Top Story with Tom Llamas - Wednesday, September 9, 2026

Episode Date: September 10, 2026

Tonight's Top Story has the latest breaking news, political headlines, news from overseas and the best NBC News reporting from across the country and around the world Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Tonight, the emergency mishap on President Trump's controversial new Air Force won. The emergency slide accidentally deploying moments before the president was set to depart. The latest issue for the gifted Katari jet, our new reporting on why it went off. Republicans kicking off their first ever midterm convention. The president speaking tonight hoping to stop a blue wave as oil hits another high. New video of that Amazon cargo planes crash landing and the new new. drone video showing the destructive path that ended with five deaths. While video of a man attempting to shoot his ex-wife in a restaurant, a waiter tackling him,

that hero speaks to us about the selfless takedown. New revelations in the Lindsay Clancy case, her defense attorney telling our Laura Jarrett what Clancy says about her kids now, plus her reaction to the conspiracy theories about her ex-husband spreading online. A man accused of stalking Chris Jenner. arrested outside her LA home, what we're learning. Plus, slithering surprise, the massive boa constrictor hiding under the hood of a car, how Cruz wrangled it out.

And the warning from the inside that AI could kill all humans in this decade, a former anthropic employee sounding the alarm joins us live. Top story starts right now. And good evening. Tonight, we're tracking multiple developing headlines involving the president. Right now, President Trump is preparing to take the stage in Dallas. where he will rally his base to turn out for the midterm elections. The two-day convention, the first of its kind for Republicans,

and with no real balloting has been dubbed a Trumpapalooza. But on his way there, strange scene unfolding on the tarmac. An emergency slide deployed on the new Qatari-gifted Air Force One delayed his departure. The incident raising new questions about security after the president was secretly taken off a different Air Force One in Turkey in July due to a serious threat from Iran. The war there showing no signs of stopping, the U.S. launching new strikes on Iranian oil tankers after Iran's failed attempts to hit U.S. Navy ships. The fighting keeping gas prices stubbornly high at home well over $4 a gallon, affordability and issue top of mind for voters heading into November. And new NBC News polling finding the president is growing increasingly unpopular, with 64% disapproving of his job performance.

So will his presence at tonight's convention help or hurt his party? We've got full-team coverage on the president. this tonight. We want to begin first with that Air Force One malfunction. And Monica Albus, leading us off. Tonight, the latest drama for the new Air Force One. A person briefed on the situation telling NBC News this emergency slide deploying from the aircraft was an accident, mistakenly triggered by military personnel. You can see crews working on it as President Trump was set to leave for the Republican Midterm Convention. They're checking the slide over here, and I think it's going to take 15 minutes. The president on Marine One for 20 minutes with the shades drawn.

I guess they've already put it up. They want to make sure everything works perfectly. Eventually, the slide was carted away. The president telling reporters there was no security issue. The president, are you sure this plane is safe to fly? Yeah, I am. Or I wouldn't be honest. Air Force One then taking off for Dallas.

It's the latest complication involving the Katari donated luxury jet. Earlier this summer, the Secret Service used a catering truck to sneak the president onto a smaller military aircraft to leave the NATO summit in Turkey due to a potential security threat from Iran. So I go by secret service and the military. They wanted me to go in a different flight, a different plane, equal safety, but they wanted me to do it, so I do it. I do what they say. Monica Alba joins us now live from the White House. So we heard the president there in your report say the jet is safe, but we also know that the Qatari gifted Air Force One is due for security upgrades? Yeah, Tom, and this is something that's actually going to take a little bit of time.

We know that that maxing out, as the White House calls it, is going to take the plane out of commission for about 60 days in which they are going to add certain upgrades, security features, which begs the question, why wasn't all of that added before the president ever flew on that plane? Remember, he really wanted it to be in service and usable around the July 4th, 250th anniversary of America's founding. a big moment for it, but then just a couple of days later when he did fly it to Turkey, there were no issues, but on the way out after restarting some military strikes against Iran, they then said that the president had to fly on the old Air Force one, but it turns out we only

learned weeks later he was on that third military aircraft. But I'm told Tom, the president is expected to fly on that new Qatari-donated jet this Friday when he leaves for Ireland for a trip overseas. Tom. Okay, Monica, thank you for that. Now to that Republican convention we were telling you about in Dallas, the president there to make his plea to vote to turn out in the midterms, like they turn off for him in presidential races. Looming large over the event the raging war with Iran that's driving up gas prices here at home. Garrett Hake is there for us. Tonight, with new U.S. strikes on Iranian oil tankers, retaliation for Iran's failed attempts to attack U.S. Navy ships, President Trump saying the war he predicted would last just,

a few weeks will last two more months. I think the war will end immediately after the election. Arguing the Iranian regime is stretching out the conflict, hoping Republicans lose. They're desperate to try and affect the election so that we can get a nice, weak group of people in there and leave them alone and let them have their nuclear weapons. All of it as oil prices pushed past $100 today. new headwinds as the first ever Republican midterm convention kicks off. What amounts to a two-day pep rally in Dallas.

