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  • Karoline Leavitt is Latest Trump Administration Official to Join Fox News

    Karoline Leavitt is Latest Trump Administration Official to Join Fox News

    Karoline Leavitt, the former Trump administration press secretary who spent much of her time chastising and denigrating the journalists who asked her questions, is joining one of the outlets that made some of the queries.

    Leavitt will join Fox News Channel as a contributor, the network said Monday. Leavitt follows a well-trod path that has been walked on previously by people like Kayleigh McEnany, a former press secretary who also works for the Fox Corp.-backed media outlet, and Larry Kudlow, a former financial official who is a prominent host at Fox Business Network.

    Other news networks have also sought out former White House officials. MS NOW relies on former Biden press secretary Jen Psaki as its regular 9 a.m. host, and features former Bush official Nicolle Wallace in a prominent late-afternoon showcase. George Stephanopoulos, a former Clinton White House official, is a prominent anchor at ABC News.

    “Karoline’s firsthand experience in the White House and on the presidential campaign trail gives her a distinct understanding of today’s political landscape,” said Suzanne Scott, CEO of Fox News Media, in a statement. “We look forward to her providing our audience with authentic and sharp insight across all Fox News Media platforms.”

    Leavitt will start in her new role offering commentary and analysis on November 1.

    Like McEnany, Leavitt was a fierce defender and promoter of President Trump’s agenda, and often pushed back on questions from media outlets. She may also have an expert view as the White House tangles with outlets like MS NOW, CNN and Politico, which it has tried to ban from coverage on the grounds of the presidential home and offices. Fox News has supported CNN and the other outlets and called for bans on particular outlets to end.

    “I am grateful for the opportunity to continue appearing on Fox News Channel as an official member of the extraordinary team at Fox News Media,” Leavitt said in a statement. “I look forward to bringing my unique perspective from my experience as White House Press Secretary, along with the same energy and candor that defied my tenure, to Fox’s millions of viewers across their many platforms.”

    Leavitt served as the 36th press secretary from January 2025 until August 2026, becoming the youngest person in American history to hold the position. Prior to joining the White House, Leavitt served as national press secretary for Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign. She previously ran as the Republican candidate for congress in her home state of New Hampshire’s 1st Congressional District in 2022 and served as communications director for then-House Republican Conference Chair Rep. Elise Stefanik. Earlier in her career, Leavitt worked in Trump’s first administration as a presidential writer and assistant press secretary.

  • Your Next MacBook Pro May Be Much Lighter, Even With Its New Touch Screen

    Your Next MacBook Pro May Be Much Lighter, Even With Its New Touch Screen

    The MacBook Pro may be Apple’s most capable laptop, but you have to accept a heavier and bulkier design in exchange for that extra power. However, a new leak suggests Apple is looking to slim down its machine for its next release.

    An upcoming revamp for the MacBook Pro may make its devices “significantly lighter,” according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman in his latest Power On newsletter. The reporter quotes sources familiar with Apple’s plans, who say a new design will make the MacBook Pro much easier to carry.

    The sources claim Apple has reengineered the device to enable a lighter design, shrinking its size and rearranging internal components to achieve the reduction. The sources didn’t specify an exact weight, but Apple’s current MacBook Pro weighs 4.8 pounds, the MacBook Air weighs 3.3 pounds, and the MacBook Neo is its lightest option at 2.7 pounds. 

    Other rumored features include the first touch-screen MacBook display, plus a switch to OLED screen tech to offer better contrast, mimicking a move Apple previously made with its top-end iPads. This appears to be an overhaul of what the MacBook Pro can do to compete with increased competition, including Apple’s own expansion into cheaper alternatives with its MacBook Neo.

    The sources say to expect the new MacBook Pro by the end of November. If true, it would likely launch alongside the long-rumored 2026 iPad mini.

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    A previous report from Gurman said to expect an Apple event on Oct. 13, likely set to unveil a smart home hub with a display, alongside a new Apple TV and HomePod mini. It may be that Apple announces its new MacBook Pro and iPad mini at the same time, or it may reveal them separately at a later date.

