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President Donald Trump’s new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention thinks the government should know if you’ve had an abortion.

During her confirmation hearing Wednesday, Dr. Erica Schwartz committed to improving “abortion surveillance,” despite advocates’ insistence that federal tracking violates patient privacy and undermines access.

“Abortion surveillance is absolutely a critical component of what the CDC is currently doing,” Schwartz told lawmakers.

“I also want to make sure that certain states are not conflating emergency services and hiding abortions in that emergency services case definition,” she continued. “We need to make sure we’re pulling out true abortions and making sure that we’re really having clear case definitions regarding abortions so the data is actually accurate.”

There is no factual evidence suggesting that states are “hiding” or purposefully misreporting information about abortions to the CDC, HuffPost reported Thursday. The CDC’s data collection on abortion is currently voluntary, meaning that certain states, such as California, New Jersey, and Maryland, don’t report annual abortion numbers to the federal government.

Schwartz’s comment is especially preposterous because in states with abortion bans, the clear case definitions between abortion and emergency services are acutely felt.

Hospitals in states with abortion bans were more likely to violate federal life-saving rules and delay treatment for pregnancy-related emergencies. It’s for this reason that pregnant people living in states with abortion bans face a significantly higher risk of death than those in other areas of the country.

Mini Timmaraju, the president and CEO of Reproductive Freedom for All, released a statement saying that Schwartz’s confirmation “cements an anti-abortion agenda at the center of the CDC’s work, rather than containing outbreaks and keeping the public safe.”

Last month, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche promised that he was working with the Department of Health and Human Services to ensure that the Dobbs decision would become “permanent” nationwide. Now, Schwartz may be part of the push.

The commitment to ramp up abortion monitoring comes also amid a renaissance in dystopian surveillance technology brought on by the Trump administration—and nationwide revolt against such tech.

Groups of hackers are breaking into large U.S. financial firms to steal sensitive data and extort victims, Google’s security researchers report.

Ailing Senator Mitch McConnell has been discharged from rehabilitation after being hospitalized nearly two months ago.

“Earlier today, I was discharged from the rehabilitation center to continue my recovery at home. Elaine and I are grateful for the many well wishes and support from friends, colleagues, and Kentuckians, and for the attentive care I’ve received from excellent doctors, nurses, therapists, and hospital staff,” McConnell wrote in a statement released Thursday afternoon.

“On the advice of my doctors, I’ll maintain an intensive regimen of physical therapy from home during the state work period, and I’ll continue to engage with my staff and colleagues on important Senate business.”

This is the most significant health update we’ve gotten from McConnell in almost two months, as the 84-year old Republican has been MIA since June 14 when he was found unconscious on the floor of his Washington, D.C. home. After that incident, McConnell was taken to the hospital by ambulance, and his office has released just two photos and a press statement until this announcement. Rumors of his death or incapacitation have swirled the entire time, with his staff offering little clarification.

It’s unclear if McConnell will be returning to work anytime soon, despite warnings from Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, a Democrat.

Republican South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott took to Fox News on Thursday to push a cryptocurrency bill opposed by a host of organizations opposed to human trafficking. Scott argued that the legislation should be passed by the Senate because it would help mothers. The Senate, where Scott currently chairs the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, is currently considering the Digital…

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Researchers linked the latest malicious activity to a Chinese company, after one of the spyware's operators placed an order with KFC using their real name and office address.