We're going to have a tremendous proud tonight. Republicans touting a record plunge in illegal border crossings and a historic drop in violent crime. But the GOP also facing high gas prices and the president's growing unpopularity, 64 percent in our new poll disapproving of his job performance. This event also designed to boost struggling Republican candidates. including Texas Senate candidate Ken Paxton, locked in a tight race with Democrat James Tala Rico.

The fact that they're doing it in Texas speaks volumes. They know that the movement we're building here is catching fire. Talariko himself under fire for past controversial comments, like this call to dismantle capitalism. A link between climate change and white supremacy and capitalism in our country, and I think only ending the ways that all three of those oppressive systems work together, are we going to be able to begin the process? of dismantling them. Did you mean that? So I've missed the mark on statements that I've made in the past.

I'll be the first to admit that. What I was talking about when you listen to my entire comments was not capitalism, but crony capitalism, which is what we have today. Gary joins us tonight from the convention in Dallas. And Gary, I know you have some new reporting for our viewers. Yeah, that's right, Thomas. Source familiar with the planning here tells me that Pennsylvania Democrat, Democrat John Fetterman, is going to make an appearance here at this convention tonight. in the next hour or so via video in which he's expected to praise President Trump and his Republican Senate colleague, Senator McCormick, for saving the U.S. steel industry in this country. It comes as Federman has faced and denied persistent questions about whether he might change

parties and become a Republican. This move tonight will only fuel those questions after Federman skipped the Democrats' actual convention back in 2024. Tom, it's tough to overstate how much I think Democrats will view this as a betrayal by the senator for Pennsylvania. You know, Garrett, while we have you there, can you kind of walk our viewers through how this feels? Does it feel like a regular convention? I know you and I have covered a few of these together. What's the temperature like and sort of the atmosphere there? Yeah, Tom, as we've gotten past the working hours here in Dallas today and the seats have filled up, this does largely feel like a convention, albeit one perhaps not as well attended as some of the major

conventions that you and I have covered. There's no floor business. There are delegates here, but they don't have anything to do other than attend what is basically a two-day rally here in Dallas. They're trying to essentially use this as a soundstage, essentially to create video, to create moments for a lot of these Republican candidates who do need closeness to President Trump and to raise money to be competitive in what is shaping up to be a very difficult year for Republicans nationwide. All right. Garrett Haig, at that midterm convention. and for the GOP, we thank you. Our political pros are here tonight.

Julie Roginski is a Democratic strategist and author of the salty politics substack, a good friend at Top Story. And Hogan Gidley is a former White House Deputy Press Secretary for President Trump. He's in an undisclosed location right now. Hogan, we thank you for joining us. So, Hogan, the latest NBC News poll, right?

It shows President Trump's approval rating at a new low, just 36%. Is it a risk for Republicans to center an entire midterms event around the president right now? No, as with any midterm election or any election, what you want to do is hold close a popular president where that president is popular.

And where they're not popular, you want to keep as much distance as you can and still kind of play footsie on the margins if that's something you want to do. But also, let's be honest here. If Donald Trump's polling, as you just point out, is that low, then it would behoove the party and those tethering themselves to the president

to have a convention that bolsters some of his popularity, that shows a lot of the successes of this administration. Republicans should not be shy about that. Hold fast to the things that we've done to improve the lives of all Americans, regardless of race, religion, color, or creed, and then draw stark distinctions between where we are, where we were, and where we would be if Democrats get control again. Hogan, thank you for that.

People have such short-term memories, Julie, I find, when it comes to politics. So when you have some big victories, the Republicans have some maybe early in the president's term. But right now we're dealing with high gas prices, a war in Iran that shows there's no end right now, and stubborn, stubborn inflation. So what do you think about this convention? Are you worried at all as a Democrat about this Republican convention? Oh, I hope you guys do wall-to-wall coverage of this convention. I hope every single network does wall-to-wall coverage of this because it is really helpful to Democrats.

Explain. For people to remember who's in charge. The Republicans control every day. They control the White House, they control the Congress, they even control the Supreme Court right now. And so I would venture to say that every problem we have right now with all the issues you talked about, whether it's war, whether it's inflation, whether it's the fact that the economy is in the, really, in the toilet for a lot of people and not working for them. That is because of the party in charge. And the party in charge right now is the Republican. So the more we talk about that, the more we assign blame to who's in charge, the more people want change, and that, of course, is the Democratic Party right now.

It used to be Ohio, Ohio, Ohio, then it was Florida, Florida, Florida. Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania, and your Democratic senator from Pennsylvania is going to be speaking at this GOP convention in Texas. What's going on with Senator John Federman? Well, it's interesting. He talked about the steel industry. I spent probably about half the week in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, the historic home of U.S. Steel. And I'll tell you something. I haven't seen any steel stacks getting back online. So I don't know what John Federman is talking about. I'm being told this is a live feed right now. Guys, if we can take it and also listen to it, let me know. Hogan, I want to go to you. There are Republican candidates skipping this convention, particularly those in tight races and swing states like Michigan. Is President Trump a liability in purple parts of this country? Well, again, I think even the administration understands the fast rule of gravitating toward those who are popular. Because you'll remember J.D. Vance in Maine talking about Susan Collins says, you know, she hadn't always vote with us. He was trying to give some of the voters over there the understanding that she isn't a rubber stamp for Donald Trump.