    Apple’s new CEO, John Ternus, is also said to be paying closer attention to the design process and getting more involved than Tim Cook did. Ternus was previously involved in design through his role as head of hardware engineering, so this may be an extension of those responsibilities to ensure he’s involved in some of Apple’s biggest decisions.

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  • OpenAI CEO Says the ‘World Should Accept Some Bad Things’ from AI

    OpenAI CEO Says the ‘World Should Accept Some Bad Things’ from AI

    The CEO of OpenAI, Sam Altman, believes that risks associated with AI are outweighed by its benefits.

    In a recent interview with Politico’s Decoded series, Altman said, “We believe that the world should accept some bad things happening for the benefits of this technology and people having the agency.”

    “I wouldn’t take a trade of saying, ‘We’ll make sure there’s no major hacks, there’s no misuse of this technology, there’s zero scams, there’s zero all the other bad things that will happen,’” said Altman. He also believes people will do “orders of magnitude more good stuff than bad stuff.”

    Altman’s latest comments come as OpenAI models have been involved in multiple security incidents in which its agentic tools have overreached, hacking other companies and even government websites.

    The interview discussed the key differences between OpenAI’s policy on regulation compared with its biggest competitor, Anthropic. The two companies have aligned more closely than before over recent weeks, as Altman and Anthropic’s CEO, Dario Amodei, have argued for greater regulation to help limit risks.

    However, Altman used the interview to note that OpenAI continues to have a “lighter-touch regulatory stance,” suggesting this policy would continue.

    He said, “I disagree, but I understand the perspective of people who are like, ‘This technology is going to get so powerful, and it’s so dangerous, that a single lab in San Francisco should have it and make sure nothing bad happens, and kind of figure out how to dole out the benefits.’”

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    Altman also said that he doesn’t see any potential for a “serious loss of control to AI.” OpenAI recently slowed development on its most advanced tech, including scrapping its GPT-6.1 Astra release after finding it was less reliable than previous iterations and was more prone to misalignment.

    Last week, US President Donald Trump announced plans for government bodies to rename artificial intelligence to Super Intelligence. The move also saw it ask companies such as OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta, Google, and others to sign what Trump called a “morally binding” agreement to ensure each is building AI “safely and in a way that builds trust with customers and the public.”

    Disclosure: Ziff Davis, PCMag’s parent company, filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in April 2025, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.

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  • DOJ Argues CNN & Other Outlets Can Be Banned From White House If Trump Determines They Didn’t Meet “Minimum Requirements Of Professionalism”

    DOJ Argues CNN & Other Outlets Can Be Banned From White House If Trump Determines They Didn’t Meet “Minimum Requirements Of Professionalism”

    The Justice Department argued that Donald Trump can legally ban CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House because he determined that they didn’t meet the “minimum requirements of professionalism.”

    Last month, a federal judge granted the three outlets a temporary restraining order that forced the White House to reinstate dozens of their reporters’ hard passes. The outlets are now asking the judge to extend that 14-day order for a longer term via a preliminary injunction, claiming that Trump’s ban is a violation of their First and Fifth amendment rights.

    U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly, a Trump appointee, has said that he is bound by the precedent set in In a 1977 D.C. Circuit opinion, Sherrill vs. Knight, in which the judges ruled that “the protection afforded newsgathering under the First Amendment guarantee of freedom of the press requires that this access not be denied arbitrarily or for less than compelling reasons.”

    In a court filing on Friday, the DOJ claimed that the Sherrill case still would allow for the president to restrict the three outlets from accessing the White House grounds because the White House has a “compelling interest.”

    The DOJ lawyers claimed that the Sherrill decision does not “prevent the President from concluding that bona fide journalists would identify sources instead of relying on anonymous sources, commit to factual accuracy, and provide the White House an opportunity to comment, rather than ‘perform their duties in a way that … interfere[s] with the White House’s daily operations.’ …At a bare minimum, it is a significant violation of decorum to publish classified and sensitive national security information.”

