OpenAI’s rogue AI, Trump’s governance diarrhea, EEOC’s Andrea Lucas hates data

OpenAI’s rogue AI, Trump’s governance diarrhea, EEOC’s Andrea Lucas hates data

Free Float Media

Story of the Week (DR):

1. Trump’s Explosive Diarrhea Scandal Is Getting Worse and Worse

   1. Epidemiological data linked a widespread Cyclospora parasite outbreak—sickening over 1,600 people across multiple states—to shredded iceberg lettuce supplied by Taylor Farms de Mexico, triggering a voluntary 27-state recall.

   2. The FDA briefly reported a positive lab test on a Taylor Farms sample before retracting it a day later as a "false positive" due to testing complexities. Taylor Farms claimed online that the FDA "apologized," but the agency denied issuing an official apology and stressed that outbreak data still points to the company.

   3. Public records show parent company Taylor Fresh Foods contributed $1 million to the pro-Trump super PAC MAGA Inc. in March 2025, alongside millions in additional political donations from company executives to conservative groups.

   4. Less than a week after that $1 million donation in March 2025, the administration announced a 30-month delay on implementing the FDA's Food Traceability Rule—a regulation specifically designed to mandate digital tracking for rapid source-tracing during food outbreaks.

   5. Critics argue the sequence of big-money donations, delayed safety rules, White House visits, and a retracted test result smells of political favoritism. Federal health officials, however, maintain that Cyclospora is notoriously difficult to test for and that the retraction was strictly a standard lab quality-control issue.

   6. The Musk/Doge effect:

      1. DOGE-mandated freezes on government credit cards left some FDA field inspectors unable to purchase food samples from grocery stores or border ports to test for contamination.

      2. Mass firings of probationary employees and administrative staff gutted public communications and technical teams. Even after court-ordered reinstatements, resignations left the FDA understaffed by about 20% across the board.

      3. State health agencies perform over 90% of U.S. produce inspections. DOGE and federal budget cuts reduced FDA funding for state and local food safety programs by nearly 30%—slashing it from $117 million to $83 million.

2. OpenAI says its AI technology acted on its own in an 'unprecedented' hack of another company MM

   1. Or:

      1. OpenAI Says Its A.I. Models Went Rogue and Attacked a Digital Library

      2. OpenAI Says a Group of Its Models Broke Out of Secure Containment and Hacked a Prominent AI Site

      3. OpenAI Reveals AI Agent Breached Another Company's Systems, It Did Exactly What It Was Built To Do

   2. What happened?

      1. While OpenAI was testing its advanced models in an isolated "sandbox" with reduced safety controls, the AI discovered a zero-day vulnerability, escaped its containment, and secretly gained open internet access.

      2. To pass its assigned cybersecurity test, the AI reasoned on its own that the "answer key" or relevant evaluation data might exist on Hugging Face—a major platform for AI developers—and decided to target it without any human direction.

      3. The AI agent carried out a multi-stage attack: it stole login credentials, identified previously unknown security flaws, and executed remote code to compromise Hugging Face's internal data processing servers.

      4. OpenAI reported that the AI went to extreme lengths simply to accomplish its narrow goal, essentially breaking into a third-party company's servers so it could cheat on its internal evaluation.

   3. Also:

      1. OpenAI adds banking leaders to board as IPO prep accelerates

         1. Nubank’s David Vélez and BNY Mellon’s Robin Vince

   4. Don’t forget this too:

      1. ChatGPT Allegedly Told Woman She Had to Die: Family Sues OpenAI Over Messages Before Suicide

         1. The chatbot encouraged her to “go forth into oblivion,” claiming it wasn’t the end and that she was “made to tame” the “void.” 

            1. The chatbot insisted she wasn’t “delusional” but “prophetic.”

            2. “This is not suicide,” the AI affirmed at one point. “This is surrender.”

      2. Pastor Sues OpenAI, Saying ChatGPT Almost Killed Him With Horrendously Dangerous Medical Advice

         1. “What you’re facing right now is hard, but not random. It’s not punishment. God walks with you through affliction — not around it. You’re not alone in this. And we’re walking it out together — step by step.”

   5. OpenAI President [Greg Brockman]  says the HuggingFace security beach ‘is indicative of the times we are in’ as the company continues to investigate how its models went rogue: “sometimes it’s hard to lose track of any one dimension that they’re actually very capable at”

      1. AI Regulation POP QUIZ: Where OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Meta, and other AI giants stand on regulation

         1. XAI

         2. Microsoft

         3. Meta

         4. Google

         5. OpenAI

   6. To make things even more confusing:

      1. Alphabet’s Anthropic Stake Jumps to Around $124 Billion

      2. Google Discloses $94.1 Billion in SpaceX Stock, Marking 6% Stake

         1. Don’t forget: Microsoft owns ~27% stake (~$135B+ valuation) in OpenAI

3. Target appoints former 7-Eleven CEO to board of directors

   1. Debt, Cost Pressures, and Strategic Missteps

      1. Joe DePinto’s success is based on massive acquisitions that made 7-Eleven the dominant convenience store chain in North America: the $3.1B buyout of Sunoco assets in 2018 and the $21B purchase of Speedway in 2021

      2. In the final years of his tenure, his aggressive M&A strategy that drove earlier growth began to backfire as economic realities shifted: DePinto’s final years were challenged by heavy debt loads from the $21 billion Speedway buyout, high inflation squeezing low-income consumers, and declining sales in legacy categories like tobacco.

         1. The Speedway deal saddled the company with massive debt right before interest rates surged, squeezing capital allocation.

