It must be 2017 because loot boxes are back in the news again. Two weeks after New York’s attorney general sued Valve over its use of the gimmick, the company has responded. In short, the Steam maker essentially said, “See you in court.”

New York’s lawsuit accuses Valve of promoting illegal gambling through its games. AG Letitia James called the loot boxes found in titles like Counter-Strike 2, Team Fortress 2 and Dota 2 “addictive, harmful and illegal.” The state seeks to “permanently stop Valve from continuing to promote illegal gambling in its games” and pay relevant fines.

In its defense posted on Thursday, Valve likened its mystery boxes to kids buying packs of physical trading cards. “Players don’t have to open mystery boxes to play Valve games,” the company wrote. “In fact, most of you don’t open any boxes at all and just play the games — because the items in the boxes are purely cosmetic, there is no disadvantage to a player not spending money.”

That last point, while applicable within the game itself, isn’t quite that cut and dry once you zoom out beyond that. As James pointed out, players can trade the cosmetic items they win from loot boxes on Steam’s marketplace or sell them on third-party marketplaces. Rarer ones can sometimes fetch lucrative sums.

Here, too, Valve defended the profitable practice by rolling out the trading card comparison. “We think the transferability of a digital game item is good for consumers — it gives a user the ability to sell or trade an old or unwanted item for something else, in the same way an owner can sell or trade a tangible item like a Pokémon or baseball card,” the company wrote. “NYAG proposes to take away users’ ability to transfer their digital items from Valve games. Transferability is a right we believe should not be taken away, and we refuse to do that.”

Valve is also facing a new class-action lawsuit over its loot boxes.

Some of Valve’s points land a bit more than its righteous defense of a gaming gimmick that, well, isn’t exactly beloved. The company accused the NYAG of proposing that Valve collect additional user information to prevent VPN use. In addition, the state allegedly “demanded that Valve collect more personal data about our users to do additional age verification.” Privacy experts have been sounding the alarm about the recent push for online age verification.

Valve also addressed James’s erroneous and outdated statement that video games encourage real-world violence. “Those extraneous comments are a distraction and a mischaracterization we’ve all heard before,” the company wrote. “Numerous studies throughout the years have concluded there is no link between media (movies, TV, books, comics, music and games) and real world violence. Indeed, many studies highlight the beneficial impact of games to users.”

The company says that, while it may have been cheaper to settle the suit, it deemed the NYAG’s demands user-hostile. “Ultimately, a court will decide whose position — ours or NYAG’s — is correct. In the meantime, we wanted to make sure you were aware of the potential impact to users in New York and elsewhere.”

In a system serving nearly 1 million students across more than 1,800 schools, the distance between a central office cubicle and a second grade classroom in New York City Public Schools can feel immense — yet they are inextricably linked. When the central office works, schools get the resources and support they need. When it does not, the friction and challenges can ripple directly into classrooms.

Supporting that system requires thousands of central office staff whose work rarely makes headlines but directly shapes how schools function, from budgets to policies to resource allocation. Recently, the district tried something unusual: offering executive coaching — including human- and AI-powered options — to those behind-the-scenes employees.

The move came as staff navigated shifting priorities and persistent uncertainty in the years after the pandemic, raising questions about how best to provide a stable foundation for schools. Through a partnership with the digital coaching and workforce development company BetterUp, central office staff are developing skills such as agency, agility and clarity — capabilities district leaders see as essential to sustaining and stabilizing the nation’s largest school system.

EdSurge spoke with Tracie Benjamin-Van Lierop, New York City Public Schools’ executive director of organizational development, talent and culture, about what this coaching looks like in practice and why investing in the people outside the classroom supports the success of the people inside it.

EdSurge: What was the climate like for central staff before coaching began?

Benjamin-Van Lierop: Coming out of the pandemic, there was a lot of uncertainty. I would say the biggest challenge was feeling seen.

A lot of focus is rightfully on supporting school-based staff, but the people behind the scenes — the ones making sure schools run smoothly — also need development and support.

How did you view coaching at first?

At first, my schedule was just crazy, and I thought, “This is just one more thing I have to do.” One colleague attended the orientation, came back excited and said, “I think this is something we should really look into.” I tried one session, then a second, and three years later, I’m with the same coach.