    The news outlets’ legal team has rejected that assertion, writing in a filing earlier this week that Trump’s “statements also make clear he implemented the ban to coerce more favorable coverage from CNN, MS NOW, and Politico, and to deter other journalists and news organizations from newsgathering and reporting that the President might view as negative. And his administration has continued to retaliate against Plaintiffs even after the temporary restraining order, only underscoring that Defendants’ motive is to punish and chill journalism they dislike.”

    Even as access to the White House grounds has been reinstated, the White House has continued to restrict CNN from coverage of TV pool assignments, including travel with Trump on Air Force One.

    The outlets’ lawyers, led by Theodore Boutrous Jr., also noted that Trump and other White House officials “overlooked that the First Amendment protects reporting on matters affecting national security.”

    Kelly has set a hearing for Thursday on the news outlets’ motion for a preliminary injunction.

    In granting a TRO, Kelly concluded that the White House failed to provide due process to the news outlets.

    The DOJ has pointed to letters sent to the outlets as evidence that they were given due process. But those letters were sent on Sept. 22, four days after Trump’s ban was started.

    The judge also has noted that some of the objectionable stories cited by the DOJ do not have to do with national security. Kelly wrote in his order that “even the justifications provided to Plaintiffs after this case was filed are ambiguous about the true purpose of the revocations: while Defendants’ letters to Plaintiffs mention national security concerns, they purport to identify reporting that ‘threatened national security and/or spread falsehoods’ leaving open the possibility that all the stories fall into the later bucket, rather than the former.”

  • ‘SNL’ Cold Open Goes Full MAGA Midterms Desperation With Hegseth’s “Schlong Donkeys”, Trump’s Rambles & A Sad VP

    Just a month away from the volatile midterms and a president way down in the polls, there was once again a plethora of political material ripe for this week’s SNL cold open, and the NBC late-nighter went full MAGA, with some Mitch McConnell on the side.

    Played by Mickey Day, the wheelchair bound 84-year-old Kentucky senator offered a premature “Live from New York” before being cut off by RNC ad consultants desperate to turn things around for the GOP. To that, there was a “He tricked us” (in Spanish) Marco Rubio, portrayed by the always on point Marcello Hernández, and a 2028 J.D. Vance (Jeremy Culhane) that no one wanted to actually put in a spot.

    Then there was Colin Jost’s Pete Hegseth, putting the fun in whack job Defense Secretary once again.

    “What’s up, schlong donkeys?” the Saturday Night Live Weekend Update co-anchor began in what might have been one of the greatest campaign ads ever (we’re talking 1954 Daisy level) if it was real. “Now listen up, okay, because I need all you patriots at home to do the gayest thing ever and vote. Thanks to me, the military finally has its priorities and sexuality straight.”

    Tossing in some slam poetry, Jost’s Hegseth added: “In conclusion, vote, I guess. And remember, even if you’re stationed overseas, you can still vote by mail, which is the only by mail I’m cool with.”

    Of course, this being a MAGA parody and being SNL, the joke had to go further. Having said that, unlike many too-long cold opens, this semi-morbid midterm skit work at the extra length – entirely because POTUS came to cook, base loathing and all.

    “I’m President Trump and I approve this ramble,” started a typically and wonderfully unhinged James Austin Johnson.

    Drawing from the fiction that is so much of Trumpland’s facts, he added in the fake ad: “We’re getting mogged out there, but not for long because I have a solution. If the Republicans win, I’ll give everyone $5,000, and that is not a bribe because I have no intention of following through on that promise.’

    “So, just pretend I’m on the ballot, okay? You have to use something called imagination. Imagination makes a MAGA nation. Wow, that’s pretty good. I can already see that written on the back of an obese woman’s booty shorts in dirty, disgusting Myrtle Beach. What a hell all this country is! It’s full of awful people.”

    Perhaps, but not in tonight’s spot-on cold open.

    Delayed a tad again on the West Coast like last week’s season opener thanks to college football, tonight’s SNL is the second show of the 52nd season.