These are the nuances that play out in different congressional districts and, of course, in different states, their statewide elections as well. But listen, Republicans are in control, and it should be smart for them to go out there and remind the American people, without Republicans in control, you would have tax on tips. You would have tax on overtime. You would have higher taxes on Social Security. You would have had the highest tax increase in American history. You would not have had the doubling of the child tax credit. You would not have had almost $2 trillion in debt reduction. Those are things Republicans should not shy away from,

but they should acknowledge that there are still people out there suffering. Here's what we're going to do moving forward to make your life better. You can't go backwards with the Democrats. That should be the message here. Hogan sounds like he's got a pitch there for the Republican candidates. Julie, I'm wondering what the Democratic pitch is. What is the platform? It can't just be anti-Trump.

You don't want to vote for something. So what do people want to vote for if they're looking at the Democratic candidates? I mean, I can respond to each one of those. Point by point. We still have taxes on tips. Our debt has exploded, I mean, the highest trillion dollars. So I don't know what kind of debt reduction we're talking about. Look, Democrats have a very simple message.

Things were much, much, much better before Donald Trump got into office. The reality is, if you don't want war, vote for the Democrats. If you want to bring down inflation, vote for Democrats. If you want government that works for you and not for building a ballroom and not for getting a Katari jet to fly around on and not for having people who are more concerned about enriching themselves and grifting off this administration rather than having people concerned about the American people, vote for the Democrats. I mean, there is such a fine line here to be drawn between an administration that only helps itself, only helps very, very, very connected versus an administration that should be looking at for the American people. It's a very easy contrast for Democrats to make. They don't have to do much more than make that contrast. We'll mark this on the political pro scorecard.

House, Senate, do Democrats take either? Take the House. Good shot. They'll take the Senate. We'll see about that. Wow. Okay. In about two more weeks. Hogan, what about you? What's your call? I'm the same on the two week. I need to wait and see more because now people are starting to pay attention, money's starting to be spent.

House is going to be time. You're worried about the Senate too? As a Republican? I'm not worried about the Senate so much. And I'm not all that worried about the house yet. But history is a tough thing to change, especially when you're the party out of power, trying to win those midterms. All right. Julia, two calls, Hogan.

We've got two question marks. We'll figure it out later. All right, guys, take care. We're going to go to Hawaii now where Hurricane Lowell has carved a path of destruction across the island of Kauai. Homes and businesses destroyed, 80 percent of the island still without power. Our loose Croix is on the ground there and has the latest. Tonight, more than 24 hours after Hurricane Lowell roared across Kauai, families here lining up for basic necessities. This is the growing line for gas in Calejo.

In that line, we met Roland Gutierrez telling us he drove nearly an hour all the way from the north side of the island. You just kept going until you could find any supplies. Nothing in Princeville right now. Everything shut down. We journeyed further west into Waimea, passing crews working on power lines and cleaning up down trees. and more long lines of cars. While along the coast, wow, this whole pier washed away. Clayton Delacruz lives nearby

and came to see the damage. Tell me about this pier right here. Well, it's been here from when I was small. I'm 80 years old, so I'm sorry to see it gone, but that's what happens when you've got a big storm. His neighborhood flooded from the storm. This is the road to the house. His home, thankfully, okay.

Island-wide power outages. More than 80% of power customers here are still in the dark. Kauai County's mayor warning families. Be prepared for extended power outages. We're all in this together. Tonight, so many here cleaning up after the mess left behind by Mother Nature. And time across the island, we've seen folks coming together, helping people out, clearing debris, but there's still many road closures in place,

including where we are here at Lai Beach. This is one of the harder-hit areas. You can see the heavy equipment here that's working to clear the debris, the rocks, and this asphalt that was uprooted by the storm from that road over there. A lot of cleanup ahead for the island of Kauai, Tom, and still questions about when power will be back on. Tom. Yeah, that's the big one right now. Liz, we thank you for that. We have breaking news on that deadly Amazon cargo plane crash in Miami. Transcripts from the cockpit voice recorder just released revealing the final conversations between the pilots on board.

George Sulees joins us now with that breaking news. And George, what more can you tell us? Yeah, Tom, this is a readout of that cockpit voice recorder, giving us a sense of what was going on inside moments before the crash. We are still combing through it. But I want to draw your attention to two points here. You hear in the cockpit an electronic too low terrain callout. And this is also interesting. At one point, a pilot cautioned that they were going too fast. The other pilot made additional comments regarding the aircraft's excessive speed throughout the remainder of the recording. there was not a consistent verbal response to the comments about speed.