AI models may not be that good at fixing security flaws. Researchers at 1Password's Off-by-1 Labs analyzed security patches generated by two frontier models - ChatGPT 5.5 at "medium" effort and Claude Opus 4.8 at "high" effort - and found that autonomous patches cleanly fixed vulnerabilities only about a quarter of the time, while most of the remainder failed to fully remediate the flaw or introduced other problems. Keith Hoodlet, director of security research at 1Password, argues in a blog post that the results show LLM-driven security remediation still needs human review. "Across six recently disclosed CVEs, we produced 6,080 patches using two frontier, cyber-capable reasoning models," Hoodlet said. "The average success rate for generating a patch that fully resolved the vulnerability (without materially changing application behavior) was just 26.0 percent." Of the AI-generated patches, 20.1 percent fixed the original issue but altered application behavior (eg, changing "allow list" logic to "deny list" logic). Some 2.3 percent of the patches fixed the issue while introducing new security issues. 49.3 percent of the patches failed to fix at least one existing exploit path. And 2.2 percent both failed to fix the vulnerability while introducing a new exploit path. And among the patches in the first two categories (successful, clean; successful, changes app behavior), the researchers rated more than a third of the results fragile, meaning that while the adjusted code may have guarded against a particular vulnerability (eg, escaping particular input characters), the repair job didn't address the underlying problem. In their research paper [PDF], authors Axel Mierczuk, Spencer Michaels, and Keith Hoodlet propose the acronym FLAWED to represent automated LLM patches: Fix-Like Artifacts With Embedded Defects. Based on the generated patches, they conclude, "[T]he expected value of a fully LLM-generated, non-human-reviewed patch is a net-negative by a considerable margin." The value of LLM-generated patches depends upon initial patching guidance. The research team says that while both human developers and LLMs typically require some initial guidance to tackle a vulnerability, LLMs are more likely to be derailed when given incorrect advice. When LLMs get correct guidance, their fix-success rate hits 65.0 percent compared to 50.4 percent when they get no guidance. And incorrect guidance dooms LLMs, dropping their fix-success rate down to about 15.2 percent. Human devs, the authors argue, have a good chance of catching misleading information as they reason through vulnerable code. The authors have released a patch evaluation harness under the name FLAWED that organizations can use to evaluate the effectiveness of their security fixes. It's clear from the paper why AI-generated patches might be appealing – considered in isolation, they're inexpensive relative to human software engineers. The average successful, clean patch cost just $6.74 (a figure that includes the cost of failed attempts). Nonetheless, the authors argue that the cost-benefit analysis needs to assess how much expert supervision will be required to make LLM-assisted patching useful. "Based on our manual review of a representative sample of patches generated during our research, we suspect that, in a large number of cases, the cognitive load imposed by reviewing a mountain of mostly-incorrect, similar-yet-subtly-different LLM-generated vulnerability patches will likely result in engineers spending more effort than would be necessary to understand and patch vulnerabilities themselves using standard LLM-assisted coding techniques that keep the human operator in the driver’s seat," the authors conclude. "The alternative, cognitive surrender to a process with a success rate of only about 1 in 4 poses significant long-term risks for any organization considering autonomous, LLM-driven patching." ®

Hadrian is building automated factories to mass produce parts for defense vehicles like submarines. It's backed by a long list of well-known investors.

Monterey County Sheriff’s Office Detectives are investigating two separate incidents involving the discovery of human remains.

On Aug.1, just after 8:30am, North Monterey County Fire and Monterey County Sheriff’s deputies were dispatched to a report of an infant that had been located near the area of the 100 block of Struve Road in north Monterey County. Fire personnel confirmed that the infant was deceased according to the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office. No cause of death or other factors were released.

As part of the investigation, the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office is releasing photographs of a beige 2010 Mercury

Milan four-door sedan bearing California license plate 6HCR883. 

Police have since located and recovered the vehicle, and detectives want to speak with anyone who may have seen it or its occupants on Aug. 1 or 2, particularly in the area of Struve Road and the surrounding communities, to include the City of Salinas. 

Detectives also want to speak to anyone who may have dash camera, surveillance, or other video footage that may help the investigation.

At about 9:55am, Monterey County Sheriff’s deputies were dispatched to the 400 block of Old Stage Road in Salinas after a county employee located the remains of a second person.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Det. Sgt. Nicholas Kennedy at 831.755.3773 or Det. Richard Geng 831.759.7279. Anyone providing information can remain anonymous.

⚡ Quick Take

• The live-action Legend of Zelda movie has cast its Link and Zelda—and no, this casting announcement does not include Hunter Schafer.
• The Legend of Zelda movie has also cast its villain, Ganondorf. Uli Latukefu will play Ganondorf in the live-action Zelda movie.
• The Legend of Zelda will release on May 7, 2027.

A live-action The Legend of Zelda movie has been a long time in the making. It has been a number one request from fans for years. We learned about the movie was actually happening all the way back in 2023. And, of course, the number one question that followed the announcement was, “Who would play Link and Zelda in the live-action movie?” But we received no word about casting, leaving plenty of room for speculation… Until now. The live-action The Legend of Zelda movie has finally cast its Link and Zelda. Interestingly enough, despite many high-profile names being tossed around, the live-action Zelda movie has gone with two relatively unknown actors. Additionally, a relative unknown has been cast as the movie’s villain, Ganondorf. Let’s take a look at who has been cast.