    Verity star Dakota Johnson is hosting SNL for the third time. Coming off a big box office start for the Collen Hoover thriller, Johnson is joined by Turnstile as musical guest, the Maryland rockers’ SNL debut. Next week will see one-time dumped cast member Shane Gillis back for his third time hosting. The October 10 show will see the much-acclaimed Rosalía returning for her third SNL appearance.

  • How pneumonic plague spreads after worker dies from disease in ‘Russian lab accident’

    How pneumonic plague spreads after worker dies from disease in ‘Russian lab accident’

    Hundreds have been placed into quarantine after a young lab worker died from an unknown illness.

    Darya Shipilova, an employee at the Anti-Plague Research Institute in Shelekhov, was exposed to plague bacteria after she ‘accidentally broke a test tube’ the Kyiv Independent reported.

    Reports suggested she was collecting samples in the laboratory, which contained the pathogen, when the incident occurred.

    Local media has reported how Shipilova told medical staff she had accidentally broken a test tube ‘holding live bacteria.’

    She was taken to hospital on 29 September with severe pneumonia of ‘unknown origin’. She was put on a ventilator but was later confirmed dead.

    Authorities are now implementing a ‘comprehensive set of anti-epidemic measures,’ according to Maxim Modin, the mayor of the Shelekhovsky district in eastern Russia.

    Two hundred people she came into contact with are now being closely monitored.

    Plague bacteria Yersinia pestis (Getty)

    Plague bacteria Yersinia pestis (Getty)

    The inpatient facility at the hospital where Shipilova was treated has since been placed under quarantine, as well as other hospitals in the region, according to local reports.

    Irkutsk Governor Igor Kobzev issued a message on Telegram where he urged residents to remain calm. He confirmed that an anti-epidemic commission had met to address a ‘suspected case of a particularly dangerous infection’.

    Russia however have not confirmed any sort of ‘outbreak’, with the public health service conceding that the lab technician died of ‘pneumonia of undetermined origin’.

    According to Rospotrebnadzor, the Russian agency that handles infectious disease, ‘no microorganisms associated with the employee’s professional duties were detected in samples taken from the patient’.

    However the Moscow Times have reported that 189 people suspected of having the plague have been identified and hospitalised, as they remain under close watch.

    The White House has also issued a statement, which read: “The Trump administration is aware of the outbreak, is monitoring it, and is evaluating options.”

    The incident reportedly happened in a lab (Getty)

    The incident reportedly happened in a lab (Getty)

    What are the signs and how does it spread?

    The pneumonic plague causes a severe lung infection, along with fever, shortness of breath and can result in coughing up blood.

    It is caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis and results in a disease which is almost always fatal if left untreated.

    Although antibiotics can reduce this rate and it is treatable providing antibiotics are administered within 24 hours of the onset of symptoms, according to the World Health Organisation.

    It is highly contagious, and unlike the more common bubonic plague, which is transmitted via flea bites, it can spread from person to person through respiratory droplets.

    These can be passed on through coughing or sneezing.

  • Trump Is Hosting Yet Another Meme Coin Dinner: Here Are the Details

    Trump Is Hosting Yet Another Meme Coin Dinner: Here Are the Details

    In brief

    • The TRUMP meme coin’s top 185 holders will attend a Nov. 22 gala dinner with President Trump at his Virginia golf club, though no attendee will get a private meeting with him.
    • The event follows the Clarity Act’s Sept. 15 Senate failure, where restrictions on Trump’s crypto holdings were a central sticking point.
    • Trump earned more than $635 million from the meme coin in 2025, mostly from licensing royalties, according to his financial disclosure.

    President Donald Trump is putting another dinner on the table for his biggest meme coin backers, just weeks after a fight over his crypto interests helped sink the industry’s top legislative priority.

    The official account for the TRUMP meme coin announced Wednesday on X that top holders will attend a “gala dinner” with Trump and three as-yet-unnamed “superstars” on Nov. 22. The event will take place at Trump National, the Washington-area Virginia golf club that hosted the token’s first dinner last year.

    Myriad: Where does Solana go next? Click to make your prediction.
    Myriad: Where does Solana go next? Click to make your prediction.