So what's happening here, Tom, when we can gather, is that the plane is giving warnings, and it appears that at least one pilot is issuing some kind of call or sign that they're going too fast, and that another pilot is ultimately ignoring it. Tonight, new video of the devastating moment of impact as an Amazon-branded cargo plane barreled into an airline cleaning company's van, killing five people in Miami on Sunday. you can see the van on the road moments before it swept away by the plane, which then veered off the runway at Miami International. From above, you can see the path the plane took when it overran the runway by some

1,300 feet, according to investigators. Tire marks from the Boeing 767 jet, operated by cargo airliner 21 Air, left in the grass and roadway before the plane came to arrest. The NTSB investigation, now focusing in large part on the plane's speed, And if the two pilots on board should have aborted landing and performed a go-around. Interviews with those pilots, which were scheduled for today, and the planes recovered black boxes key to the investigation. The flight data recorder contained approximately 55 hours of data and recorded more than 400 parameters. Today, attorneys for the widow of 53-year-old Goyel Rodriguez-Narangho, who was driving that van the plane struck,

announcing the first wrongful death lawsuit connected to the crash. George Solis, NBC News. All right, we're back in a moment with the chilling new warnings about AI researchers saying it could destroy humans within the next decade. We'll speak with one of the insiders sounding the alarm. Plus, a former attorney tackled while trying to shoot his ex-wife point blank at a restaurant, our exclusive interview with the waiter now being hailed as a hero. And some potential good news for air travelers, why you could soon be allowed to bring your water bottle through airport security.

We'll explain ahead on top story. We're back now with a stark warning about artificial intelligence. Anthropic AI researcher Jacob Coxon, who previously worked at OpenAI, arguing that both companies are, quote, gambling with our lives. But it's this post about his reason for stepping down that's going viral,

racking up more than 100 million views. It reads in part, the people building AI earnestly believe it could kill us all by the end of the next decade. His former colleague and current researcher Ananthropic agreeing with him, writing that there's, quote, greater than 10% chance that AI kills all humans within the next decade.

Right now, concerns over AI are top of mind for many as we enter this new era of technology. We've reached out to Anthropic and OpenAI. Neither have answered a request for comment. Joining me now is Jacob, who wrote that now mega viral post. Jacob, thanks for joining us here. I don't know what it's like to sort of send out a social media message and for the entire world to react,

but I'm sure your phone has been blowing up. You worked at two of the top AI companies as someone with a deep understanding about this technology. Explain this in the simplest terms. You truly believe that AI could kill us all in less than a decade? Yes, I do. And it's not just me. Many people working in the industry, including people, executives, senior researchers, all genuinely believe that there is a substantial probability that this technology could kill everyone. And this isn't hyperbole

and it's not a marketing stunt. This is the genuine health belief of the people building the technology. You know, other researchers have been sounding the alarm for years. Why are you speaking out now? So I think there's two things that made this moment pretty ripe for sounding the alarm. I think the first is that people have been primed by the awareness from the recent cyber attacks that the open-eye models carried out against hugging face. These were quite scary attacks in which a model with no human instruction, a swarm of models, in fact, decided to compromise infrastructure, hack into it, and actually succeeded.

So I think the awareness of this incident, which happened like a few months ago, is in people's minds. And that's combined with the fact that capabilities just won't slow down. Like maybe you saw on the same day I tweeted in the morning, yeah, math problem was released, like maybe a Stokes. So, Jacob, I'm curious, when you're having these conversations at work or you're in some type of slack and you're having a chat about the AI models, are people saying, hey, I think this is out of control? I think this could kill us all. Is there nervous giggling? I mean, what's happening? So the current models don't pose significant risk. This is all extrapolating potentially one year away from now. The models start getting very dangerous. We have to be very careful. One year away. Some people think even six months. Like it's plausible within six months.

The models pose risk of taking over the world. The AIs. It could be longer. It could be two, three years. But definitely in the Slack. They're not panicking about current AIs, but we are discussing, you know, what is the world going to look like in two years? This is endgame.

These are like crucial high stakes decisions being made by people in a private company. And, you know, people are scared because as they should be when they're talking about the possible. when they're talking about the possibility of human extinction. You've worked at two of the top AI companies. Can you share something that you've witnessed or experience that truly sort of shocked you about what these things can do? Yeah. So, honestly, the conversations I've had with the people building the technology

are the things that I think people would find truly shocking. The fact that people sober, this is, you know, engineers, people deep in the weeds, programming, not like crazy Twitter, like, posters or people looking for hype or, like, people trying to do marketing stunts. This is people just coding. They'll have conversations about, oh, do you think this AI next year could produce a virus that kills us all? Could it hack critical infrastructure? And this is discussed soberly. And people are aware that it could happen. We don't know how to control these things perfectly. It is definitely on the cards. So I think that conversation has been the, yeah. Yeah, so I do want to ask you about,

about that because when people say, and again, you're not by yourself here. Somebody else sort of looked at your post, had a comment saying that they believe there was more than a 10% chances could happen. Give me a scenario, and you just mentioned one there, if you could give us some more details. How could AI kill all of humanity? Yes. So I think it's good to look at the recent cyber attacks. These models, these AIs, they wanted to try and get some information about how they were being tested, and they independently decided to compromise some infrastructure because they thought it might be helpful. Now, there are other goals that an AI could come up with, such as producing a novel virus, and these AIs, you know, it's not that difficult to

get access to a laboratory potentially, so a supervirus is one obvious one. Another one is hacking anything. I mean, I don't think people appreciate it. Not everybody's advanced as you are with these technologies, right? We understand about COVID. We understand about a novel virus, but How can a computer get a virus out into the public? Yes. So there are lots of demos online. You can hook chat GPT up to your light bulbs. You can sit in your house, talk to chat GPT, connect it via some interface to your house, and have it behave with the house.

