John Paczkowski

"Sam Altman says the stick of uranium in his office is nothing to worry about. Sitting vertically on his desk like a squat ebony Slim Jim, it is perhaps the most eyebrow-raising among the impressive array of historic innovations he has collected over the years."

Sam Altman Explains The Future, OpenAI's New Device And His Musk Feud Sam Altman founded his first tech company as a teenager and was running Y combinator, the world’s leading startup accelerator, by 28. As CEO of OpenAI, the 40-year-old billionaire unleashed ChatGPT, c...

Here's our big Sam Altman profile, featuring interviews with Sam, Bob Iger, Masa Son, Jony Ive, Paul Graham and Brian Chesky. Also appearing: a uranium rod, a piece of a Concorde jet engine, a Stone Age hand axe and more … www.forbes.com/sites/richar...

Why Penguin Random House And Macmillan Are Recruiting AI Engineers Publishing giants like Penguin Random House and Macmillan are eager to use AI internally—but not for writing or editing. Their authors still might revolt.

While authors litigate, publishers are leaning in.

Publishers like Penguin Random House, Macmillan, and Wiley are actively, and perhaps quietly, recruiting AI engineers. Despite writer pushback, the industry is looking to leverage AI for back-office efficiency.

www.forbes.com/sites/rashis...

Among the batch of newly released emails from Jeffrey Epstein: Epstein telling Peter Thiel he would “gladly share…expenses for the Gawker suit.”

This was sent the day after @rmac.bsky.social and @mattdrange.bsky.social reported in Forbes that Thiel was behind the lawsuit that would bankrupt Gawker

Here is the User Guide for ELITE, the Tool Palantir Made for ICE 404 Media is publishing a version of the user guide for ELITE, which lets ICE bring up dossiers on individual people and provides a “confidence score” of their address.

New from 404 Media: here is the user guide for ELITE, the tool Palantir made for ICE. A map shows people on a map; ICE clicks them, brings up their dossier. ICE uses to find which neighborhoods to target. We obtained it, you can now read the document for yourself: www.404media.co/here-is-the-...

How ICE Already Knows Who Minneapolis Protesters Are

A Minnesota woman observing ICE agents in her car was cornered on one-way streets. An agent approached, called her by name—citing facial recognition. Days later, her Global Entry and TSA privileges were revoked, with no explanation.

This Insurance Software Goliath Is Crushing An AI David How the AI race drove one software startup to create a fake insurance agency—and landed it in court.

What happens when an ambitious AI startup creates a fake company to help it take on a PE-backed software giant?

You guessed it: Litigation.

Here's how a Silicon Valley success story has devolved into a cautionary tale.

Read about it @forbes.com 👇
www.forbes.com/sites/johnhy...

OpenAI Wants To Use Biometrics To Kill Bots And Create Humans Only Social Network OpenAI is quietly building a social network and considering using biometric verification like World’s eyeball scanning orb or Apple’s Face ID to ensure its users are people, not bots.

New: OpenAI is developing a "real-humans-only" social network to take on the bot problem, sources say. The play? OpenAI considered gating access with biometric verification like World’s eyeball scanning "Orb", or Apple's Face ID. www.forbes.com/sites/annato...

Charlie.

VAN HOLLEN: Simple yes or no -- were you with President Trump during any of those conversations he had with people who had oil interests in Venezuela about the possibility of deposing Maduro?

RUBIO: That's not a simple yes or no question

(That's a yes)

Rep. Kevin Hern Sold UnitedHealth Stock While Sitting On House Health Subcommittee Disclosures show the Oklahoma Republican sold up to $500,000 in UnitedHealth stock while serving on a committee that oversees payments for health care.

New: "House Health Panel Member Kevin Hern Sold UnitedHealth Amid Stock-Trading Ban Push"

me, for @forbes.com

Jeremy Barr V @jeremymbarr x.com Most importantly, it's worth mentioning that "High Hopes" played before and after the CBS News town hall with Bari Weiss. 12:24 PM • 1/27/26 • 33K Views

lol

A memo sent earlier this month to agents temporarily assigned to the city said “capture all images, license plates, identifications, and general information on hotels, agitators, protestors, etc., so we can capture it all in one consolidated form,” according to correspondence reviewed by CNN.