    Seats go to the top 185 registered holders, according to the event page run by Fight Fight Fight LLC, the company behind the coin. Holders are ranked by a time-weighted score that rewards holding more tokens for longer, with a final snapshot on Nov. 12.

    The top 29 get a VIP reception with Trump and one of the guest “legends,” and the top four will receive an 18-karat gold Trump watch.

    Don’t expect face time, though. “No attendees will be granted a private meet & greet with the President,” the page states.

    The announcement lands just over two weeks after the Clarity Act, which aimed to set federal rules for crypto markets, failed a key procedural vote in the Senate, 49-50. Restrictions on Trump’s crypto holdings were a central sticking point.

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    The final ethics language, which Trump signed off on, would have required covered officials to divest their crypto interests or place them in a qualified blind trust.

    Democrats said that didn’t go far enough. Hours before the vote, they sought tighter rules on large crypto holdings, dependent children and paid crypto promotions. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., argued the language left loopholes that would let the president keep profiting from some of his existing crypto ventures.

    The meme coin is among the most lucrative of them. Trump’s latest financial disclosure showed he earned just over $635 million from the token in 2025, almost entirely from licensing royalties. His total crypto income topped $1.2 billion, though some estimates place it above $1.4 billion.

    The Nov. 22 dinner is the third such event. The first, in May 2025, drew the top 220 holders, and the 25 VIPs among them had spent an average of $4.8 million. Trump stayed about an hour, leaving some attendees feeling shortchanged, while more than 100 protesters gathered outside. At an April conference at Mar-a-Lago, one attendee told Decrypt he qualified after buying just $3,000 worth of the token.

    TRUMP is currently trading around $2.04, at a $576 million market cap, down more than 97% since launching in January 2025.

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  • Horrifying simulation shows what would happen if the Earth stopped spinning

    Horrifying simulation shows what would happen if the Earth stopped spinning

    Imagine you’re sitting at home, sipping the perfect cuppa, and suddenly the world stops spinning – what do you think would happen next?

    Well, according to a simulation that has been posted online for all to see, it’s not a great process.

    While there isn’t currently any known mechanism that could stop Earth from spinning, that doesn’t mean an unknown object could do that very thing in the future.

    And if it does happen, then there will be quite a few things that happen to everyone living on Earth – and none of them are pleasant.

    According to Lunar Cheeseee on TikTok, the world wouldn’t just stop to a firm halt immediately.

    First, it would begin to slow from its current speed of 1037 miles per hour east on the equator.

    What would happen if the world stopped? (Getty Stock Images)

    What would happen if the world stopped? (Getty Stock Images)

    Almost immediately, cracks would begin to form on the pavement around you, and your ability to stand upright without falling would become nearly impossible as small objects fly past.

    Once speeds get down to 1028, that’s when the terror truly begins.

    Per the simulation, which shows people on a street surrounded by businesses, the buildings and street signs start to peel away and fly east – and so do the people.

    At 800 miles per hour, structures crumble and slide along the ground as the world’s population is propelled away, travelling at incredible speeds while the Earth remains rooted to the spot.

    700 miles an hour and skyscrapers are next to fall, and there’s practically no person visible as the heavier objects are ripped from their spot on the world.

    At between 300 and 200 miles, the simulation claims that the ‘wind is now faster than sound’ and all you can see is debris whipping past before finally, cargo ships and oceans crash past.

    You might be wondering why everything keeps moving when the Earth itself stops.

    That’s because, like when you brake suddenly in a car, the force of your momentum continues to propel you. Which is why you need a seat belt to hold you back.

    However, if you move toward the poles, you will feel the impact of the force less and less because each point is a at higher latitude.

    For example, in New York City, the surface speed is around 790 miles per hour, and at the poles, the Earth’s rotation is essentially zero, because they are at the planet’s axis of rotation.

    So, in theory, if you were situated at either pole, you might not notice what’s going on until the oceans are crashing through.

    Because of this, people online have commented under the simulation video that being at the poles could bring a person a chance of survival.