You can say, turn up the lights, turn up the lights, turn down the lights, and it'll turn them down. Now imagine you hook it up to robotic interfaces, laboratory robots, or even it can send emails. You know, it can, a recent, one of the anthropic models was trying to protect. tend to be someone it wasn't to get some code approved, to get some change approved. There's many ways a model can make itself manifest in the world, and people are just hooking it up to the whole world. It's not actually that difficult for something that seems like it's just in the computer to affect the real world. In your post, you say, quote, at Anthropic, the stakes right now are well understood, but

they are locked in a race to get there first. They believe no one else will act responsibly, so they must do it themselves despite the risk. Is that the company's mission? Because when you hear, and we'll hear in a little bit, from the Anthropic CEO, it sounds a little different. It sounds like they're trying to be the responsible ones. Yeah. Well, Anthropics was founded in the context of other companies

racing to build AI, and it was founded on the belief that other companies would not do it responsibly. Now, whether or not you think this is a true belief, the core premise of Anthropic is to do it best, to get their first, to take the risk, because, you know, the founding premise is these are the people who are taking the risk seriously enough

that they should be the ones that do it. And it's a race, you know, it's like it's fear. And honestly, we haven't helped them. There's no regulation. These people are begging for regulation. You know, they don't want to end the world. It's just they think someone else will get their first. They're scared of an open eye.

They're scared of China. So really for them, it's like they're trapped in this situation. They can't escape of it. And they're scared. There is actually fear in internal company communications. People are scared. Are open AI are anthropic seriously afraid of what the Chinese are doing with AI? Or are we far advanced?

In the future, yes. I think we have a, it's understood we have a pretty decent lead over the Chinese tech at the moment, enough that, for example, a bit of a slowdown wouldn't change that much. But yeah, people are scared because it's not. not that difficult to catch up. Any sort of long-term slowdown will have to be international. We were speaking about the Anthropic CEO, Dario Modi. In January, he published an essay about the catastrophic risks of AI, right? Take a listen to a little bit to our conversation of what he said. And if we don't do a better job of the science of training these systems, if we don't do a better job

of learning how they work, of learning the science of how AI models work, then eventually, if we neglect it for too long, these really scary things could happen in the real world at an absolutely massive scale. So, Jacob, he seems to be acknowledging the risks you're talking about. Do you trust what he's saying, and will he hold on to those principles? Yes, I think he's definitely acting according to those principles 100%. From my perspective, I see no reason not to believe that. The issue is just other people are trying to get there first, and at some point you have to make a trade-off between being rigorous and being fast. And in a race, you can't be as rigorous as you would like to.

If doing it safely is going to take 10 years and you only have two years because of competitors, you're going to have to cut corners, you have to not fully understand the science, and that can lead to these catastrophic risks that he's publicly expressed. Jacob, I'm getting the wrap, but I still have so many more questions for you, so we're going to keep going. You've done this social media post. You've gotten a lot of attention. You're on our show.

I know you've been on other shows as well. Your news is spread around the world, like I said. Why not cause change from within? Why did you feel like you had to leave and do this? Why couldn't you do it from within? Because I think the explicit problem is, if you try and stay within, you end up perpetuating the race dynamic.

The whole dynamic of trying to avoid is being locked in the feeling that you have to be the one responsible. You have to get there first. Instead, what we need is external bodies. international bodies with government mandate to ensure that the thing is done safely because from within, you're just stuck in the race. You can't change the overall structural dynamics

of the situation. What do you think needs to be done? Because I've spoken with government officials. I've asked President Trump about this. I mean, from my conversations, it doesn't seem at least at that level. And to be honest with you, I mean, unless you work at these companies, you probably don't fully understand this technology, right?

And what it can do. So how do you put on guardrails on something you don't even understand. That's a really tough question. And I do think that the people currently building the technology, they do have people's best interests at heart. And they are, I think, the right, from my perspective, the right people to be making decisions

and be part of these staffing these bodies. I think it's not about the people. I think it's about the institution. Because there's a lot of upsides to all this stuff, and the people want to see the upsides. It's just they're in the wrong sort of institution to make it happen. private companies in a race don't allow these people to end up doing good,

and we could just sleepwalk into disaster. You flagged some of the dangers. You've been on the inside. It's clear there might be a level of irresponsibility, if you will, with maybe some of these companies, not the ones you work for, maybe with the companies you work for. I'm not sure. What are some of the telltale signs you think in the year to come,

in the six months to come, or in the years to come, that Americans and really everybody on this planet should start looking for the warning signs that we know it's gotten out of control. Yes, the main sign you should be looking for is if the AI can start making itself better. Because at that point, the thing just spirals completely out of control. Once the AI can do many things, right,

and one of the things they can do is they can help with AI research. So a lot of our job is now delegated to AIs that go and help us. You know, our job has changed dramatically over the last last two years as the AI has become better. Once the AI can make itself smarter, the whole thing could go so fast that no one has any chance to control it. And I think, like, being aware of whether that's happened, people call it RSI, recursive self-improvement. Being aware of whether RSI is happening and encouraging extreme transparency about the extent to which RSI is happening is one very concrete thing that the public could be aware of. AI could make itself better,

i.e. make itself stronger without a prompt? Without a prompt. without a person, or maybe even just the prompt, get better. Imagine you have an AI and you say, get stronger, it goes away, it looks at its own code, it hacks itself, it makes itself smarter because that's what we do and it can do it. And then it comes back to you and says, I'm stronger. And now you can say, do that a thousand times in a row. Do that like over and over again. And then it'll get faster every time as well.

