Automattic has a new interim chief financial officer: Jeremy Klaperman, the CFO of the company’s WordPress VIP Enterprise business unit. The news, shared internally on Friday, follows last week’s attempted ouster of Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg, which ultimately resulted in the departure of the board members who voted him out and other executives, including then-CFO Mark Davies. Davies was briefly interim CEO before Mullenweg retook the position.

In a Slack post, Mullenweg shared that Klaperman had previously acted as Automattic CFO when Davies had been on sabbatical. He noted that the board — whose new members have yet to be announced — will still need to evaluate internal and external candidates for the position before a final decision is made.

In addition, Mullenweg said in the post that a candidate to become the company’s chief legal officer had also just verbally accepted the position, replacing Chief Legal Officer Andy Missan, who has also since left the company alongside Davies. TechCrunch recently reported that Davies and Missan had signed reciprocal severance deals during Mullenweg’s 33-hour leave of absence before he returned as CEO.

“I have 100% confidence in our cash and financial position,” Mullenweg’s post concluded, adding “There is still work to do, but everything is within our control and depends only on Automattic’s ability to execute.”

In subsequent updates, Mullenweg also said to “stay tuned” for board announcements, and noted that special advisor and creator of Wolfram|Alpha, Stephen Wolfram, will continue in his position. The company’s next board meeting is scheduled for September 23.

Dario Amodei’s plans to put third-party safety evaluators inside AI labs are taking shape: Anthropic said that staff from technology consulting giant Accenture will begin working inside the company to scrutinize its models and staff.

In a blog post, Anthropic said that Faculty, a company Accenture acquired in January to act as its AI division, will begin “evaluating and red-teaming models, conducting alignment assessments, and testing model safeguards.” Both companies expect to invest at least $1 billion in the project over the next five years.

The choice of Accenture surprised many AI watchers — and the markets, where the consultant company’s shares shot up 8% after hours. The discussion around embedded evaluators that sprang from Amodei’s blog post has focused on AI safety research organizations like METR, Redwood Research, and Apollo Research. That’s particularly true at Anthropic, which puts AI safety and alignment at the heart of its mission.

Anthropic said more evaluators will be announced in the weeks ahead and that it is in conversation with METR and other non-profit organizations about how to “pilot elements of embedded evaluation using their own funding.”

While Accenture is not known for its work on the bleeding edge of deep learning research, Anthropic pointed to the company’s practical experience deploying AI for large corporations and government agencies as key advantage. It is also, as a large public company that predates the AI revolution, more functionally independent of Anthropic and the let’s-say-complex ecosystem around the AI lab.

The lab noted that no standards yet exist for evaluators’ access or communications and that it expected its approach to evolve over time. While external evaluations are already a major part of the release of process for new large language models, recent incidents have raised the stakes: AI agents deployed by OpenAI and Anthropic have hacked into outside websites without raising alarms inside the labs.

Some critics calling for a more responsible approach to building artificial intelligence see Amodei’s scheme for self-policing the AI industry as a plan to evade accountability for the misbehavior of AI models. Anthropic insists that these evaluators “do not reduce our accountability, but help to make it more verifiable. The safety of our models remains our responsibility.”

Microsoft Teams will soon let administrators tweak the list of file extensions commonly associated with malware and security threats to meet their company’s security requirements.

This will come as an update to Weaponizable File Protection, a built-in Teams messaging safety feature that scans conversations and blocks chat or channel messages with dangerous, high-risk file attachments.

As detailed in a new Microsoft 365 roadmap entry, the feature is currently in development and will start rolling out in November 2026.

“Microsoft Teams is expanding admin controls for Weaponizable File Protection. Administrators will be able to customize which file types are blocked in Teams to align with their organization’s security requirements or continue using the Microsoft-recommended default list,” Microsoft says.

“This added flexibility helps organizations tailor file protection policies while maintaining a secure collaboration environment.” 

When it reaches general availability, it will be available across Android, desktop, iOS, macOS, and web platforms for standard multi-tenant cloud environments worldwide.

Right now, according to Microsoft’s support website, admins can’t change the list of blocked file types.

More Teams security improvements

Starting in December, admins can also block external users via the Defender portal to thwart cybercrime gangs(including ransomware groups) attempting to abuse Teams in social engineering attacks targeting victims’ employees.

Earlier this month, it said that Teams will get a new security feature designed to provide additional protection against phishing and fraud attempts by blurring QR codes sent by external senders.

This week, Microsoft also announced that, starting in November, it will let users report suspicious guest invitations directly from Teams to help their organization’s security teams identify and block phishing attempts and other attacks through guest invitations.

More recently, Microsoft has begun rolling out a new Teams meeting protection policy that lets admins automatically block all identified external bots from joining meetings.