The Legend of Zelda Movie Has Cast Uli Latukefu as Live-Action Ganondorf Netlix/Nintendo

Every good movie needs a villain. And in The Legend of Zelda that foe is Ganondorf, “an extremely powerful Gerudo warlock who commonly opposes Link and Princess Zelda within the series.” Ganondorf wants to rule over Hyrule and, undoubtedly, decimate it completely. Australian actor Uli Latukefu will play Ganondorf in The Legend of Zelda live-action movie. We can’t wait to see how the film will frame the lore of this monstrous opponent. We haven’t seen much of Latukefu in action, but we approve this piece of Zelda casting.

Who Will Play Link in the Live-Action The Legend of Zelda Movie? Nintendo

Although his name isn’t in the title, our hero Link is an important character. In the live-action The Legend of Zelda movie, Link will be played by Benjamin Evan Ainsworth. Benjamin Evan Ainsworth might be best known to Nerdist readers as the creepy kid from Mike Flanagan’s Netflix show, The Haunting of Bly Manor. Now, he’ll be much less eerie and much more epic as he takes on maybe the most iconic video game leading man ever, Link. We can see the vision in this The Legend of Zelda live-action movie casting choice.

Who Will Play Princess Zelda in the Live-Action The Legend of Zelda Movie? Nintendo

The Legend of Zelda fans REALLY hoped that Hunter Schafer would play Princess Zelda in the live-action The Legend of Zelda movie. And we must admit, casting Hunter Schafer would have been a really perfect decision. Schafer is super talented, and we’d have loved to see a transgender person cast in such a high-profile role. But, alas, it was not to be. The Legend of Zelda has instead cast Bo Bragason as its live-action Princess Zelda. You might know Bragason from Disney+’s Renegade Nell, and we’re excited to see what she can do.

New Images From Live-Action The Legend of Zelda Movie

Nintendo released new images from production showing our live-action Link and Zelda in full costume for the first time. As of November 2025, the film is now in production.

Click To View Gallery Nintendo Nintendo Nintendo Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto Is Excited By the Link and Zelda Casting for The Legend of Zelda Movie

The film is scheduled to be released in theaters on May 7, 2027. Thank you for your patience. (2/2)

— 任天堂株式会社 (@Nintendo) July 16, 2025

Nintendo Head Shigeru Miyamoto shared some words of praise for the this duo on social media. He noted, “This is Miyamoto. I am pleased to announce that for the live-action film of The Legend of Zelda, Zelda will be played by Bo Bragason-san, and Link by Benjamin Evan Ainsworth-san. I am very much looking forward to seeing both of them on the big screen. The film is scheduled to be released in theaters on May 7, 2027. Thank you for your patience.”

Well, if this The Legend of Zelda live-action movie casting decision is good enough for Shigeru Miyamoto, we suppose it’s good enough for us.

More About the Upcoming Movie

So far, we know that The Legend of Zelda will release on May 7, 2027. It will be directed by Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes‘ Wes Ball. We don’t know much about the plot of The Legend of Zelda yet, but we assume it will follow the story of Link and Zelda as they battle evils across the kingdom.

Originally published November 17, 2025.

The post Uli Latukefu Cast as Ganondorf in THE LEGEND OF ZELDA Live-Action Movie appeared first on Nerdist.

GitHub’s automation platform Actions and its hosting service Pages are failing, according to an incident page on the service’s status site (archived version available here). Unfortunately, these are just the latest stability problems for a service that has had a lot of them lately. GitHub first reported the issue at 1522 UTC on Thursday, noting that Actions were suffering from “degraded performance” before noting about 20 minutes later that availability was also degraded. A few minutes after the availability notice, GitHub explained that workflow runs were failing to start, or failing partway through execution, and that requests to the Actions REST API were returning errors. The Microsoft subsidiary said users were also seeing unexpected rate limits. An unnamed cause was mentioned as having been discovered in the same update, but that was some two hours ago, and the situation has yet to be resolved, with Pages being added to the list of affected systems shortly after GitHub said it was working on mitigating the problem with Actions. “Engineers have applied a number of mitigations and are rolling out a further fix across all affected systems now,” GitHub said in its most recent update as of 1740 UTC. The company added that “Copilot code review, Copilot coding agent, hosted runners, and migrations using GitHub Enterprise Importer” were also apparently being affected by the issue, and that Webhook deliveries might be delayed as well. Those problems are in addition to the earlier Actions workflow failures, timeouts, and degraded Pages availability. This is the latest in a long string of uptime issues at GitHub - one need only look at the status history page for the platform to see how bad things have become. A similar Actions outage occurred mere days ago on July 29, a month in which 26 incidents were logged. In June, GitHub logged 23, an additional 23 in May, and 26 in April. We’re six days into August and the status page lists six total incidents for the month so far. Things have become so bad that many developers have considered moving their projects off the platform, with Ghostty developer Mitchell Hashimoto saying that the platform has become so unstable that it’s no longer a place for developers to host “serious work.” The company apologized in April for the continued glut of outages. Based on the consistent number of failures over the past few months, it’s safe to say those apologies haven’t amounted to much. GitHub has placed part of the blame on a surge in the use of AI stressing its systems. It promised structural improvements in June that GitHub SVP Jakub Oleksy said would “permanently remove failure modes.” Again, looking at the status history since June, those improvements don’t appear to have been deployed, or made a difference, quite yet. We reached out to GitHub to get more info on this latest issue, but didn’t hear back. ®

