AI ‘hacker houses’ in Silicon Valley out of control with destructive parties, sexual harassment claims: report

Mon, September 21, 2026 at 1:46 PM EDT

Massive Silicon Valley mansions home to AI engineers, also known as "hacker houses,"have racked up dozens of complaints, from sexual harassment allegations to out-of-control parties and rat problems, according to a report.

At some of these modern-day tech frat houses, entrepreneurs pay up to $10,000 a month in rent for a room, looking for close access to industry leaders like Sergey Brin, networking opportunities – and wildly excessive parties, according to a New York Times investigation.

Sources told the Times that parties featuring psychedelic drugs and sharing of sexual partners are common at these tech houses.

An eight-bedroom, Mediterranean-style mansion known as "AGI House" – home to start-up founders and engineers at OpenAI and Anthropic – is one of the most prominent AI homes in Silicon Valley.

On its grounds, a car flew through the air during a party while horse-drawn carriages brought guests to an Eiffel Tower replica during another "Midnight in Paris" event.

Google co-founder Brin has given talks at the home while singer-songwriter Grimes – who shares three children with Elon Musk – has performed there, according to the report.

Other top industry names are involved, like OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. A representative for OpenAI said Altman was a onetime guest speaker for the Residency, a network of hacker houses.

AGI House is connected to a venture capital fund that is backed by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, according to the house's website.

A representative for Andreessen told the Times that he is not involved with the tech house. Representatives for Brin and Schmidt did not immediately respond to The Post's requests for comment.

But police reports show there's also a dark side to the tech homes.

In December, a woman called police and said she had been trapped at AGI House by a male resident who repeatedly pressured her to have sex, telling her she was old and "would be alone forever," according to a police report obtained by the Times. The woman escaped unharmed by climbing over a gate.

Yehong Zhu, a 30-year-old woman and founder of AI startup Zette, lived in four tech houses and initially viewed them as near-utopias. But in December 2021, she filed a police report accusing a former member of another tech home called Genesis of rape and assault, saying she's "far from the only one this has happened to."

Her case is under investigation.

At one house, the parties grew so excessive that the landlord eventually claimed more than $200,000 for damages, including a rodent infestation.

At AGI House, created by former Google researcher Jeremy Nixon, local police have recorded 37 incidents since 2022, including at least 17 related to complaints about wild parties.

Less than two miles away, another tech home run by Jimmy Chen – known online as the "Spice King of Zanzibar" – is home to equally lavish events, including an event where women went into the pool dressed as mermaids and a jungle-themed party with a painting of a Mayan mural.

Between late 2021 and 2024, police have recorded more than 20 complaints about the house, mostly about noise and parking issues – but also one about a "possible kidnapping" and another noting that Chen had been beaten up at an event.

The house's landlord wrote in a report that the entire house needed to be sprayed by professionals "as it was found to be infested with rodents."

Chen said he had paid a damage deposit and hired security guards to screen party attendees, adding that the rats were there when he moved in.

Meanwhile, at AGI House, police were repeatedly called for a welfare check on a male resident, at one point sending an ambulance to the mansion.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/us/articles/ai-hacker-houses-silicon-valley-174657672.html

==One of the main reason to destroy AI, crazy people are creating it!)

CNN Mood ‘Like a Funeral’ as Paramount’s Warner Bros. Win Casts New Haze on Next Steps. KEK so sad! Red text for laughs 1/2

Brian SteinbergSep 22, 2026 9:13am PT

Just when staffers at CNN thought the news giant’s path to the future was becoming more clear, new fog has set in.

In recent weeks, the Warner Bros. Discovery outlet appeared to have found its groove. Yes, its linear ratings are down noticeably from the era when it won notice for its aggressive coverage of President Trump’s first term, and there are serious questions about whether they will ever come back. But the company appeared to be making some gains with digital audiences with its recently launched “CNN All Access” subscription service, where CNN has been testing new programming formats.On the traditional side, despite the viewership challenges, CNN has seen personnel like Abby Phillip and Harry Enten gain some traction. Warner Bros. Discovery projected in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission earlier this year that CNN will generate $600 million in profit in 2026 on $1.8 billion in revenue.

Now all its recent work could be for naught.