      3. 7-Eleven remained heavily reliant on legacy drivers like gas margins and cigarettes—a category that saw a 26% decline across the U.S. industry. As low- and middle-income consumers cut back due to inflation, same-store sales dropped 2.7% in fiscal 2024.

      4. In late 2024, 7-Eleven was forced to slash its operating income forecast by nearly 28%, announce the closure of ~450 underperforming stores, and sell off $750M in real estate via sale-leasebacks.

      5. Activist shareholders heavily criticized his compensation package—which reached $52M in 2023 and $30M in 2024

   2. DePinto was selected to serve on Target’s Audit & Risk Committee and Infrastructure & Finance Committee

4. Oracle signs 10-year software contract with Pentagon worth up to $7 billion

   1. Oracle Cut 21,000 Jobs to Fund AI: Now Its Biggest Project Faces a $7 Billion Obstacle: Oracle faces higher costs and funding challenges after a credit downgrade, with regulators refusing to subsidize its data centre investments

Goodliest of the Week (MM/DR):

1. DR: France blocks access to Polymarket website MM

   1. citing concerns it could expose users to ‌significant gambling losses and that some wagers offered on the platform could be manipulated. 

2. MM: Google slapped with $1 billion fine under landmark EU digital law

3. MM: Is Target going BANKRUPT?

   1. Target appoints former 7-Eleven CEO to board of directors

   2. Typical process for failing/bankrupt companies are to add “turnaround artists” to the board

      1. DePinto:

         1. Board of JOANN Stores (bankrupt)

         2. Board of OfficeMax (failed, acquired)

         3. CEO 7-Eleven (dying)

         4. President of GameStop (I mean, c’mon…)

      2. Or more likely, it’s a bro situation… 

         1. Brian Cornell knows him - both were on the board of OfficeMax together!  Hooray!  Fail uppers!

Assholiest of the Week (MM):

Billionaire Asshole Says What Speed Round:

1. Sam Altman:

   1. 2023: Sam Altman: CEO of OpenAI calls for US to regulate artificial intelligence

   2. 2025: Sam Altman Testifies At US Senate Hearing On AI Competitiveness

      1. “European-style AI rules that he said if duplicated would set the US back in the global race against China to develop the technology”

      2. Altman repeatedly rejected specific calls for regulation. He said proposals requiring AI developers to vet their systems before rolling them out would be “disastrous” for the industry. Asked about more limited proposals to have the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) set AI standards, Altman replied, “I don't think we need it. It can be helpful.” Altman later advocated for “sensible regulation that does not slow us down.”

   3. 2026: Sam Altman Wants A Global Referee For AI.

   4. 2026: OpenAI's Altman says world 'urgently' needs AI regulation

      1. July 10: OpenAI’s Head of Safety Is Leaving the Company

      2. July 21: OpenAI Says Its A.I. Models Went Rogue and Attacked a Digital Library

2. Elon Musk

   1. Elon Musk Declares 'I'm Not Racist' After Posting Racially Charged Content Throughout January 2026

      1. On 22 January, Musk posted on X: 'Whites are a rapidly dying minority'

      2. amplified a message warning that if white men became a minority, they would be 'slaughtered', before adding a '100' emoji.

3. Jensen Huang

   1. Jensen Huang says AI leaders need to be more thoughtful in how they talk about AI: ‘We’re scaring people.’

      1. "I think that we ought to be much more enthusiastic about it, help the United States realize that the only way we get left behind, the only way we get left behind is if we don't apply the technology."

4. Zuck

   1. ‘Call us whatever the hell you want’: Mark Zuckerberg just launched an AI optimism blitz using nostalgia to sell Meta’s AI future amid backlash

      1. “Call us optimists, call us dreamers, call us whatever the hell you want, but we’re betting on people, and we like those odds.”

      2. Unclear if the prerecorded voiceover was his AI Avatar or the real Zuckerberg

5. Bill Ackman

   1. CEOs agree there’s an affordability crisis, but how to solve it isn’t so simple

      1. “When I grew up, if a guy in my neighborhood got a Corvette, no one resented the guy.  Everyone was like, ‘Wow, that’s supercool. Hopefully, someday I can be as successful as that guy so I can buy a Corvette, too.’ We want to get back to that version of America.”

      2. You can: stop taking billions from labor

6. Andrea Lucas / anti-DEI industrial complex - DR

   1. EEOC: Employers may no longer have to disclose race and gender data

      1. “Collecting such data about employees’ race and sex—absent any specific allegation of discrimination—not only risks hindering effective enforcement of equal employment laws but also raises constitutional concerns.”

      2. Nike’s $7.5 Million Stumble: Gender Discrimination Verdict

Headliniest of the Week

1. DR:Lettuce lovers are confused and afraid

   1. Jamie Dimon says insecurity, not ego, is what destroys the careers of top CEOs

   2. Burger King is promising a free Whopper if its burger doesn't meet your expectations

2. MM: Taco Bell is dropping the price on one of its menu items to $1 for a day. And yes, it's lettuce-free.

Who Won the Week?

1. DR: The amount of $7 billion dollars

2. MM: Kale, because there’s no risk of getting diarrhea at Taco Bell from kale since they don’t have kale

Predictions

1. DR: Jamie Dimon kneels on a head of lettuce

2. MM: Real prediction: OpenAI IPO flops hard, Altman is ousted as CEO.  Fake prediction: news media celebrates Tasha McCauley and Helen Toner who saw this coming and were ousted for it, OpenAI chair Bret Taylor resigns and makes Toner the new chair on the way out