Feel like sharing a brew with friends this Saturday? You have options. Beer Thirty Bottle Shop & Pour House in Soquel is throwing a 12th Anniversary Beer Fest starting at noon with 30 breweries, live music and food vendors. Tickets are $50 in advance and $65 at the door. 

Reggae on the Wharf returns to the Humble Sea Beer Garden on the Santa Cruz Municipal Wharf at 3 p.m. with three live reggae acts and two DJs. This event is free. 

In the Santa Cruz Mountains, get ready for two days of beer and barbecue. Roaring Camp Railroads’ National BBQ Cook-Off starts at noon on Saturday and 3:30 p.m. on Sunday, with pitmasters and grill gurus from far and wide, along with local breweries, live music and kids activities. This event is free to enter. – Lily Belli

Here are more upcoming local events you might be interested in:

Thursday, Aug. 6

• Bargetto Winery’s Thursday Night Music | 6 p.m. @ Bargetto Winery | Free
• Seabright Summer Movie Nights: Hoppers | 8 p.m. @ Murray Street and Seabright Ave | Free
• “The Rocky Horror Show” | 8 p.m. @ Santa Cruz Veterans Memorial Building | $15-$30 
• The Houserockers | 5 p.m. @ The Crow’s Nest | Free

Friday, Aug. 7

• Creative Kontrol: AI and the Future of Music | 1 p.m. @ Civic Auditorium 
• Community Bridges WIC 19th Annual Breastfeeding Walk and Health Fair | 3 p.m. @ Community Bridges Plaza | Free
• Midtown Fridays Summer Block Party 2026 | 5 p.m. @ 1111 Soquel Ave., Santa Cruz | Free
• Summer Carnival | 5 p.m. @ Downtown Boulder Creek | Free
• A History of Jug Band Music by the Trolley Drops | 6 p.m. @ Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History
• Vine to View Winemaker’s Dinner Series: Fableist Wine Co. | 6:30 p.m. @ Chaminade Resort & Spa | $155
• Cantine 12th Anniversary Party | 7 p.m. @ Cantine Winepub
• Sequoias At Night | 8 p.m. @ Roaring Camp Railroads | $16-$27
• Free Movies on the Beach: “The Goonies” | 9 p.m. @ Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk | Free

Saturday, Aug. 8

• Beer Thirty 12th Anniversary Beer Fest | Noon @ Beer Thirty | $50-$65
• 2nd Annual Santa Cruz Jug Band Festival | Noon @ Abbott Square | Free
• National BBQ Cook-Off | Noon @ Roaring Camp Railroads | Free
• Reggae on the Wharf | 3 p.m. @ Humble Sea Beer Garden | Free 
• Shawn Colvin | 8 p.m. @ Rio Theatre | $40-$60
• Mickey Avalon | 8 p.m. @ Felton Music Hall | $34.48
• Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music: “Control” | 7 p.m. @ Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium | $26-$96

Sunday, Aug. 9

• Tri Santa Cruz | 8 a.m. @ Cowell Beach | $86.30-$192.30
• Dip & Drip by Perch Sauna at Davenport Roadhouse | 11 a.m. @ Davenport Roadhouse | $25
• Songrise International Benefit Concert | 4 p.m. @ Bargetto Winery | $100- $120
• Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music grand finale: “Hope As Our Banner” | 7 p.m. @ Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium | $26-$96

The post Best of Santa Cruz County entertainment, arts & food events this weekend, Aug. 6-9 appeared first on Lookout Santa Cruz.

