zealand occupies a precarious middle ground. The Public Service AI Framework names the right principles: transparency, fairness and human oversight. But it is explicitly non-binding. We have dubbed it a “Pollyanna policy” – based on the Pollyanna principle which describes a general bias towards positivity and optimism about outcomes. AI and institutional complexity In the area of AI governance, this becomes a matter of stating good intentions and issuing non-binding guidance, trusting existing frameworks will absorb genuinely novel challenges. We argue this underestimates the institutional constraints, conflicting incentives and strategic vulnerability of that middle ground, without legislative armour to protect citizen data. It also underestimates the “institutional friction” that defines modern public institutions where many people and departments have power over policy. This tends to weaken responsiveness to problems. Governance in a typical public sector agency is not a clean, ordered structure. It is an accumulation of layer upon layer of policy, operational procedure, ministerial expectation, legislative obligation and professional conventions. New regulatory instruments rarely replace old ones. They are added alongside them, often interacting in unpredictable ways. AI is a “flat” technology that processes information as a statistical landscape. It lacks the institutional memory to know that a prompt today might quietly undermine the kinds of political and constitutional compromises, made over time, that are central to effective government. The accountability gap Before AI can be usefully deployed, agencies must do the diagnostic work of understanding what that governance environment actually is. The instinct instead is to add further AI governance guidance to a system already straining under accumulated advice. As Australia’s Royal Commission into the Robodebt Scheme demonstrated, algorithmic systems deployed without this kind of clarity can produce catastrophic harm. The non-binding nature of the Public Service AI Framework abdicates central responsibility, offloading accountability to individual agencies with vastly different levels of capability. Algorithmic decision-making disrupts traditional accountability within organisations because information, justification and consequences can no longer be traced through a single responsible chain. The framework assumes organisational readiness, but the evidence does not support this. The 2025 Public Service Census found that while a third of public servants had used AI for work, only 14% used it regularly. This gap is driven by the friction that arises when a general-purpose tool like AI meets the accumulated complexity of how decisions actually get made. Don’t get us wrong: the framework names the right principles. But principles without a legislative mandate become aspirational without accountability. In an already strained system, another non-binding document changes very little. Māori data sovereignty In Aotearoa New Zealand, this governance vacuum has an added dimension. Māori data sovereignty is a constitutional imperative under the Treaty of Waitangi, not a technical add-on. The bureaucracy has an obligation to protect Indigenous sovereignty, yet the current approach leaves the gate unguarded. As legal scholars Woodrow Hartzog and Jessica Silbey argue in their 2025 article “How AI Destroys Institutions”: AI systems are built to function in ways that degrade and are likely to destroy our civic institutions. [They] have the effect of eroding expertise, short-circuiting decision-making, and isolating people from each other. This risk is amplified by the current state of AI technology. “Hallucinations” are not bugs but inherent statistical features of large language models. And evidence confirms they remain a risk in high-stakes settings such as medicine. The Five Eyes security agencies evidently agree: their April 2026 joint guidance on agentic AI calls explicitly for incremental deployment, continuous threat assessment and sustained human oversight. When these models hallucinate legal facts they risk overwriting Indigenous knowledge with plausible fictions. This is compounded by the “sycophantic” tendency of large language models to mirror the user’s bias. In a policy system grappling with the legacy of colonisation, this can simply reinforce an echo chamber. Building a counterweight Used well, AI does present opportunities. It can reveal inconsistencies in policy frameworks and interrogate inherited assumptions. But realising that opportunity requires that organisations understand themselves well enough to know where the technology will fail. If these AI tools are built by companies where incentives outpace ethics, the burden on public institutions is to act as a genuine counterweight. This means moving beyond “responsible” adoption toward creating formal, protected roles where officials interrogate AI output for bias and fabrication, rather than accepting speed as a proxy for quality. The strategy, standards and guidance documents point in the right direction. But in the gap between aspiration and accountability, we must ask whether we continue to rely on optimism, or will we build the strong, ethical oversight capable of catching what the technology cannot? The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Jensen Huang is optimistic about the future for new graduates. Patrick T. Fallon / AFP via Getty Images Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang gave the commencement address at Carnegie Mellon University on Sunday. Huang told the new grads that there has been no better time to start a career. As public anxiety around AI grows, Huang has struck a positive tone in recent appearances. Even as companies like Cloudflare and Snap cite AI as they lay off thousands of employees, Jensen Huang told graduates on Sunday that there's no better time to "begin your life's work." Speaking at Carnegie Mellon University's 2026 Commencement, the Nvidia CEO made his case that AI will be a net positive for humanity, including for those newly starting their careers. "Now it's your time to realize your dreams, and the timing could not be more perfect," he said. The 61-year-old tech mogul — who now has an estimated net worth of nearly $186 billion — graduated from Oregon State University with a degree in electrical engineering in 1984. He later earned a master's in electrical engineering from Stanford. He launched Nvidia in 1993, just as the internet revolution was taking off. He told the new grads that AI was closing the "technology divide," allowing anyone to build something useful. This, he said, meant there would be many new opportunities for young people in the coming years. Jensen's optimistic remarks contrast with public anxiety over the impact of artificial intelligence. A Pew Research Center study found that about half of Americans felt the increased prevalence of AI in their daily lives made them feel "more concerned than excited." Many Americans across the country, meanwhile, are resisting new data centers in their communities, which are essential to powering AI products like chatbots. At least a dozen major companies have cited increased efficiency from AI as a factor in their decision to lay off employees this year. AI has also made job-seeking more difficult by prolonging the interview process and making it tougher for new grads to land work. The unemployment rate for new grads reached a 4-year high at the start of 2026. Worries about the impact of AI are fueled in part by the people behind the technology. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, for example, warned last year that AI could wipe out 50% of white-collar entry-level jobs. Elon Musk told Joe Rogan in February that humans faced a "20% chance of annihilation." Negative public sentiment could play a role in the coming midterm elections, during which AI regulation will likely be a major topic of debate. In recent weeks, Huang has sought to counter such dire predictions. On a podcast earlier this month, he said AI leaders should be more "mindful" of how they talk about the technology. "These kinds of comments are not helpful," Huang said on the "Memos to the President" podcast. "They're made by people who are like me — CEOs. Somehow, because they became CEOs, you adopt a God complex and, before you know it, you know everything." He added, "I think we have to be careful and really ground ourselves to talking about the facts." To the new grads at Carnegie Mellon, he had a simple message: "AI is not likely to replace you," acknowledging anxieties about the job market. "But someone using AI better than you might." Read the original article on Business Insider