This isn't fixed with better training.

Here's what ICE is up to in Northeast Minneapolis today. Absolutely heartbreaking.

Warning: video is hard to watch

I grew up with Alex Pretti The kind-hearted ICU nurse shot by ICE agents was my childhood best friend.

I wrote about my childhood friend Alexi Pretti. Please read it and share it and remember him as a human being. @theverge.com

ATTN: Judges Raymond Gruender, Bobby Shepherd, and David Stras.

www.lawdork.com/i/185892659/...

Scoop from the great @rparloff.bsky.social

lmao, land-speed record for fastest leaked audio

Dario Amodei was (among) the first of the CEO class to voice some public pushback against ICE yesterday, while later going on TV to say he appreciated trump changing course

today you see dealbook got an internal OAI memo with altman echoing same

CEOs are herd animals. maybe more of this today

These Republicans Are Breaking With Trump Over Pretti Shooting Pence called for a “full and transparent investigation of this officer involved shooting.”

"Pence And Other Republicans Break With Trump Over Pretti Death: ‘Deeply Troubling’"

Sara Dorn for @forbes.com

Microsoft Gave FBI BitLocker Encryption Keys, Exposing Privacy Flaw The tech giant said providing encryption keys was a standard response to a court order. But companies like Apple and Meta set up their systems so such a privacy violation isn’t possible.

🚨 SCOOP 🚨 Microsoft gives encryption keys to the FBI to unlock data on seized computers.

Comes from a fraud case in Guam.

But Microsoft tells me it gets around 20 requests for BitLocker keys a year.

How many keys has it given to feds over the years?

www.forbes.com/sites/thomas...

Public Data Center Builders Have Struggled In The AI Boom. But Don’t Count Them Out Yet The mainstreaming of AI is turning into a trillion dollar business, yet the two biggest data center real estate firms have lagged in public markets. Here’s why—and how they could catch up.

The mainstreaming of AI is turning into a trillion dollar business, yet the two biggest data center real estate firms have lagged in public markets. Here’s why—and how they could catch up.

My latest for @forbes.com:

www.forbes.com/sites/phoebe...

Warehouse With $35 Million Of Apple Devices Linked To Chinese Fraud Ring DHS has been investigating a sprawling fraud operation where Chinese criminals have been buying iPhones and iPads with funds from scams, including sextortion and romance swindles.

🚨 NEW 🚨 During three months in summer last year, over 30,000 Apple devices, worth some $35 million, were shipped to a warehouse in a small industrial park.

DHS says it's part of a sprawling Chinese fraud involving gift cards obtained in sextortion and romance scams.

www.forbes.com/sites/thomas...

You’ve Heard About Who ICE Is Recruiting. The Truth Is Far Worse. I’m the Proof. What happens when you do minimal screening before hiring agents, arming them, and sending them into the streets? We're all finding out.

A few months ago, ICE hired me

I didn't sign and submit any paperwork. I almost certainly failed the drug test. I'm real outspoken about my opposition to the Trump administration, and I am extremely googlable

And yet, there it was, in plain English. "Welcome to ICE!"

My latest for Slate

UNITED STATES' RESPONSE TO THE COURT'S JANUARY 6, 2026 ORDER In violation of the Rules of Criminal Procedure and the principle of party presentation, the Court has initiated a sua sponte inquisition into whether it should strike Ms. Halligan's title from the Government's signature block. The order launching this quest reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of Judge Currie's orders dismissing the indictments in United States v. Comey, No. 1:25-cr-272 and United States v. James, 2:25-cr-122 and flouts no fewer than three separate lines of Supreme Court precedent on elementary principles like the role of federal courts, the effect of district court rulings, and the nature of our adversarial system. Adding insult to error, the order posits that the United States' continued assertion of its legal position that Ms. Halligan properly serves as the United States Attorney amounts to a factual misrepresentation that could trigger attorney discipline. The Court's thinly veiled threat to use attorney discipline to cudgel the Executive Branch into conforming its legal position in all criminal prosecutions to the views of a single district judge is a gross abuse of power and an affront to the separation of powers.