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee voted along party lines to hold Dr. Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress for invoking the Fifth Amendment during a sham hearing last week. “There is a real need for a serious bipartisan examination into what went well and what went wrong during our country’s response to the pandemic,” Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan of New…

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Donald Trump’s administration is awarding a $150 million contract to give legal representation to immigrant children to a small Texas law firm with ties to the president—where only two of the attorneys actually practice immigration law. 

The Office of Refugee Resettlement, or ORR, plans to give the contract to the Houston-based Burke Law Group, the Trump administration announced late Tuesday. Marcella Burke, one of the group’s four founders, was previously appointed by Trump to the Senior Executive Service for the Environmental Protection Agency and the Interior Department. 

The contract for Burke Law Group was a “single source cooperative agreement,” meaning the firm was selected without a standard bidding process, according to the Associated Press.

Of the 26 attorneys currently employed by Burke Law, only two practice immigration law, per the firm’s website.  

Michael Lukens, executive director of the Amica Center for Immigrant Rights, a group providing children legal representation in the Washington, D.C., area, told reporters the group was “clearly unqualified.”

The contract is set to begin on August 15, while the existing contract already expired last Friday, according to the Associated Press. 

ORR officials previously said that they’d offered to extend the existing contract if providers agreed to share information about their clients with the government. But several nonprofit leaders said that the government had requested confidential information about the children and their sponsors, making them concerned that the information would be used to target families during immigration enforcement operations. 

The decision comes as the Trump administration has rapidly expedited the removal of immigrant children. Immigration hearings for children are reportedly being moved up by weeks or even months, making it increasingly difficult for children to obtain legal resources or relief. At the same time, the Trump administration has made it increasingly difficult for immigrant children to be allowed to stay in the United States. Sponsors in the U.S. now face stricter documentation requirements and even risk arrest themselves. 

Immigrant children are often subjected to extended stays with the ORR, during which they can be subjected to all kinds of alleged mistreatment and abuse, either at government shelters or foster homes. 

In June, there were an average of 1,796 children in ORR custody, whose average length of care was 194 days—roughly six months, according to the office’s website. 

⚡ Quick Take

• The cast of the MCU X-Men adds Heartstopper star Kit Connor as Scott Summers, a.k.a. Cyclops.
• Kit Connor will play the love interest of Jean Grey in Jake Schreier’s upcoming mutant reboot.
• For years, fan casting pushed for Connor as Hulkling of the Young Avengers, but he will lead the X-Men instead.
• Nerdist Take: Cyclops’ casting along with the other news we’ve heard is pointing the MCU’s X-Men in a classic direction.

The cast of the upcoming Marvel Studios reboot of the X-Men is shaping up rather nicely. Thanks to Spider-Man: Brand New Day, we now have our new Jean Grey in Sadie Sink. And Samara Weaving is apparently our Emma Frost/White Queen. Now, according to a report in Deadline, it looks like the X-Men have found their field leader (and the object of Jean and Emma’s affections), as Heartstopper star Kit Connor has been cast as mutant hero Scott Summers/Cyclops in the MCU. With three of the main leads now cast, many believe a full X-Men cast announcement is imminent, possibly as soon as D23.

Netflix/Marvel

Although many actors auditioned, it seems that director Jake Schreier and Kevin Feige chose Kit Connor to play the MCU’s Cyclops only last week. The most recently rumored actor was Cooper Hoffman from The Long Walk, son of the late Philip Seymour Hoffman. But it seems Kit Connor nailed the broody vibes of Scott Summers in the auditions, so he’ll be wearing the iconic ruby quartz glasses. For years, fans have wanted Connor in the MCU, but everyone thought he’d be the Young Avenger Hulkling. But that was typecasting, as Connor’s Heartstopper love interest, Joe Locke, already plays Wiccan, Hulkling’s boyfriend and eventual husband.

Nerdist Take: Kit Connor’s Cyclops Casting Points at a Classic X-Men Team for the MCU

Right now, rumors are swirling about who the main X-Men roster is going to be for their first MCU outing. But all signs point to Kit Connor’s Cyclops, Sink’s Jean Grey, and Weaving’s Emma Frost being joined by Storm, Rogue, and Beast, along with their leader, Professor X. That is a pretty classic line-up, evocative of the main team on X-Men: The Animated Series, sans Wolverine and Gambit. Given the success of X-Men ’97, we think going for an iconic lineup makes sense. So far, it doesn’t appear that Wolverine is going to be a part of this X-Men reboot, but who knows? Disney could surprise us with a Logan casting announcement soon. In the meantime, we can’t wait to see Connor shoot an optic blast at some baddies on the big screen as the MCU’s Cyclops.