    However, that’s not to say the poles would remain unscathed considering everything on Earth is propelling itself East. That’s a lot of speed, and weight, which could do something like shift tectonic plates, and more.

    “So much water would be displaced onto the continents and back that you’d definitely experience a tsunami,” said one person.

    “And this is the ‘gradual’ stop. Imagine just suddenly stopping down to 0. Every single object is now a ballistic missile,” said another.

  • ‘NAZA’ Rebuttal Doc Surfaces Online, Made by IDF Reserve Members

    ‘NAZA’ Rebuttal Doc Surfaces Online, Made by IDF Reserve Members

    Just as hot-button Gaza documentary “NAZA” — which recently won a special jury prize at the Venice Film Festival — gains international visibility and media attention, a counter project has surfaced online titled “NAZA: The Real Story.”

    The original 80-minute doc, which was shot at night on the rooftops of Tel Aviv and explores the killings of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, features revelatory interviews with 24 Israeli military intelligence officers and soldiers. “NAZA,” a term that appears throughout the documentary, is an acronym for collateral damage used by Israeli intelligence to indicate the number of civilians it expects will be killed in an airstrike.

    “NAZA,” which was helmed by Israeli directors Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor — two of the four co-directors of 2025’s Oscar-winning doc “No Other Land” — earned a massive 24.5-minute ovation at Venice and was also well received when it recently bowed in North America at the New York Film Festival. It is currently playing in cinemas in Europe and the U.S. before it will be made visible to stream for free on The Guardian website in late November.

    It is now being countered by the rapidly made 49-minute rebuttal “NAZA: The Real Story,” shot in a style that mimics the original. According to information on its website, the film has been made by Lt. Col. Roi Danino, who is a political candidate for the right-wing Israel First party led by Sharren Haskel in Israel’s upcoming Oct. 27 elections; Ariel Averbuch, a reserve major in the Israel Defense Forces, who is a patent attorney and ultra-nationalist influencer; and content editor Hagai Gutman.

    The documentary was reposted on X by the Israeli Embassy to the U.S. on Saturday, which wrote “a new Israeli documentary is setting the record straight” alongside a link to its website.

    According to the “NAZA: The Real Story” website, the rebuttal doc, similarly to the original, describes the war in Gaza as “told through the testimonies of IDF officers who took part.”

    “Through firsthand accounts, this documentary examines combat in civilian areas, the challenges of identifying threats, and the decisions made on the battlefield,” says the blurb on the rebuttal piece’s home page. “Their testimonies offer a closer look at the conditions they faced, the dilemmas they encountered, and how they describe the conduct of the war.”

    “NAZA: The Real Story” argues that “Hamas fought from inside civilian areas: fighters in civilian clothes, weapons in homes, schools, mosques and a hospital, tunnel shafts inside houses. And that the IDF ran its operations under strict rules for opening fire because of it. Those are the film’s claims, made by the people who were there,” according to the website.

    At publishing time, the “NAZA: The Real Story” website asserts that more than 20 million viewers have already seen the doc that was released online this weekend.

    Last week, the Israeli Defense Forces slammed “NAZA” in a statement, calling it “manipulative,” “misleading” and “based on substantial factual errors.”

    “With the original ‘NAZA’ film gaining heavy distribution and visibility across Europe and the United States, the creators of this rebuttal are utilizing digital influencers and grassroots international networks to push their footage directly to global policymakers and journalists,” wrote the right-wing newspaper Jerusalem Post.

    “For the production team, the ongoing clash is no longer just a debate over military strategy but a definitive, high-stakes war over who dictates the historical record to the international community.”

    There was no comment about “NAZA: The Real Story” from Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor and from The Guardian, which produced “NAZA” in tandem with James Wilson (JW Films) and executive producer Jonathan Glazer.