Popular on Variety

A new corporate parent, Paramount Skydance is set to take the reins of CNN in October, and with that change of control could come entirely new goals — and means of executing them.

Even Mark Thompson, chairman and CEO of CNN, seemed to not know much about next steps. “Over the coming days you’ll hear much more about what this means for CNN, including the date of the close,” he told staffers Monday.

The mood at CNN is “like a funeral,” says one person familiar with the operation.

CNN personnel have reason to worry.Paramount’s management of CBS News has been controversial, and has not been good for the business of the news unit.Changes made under Bari Weiss, installed last year as editor in chief, have brought unnecessary scrutiny to news reports, and anchors have made public entreaties on Instagramwhen people post notes suggesting that Weiss’ background as a digital entrepreneur and provocative opinion writer have muddied the newsgathering at the network.Tweaks made at “CBS Mornings” and “CBS Evening News” are still too nascent to make final judgement, but both shows continue to lag their rivals in the ratings, with the morning show suffering significant erosion. Weiss’ decision to overhaul “60 Minutes,” widely considered the jewel of CBS and of TV-news overall, has left the venerable newsmagazine open to criticism and backlash.

Whether Paramount can serve as a good steward for CNN remains to be seen. There is some encouragement being taken by a decision by CBS News to participate in a broader decision by the TV networks to not take White House pool duties while the Trump administration bans CNN from its regular duties tied to that coverage.

KEKBut staffers are also concerned about the company’s business plans being changed — yet again. “What an enormous loss and disruption it would be to shuffle leadership for the umpteenth time in the midst — finally — of reshaping the business,” says one CNN staffer.

CNN employees have reason to wring their hands. Warner Bros.Discovery has changed streaming strategies for the outlet in major ways since taking control in 2022. The company scuttled a streaming product known as CNN+that went heavy on new shows and new personalities, feeling the investment in the property was too much. Then it tested a product called CNN Max, a streaming subset built for viewers of HBO Max.And then Thompson was hired — and executive Alex MacCallum was re-hired— to chart a new (well, new-ish) way forward with a subscription product that aimed to lure younger consumers with interactive formats and special content not available on CNN’s linear feed.

https://variety.com/2026/tv/news/cnn-funeral-path-hazy-paramount-wins-warner-1236872113/

>>25066453

2/2

The changes in mission have set CNN back on its feet while rivals stepped past it. NBC News has launched a portfolio of streaming products, including a bespoke service tied to “Today,” a FAST channel built from “Dateline,” a free, ad-supported daily live-streamed outlet called NBC News Now, and a subscription product featuring newsletters and contributions from correspondents like Steve Kornacki and Rebecca Keegan.

==Fox News has developed the subscription outlet Fox Nation into an add-on product that gives viewers of its flagship property documentaries=, comedy, movies and lifestyle content. Meanwhile, Fox has found that younger viewers are finding Fox News on its Fox One subscription service that was originally thought to be a primary draw for sports fans.

Disney’s ABC News has been experimenting with new formats for streaming viewers that try to address the topics and stories being searched most online. CBS News has tested a number of different strategies since launching a service once known as CBS All Access in 2014. In recent months, it launched a national “whip around” news program making use of reports from CBS local stations and programs focused on work by the CBS News Washington Bureau.

Most recently, MS NOW launched a new subscription “Membership” service that aims not only to deliver news but foster community. Subscribers get access to interactive sessions with top personalities as well as to shows about mindfulness, mental health and relationships. Rebecca Kutler, the president of MS NOW, had a hand in launching CNN+, and one of the new service’s contributors, Dan Harris, who leads programs on meditation and dealing with stress, was once poised to contribute to that previous service.

Without a boost from new digital revenue, CNN’s business will likely decline, according to projections from Kagan, a market-research unit of S&P Global Intelligence. CNN’s cash flow is seen falling to $735.3 million in 2027, according to Kagan, down nearly 10% from $815.9 million in 2025. A projected spike in 2026 is due to midterm election coverage, which typically draws broader audiences. Advertising is projected to fall about 6.6% to $457.6 million in 2027, according to Kagan, compared with $489.8 million in 2025. Cash from distribution, however, is expected to keep rising.