How will work setups change if we spend more and more time talking to our computers?

Fictional portrayals of artificial intelligence can have a real effect on AI models, according to Anthropic.

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Bloomberg: Sources: Digital Asset, which builds Canton Network, a public blockchain with privacy features, is raising a ~$300M round led by a16z crypto at a ~$2B valuation  —  Digital Asset Holdings LLC, the company behind a blockchain used among several big banks and trading firms …

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The company has been trying to embed itself inside the AV industry — as a data provider, an investor, and a distribution platform — but the consumer-facing bet may be just as important.

Bloomberg: Microsoft and G42's $1B geothermal-powered data center in Kenya stalls after the government couldn't provide annual payment guarantees that Microsoft requested  —  A major Microsoft Corp. data center site in East Africa has been delayed by disagreements with the Kenyan government …

Courtesy of the author I gave my kids independence early, even when it felt uncomfortable. Becoming a single parent made independence a necessity. It helped my daughters grow into confident, capable young adults. It was Christmas morning, and my 9-year-old daughter was thrilled to open up our new backyard fire pit. She asked me if we could roast marshmallows and make S'mores that same night. "Sure," I responded. "If you can put the firepit together." I knew she could do it, and I was worn out after staying up late the night before wrapping gifts. Still in her pajamas and always up for a challenge, she opened the box, read the instructions, and got to work. I gave her a wrench, turned on some Christmas music, and went to take a nap. When she woke me up an hour later, her face beaming with pride, I knew I'd done the right thing. What I never learned growing up Although it made sense to me to give myself a break and my daughter a chance to shine, it wasn't the kind of parent-child dynamics I experienced growing up. In my family, independence wasn't valued, and showing competency in anything, especially in typically male-dominated tasks or activities, was a good way to become a target. The author gave her 9-year-old daughter a wrench and left her to build a fire pit. Courtesy of the author At the time, I had no idea the American model of protected, responsibility-free childhoods was actually an outlier, and that most cultures throughout human history have expected children to be genuine contributors. Years later, sitting in a college adolescent development class, I learned about David Lancy's cross-cultural research showing exactly what my instincts had always told me — kids who contribute in meaningful, age-appropriate ways do better than those always protected from challenges. That's when I decided, more than a decade before becoming a mom, that I would parent differently from the way my family did. I took numerous Early Childhood Education classes, worked as a nanny, and became a preschool teacher, all in hopes of eventually being the best parent I could be. Eventually, I met someone, got married, and had two daughters. As soon as my daughters could walk, I made mini diaper bags out of toddler backpacks so they could carry their own snacks and supplies, and gave them as many age-appropriate opportunities to help as possible, like stirring pancake batter, putting their toys away, or feeding the cat. As a single mom, independence was a necessity What I didn't plan for was separating and becoming a single parent within six years, making the whole independence thing more than just a quirky parenting style and more of a necessity. When their dad and I divorced, I became a single mom in one of the US's most expensive cities with little to no family support. It was tough, and I sometimes felt forced to give them more independence than even I felt comfortable with. Like when my 6-year-old had to start taking the school bus after my car was stolen, and I wasn't sure if either of us was ready for that much independence. I worried she was too young and might be exposed to situations with older kids that she wasn't ready for, but she seemed to enjoy it and even made new friends. As they got older, my daughters helped with cooking, housework, and even stuffing envelopes for the family business. At 9, my oldest daughter started messaging the local librarian to request new books and was thrilled to see them on the shelves at our branch, while my youngest won a citywide poetry contest and was proud to read her poem at a popular festival. In high school, when they wanted to skip class for a Black Lives Matter rally, I gave them permission to go as long as they told their teachers the truth about where they would be. I wanted them to know what it felt like to stand on principle and speak up for themselves rather than just take the day off. I also tried not to get involved in personal issues without