OpenAI launches default ChatGPT for teens, as legal scrutiny mounts
August 18, 2026
| Mike Swift
OpenAI on Tuesday is launching ChatGPT for Teens for users aged 13–17, with default safeguards blocking sexual and dangerous content, break reminders, quiet hours, privacy warnings, parental alerts, and guided... (more story)
China to step up AI push across technology, manufacturing, industry official says
August 18, 2026
| MLex Staff
China will intensify efforts to develop core artificial-intelligence technologies and deploy them across manufacturing, a senior official said Tuesday, while strengthening the broader industry ecosystem and sa... (more story)
Australia set to require data centers to power local AI development
August 18, 2026
| Sean Maguire
Australia plans to use its data-center investment boom to build greater AI sovereignty by requiring hyperscalers to provide compute access to local start-ups, researchers and other organizations on favorable t... (more story)
South Korea advances three teams to final stage of sovereign AI-model project
August 18, 2026
| Choonsik Yoo
South Korea has advanced three consortia led by LG AI Research, SK Telecom and Upstage to the final round of its project to develop homegrown artificial intelligence foundation models, eliminating a team led b... (more story)
Georgia lawmaker calls for ‘playbook’ to manage data center boom
August 17, 2026
| Amy Miller
State and local lawmakers need a clear framework for managing the rapid growth of AI-driven data centers, including rules for what developers should pay and what communities and regulators should demand, state... (more story)
US FTC chair warns social media companies over scam ads
August 17, 2026
| Amy Miller
FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson warned that social media companies could face lawsuits and civil penalties if they knowingly ignore fraudulent ads on their platforms. He said the agency has been working with compani... (more story)
Meta appeals EU interim antitrust order targeting WhatsApp
August 17, 2026
| Anna Ferrari and Nicholas Hirst
US tech giant Meta Platforms has taken the EU’s competition enforcer to court over an interim order requiring it to restore free access for rival AI assistants to WhatsApp. The challenge will test the commissi... (more story)
China's Sichuan police target data theft, AI abuse in nationwide crackdown
August 17, 2026
| MLex Staff
Chinese police disclosed 10 cases involving the alleged theft, misuse and sale of personal data in Sichuan Province, exposing schemes that ranged from insider leaks and rural data harvesting to AI-enabled iden... (more story)