CNN must also grapple with how much independence it will have under Paramount. Paramount Skydance CEO has put CBS News into unorthodox situations by holding a private dinner with personnel from the news division and the Trump administration and by hiring a factotum ombudsman to monitor CBS who has staunch partisan ties. News rivals wonder why CBS News seems so eager to put U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth into so many of its programs — he was a big “get” interview during Tony Dokoupil’s first “CBS Evening News” telecast and appeared on last week’s season premiere of “60 Minutes” — when Hegseth’s Pentagon has been so hostile to traditional press outlets.

The solution — for now — is to be found in the formation of a board designed to govern both CNN and CBS News. Under the terms of an agreement unveiled Monday between Paramount and a set of attorneys general who were blocking the merger, this board is expected to set up guiding principles for “accuracy, independence, fairness and journalistic integrity.” And it will aim to resolve disputes between staffers and news management around any violations of those principles. Members of the board will be appointed by Paramount, a fact that already makes their allegiance suspect.

Such bodies have proven largely ineffectual in the past. Rupert Murdoch created a similar structure when he purchased The Wall Street Journal from its longtime owners, the Bancroft family, in 2007 for $5 billion. But there is little mention of such an entity today when the giant news outlet grapples with legal or operational matters. An oversight committee staffed by journalism experts, academics and executives that holds regular meetings with senior operators might have some bite. A group led by a motley group of friends and acquaintances that rarely engages with operating officers might be seen as toothless.

https://variety.com/2026/tv/news/cnn-funeral-path-hazy-paramount-wins-warner-1236872113/

San Francisco Sues Trump’s Truth Social Over Paywalled Posts

Sept. 22, 2026, 9:56 AM EDT; Updated: Sept. 22, 2026, 2:18

San Francisco’s city attorney is urging a state court to block Trump’s social media platform Truth Social ==from offering customers who pay $100,000 per month priority access to the president’s and other high-level officials’ posts before they’re available to other users.=

Trump Media & Technology Group is aiding and abetting Trump’s violations of federal ethics and anti-corruption law and violating other federal laws that protect against insider trading, city attorney David Chiu said in the lawsuit filed in San Francisco Superior Court.

“It’s a pay-to-play scheme for early access to the president’s market moving government decisions,” Chiu said at a Tuesday press conference. “This business scheme has turned public trust into private profit. This is corruption, plain and simple.”

The lawsuit comes on the heels of a similar one filed in federal court last week where two nonprofits challenged the constitutionality of the paid service called “Truth API.”

Providing early access to subscribers of “announcements of consequential government decisions that can move financial markets” would create “a financial gain for Trump Media,” as well as for President Donald Trump, who owns 41% of Trump Media through a revocable trust in which he is the sole beneficiary, the lawsuit said.

Trump Media’s “creation and operation of a commercial mechanism that monetizes preferential access to information derived from Trump’s government service while that information remains unavailable to the general public violates the public trust and California’s Unfair Competition Law, which prohibits unlawful and unfair business practices,” according to the lawsuit.

Trump Media said in a statement that the lawsuit fails to grasp the “basic distinction between public and nonpublic information,” and accused the city’s attorneys of being “left-wing activists.”

Market Moving Info

The city is seeking an order enjoining paid access to Trump’s post and $2,500 in civil penalties for each behind-a-subscription post that allegedly violates California’s Unfair Competition Law. Chiu said at the press conference that the city is asking for an injunction that would prevent harm to Californians, but “it might require a form of relief that could hopefully protect all Americans.

The key theory of the complaint is that Trump’s posts are tantamount to insider trading and unfair business practices. The state’s law should apply to Trump due to the market-moving power of announcements from a president who exercises broad authority over trade sanctions and cash infusions into companies, they argue.

The complaint points to a May 2025 post breaking the news of the US Steel and Nippon Steel merger which sent the American company’s stock soaring 22.5%. It also cites Trump’s January 2026 post in which he released monthly employment numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics 12 hours before their official release to the public.

“Truth API disadvantages regular investors, including individuals who hold investments via pension funds, 401(k) plans, and other retirement funds, whose investment vehicles do not and/or cannot obtain Truth API’s early-access information,” the complaint said.

Chiu said the early subscribers are largely high frequency trading firms but has expanded to cryptocurrency and AI firms that “can benefit from these split second advantages.”