Sometimes coaching can be seen as punitive — maybe that isn’t the right word — but it’s like it’s there to fix something, and that’s not what I wanted. I wanted us to see coaching as a lever to improve the culture in the organization. We want people who want to work here, and if the environment has room for improvement, we want to hear that.

What shifts have you seen in how people approach coaching?

One person’s story was very similar to mine. They kept hearing colleagues talk about their positive experiences with coaching and said, “Let me try it out.”

They tried it and ended up getting a promotion because they learned to speak up in a respectful way. A lot of that newfound confidence and professionalism came from role-playing with their coach. Role-playing felt like a safe way to prepare for difficult conversations. That person said, “I don’t know that my supervisor would have seen me in the light that they see me in now had I not been able to do those role-play activities with my coach.”

Other signs of success are easy to see: People vote with their feet. If they did not want to continue, they wouldn’t. We’ve gone from “This is something that I have to do,” to “This is something I want to do.”

This affects the work itself. We’re seeing stronger work products and stronger connections between offices and schools as we develop a clearer understanding of why we do this work.

Employee Resource Group (ERG) leaders were among the first central-office staff invited into the coaching pilot. Several describe it as an important source of support as they work to amplify employee voice and strengthen culture across the system. Because ERG leadership is layered on top of full-time roles, coaching has offered space for reflection and skill-building in a complex and demanding environment. The benefits carry into the teams and schools they serve.

How does AI coaching fit in alongside human coaching?

It depends on comfort level and sometimes generation. I’ve tried my AI coach and thought, “No, thanks. I need a human.” But some of our [younger] leaders choose AI because that’s their comfort level. One colleague will only do role-plays with their AI coach because they feel it’s a safe, nonjudgmental space.

At the end of the day, if that tool is supporting what is happening in schools, then it’s helpful. I see that as an area that will continue to grow.

How has coaching shaped your own leadership?

It has changed me — or I would say transformed me — in a holistic way. It’s not just at work; it has transformed my whole approach to decision-making, my sense of impact and my intentionality.

It has also made me a more curious leader. Sometimes I make judgments based on a story I’ve created in my head, and that story may not be true. I’ve learned to recognize that tendency and ask, “How am I getting to the heart of the matter?” Nine times out of ten, when I take that curious stance, it elevates the work in ways I wasn’t able to three and a half years ago.

What advice would you give to districts thinking about coaching?

First, make it voluntary. Coaching can be seen as, “You’re getting a coach because you’re not doing your job well,” but that’s not what it is. People who opt in often become the biggest supporters later.

Second, coaching requires effort. It’s not just about meeting for 45 minutes. It’s a partnership — a two-way street — and you have to put in the work. It won’t work if you don’t.

Third, really use the data from your coaching partner to track progress and refine your approach.

Coaching is often seen as a nice-to-have, and I understand that, especially with all the demands right now. But this is an investment in your people. If your people are going to do the job well, they need to feel invested in, and this is one of the best investments I’ve experienced in my career.

Amazon has been aggressively pushing its engineers to adopt AI tools. At least 80% of its developers are expected to use AI for coding tasks at least once a week. However, recent events suggest that this fast-tracked rollout may have come at a cost.

As reported by the Financial Times, Amazon Web Services suffered a 13-hour outage in December after engineers let its Kiro AI coding tool update code without requiring any oversight. Kiro decided the best solution was to “delete and recreate the environment.” That’s one way to fix a problem, I suppose.

That wasn’t a one-off. A follow-up FT report revealed that Amazon’s e-commerce business has been dealing with a “trend of incidents” since Q3 2025, prompting a company-wide deep dive meeting led by SVP Dave Treadwell. 

Some employees were already skeptical about how useful these AI tools actually are for day-to-day work, and these incidents haven’t exactly helped build confidence.

Just how bad did it get?

Business Insider obtained internal documents that paint a clearer picture of what actually happened. On March 2, 2026, Amazon’s AI coding tools contributed to an incident that caused 120,000 lost orders and 1.6 million website errors. 

Three days later, on March 5, 2026, a separate outage caused a 99% drop in orders across North American marketplaces, resulting in 6.3 million lost orders. That’s a number that will surely show on the bottom line of a financial sheet, even for a company as big as Amazon. 

What is Amazon doing to ensure it never happens again?