Join Mikko Hyppönen and security leaders from the NFL, CHANEL, and Atlassian for a two-hour digital summit on what AI-speed attacks change, what defenders should stop doing, and how to validate, decide, fix, and re-validate at machine speed.

Save your seat

Red Bull staged Max vs 100 on Wednesday, September 16, 2026, as the largest go-kart race ever run, lining 101 identical karts on a purpose-built layout at Silverstone designed by race director David Terrien. Max Verstappen started 101st with a simple brief: catch and pass every driver ahead of him inside 30 laps or 75 minutes. Once the rear of his kart drew level with the front of another, that driver was out for good. The 100 people in front of him were athletes, content creators, streamers, journalists, and fans, most of whom had seen the track only in Tuesday practice plus one qualifying lap. Dutch Formula One journalist Jacky Martens took pole. YouTuber Zac Alsop and Red Bull Ford Powertrains technician Lewis Osler sat near the front with him.

Lights went out, mayhem ensued, and the field abruptly collapsed in on itself. Karts collided with each other’s bumpers, pointed in the incorrect direction, and stacked up at the first hairpin. Later, Verstappen claimed that he had no idea what was going on and informed the radio commentator that it was complete carnage. Despite this, he had passed over 10 drivers by the time he reached the start-finish line, and he continued to thread his way through the pack while others lost their confidence. By the completion of lap one, he was in 37th place, while sixty-three drivers had yet to complete a lap. When asked, he gave the number over the radio and stated it wasn’t a bad start. Yellow flags appeared briefly, freezing the rest of the pack.

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He’d bounced in the seat before the start, giving the kart an additional amount of roll as he launched off the line, and then braked a fraction of a second before everyone else to make way for the inevitable spinning. Open radios picked up the remainder of the pack reacting as he approached, and one driver begged him not to pass, while others were terrified, and he warned at least one of them he was coming for them. By lap five, the majority of the grid had gone. By lap six, he was inside the top 10, and by lap ten, he was in fourth place, gaining nearly three seconds each lap on the leaders while passing every 21 seconds. His quickest lap was 2:20.673, more than two and a half seconds faster than Martens’ 2:23.327.

Martens, Alsop, and Osler had created a 12-second lead, and the race director saw fit to allow them an extra fast-lap shortcut with time remaining on the clock. On lap 12, they used it together before abandoning caution and concentrated on defending rather than racing. Verstappen managed to past Alsop and Osler in a single circuit on lap 13 before carving up Martens to secure the victory. Overall, it only took him 14 laps. 35 minutes. There were 21 laps and 40 minutes remaining. As he raised the flag, he described the afternoon as simply magnificent, before joking that it was his first win of the year, so he’d accept it. He also stated that it was one of his favorite days in a kart, the type of session that reminded him of how he used to race before getting into Formula One all those years ago.

Martens finished second, with Osler, a mechanic from Verstappen’s own powertrain group, coming in third. Alsop finished fourth, followed by off-road racer Pol Tarrés in fifth, Paky TWC, RDJavi, photographer Larry Chen, mountain biker Bernard Kerr, and actor Neo Yau. A four-time world champion started last in a 101-kart field designed for this type of turmoil and finished in less than half the time. That was the most surprising part, but thankfully it was a good one.
[Source]

Transitioning from years of working in a senior technical or executive role to a leadership position is one of the most challenging phases of a STEM career. It requires moving away from making decisions on your own to mentoring others, making strategic decisions for the organization, and collaborating with coworkers from different generations.

The shift in mindset is known as “legacy leadership,” a philosophy whereby success is no longer measured by personal achievements but by how effectively a senior leader empowers others.

To help seasoned professionals and senior experts navigate the transition, the inaugural IEEE International Leadership Conference (ILC) will provide attendees practical advice on cultivating collaborations and guiding emerging talent.

“Early in our STEM careers, we measure success by what we have achieved,” says Jeewika Ranaweera, cochair of the IEEE ILC program committee. “Later, we should measure success by what we enable, how many people we mentor, how much knowledge we transfer, and how many doors we open for the next generation.”

The ILC is scheduled for 3 and 4 October in Budapest. Registration is open.

Letting go of the “expert” identity

For decades, seasoned technologists have been valued primarily for their technical expertise. Shifting from that identity can feel uncomfortable, but legacy leadership requires measuring success by different standards. They include a leader’s influence on the staff, the ability to uphold the company’s mission, and empowering others to lead and succeed.

The transition requires leaders to find purpose outside their corporate titles, shifting their focus to the long-term sustainability of their teams, their organization, and the broader technical community.

“A professional legacy is not measured only by what we have achieved but also by sharing our knowledge, experience, and opportunities with others,” says Sudhanshu S. Jamuar, another program committee cochair. “The real transition from expert to a legacy builder happens when we stop asking, ‘What more can I accomplish myself?’ and start asking, ‘How many others can I enable to accomplish more?’”