On Monday a group of former prosecutors and federal agents filed an amicus brief in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York arguing the paid subscription could violate federal securities laws, the Trade Secrets Act, and could constitute illegal outside compensation for federal employment.

“There is no legitimate, let alone significant, government interest in allowing public officials to profit personally by selling early access to official government announcements,” they said.

Platkin LLP, Washington Litigation Group, and Democracy Defenders Fund represent the city alongside the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office.

The case is California v. Trump Media & Tech Grp., Cal. Super. Ct., complaint filed 9/21/26.

https://news.bloomberglaw.com/litigation/san-francisco-sues-trumps-truth-social-over-paid-subscriptions

Pretty cool white voters up the same as 2024 to 2026!

https://x.com/OpenSourceZone/status/2102085001059688463

@OpenSourceZone

OSZ

@OpenSourceZone

NYT/Cook Political Report House Ratings

🔴 Republicans: 208

🔵 Democrats: 206

🟡 Tossups: 21

(Democrats must win a majority of the 21 toss-up seats to take the majority, 16/21 are currently Republican-held)

https://x.com/OpenSourceZone/status/2102072154153992655

>>25066500

CHINA ECONOMY

Here’s who we know is going to the Trump-Xi dinner so far

PUBLISHED MON, SEP 21 202610:41 PM EDTUPDATED AN HOUR AGO

Evelyn Cheng@IN/EVELYN

WATCH LIVE

KEY POINTS

• Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to make a state visit to the U.S. from Wednesday to Friday.

• The U.S. has said several American tech executives would join a dinner as part of the summit.

• Beijing has yet to share any names of Chinese business leaders accompanying Xi.

BEIJING — With two days to go before Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to land in the U.S., very little is known about which, if any, Chinese executives will join him.

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement to CNBC Tuesday it had no information to provide. Late on Monday, the ministry confirmed Xi’s U.S. trip, planned for Wednesday to Friday.

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/09/22/heres-who-we-know-is-going-to-the-trump-xi-dinner-so-far.html

CNN Blows Off Trump’s UN Speech Amid Ongoing Brawl Over Press Ban

Sean James

Sep 22nd, 2026, 11:37 am

(CNN are just hurting their viewers, what idiots, when the ratings are so low!)

President Donald Trump delivered a speech at the United Nations on Tuesday morning — but viewers of one network didn’t see it live, or much at all.

CNN blew off Trump’s speech as it happened, opting instead to cover topics like the Michigan Senate race and the recent death of actor Hayden Panettiere, while its competitors Fox News and MS NOW broadcast the speech. The editorial decision comes amid Trump’s press ban against the channel, along with MS NOW and Politico.

The Situation Room co-host Wolf Blitzer explained at the start of the show that Trump would be speaking momentarily and that CNN had a live feed from the UN.But instead of airing the speech live, Blitzer said CNN would show any “newsworthy moments” that came up.

CNN must not have deemed much of the speech newsworthy, because it did not play a second of Trump’s speech as he made it; the channel played a brief clip of Trump talking about the Iran war at 11:08 a.m. ET, a few minutes after he walked off stage.

For comparison, Fox News played the speech from the moment Trump took the microphone at 10:27 a.m. ET until he finished. MS NOW, meanwhile, aired the first 20 minutes of the speech before cutting away to a live “fact-checking” segment.

Host Stephanie Ruhle also called out the president for questioning whether he should wipe out Iran, telling viewers it would “be a war crime.” (Like Ruhle knows what a war crime is, how about Iran saying death and destruction to America)

Interestingly, CNN did cover Trump’s arrival at the UN Building in New York City, and anchor Kaitlan Collins was among reporters greeting Trump as he walked in — and the president immediately took notice.

“I’m surprised that CNN is here covering me. You shouldn’t be here!” Trump yelped.

Collins barked back, “The United Nations allowed us in, sir.”

“You should not be here covering me,” Trump continued. “You said you weren’t going to cover me. You shouldn’t be covering me.”

He then put up his right hand as if to silence her as reporters started shouting questions at him.Trump then reiterated he was honored to be there, before walking away with First Lady Melania Trump by his side.

https://www.mediaite.com/media/cnn-blows-off-trumps-un-speech-amid-ongoing-brawl-over-press-ban/