their permission, but it hasn't always been easy. Listening to them vent about a mean girl, an obnoxious boy, or a rude teacher, and minding my own business when they say they don't want my help or advice, can feel excruciating, and I sometimes fall short of my own expectations. I'm so proud of them Both my girls launched at 18 and are now college students working their way through school. I couldn't be more proud of them, but staying faithful to my philosophy of independence gets harder as they get older, not easier. The stakes are higher now, and I want them to avoid the costly mistakes I made as a young adult, like spending beyond my means and marrying too soon. But I also know the confidence that comes with learning their own life lessons, and I don't want to deprive them of those important, character-building experiences. So when I start worrying more than usual, I make sure to talk to them by phone, because that always reassures me that I've raised two capable and competent young women, who probably don't even need my advice. Read the original article on Business Insider

The author doesn't speak to her mom friends anymore. Courtesy of the author I formed deep friendships through my children's lives. Distance and life changes made it harder to maintain those bonds. I still value those friendships, even as they've faded. At 5 a.m. every Thursday morning, my phone pings with a text from my friend. This early morning communication is a yearslong tradition that began when we lived in the same time zone. My 5 a.m. is her 8 a.m., a much more reasonable hour for a check-in. She and I met through our children. She has four — two girls and two boys. I have five — four boys and one girl. They are close in age, so she and I spent a lot of time together at school functions, sports competitions, and kid-themed social gatherings. When she was diagnosed with cancer, I kept her company as she recovered from grueling treatments. She accompanied me to a few of my own medical procedures. She, overhearing me tell a nurse how much I weighed, cemented our friendship with a promise to never reveal the number. We're friends for life. 3,000 miles is not the only reason friendships fade It's been a decade since she and I got together in person. She was my first visitor when I moved to San Francisco, and I stayed with her on a visit to Boston. Now she cares for her elderly mother and rarely leaves home. I don't travel back to New England anymore, so I'm never in her orbit. Although I'm confident our friendship will endure, we're far less connected. Distance isn't the only reason mom friends lose touch. My friend and I became friends when her son and my daughter started dating in high school. Within a few months, the romance waned, but she and I remained close. For years, we took long, meandering walks together and discussed a wide range of topics like our shaky marriages — mine failed, hers wobbled, but endured — and the tricky dynamics of life with teenagers. We promised to continue the friendship once I announced my cross-country move, but it didn't last. Our kids grew into adults, and the ties that bound us loosened. We connected through our children I met my mom friends through our kids. Even if they stopped playing together, we remained close. The day my husband announced he was leaving, a group of these women rallied around me at school drop-off and did not leave my side until we picked the kids up at the end of the day. One accompanied me to court to hold my hand when the divorce was finalized. They supported me as a single mom, too. When my daughter's dorm burned in a California wildfire, another cared for my youngest son while I traveled to Santa Barbara to help my daughter cope with the loss. We schedule occasional phone calls to catch up, but it's not the same as the in-person visits we used to have. It takes effort to stay in touch I admit I could work harder to stay in touch. I occasionally send an email or text to check in, but it's not the same as meeting for coffee. During the pandemic, as we sequestered in personal pods, I reached out to each mom friend by phone or Zoom. It had been years since we'd stood on the sidelines of a lacrosse game or helped backstage at a dance recital. We had a lot of catching up to do. I had many fulfilling conversations with these women, but I'm having trouble sustaining the relationships. We're all over the country now. I comment on Facebook posts and send thinking-of-you notes, but without the regular contact we enjoyed in the school parking lot every afternoon, it's tough to maintain these long-distance friendships. I have a different friend group now I have a new friend group now. We're all mature women with lifetimes of unshared experience. We bond over new interests and socialize through travel, art, and activities I never shared with my mom friends. I miss the women I walked alongside during our children's growing-up years. We should have a reunion. Read the original article on Business Insider