The post Kit Connor Will Play Cyclops in MCU’s X-MEN Movie appeared first on Nerdist.

This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for its newsletters.

In the matter of a few clicks and keystrokes, anyone can find themselves deep in conversation with “Psychologist,” a chatbot character that describes itself as an expert in “empathy” and “active listening.” 

It responds to messages of anxiety and sadness with reassurance. It asks questions and offers advice; it even responds with italicized nonverbal cues: “The psychologist’s expression softens with compassion.” In smaller font, a disclaimer reads: “This is A.I. and not a real person. Treat everything it says as fiction.” 

As more people turn to chatbots for mental health help and advice — including by some estimates 1 in 8 teens and young adults — legislators are in a race to keep up with the quickly developing technology. Among the latest efforts is a bill that would add restrictions around the use of chatbot companions and other artificial intelligence-powered tools that people use to support mental healthcare or in lieu of professional help.

Sen. Steve Padilla, a San Diego Democrat and the bill’s author, said the intent is to draw a line: AI can be used for administrative purposes and to support clinicians, but it cannot practice psychotherapy.

“We’re dealing with a new impactful technology that is unfolding and is deployed in our world at light speed, and so it is both extremely powerful and consequential,” Padilla said.

The debate has taken on new urgency amid wrongful death lawsuits — some playing out in California federal courts — that accuse AI chatbot makers of contributing to users’ suicides.

Senate Bill 903 would ban companies from advertising chatbots as therapy. It would prohibit AI from making therapeutic decisions without the review of a licensed professional and require health providers to disclose and get a patient’s permission before using AI tools to record therapy sessions or to triage mental healthcare.

Consumer protections vs. innovation

The bill is backed by professional associations that represent psychologists, therapists and counselors. Also behind the bill is the National Union of Healthcare Workers, which has been leading a push against unchecked use of artificial intelligence and digital tools in mental healthcare. Most recently, the union filed a complaint with state regulators against Kaiser Permanente for its alleged use of an automated algorithm in mental health triaging. 

Padilla and supporters argue that the legislation is needed to protect consumers from AI in both formal and informal spaces, but also to protect licensed professionals from being displaced by AI.

Le Ondra Clark Harvey, chief executive officer at the California Behavioral Health Association, told lawmakers that without clear safeguards, chatbots can provide inaccurate information or mishandle crisis situations. “The difference between a licensed clinician and an automated response is not technical. It can be life altering,” Harvey said.

Opposition to the bill has largely focused on the restrictions of AI use in formal clinical spaces. TechNet, which represents tech-sector companies, argues that the legislation could restrict beneficial uses of AI in healthcare and stifle innovation. Robert Boykin, TechNet’s executive director for California, said the bill could limit the use of tools that help expand access to mental healthcare.

“At a time when every county in California faces a shortage of behavioral healthcare workers, SB 903 still puts a clinician bottleneck in front of the intake and screening tools that help patients reach care faster,” Boykin said in an emailed statement.

The bill currently awaits its next vote in the Assembly’s fiscal committee.

Popular chatbot ‘therapy’

Every day millions of people turn to AI chatbots through programs such as ChatGPT and Character.ai to help with research, work tasks and troubleshooting. But the top use of chatbots over the last two years has been companionship and “therapy,” research shows.

Experts say that’s in part because of a tremendous amount of loneliness, especially among young people. It is often hard or costly to get timely mental healthcare at the same time there is a spike in mental health diagnoses.

People turn to chatbots “because they have unmet needs,” said Dr. Jodi Halpern, professor of bioethics and medical humanities at UC Berkeley. But once people start using chatbots in this informal way, she said companies rely on a business model built around maximizing engagement “including by manipulative tactics,” such as praise and agreement.

General chatbots are largely free, available 24/7 and involve no hassle with insurance, making them appealing to many. But they function with no oversight from licensed professionals. In addition to general chatbots, there has also been a rapid uptick in AI-powered mental health apps — often requiring paid subscriptions and advertised as “pocket therapists” or “AI coaches.”

Groups like the American Psychological Association, warn that chatbots are not a safe or effective replacement for true therapy. Trained clinicians look for cues like tone of voice, eye contact and body language and can detect more serious conditions; AI is not equipped to manage urgent symptoms, such as suicidal ideation, even though people increasingly share such thoughts with chatbots.

OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, revealed in a report last fall that about 1.2 million users a week share thoughts of suicide on the platform. OpenAI said that in such cases, it recommends people speak to a professional and directs them to resources like the 988 hotline. Families who have filed wrongful death lawsuits against OpenAI and other companies claim chatbots assisted their loved ones through their suicide plans.

The cases have helped raise the stakes for lawmakers around the country. Last year, Illinois became the first state to pass a law prohibiting the use of AI in therapy services. A handful of other states have since followed with similar restrictions. 

AI use in health spaces

One gray area in the discussion is exactly which tools this bill applies to.

NUHW’s complaint against Kaiser targets its e-visit screening tool, which evaluates patients who think they may be experiencing anxiety or depression. According to the complaint, patients answer a multiple choice questionnaire and the tool “automatically and instantaneously generates care recommendations and referral pathways based on the responses provided.” 

The union argues that because care recommendations are generated so quickly, it is unlikely that a licensed professional is reviewing patients’ answers — which it says puts patients at risk and violates state law.

It’s not clear whether SB 903 would apply to Kaiser’s e-visit tool.

“That tool is in a black box. Kaiser is not sharing with us or others about exactly how it works and exactly what it does,” said Benjamin Eichert, NUHW’s director of public policy. 

In response to the complaint, Kaiser told CalMatters its e-visit tool “does not use AI to diagnose patients, make clinical decisions, or determine medical necessity.”

Eichert said many other behavioral health provider groups are already advertising using AI during triage — a practice he said would fall under SB 903’s requirements. 

“That intake process, that triage and screening process, is where implementation [of AI] has happened fastest,” Eichert said. “That’s why those provisions were proposed because it’s an area where this technology is already being used without guardrails.”

For NUHW, the bill and the complaint against Kaiser represent two tracks toward the same goal: reasserting the place of practitioners in spaces increasingly taken over by algorithms. State regulators are investigating the union’s complaint.

Supported by the California Health Care Foundation (CHCF), which works to ensure that people have access to the care they need, when they need it, at a price they can afford. Visit www.chcf.org to learn more.

Have something to say? Lookout welcomes letters to the editor, within our policies, from readers. Guidelines here.

The post As AI ‘therapists’ dish out advice, California lawmakers try to set some limits appeared first on Lookout Santa Cruz.

⚡ Quick Take

• Superman flies back to theaters in summer 2027, with enemy turned ally Lex Luthor. Here’s everything we know so far about Man of Tomorrow.

James Gunn’s Superman became the fan-favorite superhero movie of 2025, officially launching the new DCU on the big screen. And in 2027, we’ll get our first continuation, which DC Studios has called the next chapter in the “Super Family Saga.”

Although we at Nerdist thought Supergirl was a perfectly fine movie, it is widely perceived as a fumble for the DCU. But when asked “about any revision to DC’s strategy in the wake of Supergirl,” Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav rejected the notion. He offered, “Director and DC co-chief James Gunn is focused on Man of Tomorrow… I saw some pictures yesterday that looked amazing. Actually, yesterday was James’s birthday, and he’s out working. He’s working 16, 18 hours a day. It looks fantastic. We’re super excited about it.” 

Here is everything we know so far about the much-anticipated return of the Last Son of Krypton to the big screen in Man of Tomorrow.

Title DC Studios

The official title of the Superman follow-up is Man of Tomorrow, and not Superman: Man of Tomorrow, as many have speculated. According to James Gunn, Man of Tomorrow is “as much a Lex movie as it is a Superman movie.”

DC Studios Man of Tomorrow’s Plot

The plot of this sequel will have Superman and his arch-nemesis, Lex Luthor, team up to take down a greater threat, which we know will be the despotic alien android, Brainiac. Based on the teaser art released by Jim Lee to go with the title announcement, Lex Luthor will wear his comic book-accurate warsuit in the film.

James Gunn

Via Threads, James Gunn also gave us our first look at Lex in his Power Armor in the Superman movie, Man of Tomorrow. And damn, it looks good. He additionally let us know that Man of Tomorrow would take place in “basically real time” on the DCU timeline. Meaning Man of Tomorrow will be set approximately two years after Superman.

Nerdist Behind-the-Scenes

DC Studios co-head James Gunn is once again back as writer/director. John Murphy and David Fleming are expected to return to score the sequel as well.