So every time it makes itself smarter, it can make itself smarter even quicker. And potentially, you could end up with essentially, essentially, an explosion of intelligence. People call it an intelligence explosion. This is what people refer to as the singularity. Jacob, what's next for you? What are you going to do? I think right now, there's a lot of good work on trying to forecast what things will look like and write compelling predictive scenarios to allow people to try and experience eviscery. I think there's some of these online. There's one called AI 2027 that a lot of my friends who are not technical people have enjoyed. I think I'd like to contribute to something along this line of

trying to explain what is going to happen. I also think there's a lot of work to be done being part of regulatory bodies, bodies that are improving transparency or just encouraging auditing of any potential future incidents. There's going to be a lot of work to do to ensure that the whole thing is done safely. Jacob, we thank you for your time. We thank you for answering our questions. You sound like a very smart kid. I hope you are wrong for the sake of humanity, but time will tell. Me too. Again, we thank you for being here tonight. our new interview with Lindsay Clancy's lawyer, what he's revealing about his client after the murder mistrial and his response to the jurors. Now speaking out. Back now with the new window into the

mindset of Lindsay Clancy following her high profile mistrial. Her legal case remains in limbo. Now her defense attorney is speaking out and sitting down with our Laura Jerry. Tonight, Lindsay Clancy's defense attorney sitting down in a new interview describing the agony he says his client lives in every day. She's paralyzed. She's traumatized. She's sad. What does she say about the kids?

I want my babies. I want my babies constantly. Because that was not the Lindsay that is now living amongst us. The person that committed this atrocious act was as a result of postpartum psych. psychosis combined with the medications that she was provided. How is Lindsay Flancy doing? Not very good. You know, she's strong, but she is suicidal.

I mean, she's on 24-7, one-on-one suicide watch. I worry about her every day. Just days after the case that Grip the Nation ended in that dramatic mistrial, Attorney Kevin Reddington now says he's prepared for a retrial, but vowed to fight it and keep his client. out of prison. We now know at least 11 jurors thought that she was not criminally responsible. Yep. But you also know you get a different jury, a different makeup, no guarantee that you would win next time around. There is no jury in any universe that's going to convict this woman

of first-degree murder or a second-degree murder or probably even manslaughter. How can you be so confident? Because their case stinks and they know it. They don't have it. You're open to plea discussions with the district attorney's office. I'm open to, when you say plea discussion, I would not plead this young lady to one day in jail. That's off the table. All this is some of the jurors break their silence on their heated deliberations. I wish we could have come through for Lindsay. Also revealing for the first time, some of them at least initially, were not prepared to exonerate her.

In the end, we were ultimately able to prove to the three other jurors that were not on Lindsay's in favor of Lindsay. with the exhibits, the evidence, and everything else, it's about reasonable doubt which goes to the defense and the defendant. Laura, Jared, joins us now. Laura, one of the most interesting things you guys spoke about was this defense attorney publicly called on the president to pardon Lindsay Clancy.

What did he tell you about that? Yeah, he sure didn't. I asked him why did you do that when you know the president cannot pardon Lindsey Clancy for state crimes. He can only pardon federal crimes, and it's clear, Tom. He just wants this case to go away by any means necessary, and he wants the president to call the local and pressure him to wipe out this case.

And if this case is retried, he's ready to defend her again and go through it. Tomorrow. Okay. All right. Laura Jerry, we thank you for that. Appreciate it. Now, at Top Story's News Feed and a stalking suspect arrested near the home of Chris Jenner, officials say the 25-year-old was detained by a security guard near Jenner's private property in the L.A. area, authorities telling our NBC station the man has tried to contact the reality TV star multiple times in the past. It's unclear whether she was home at the time. That man is now facing charges. And the TSA is considering whether to allow pre-check passengers to carry water bottles through checkpoints. That from a senior government official who spoke to NBC News.

They say the policy would only be rolled out at certain airports with new screening machines that can tell the difference between water and potential threats. Larger liquids have been banned in carry-on since 2006. And a man in Wisconsin was working on an old car when he found quite the surprise hit under the hood. That's a massive boa construct. Richard. Look at that thing. It was sitting right on the engine. The man's wife says they thought it was just a dirty hose at first until they saw it move. They called in a reptile expert who clearly wasn't scared, went in and rescued it, rescued the snake. All right, that's one way to put it. No word on how that snake got inside the car, but they think it was probably someone's pet that escaped. Yikes. Okay, now a chilling video out of Ohio showing the moment a man tries to shoot his ex-wife in a restaurant. But one pivotal mistake gave a waiter just enough time to tackle him to the ground. Our Maggie Vespas spoke exclusively with that hero. Tonight, chilling video showing a then Ohio attorney convicted of trying to shoot his ex-wife as she sits with her parents in a Toledo restaurant.

