The Rip Current with Jacob Ward

Sep 11, 2026 — The public resignation of Jacob Coxon — who told the world his industry is “gambling with our lives” — buried two other chilling warnings from inside the AI industry this week. The first is “An Alien Mind,” an essay OpenAI’s chief scientist Jakub...

Sep 03, 2026 — Why did Google and Apple change Lake Ontario to Lake America? And why did MapQuest decide not to? On August 27, 2026, President Trump signed an executive order directing federal agencies to rename Lake Ontario as "Lake America." The order applies to...

Sep 02, 2026 — By now you know how I felt about it. When I heard, seven days into the Meta trial, that the company would be allowed to settle with the States, I was astounded. “They did what?” I shouted at my phone first thing that morning. For one thing, it was...

Aug 21, 2026 — Day two of the multistate trial against Meta in federal court in Oakland, where 29 state attorneys general are asking Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers to reach inside the company and change how Instagram and Facebook work. Arturo Bejar — former head of...

Aug 19, 2026 — Meta's opening statement in Oakland was delivered by Paul Schmidt, a Covington & Burling partner who co-chairs the firm's product liability and mass torts practice. His track record includes trial wins for McKesson in the opioids litigation, Eli Lilly...