Edition, Sun, 25 Oct 2026.

Pennsylvania becomes first state to mandate AI labeling on political ads

Governor Josh Shapiro signed a law requiring clear disclosures on any ad significantly modified by AI.

Governor Josh Shapiro signed a law requiring clear disclosures on any ad significantly modified by AI.

The law, known as the Artificial Intelligence Deceptive Advertising Act, applies to all forms of ad content — images, video, audio, and text. It requires any advertisement that "has been significantly modified or generated" by AI to include a clear disclosure to the consumer. Pennsylvania now joins a growing list of jurisdictions considering AI transparency rules, but this is the first state to pass a law specifically targeting political and commercial advertising. The law takes effect immediately upon signing.

Blue Planet III keeps rough edges in the age of AI authenticity

The BBC's nature documentary series deliberately leaves imperfect shots to prove its footage is genuinely captured, not AI-generated.

The BBC's nature documentary series deliberately leaves imperfect shots to prove its footage is genuinely captured, not AI-generated.

BBC's Blue Planet III is pushing back against the growing suspicion that nature documentaries use AI-generated imagery. Rather than smoothing over every imperfection, the series is intentionally leaving in less-than-perfect shots — the kind that would typically be flagged as evidence of AI fabrication. The move is an attempt to prove the authenticity of organic, captured footage in an era where deepfakes and AI-generated content are making genuine documentary increasingly hard to distinguish from synthetic media. It's a fascinating reversal: imperfection as proof of reality.

Grok chooses Republicans, OpenAI picks Democrats — AI models diverge wildly on elections

A new study found Grok and GPT disagree in more than 90% of nearly 500 election races, with each model heavily favoring different parties.

A new study found Grok and GPT disagree in more than 90% of nearly 500 election races, with each model heavily favoring different parties.

A comprehensive new study examined how leading AI models recommend voting in American elections, and the results were starkly partisan. Grok overwhelmingly recommended Republican candidates while OpenAI's GPT favored Democrats, with the two models disagreeing in over 90 percent of nearly 500 election races tested. The findings raise significant questions about the growing role of AI in civic life — as voters increasingly turn to AI for information, these models are effectively acting as partisan political advisors, with their training data and alignment choices baked into their recommendations.

Cerebras deploys trillion-parameter frontier models on custom silicon

The AI hardware company announced it is running frontier-scale models with a trillion parameters on its proprietary wafer-scale processors.

The AI hardware company announced it is running frontier-scale models with a trillion parameters on its proprietary wafer-scale processors.

Cerebras announced the deployment of its most ambitious AI models yet — trillion-parameter frontier models running on its custom wafer-scale computing hardware. The announcement details how the company's proprietary architecture handles the extreme computational demands of these massive models, marking a significant milestone in the arms race for frontier AI capabilities. Cerebras' approach of building custom hardware specifically optimized for large-scale AI inference and training continues to differentiate it in a market dominated by general-purpose GPU solutions.

America has lost 200,000 jobs in media, film and the arts — AI gets blamed

A new analysis questions how much of the creative sector's job losses can be attributed to AI as the industry continues to transform.

A new analysis questions how much of the creative sector's job losses can be attributed to AI as the industry continues to transform.

A widely discussed analysis on Hacker News examined the dramatic decline in employment across America's creative industries, where 200,000 jobs in media, film, and the arts have been lost. The piece sparked over 400 comments, reflecting deep anxiety about AI's impact on creative work. While the causal factors are complex and multifaceted, the timing of these losses has led many to point to generative AI tools as a primary driver, as studios and publishers increasingly adopt AI for content creation, illustration, writing, and editing. The debate underscores the tension between AI's potential to democratize creativity and its capacity to displace the human labor that has sustained creative industries for generations.

ServiceNow's Moment of Truth: Can Agentic AI Hold Up a ~96x Multiple?

With Q3 results due Wednesday after the close, investors get a hard test of whether the company's AI momentum justifies a premium valuation with little room for a stumble.

With Q3 results due Wednesday after the close, investors get a hard test of whether the company's AI momentum justifies a premium valuation with little room for a stumble.

ServiceNow (NYSE: NOW) reports third-quarter results on Wednesday, October 28, after the close. Shares are up 11.97% over the past week and 12.91% over the past month, yet the stock still carries a trailing P/E of about 96, in a range of roughly 80x to 96x that already assumes agentic AI growth keeps compounding. It remains down 15.37% over the past year, and history shows how quickly opinion can turn: after Q1's slim 0.35% beat, shares fell 17.75% on report day.

The setup from Q2: non-GAAP EPS of $0.90 against a $0.8564 consensus, a sixth straight beat, and revenue up 24.0% to $3.987 billion, though management said about half of that beat came from U.S. Federal on-premise revenue pulled forward from Q3, and flagged a roughly $35 million FX drag to Q3 cRPO. Guidance calls for subscription revenue of $3,975 to $3,980 million, cRPO growth of 19.5%, a 31% non-GAAP operating margin, and an 81% subscription gross margin. The watch list: AI contract value (management is on track to beat its $1.5 billion year-end target after AI crossed $1 billion in ACV and AI net-new ACV grew over 40% sequentially in Q2), cRPO (about $29 billion in RPO and $13.2 billion in cRPO entering the back half), and margins (Moveworks, Veza, and Armis integrations drove GAAP operating income down 54.75% to $162 million last quarter). Management's pitch: "Customers aren't paying us for tokens. They're paying for resolutions."

NOW Holds at $157 as Earnings Loom

The stock has outpaced a softer tape this month, but a 37.7 forward P/E and a Zacks Rank of #4 (Sell) keep the bar high for Wednesday's report.

The stock has outpaced a softer tape this month, but a 37.7 forward P/E and a Zacks Rank of #4 (Sell) keep the bar high for Wednesday's report.

ServiceNow closed its latest session at $157.00, up 2.53% on the day, outpacing an S&P 500 that fell 1.21% while the Dow edged up 0.02% and the Nasdaq dropped 2.6%. Over the past month the shares have gained 8.77%, against a 3.87% decline in the Computer and Technology sector.

Consensus for the October 28 report is normalized EPS of $1.02, up 6.25% year over year, on revenue of $4.09 billion, up roughly 20%. Full-year estimates sit at $4.06 per share and $16.17 billion in revenue, growth of about 15.7% and 21.8% respectively. Valuation remains a premium: a forward P/E of 37.7 versus 15.6 for the industry and a PEG of 1.54 versus a 1.31 sector average, with consensus EPS estimates unchanged over the past month.

CNBC's Investment Committee Flags ServiceNow in "Calls of the Day"

Halftime Report featured ServiceNow, alongside SpaceX, among the names on its watchlist days before the Q3 report.

Halftime Report featured ServiceNow, alongside SpaceX, among the names on its watchlist days before the Q3 report.

In a Friday segment, the Halftime Report Investment Committee debated ServiceNow and SpaceX as the latest "Calls of the Day" in the show's recurring feature on stocks it is tracking. The appearance lands with ServiceNow's third-quarter results set for Wednesday, October 28, after the close, and with the stock up nearly 12% over the past week.