A property in the Tampa area is asking $115 million, which would shatter the area's current sales record. Luxhunters / Eddy Martinez & Roland Ortiz with ONE Sotheby's International Realty An energy executive listed his Florida estate for $115 million, which could break the area's sales record. The 87-acre compound directly on Lake Thonotosassa is 16 miles from downtown Tampa. It features amenities like a 22-car garage, an office complex, and a lakeside go-kart track. A Chicago-based executive is trying to break a record in Florida with the sale of his home by listing it for $115 million — and it's nowhere near South Beach. Steven Lempera, the president of an energy company in Illinois, bought the 87-acre lakefront compound in Tampa, Florida, in 2021 for $16.7 million and is trying to sell it at a nearly 600% price markup. Lempera and his wife, Jane, bought the property from Don Wallace, the cofounder of Lazydays RV, after surveying alternative options to Chicago during COVID. "They were looking for an estate of this caliber with massive acreage," One Sotheby's International Realty agent Eddy Martinez told Business Insider. "In reality, they were looking in Colorado and in Wyoming, but they just couldn't find anything that they really liked." The property, directly on Lake Thonotosassa, is 16 miles from downtown Tampa, but is its own oasis from the fast pace of the city. It's surrounded by oak trees and even has its own private interior roads. Privacy, Martinez said, is one of the most important features for the ultrawealthy when considering property. "Finishes and those kinds of things have become secondary," he said. "The most important thing for them to consider a property in a serious manner is, does it offer the privacy and does it have the capability of being secure?" As for the reason for selling, Lempera hasn't fallen out of love with the property; he just spends a lot less time there. His daughter is a professional horseback rider, and he and his family want to follow her career. "They follow the circuit, and so Tampa's not really in their scope as much anymore because of that," Martinez said. See all of the bells and whistles included on this 87-acre Tampa property for sale. Steven Lempera purchased the Tampa home in 2021 in an effort to escape the city during the pandemic. Luxhunters / Eddy Martinez & Roland Ortiz with ONE Sotheby's International Realty Lempera paid $16.7 million for the 87-acre property — a fraction of what he thinks it's worth today. The previous owner built the home in 2012. If it sells anywhere near the listed $115 million price tag, it will smash the local record. Luxhunters / Eddy Martinez & Roland Ortiz with ONE Sotheby's International Realty The current record in the Tampa area for most expensive sale is held by a Derek Jeter's former Davis Islands mansion, which sold for $22.5 million in 2022. That home, according to Martinez, was a teardown, and doesn't compare to the property he's currently trying to sell. "It was only one acre of land, not 87," Martinez said. "It was also lakefront, but it was also a teardown. It was not a move-in-ready home." Lempera is leaving the property to follow his daughter's professional horseback riding career. Luxhunters / Eddy Martinez & Roland Ortiz with ONE Sotheby's International Realty Lempera sold a different home in the Coral Gables neighborhood to the Weeknd in October 2025 for $55 million, according to The Wall Street Journal, and started using the Tampa property as a primary residence. However, his plans changed once his daughter's career took off. "His daughter is a professional jumper, and that's another reason why they bought this property, because it does have a dedicated 5-acre sector just for the equestrian component," Martinez said. Martinez added that Lempera intends to spend more time in Wellington, Florida, a city known as the winter equestrian capital of the world, as well as in New York and Europe. Both Lempera and the home's former owner are car enthusiasts, so there's plenty of space for parking. Luxhunters / Eddy Martinez & Roland Ortiz with ONE Sotheby's International Realty The property has a car museum that has room for 22 cars, and Lempera, who also has an extensive collection, made sure to fill it. Not only does Lempera have space for his collection of Rolls-Royces and other expensive cars, but he also has someone on the grounds to service them. "He does have an on-site mechanic, so you don't have to take your cars somewhere; it's all done there," Martinez said. "There's also a professional car painting booth." There's also a workshop to craft all types of finishes for the home. Luxhunters / Eddy Martinez & Roland Ortiz with ONE Sotheby's International Realty "He also has a mill workshop and a metal workshop," Martinez said. "Those beautiful mahogany, humongous arch doors with the very elaborate hinges, those were created on site in the mill workshop and in the metal shop." Some of that millwork can be seen in posh spaces, such as the two-story closet in the primary suite. Luxhunters / Eddy Martinez & Roland Ortiz with ONE Sotheby's International Realty "The hers closet in the master suite is two-story, so it has a staircase in the closet," Martinez said. "When you go up, it's kind of like when you're in New Orleans in the French Quarter." The finishes of the closet match the rest of the home, mainly because a lot of the craftwork was done on the property. "It has that beautiful French ironwork that sort of does a perimeter at the mezzanine, which you can look down to the first level of the closet," Martinez said. "All of that ironwork was done on-site in the metal shop." A majority of the home's features were already in place when Lempera bought it. Luxhunters / Eddy Martinez & Roland Ortiz with ONE Sotheby's International Realty One bedroom in particular ditched the French Normandy Château style and was Lamborghini-themed. "It was black and yellow, and you felt like you were in a sports car museum for that particular bedroom," Martinez said. "So they made it in line with the European French — very whimsical, romantic." Lempera was able to keep the style consistent throughout the home in part because he purchased the furniture in a package deal. "He had to pay $2 million, and that was a wise decision because it was really curated for every space, and it's very, very whimsical. The whole thing is just a fairytale," Martinez said. There is also space for the next owner to work, so there's no need to go to an office downtown. Luxhunters / Eddy Martinez & Roland Ortiz with ONE Sotheby's International Realty "There's an office complex with executive offices," Martinez said. "Then you have a floating glass boardroom that admires all the cars down below it." And when you're done working, you can relax at the spa. Luxhunters / Eddy Martinez & Roland Ortiz with ONE Sotheby's International Realty Wellness amenities have become must-have features for homes of the ultrawealthy, and this home doesn't skimp on them. Along with a mile-long jogging path on the premises, there is also a state-of-the-art spa. "It rivals hotel spas that I've been to in South Beach," Martinez said. "It has an indoor saltwater pool, it has the steam hamam, the drywood sauna, and, of course, the treatment rooms. "It all just spills out over to a beautiful series of arched terraces," Martinez added. "You really feel like you're in a professional spa." If that's not how you want to unwind, you can take a go-kart for a spin. Luxhunters / Eddy Martinez & Roland Ortiz with ONE Sotheby's International Realty "The go-kart is definitely a wow factor," Martinez said. "It has a proper go-kart circuit, a little mini racing track, and it's right on the lake's edge with winding roads — it's very fun." Read the original article on Business Insider