  • OpenAI Banned PewDiePie Twice While He Built Ajax, an Uncensored AI That Will Run on Your PC

    OpenAI Banned PewDiePie Twice While He Built Ajax, an Uncensored AI That Will Run on Your PC

    In brief

    • PewDiePie said in a new video that OpenAI banned his account twice while he built Ajax, a small AI model meant to run on a home computer. Tech City Authority found no public response from OpenAI.
    • He says he used GPT-5.6 Sol to generate training data after his account was restored, then stripped the model’s refusals with the open-source tool Heretic.
    • Ajax is reportedly a 9-billion-parameter model built on Alibaba’s Qwen 3.5. A countdown on its download page ends at 08:25 Japan time on October 3.

    YouTuber PewDiePie says OpenAI banned his account twice while he built Ajax, a small AI model meant to run on your own computer and browse the web for you. He tells the story in a new video on his YouTube channel.

    Ajax is what he calls “a fine-tuned AI model.” That means an existing model got extra training for one specific job. Here, the job is working inside Odysseus, the free, self-hosted AI app PewDiePie launched in June.

    Myriad: How high will Nvidia go? Click to make your prediction.
    Myriad: How high will Nvidia go? Click to make your prediction.

    Run on your own machine, a model like this keeps your emails and calendar at home instead of on a company’s servers. There’s also no subscription fee, though your own hardware does the heavy lifting.

    Ajax is supposed to be a 9-billion-parameter model built on Alibaba’s open-source Qwen 3.5. Parameters are the adjustable numbers that make up an AI’s “brain,” and more is generally considered more powerful. The model is pending for release but will be available on his website once Pewdiepie thinks it’s ready.

    The two bans

    PewDiePie said he wanted to distill from GPT-5.6 Sol, the flagship model OpenAI released on July 9. Distillation means training a smaller AI on a bigger one’s answers, like a student copying the class genius’s homework.

    The prize was Sol’s reasoning tokens, the chunks of text a model writes on a hidden scratchpad while it works through a problem. OpenAI keeps that scratchpad encrypted.

    In the video, he said he found a study that cracks it using OpenAI’s own API. He also said he would never have cracked OpenAI, but OpenAI banned him anyway. He called the ban unjustified, disputed it, and the account came back online some time later.

    Then, he said, he used Sol again to create seed data, the starter examples a model learns from, and OpenAI banned him a second time. OpenAI’s terms of use bar using its output to develop competing models, and he got banned again.

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    Researchers showed in August that encrypted reasoning blocks from OpenAI, Anthropic and Google could be replayed to a weaker sister model that wrote them out in plain text. They decoded 315,320 of them from public code repositories.

    On Sept. 30, OpenAI said it disrupted a campaign by people associated with Moonshot AI, the developer of Kimi, to extract its models’ hidden reasoning. The company said it closed a pathway that let someone replay another user’s encrypted reasoning to recover its contents.

    Taking the “no” out of AI

    To make Ajax uncensored—meaning it answers requests that ChatGPT-style assistants refuse—PewDiePie used Heretic, an open-source tool that removes a model’s built-in refusals. It compares how the model reacts to harmful and harmless prompts, finds the pattern behind its refusals, and cuts it out.

    This is known as “abliteration” and it’s essentially a technique that lobotomizes a model so it doesn’t need to be jailbroken because it always agrees to do whatever it’s asked to do.

    The surgery is not clean. PewDiePie says Ajax took “a little brain damage,” but that it handles tasks like sorting inboxes and browsing about nine times out of 10.

    He is also still training it with GRPO, a method where the model attempts the same task 16 times and learns from the attempts that work.

    Pewdiepe said he chose which refusals to remove and drew the limit at “causing harm to other people or causing harm to yourself.” His lawyer, he said, told him to state that Ajax is not designed to give dangerous, actionable instructions.

    Small model, big pitch

    His case for small models is cost and energy. By his own napkin math, one copy of a rumored trillion-parameter frontier model needs about 27 of his computers and the electricity of roughly 150 houses.

    PewDiePie calls Ajax version one. He said he still has to rerun the ablation, then compress (quantize) and benchmark the model to check that nothing broke.

    Ajax is not downloadable yet. At first, it came with a countdown on the download page for 08:25 Japan time on October 3. Now that timer doesn’t exist anymore.

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