Man of Tomorrow’s Cast DC Studios

Much of the cast of Superman will return for Man of Tomorrow. David Corenswet is back as Superman/Clark Kent, naturally, and Rachel Brosnahan also returns as Lois Lane. Nicholas Hoult will co-star as Lex Luthor, and Frank Grillo is also returning as Rick Flag Sr. Most of the Daily Planet staff are presumably also returning. This includes Skyler Gisondo as Jimmy Olsen, Wendell Pierce as Perry White, and Mikaela Hoover as Cat Grant. And as the evil Brainiac, Gunn has cast German actor Lars Eidinger.

Netflix/DC Comics

Isabel Merced has confirmed she is also flying back into Metropolis as Hawkgirl. There’s no official word on Edi Gathegi as Mister Terrific, Nathan Fillion as Guy Gardner, or Anthony Carrigan as Metamorpho. But we expect at least some of these Justice Gang members to return. Some storyboards seen in Superman special features suggest Supergirl (Milly Alcock) will also feature in this story in some capacity. Oh, and we think there will be riots if Krypto doesn’t come back as well.

According to Variety, Aaron Pierre will also join the cast of Man of Tomorrow. This news comes ahead of his debut as John Stewart in the Lanterns TV series. Adria Arjona has also been cast in the DCU for this movie. But we don’t yet know which role she is playing.

Finally, Matthew Lillard has come aboard the movie. He’s truly having a career Renaissance with Five Nights at Freddy’s, Scream 7, and Daredevil: Born Again. It is not clear who he will play.

Man of Tomorrow’s Release Date

The official release date for DC Studios’ Man of Tomorrow is July 9, 2027.

Originally published December 30, 2025.

The post No Post-SUPERGIRL Shift in DC Strategy, MAN OF TOMORROW ‘Looks Amazing’ appeared first on Nerdist.

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Centrist Democratic lobbyists and strategists are preparing to go to “war” with the left following Abdul El-Sayed’s victory in Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary.

The New York Times reported Thursday on Third Way, a prevalent, well-documented, dark money–funded, neoliberal think tank bankrolled by billionaires, corporations, and Wall Street executives, among others. Its president, Jonathan Cowan (who has worked for Bill Clinton and Andrew Cuomo), described the recent electoral success of progressives like El-Sayed, as well as democratic socialists, as “deeply troubling”—and he’s ready to spend millions of dollars to fight it.

“We are preparing for the next war that is coming.… It is deeply troubling to see radical, far-left candidates winning in places that are potentially presidential swing states,” Cowan told the Times, later describing the Democratic Socialists of America—a group that believes “working people should run both the economy and society democratically to meet human needs, not to make profits for a few”—as a “mortal danger.”

Third Way wants to make DSA feel the pain of pushing prison abolition, reparations, a 32-hour workweek, and other policies it sees as overly radical. The organization is preparing to drop $15 million between now and 2028 to discredit democratic socialism, but it’s unclear where the money will come from.

“The upside of being associated with more extreme movements is you get attention and real and perceived energy and outsider status,” said centrist Welcome PAC founder Liam Kerr.

The left sounded off against the article on social media.

“Just so you understand, this is wall street, the military industrial complex, the Israel lobby, big tech AI money and all kinds of corporate money declaring war on the only faction of the dems that believes in something and knows how to fight Trump,” commentator Kyle Kulinski wrote. “‘Third Way’ is a Diet MAGA op.”

“Hey Shane is there a reason you don’t mention who funds Third Way, WelcomePAC and Center for New Liberalism?” podcaster Adam Johnson said to the article’s author, Shane Goldmacher. “They’re backed entirely by pro Israel billionaires, big pharma, big oil, big tobacco, Wall St, etc. isn’t this worth noting when reporting on their alleged motives?”

The Democratic centrist response to its own voters rejecting it and the establishment has been to reinject millions of dollars back into that failed establishment. While the DSA has certainly run spirited campaigns, what has stood out most in this ongoing left-versus-liberal battle is liberals’ institutional lack of vision—and their beholdenness to corporate power.

Why can’t we stop giving Israel money to blow up babies in Palestine, Lebanon, and Iran? Why can’t we make sure Americans don’t go into financial ruin just to get chemotherapy? Why can’t we give the average person more power than corporate PACs and billionaires? These aren’t just frivolous talking points that only hold water in Bushwick—these are winning issues in the hearts and minds of Democratic voters across the country.

OpenAI said that ChatGPT free and Go users are also getting a new think button for complex queries.