NEWS YOU CAN’T MISS

New York Passes Its First Major AI Law

New York has just taken a big step into AI regulation.

Governor Kathy Hochul has signed the RAISE Act, making New York the second US state after California to pass a major law focused on AI safety and transparency.

The law isn’t aimed at everyday apps or casual AI tools. Instead, it targets the largest AI developers: the companies building systems that increasingly influence loans, hiring decisions, healthcare outcomes, and the information people see online.

Under the RAISE Act, these companies must:

• publicly explain how they test AI systems for safety

• report serious AI-related incidents to the state within 72 hours

• operate under a new AI oversight office inside New York’s Department of Financial Services

Companies that fail to comply or provide misleading information can face fines of up to $1M, rising to $3M for repeat violations.

Why this matters: the US still lacks a single federal law governing how powerful AI systems are built, tested, or monitored. As AI plays a growing role in everyday decisions, states are stepping in to fill that gap.

Some AI companies, including OpenAI and Anthropic, have voiced support for transparency, while also urging Congress to move faster on national rules to avoid a patchwork of state-by-state laws.

(Source: Anthony Ha reporting for TechCrunch)

Your Leftovers Just Got a Second Life

At Whole Foods, yesterday’s scraps are becoming tomorrow’s eggs.

Instead of sending fruit and vegetable waste to dumpsters, Whole Foods stores will use smart food-recycling machines that turn scraps into chicken feed.

Here’s how it works:

• Mill’s machines shrink food waste by up to 80% by dehydrating and grinding scraps into a dry material safe for animal feed. This sharply cuts emissions and lowers waste-hauling costs.

• The feeding chickens then lay eggs sold back into the food system. The result is a closed loop: food scraps → feed → eggs.

• The machines use AI to track what’s being thrown away in real time. If a store consistently discards unsold croissants or produce, managers can spot the adjust - baking less, ordering smarter, and wasting less.

The technology comes from startup Mill, and Amazon (which owns Whole Foods) plans to roll the machines out across stores by 2027.

It’s big: food waste is a massive but often overlooked problem. Globally, wasted food produces nearly 10% of greenhouse gas emissions and costs about $1 trillion a year. Grocery stores discard huge volumes of food daily - often items that were still perfectly edible.

Mill has raised $250 million so far, with investors including Google Ventures betting that AI can finally help tackle one of the world’s biggest climate challenges.

(Source: Amy Harder reporting for Axios)

The Tooth Fairy is Live - Watch?

The new Tooth Fairy Tracker turns a bedtime ritual into a full-blown interactive saga for Gen Alpha (born 2010 and after) :

• You sign your kid up when a tooth falls out

• Throughout the evening, Kiki the Tooth Fairy sends an episodic arc of:

  • “Pre-flight toothbrush prep”

  • Boarding the fairy jet at HQ

  • Selfies with flight speed updates

• Countdowns between videos transform your kitchen clock into electric anticipation.

• Morning update: “Congrats — check under the pillow!”

For a $20 premium subscription, Kiki in 2026 will call kids by name and give a custom certificate for each tooth.