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Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince doesn't like the name of his company. Bloomberg/Getty Images Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince doesn't love his company's name. Cloudflare is often mispronounced and misspelled, but he said it's better than his original idea. Cloudflare laid off 20% of its staff this week, citing a 600% increase in AI use. Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince doesn't like the name of his own company. Responding to an X user who said the name Cloudflare is "not good" and "not aspirational," Prince agreed. "I'd add: too long, hard for English speakers to say Cluh and Fluh next to each other so becomes Cloudfare, multiple ways to spell flare/flair," he wrote. He said it's better than his original idea, however. Prince said he considered "Project Web Wall," which he joked would be a "nightmare" for the late broadcast journalist Barbara Walters, who had a distinctive speech impediment. Cloudflare is one of the companies that helps keep the internet running behind the scenes. It helps websites and apps load faster, route traffic, and defend against cyberattacks, including DDoS attacks and bot traffic. The company says its tools protect websites, apps, APIs, and AI workloads while speeding up performance through its content delivery network. When Cloudflare goes down, it often takes large parts of the internet down with it. A large Cloudflare outage last year disrupted ChatGPT, X, and other major sites. For a company whose business is so essential, it's surprising how often it's mispelled or mispronounced. Typos appear in developer forums, support threads, and even public bug reports. Prince's introspection about his company's name came after a turbulent week. On Thursday, Cloudflare laid off more than 1,100 employees, or about 20% of its staff. In a memo announcing the layoffs, Cloudflare executives said the company's AI use had surged "more than 600% in the last three months alone," and that it needed to rethink its structure to move faster and deliver more value to customers. Read the original article on Business Insider

Allie Garfinkle / Fortune: A profile of Anduril CEO Brian Schimpf, a Palantir alum and self-identified Democrat, as Anduril's defense tech shakes up the US military-industrial complex  —  “The question isn't whether we can build the next Lockheed Martin, it's whether we can avoid becoming the thing we're trying to replace …

On the latest episode of the Equity podcast, we discussed what xAI's deal with Anthropic might mean for parent company SpaceX.