Amazon is now rolling out a 90-day safety reset targeting around 335 critical systems. Engineers must get two people to review changes before deployment, use a formal documentation and approval process, and follow stricter automated checks.

The company maintains that these were user errors, not AI errors, and that the same mistakes could happen with any developer tool. That’s a fair point, but it doesn’t change the outcome. 

When artificial intelligence tools are handed broad permissions without adequate oversight, things break, and the scale of AI-generated code only amplifies the damage.

Meta has that it’s introducing parent-managed accounts on WhatsApp. Designed to allow young people under the age of 13 to use the messaging platform more safely, these accounts feature new controls that enable a parent or guardian to restrict who can send them messages. Parent-managed accounts can also only be used for messaging and calling, so additional features like Channels, location sharing and Meta AI integration aren’t included.

To set up an account, you’ll need to put your phone next to the pre-teen’s device to link the two accounts. Once that’s done, the person managing the kids’ account can decide who’s able to contact them and which groups they’re able to join. Step-by-step instructions on how to activate the new accounts can be found

They’ll also see message requests from unknown contacts first and can adjust privacy settings from the managed device. Parent-managed accounts are PIN-protected and only the parent or guardian can make changes to privacy settings.

Like all WhatsApp conversations, end-to-end encryption means nobody else can see messages exchanged on parent-managed accounts. By default, only saved contacts can message a managed account, and a child won’t be able to join a group or view group invites from strangers before they’re separately approved by the owner of the parent account. These requests will appear as notifications to the parent.

WhatsApp doesn’t specify a minimum age suitable for a parent-messaged account, but says it’ll roll the new features out gradually in the coming months.

Meta has spent the last few years ramping up its parental controls features across its various platforms. In September it introduced — aimed at teens between the age of 13 and 15 — for Facebook and Messenger. A year earlier, Under-16 became a requirement on Instagram. Like the new parent-managed accounts on WhatsApp, these allow parents to vet requests and enable stricter privacy settings.

At the start of 2026, Meta put a temporary on allowing teens to interact with its AI chatbot characters, following that some of these bots had engaged in sexual conversations and other concerning interactions with minors.

Looking Glass has revealed Musubi, a really device that allows you to project holographic photos and videos directly into your living room without the need for a headset or special glasses. At first glance, the 7-inch frame appears to be a standard picture frame, with the same clean glass border and white matte finish that you would use to show a photo of your grandchildren. Users can simply add their own personal photos or short video clips and watch as they are turned into 3D scenes that appear to float right in the room and follow you as you move about.

The Musubi uses Hololuminescent Display technology, which essentially uses light to produce several view points at the same time, which sounds quite ingenious. This implies that you may combine up to 100 separate viewpoints to create a single image with a lot of convincing depth, allowing several people to see it from different angles all at once. The viewing angle is also rather wide, about 170 degrees, so even if you stand to the side, you won’t lose the illusion.

Aura Carver HD WiFi Digital Picture Frame, 10.1”, Add Photos with Aura App, Free Unlimited Storage…

• TOP RATED WIFI DIGITAL FRAME: Millions of customers are delighted by Aura as a private and secure way to share and display photos. Recommended by The…
• QUICK & EASY SETUP: Set up in minutes on WiFi and instantly add photos and videos from your phone using the free Aura app, available on iOS and…
• ADD FROM THE APP: Invite friends and family to share photos directly to your digital picture frame. Free unlimited cloud storage, no subscription…

The 3D effect is achieved using free software on your PC or Mac; nothing fancy, just a local AI that determines what is the main part of the photo or video, separates it from the backdrop, and places it in a 3D environment. It’s all done on your own machine, so no data is sent to any servers, simply copy the files over to the frame with a USB-C cord.

Musubi can store approximately 1000 images or 30 seconds of video clips, and the battery life lasts about 3 hours if not plugged in, but let’s be honest, most people will leave it plugged in all day. They’ve also kept things simple by not including a Wi-Fi connection, an app, or a camera, opting for a clean look.

Musubi starts at $149, and they’re presently offering it for $99 during the first 24 hours of a Kickstarter campaign that launched today. Shipping is scheduled to begin in June 2026, but they intend to proceed with production regardless of the outcome of the campaign, since they have a track record with previous goods.