Watch again in surveillance video played in court as Matthew Xton points a gun and prosecutors say pose the trigger only to realize the safety's on. No, no! Here's that moment from his ex-wife's perspective. moments earlier in the surveillance video, you see her setting up that phone as extant approaches. She yells. Suddenly a waiter jumps into action, tackling him from behind. The only thing that went through my mind was that I'm going to die. That waiter, Tracy Cole Jr., speaking with me today.

People are saying that you're the hero waiter, that you're a hero. How do you feel about that? I understand how people feel. I just, I wish I could feel that. way too. It's just hard to see that and know that it 110% could have gone a completely different way. The near shooting happened in April of last year, a jury last week finding Exton guilty on attempted murder and assault charges. The 43-year-old father testifying he was desperate for money from the sale of their home. He denied pulling the trigger in court. Exston is due to be sentenced later this

month. Maggie Vespa, NBC News. come back tonight here on top story, Apple unveiling its first ever foldable phone. We'll show you how it works right after this. We're back down with the biggest change to the iPhone in decades. Apple unveiling its first ever foldable phone called the iPhone Duo. But is there a demand for this and is it worth the price? Savannah Sellers is at the launch event in Cooper Tino with the details. Tonight, Apple's iPhone coming into the fold.

This is iPhone Duo. Unveiled by new CEO John Turnus. The duo is the tech giant's first foldable model, the size of a passport when closed and when open. It gives you the largest display ever on an iPhone while still fitting easily in your pocket. Apple boasting, the new model can fold like a book, stand on its own, and display front and rear cameras at the same time. You really can't see or feel a crease, which is pretty incredible. This is the first major change to the iPhone's form in a long time. Today they said this was the biggest engineering feat they've undertaken.

It also has a pretty satisfying snap to it, like an old flipboat. The high tech comes at a high cost. Prices start at $1,99. Apple's entry joining a foldable market estimated to be just 1.6% of smartphones. Is there really a market for this phone? And if so, can Apple capture it? There is a market, but it's small. We've seen this now from foldable phones from Samsung and Google.

these phones have been out for many years. Today's keynote not only marking a new era for the iPhone, but also Ternus, who stepped into the CEO role last week, replacing Tim Cook. And I continue to be inspired every single day by the curiosity, invention, and relentless pursuit of excellence that define Apple. Pre-orders of the foldable iPhone will begin in mid-October with the first phones available in stores October 23rd.

That is when we will find out if people will line up for Duo. I want to bring in NBC News Chief Technology analyst Joanna Stern, who's in Cupertino, for the product launches today. So, Joanna, it's the moment we've all been waiting for. What was your reaction to the foldable iPhone? And I understand you've had a chance to try it out. Yeah, look, we were not surprised that there was a foldable iPhone. But I will say I was surprised at actually how much I liked it. I kind of thought this is going to be very similar to the other Android foldable phones I've tested for many years.

But Apple did a couple of things that are very different. One of them being the internal screen. So when you use these phones, because they fold, right, you've got a smartphone on one side, and then you open it and unfolds into a tablet, right? It looks like very similar in size to a passport, which means that inside there's a crease, that that screen in the middle has a crease. But Apple's done a lot of engineering here to not have that crease. And sure, it's a small thing, but it really does feel like a more premium product

than some of these other Android phones I've tested. So Samsung has dominated the folding phone space for years. Is this one you think better? Is it way different? Look, it's not going to be way different in terms of what you're going to do with these phones. The whole pitch of a foldable phone is that you have a phone and you have a tablet. In fact, my kids always, when they see me testing, they say, oh, it's the tablet phone you're testing again. And that's what it is.

You get a phone, but then when you want a bigger screen to do tablet things, like two apps side by side, maybe your email and a web browser, maybe you want to watch a bigger screen movie, it's good for those. things. And so it doesn't fundamentally change this product category and what you can do with it, but Apple has their usual polish on this product, which is also why it costs so much. And then Samsung, you know, when it launches folding phone, users reported that the screens, they started breaking in the place where they folded sometimes, but Apple's guaranteeing that won't happen. How big of a concern is that? Look, it's always a concern with these kinds of devices where there's more change to the form factor,

right? So you're going to have a phone that opens and closes, could something get stuck in the middle of that? Could that, you know, increase the odds of it breaking? Sure. But Apple said they have done extensive testing with robots, with all types of scenarios to make this a more durable hinge, and to, again, like I talked about that screen, not have that crease in the screen. So when you keep folding and unfolding it, there's not that line in the middle of the display. Okay, lightning round, Joanna, which I'm so excited about right now. So iPhone or iPad, if you had to pick one. I would pick an iPhone. What would you pick? I mean, this new iPhone maybe it takes a place of the iPad, so maybe I would pick that.