Neeli Rashmi Prasad, IEEE ILC treasurer and sponsorship cochair, adds that the transition transforms a lifetime of technical work into a platform for future innovation.

“The true value of experience is not in how much knowledge we accumulate but in how intentionally we transfer it,” Prasad says. “When we partner with, mentor, and create space for others to lead, our expertise becomes a foundation for progress far beyond our own careers.”

Moving beyond advice-giving

True knowledge transfer requires coaching rather than advising, and mastering the art of active listening. To build deep trust with early-career colleagues and ensure a seamless transfer of leadership to the next generation, senior leaders must avoid offering unsolicited or outdated anecdotes. Effective mentorship is a collaborative loop in which senior experts contribute hard-won industry wisdom while remaining curious and learning from the fresh, cutting-edge perspectives of talented coworkers.

“Knowledge transfer is most powerful when it is a two-way bridge: experience flows from one generation to the next, while new ideas and perspectives flow back,” says Sudeendra Koushik, president of the IEEE Technology and Engineering Management Society and an ILC keynote speaker. “This approach transforms mentorship from simply passing on information into one where the next generation can question, experiment, innovate, and ultimately surpass what came before them.”

Seasoned professionals should encourage independent, disruptive thinkers rather than carbon copies of themselves, Prasad says.

“Legacy leadership is about building continuity,” she says. “We should not simply prepare the next generation to follow the paths we created; we should give them the confidence, knowledge, and networks to challenge those paths, create new ones, and take technology further than we imagined.”

Designing your next chapter

Leadership does not need to stop when one’s job ends; it can evolve. Seasoned, retired professionals can continue contributing meaningful service through pathways that align with their personal passions. They include:

• Advisory boards: steering corporate, technical, or community organizations.
• Civic engagement: applying engineering methodologies to solve community challenges.
• Volunteerism: mentoring the next generation of grassroots innovators through professional networks including IEEE.

Those pathways offer experienced professionals an opportunity to redefine success, not in terms of position, authority, or personal achievement but in terms of sustained impact.

“Retirement from a job should never mean retirement from purpose,” Koushik says. “Our experience becomes even more valuable when we use it in service of the profession, society, and the generation that follows.”

At the same time, the collaborative continuum relies on a proactive younger generation. Emerging leaders need to take responsibility for building their professional connections, Prasad says, advising: “Be bold, stay curious, and build your network early!”

A space for continuity

The conference is designed to combine a drive to cultivate emerging innovators with a deep reservoir of industry stewardship and strategic perspective. Rather than a single classroom session, the conference will feature a dedicated career-readiness and mentorship track where attendees can explore practical frameworks for building strategic professional networks, connecting with peer advocates, and establishing reciprocal knowledge-sharing opportunities across generations.

By participating, seasoned professionals can ensure their decades of expertise continue to yield dividends for generations to come.

“Our professional legacy is not the technology we build, the titles we earn, or the awards we receive,” Ranaweera says. “It is the knowledge we share, the lives we influence, and the future we help others create.”

You can view the agenda, read speaker biographies, and secure your seat at the ILC online.

To cast a streaming app to a Smart TV, make sure the phone and TV or receiver support the same casting technology, connect them to the same Wi-Fi network, open the streaming app, tap its Cast or AirPlay control, and select the TV. If the TV does not appear, check receiver support, app compatibility, local-network permissions, and network isolation before assuming the television is faulty.

First, Check Which Casting Method Your TV Supports

“Casting” is often used as a catch-all term, but Smart TVs can support several different wireless display methods. The correct procedure depends on which technology your source device, streaming app, and television share.

Google Cast is the app-based casting system used by supported Chromecast devices, Google TV Streamer, and TVs with Google Cast. Google’s current Google Cast instructions say a supported mobile device can cast from a Cast-enabled app to a compatible receiver when both devices are on the same Wi-Fi network.

AirPlay is Apple’s wireless streaming system. Apple says an iPhone can stream supported video or audio to Apple TV 4K or an AirPlay 2-compatible Smart TV, and the normal setup requires both devices to be on the same Wi-Fi network. Apple’s current AirPlay guidance also separates direct media streaming from full-screen mirroring.

Screen mirroring copies the source device’s screen to the television. Samsung distinguishes Smart View mirroring from app-native casting, while Amazon uses Miracast for screen mirroring on compatible Fire TV devices. These methods are useful in some cases, but they should not be treated as identical to Google Cast or direct AirPlay media streaming.

A television can support more than one of these methods. An iPhone, for example, may cast from a Google Cast-enabled iOS app to a Cast receiver while using AirPlay with a different compatible television.