Contrary to this Court's suggestion, nothing in the Comey and James dismissal orders prohibits Ms. Halligan from performing the functions of or holding herself out as the United States Attorney. Although Judge Currie concluded that Ms. Halligan was unlawfully appointed under Section 546, she did not purport to enjoin Ms. Halligan from continuing to oversee the office or from identifying herself as the United States Attorney in the Government's signature blocks. Indeed, Judge Currie did not issue any remedy beyond those two cases she simply dismissed the indictments without prejudice. Comey, ECF No. 213 at 28-29; James, ECF No. 140 at 25-26; see Dismissal, Black's Law Dictionary (12th ed. 2024) (Dismissal is the "[t]ermination of an action, claim, or charge."). In fact, Judge Currie rejected the defendant's request in James to enjoin Ms. Halligan from performing any "functions or duties of an interim U.S. Attorney," James, ECF No. 22 at 16. See James, ECF No. 140 at 25. To be sure, in the decretal section of the orders, Judge Currie stated that "[the appointment of Ms. Halligan as Interim U.S. Attorney violated 28 U.S.C. § 546 and the Appointments Clause of the U.S. Constitution." Comey, ECF No. 213 at 28; James, ECF No.

140 at 25. But that is simply a statement of her basis for ordering dismissal of the indictment, not an independent declaratory judgment. A declaratory judgment is a remedy that operates as "a final judgment" entered at the conclusion of a case initiated by "an appropriate pleading," not an interlocutory order on a motion in a criminal case.' 28 U.S.C. § 2201(a); see United States v. Carrington, 91 F.4th 252, 265 (4th Cir. 2024) (order dismissing an indictment without prejudice is not a final judgment). But even if Judge Currie had somehow issued a declaratory judgment - which she did not - such relief would still not bind the United States in other cases or prevent Ms. Halligan from otherwise holding herself out as the United States Attorney. A declaratory judgment does not "orderl] that anything be done" or "seek execution of performance." Cook v. Nu-Tech Housing Servs., 953 F.2d 1383, 1992 WL 17301, at *4 (4th Cir. 1992) (unpublished table decision). And in any event, declaratory relief is limited to resolving "the rights and other legal relations of any interested party." 28 U.S.C. § 2201(a).

January 13, 2026 Respectfully submitted, Pamela Bondi Attorney General Todd W. Blanche Deputy Attorney General Ву: /s/ Lindsey Halligan United States Attorney and Special Attorney United States Attorney's Office Eastern District of Virginia Stephen E. Anthony Assistant United States Attorney Katherine E. Groover Special Assistant United States Attorney

DOJ has become an absolute joke. This response about why Lindsey Halligan continues putting herself out as U.S. Attorney is both over the top in presentation and embarrassingly bad as to argument.

A 'Holy Grail' Sleep Apnea Pill Could Be On The Market Next Year Sleep apnea affects as many as 80 million in the U.S. Now Apnimed, the $400 million company behind the first ever pill to treat it, is preparing to file for FDA approval.

A ‘holy grail’ pill for sleep apnea could be on the market next year.

My latest @forbes.com feature profiles Apnimed, whose nightly pill could help some of the est 80M people in the U.S. w/ the breathing disorder, the majority of whom are undiagnosed and untreated.

www.forbes.com/sites/amyfel...

AI Fraud Has Exploded. Background-Check Startup Checkr Is Cashing In. San Francisco-based Checkr has seen its revenues jump 14% to $800 million as companies try to spot a flood of AI-generated CVs and faked financial documents.

Checkr, which got its start running criminal record checks on Uber drivers and gig workers, has seen its revenues jump 14% to $800 million as companies try to spot a flood of AI-generated CVs and faked financial documents.
www.forbes.com/sites/iainma...

Frey: "You cannot drag pregnant women through the snow. You're not allowed to take teenagers out of their car and detain them when they are in fact American citizens. That is against the law in every state. That is against our US Constitution."