What You Need Before Casting

Two devices can both have internet access and still be unable to discover one another. Some guest, hotel, or segmented Wi-Fi networks isolate devices from each other, which can prevent local casting even though websites and streaming services still load normally.

How to AirPlay a Streaming App From iPhone or iPad

Use AirPlay when your source device is an iPhone or iPad and the receiver is Apple TV 4K or an AirPlay 2-compatible Smart TV. AirPlay can stream supported media directly or mirror the entire Apple-device screen, but those are separate functions.

1. Connect the iPhone or iPad and the AirPlay-compatible receiver to the same Wi-Fi network.
2. Open the supported streaming app or media you want to play.
3. Tap the AirPlay control. Apple notes that some apps place AirPlay behind another control such as Share.
4. Select the Apple TV 4K or AirPlay 2-compatible Smart TV.
5. Enter the AirPlay code shown on the television if prompted.
6. Use the controls on the iPhone or iPad to manage playback.
7. To stop streaming, open the AirPlay control again and return playback to the source device.

If you instead open Control Center and choose Screen Mirroring, the TV duplicates the device screen rather than using the same direct-media streaming workflow. Apple documents streaming and mirroring as separate operations.

LG’s current guidance also confirms that supported webOS televisions can receive AirPlay and that the iPhone and TV should be on the same Wi-Fi network. LG’s AirPlay instructions also show that AirPlay may need to be enabled in the television settings.

How to Cast From Chrome on a Computer

Chrome can send a browser tab or the computer screen to a compatible Google Cast receiver. This can help when a streaming service is available through a website rather than a mobile app.

1. Connect the computer and Cast receiver to the same Wi-Fi network.
2. Open an updated version of Google Chrome.
3. Open the website or tab you want to display.
4. Open Chrome’s menu and choose Cast, save, and share, then Cast.
5. Select the receiver.
6. If necessary, open Sources and choose whether to cast the current tab or the entire screen.
7. Use Chrome’s Cast control to stop the session when finished.

Google notes that a website with native Google Cast support can behave differently from generic browser-tab casting. Some web content and plug-ins also do not work through Chrome’s generic casting path. Google’s current Chrome casting instructions document both tab and full-screen casting.

Casting vs Screen Mirroring: Which One Should You Use?

Use app-native casting when the streaming service supports it. In a normal Google Cast session, the phone or computer acts mainly as the controller while the Cast receiver handles playback.

Screen mirroring works differently. The television displays what is happening on the source device itself, so navigation and other on-screen activity can also appear on the TV.

Samsung’s current guidance distinguishes the two approaches: casting sends supported media while the phone acts as a controller, whereas Smart View mirrors the Galaxy-device screen. Samsung’s screen-sharing guidance also notes that Smart View availability and settings vary by device.

AirPlay can perform both roles. Apple provides a direct media-streaming route to supported receivers and a separate Screen Mirroring option for duplicating the device display.

Amazon’s Fire TV mirroring is model-dependent. Amazon says Miracast screen mirroring works only on compatible Fire TV devices, and if Enable Display Mirroring does not appear under Display & Sounds, the Fire TV does not support that method. Amazon’s Fire TV mirroring instructions document that limitation.

Do not assume screen mirroring is a universal fallback for every streaming app. Services can behave differently with mirroring, so the app’s own Cast or AirPlay control is usually the better-supported route when available.

How to Know the Cast Worked

Why Your TV Does Not Appear When You Try to Cast

Discovery problems usually come from network, receiver, app, or permission issues rather than from the video itself.

What If Your TV Does Not Support Google Cast or AirPlay?

If the TV lacks the receiver technology your app needs, you can use the television’s native streaming app, add a compatible external streaming device, connect a computer through HDMI, or use another wireless method that both the service and hardware officially support.

For Google Cast, Google TV Streamer is Google’s current dedicated streaming hardware. Google ended Chromecast production in 2024, although supported existing Chromecast devices remain usable. Google’s Chromecast history announcement documents that transition.

If your television lacks the receiver you need, compare a Smart TV app, Chromecast or Google Cast, and a streaming stick by compatibility, control method, and upgrade path before adding hardware.

A separate streaming device can be more practical than trying to force an unsupported wireless protocol onto the television. It also avoids treating screen mirroring as the only fallback when the streaming service provides a better-supported native app or external-device route.

Bottom Line

Start by identifying which receiver technology your television supports. Use the streaming app’s native Google Cast or AirPlay control where available, keep the sender and receiver on the same local network, and verify that playback moves to the TV.

If the television never appears, check receiver compatibility, app support, Local Network permissions, AirPlay settings, and network isolation before adding new hardware. Screen mirroring can be useful, but it is a different method and should not be treated as a universal substitute for app-native casting.