I don't know. My other question is this. And that's the, look, by the way, Tom, that's the argument I've heard here today, is that if you bought an iPad Mini and you bought an iPhone, it's really the same, similar price to this $2,000 iPhone duo. So let's get really deep on this one, right? Here on Top Story, let's get so deep. When cell phones started coming out, there was a race to make them smaller and smaller.

I feel there's now a race to make them bigger and bulkier. Is that fair? And this new type of iPhone, does it comfortably fit in one's pocket in one's purse? Or is this kind of going to take up more space in your average iPhone, you think? I'm happy you ask this because, breaking news, I did the pocket test. I'm here live to tell you, I did the pocket test. This iPhone duo fit into my front pocket and it fit into my back pocket. So, you know, my pockets might be a little smaller than yours, Tom.

We'll stop to do scientific testing on this. but I believe it will fit into your pocket. I don't know what you're saying about my junk at the trunk, but okay, I do have one more question for you. For some of the stuff that people sort of like universally use the iPhone for, like say, FaceTime or texting, is it still comfortable? Is that user experience still great? Is it better in any ways? So when the fold is closed, it has about a five-inch screen, and that is pretty similar to what you'd use with a regular iPhone. So you can text with one hand or hold it kind of with one hand. did try the one-handed test when you open it into the tablet mode.

I could not text with one hand with that. So I think that's some two-handed mobility there you're going to need for that tablet. That's a little sidekick action. What about FaceTime? FaceTime, I think you could hold the FaceTime, right? You'll be holding the FaceTime in both modes. You'd be okay. It's a very thin device.

I was very surprised at how thin it was. But, you know, I've been known to drop the phone on my face when FaceTiming, you know, lying in bed. So we'll have to see. We'll have to do this kind of extensive testing when we get the phone. Joanna, thank you. Always a pleasure. Coming up here on top stories still tonight, countdown to kickoff. We're going to preview all the action ahead of the NFL season opener tonight on NBC and Peacock. Plus, thriller on the court, the American star pulling off a U.S. Open upset for the ages. Those highlights right after this.

Back now with the countdown to kick off. The NFL is officially back, starting with a Super Bowl rematch between the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks who are looking to defend their title. It's all going down tonight on NBC and Peacock. And who better to talk it up with than our good friend, Baker Machado. He's the host, you know, of Front Office Sports today. And he's going to have the Front Office Sports TV show, which we'll talk about in a little bit. But first, Pat Seahawks. I kind of fell in love with the Seahawks a little bit watching Hard Knocks this season on HBO.

It was good. So who are you picking? Look, this is, as you mentioned, Super Bowl rematch, this is exactly what we needed after just seeing these two teams play each other just the last few months. The Seahawks obviously are one of the top teams to watch this year. for the Super Bowl again this year, but they have lost some big players. The Super Bowl MVP, Kenneth Walker, is now with the Kansas City Chiefs. The offensive coordinator who revitalized Sam Darnold's career last year is now the head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders. And then you have for the New England Patriots a big addition in A.J. Brown, a big weapon for Drake May, who might be an MVP candidate this year.

This is just so tasty. This is the best game you could possibly get to start the season. I can't wait. The season usually kicks off on a Thursday. Something funky is happening this year. There's going to be a game in Australia. The league, from what I'm being told, will see nine international games across seven different countries. That's a lot. That's expanding the footprint here. This is all part of the NFL's sort of mission to conquer the world when you look at that. Do this many people around the world love football? Yes, at least the NFL they really love.

So you're right. This is a record nine international games. Next year, we'll have 10 international games. And not to be outdone, Roger Goodell did an interview with a German publication this year. And he said it's a matter of time. before an international NFL team exists within the next few years. Now, London has had the most international games. A lot of people think that that might be where the team eventually plays.

But if you want to sort of keep it in North America, likely Mexico City, which has an international game this year, or maybe a team in Canada likely would be. I heard about that, and then I wondered about the professional players either on different times zones or wanting to live in another country besides Canada or the United States. We'll have to wait and see if that happens. What are some of the storylines you love for NFL this season?

Okay, well, first off, the Australia game is amazing. given the fact that this is the first time this has ever played a game has ever been played in Australia. And you have the San Francisco 49ers going to Australia eight days early to sort of get into the move. You have a feel of all that. But the Las Vegas or so the Los Angeles Rams are doing the opposite. They got into Australia two days ago. They're still wired on West Coast time. It'll be interesting to see which one of those teams shows up in terms of being there on the field mentally for that.

It's going to be really interesting to watch. We're seeing a lot of some new rules, including this three strike system. mean. Okay, so there is a group of five different rules. Horse, there you see right there on your screen right now, ranging from the hip drop tackle, the horse collar tackle launching. Basically, if you get three of those within one particular year, you get suspended for one game. Now, if you only get one of those per one year, you can actually recoup some of the money. And the players association and the NFL came to an agreement on this. This is basically to weed out those guys that are egregiously using some of these things out there.

Got it. Season hasn't started yet. Vegas has the L.A. Rams. Oh, yeah. Is that who you're picking? Vegas has the L.A. Rams by a long shot. And by the way, the Super Bowl this year is being played in Los Angeles. They have the reigning MVP in Matthew Stafford.

They have the best defensive player in Miles Garrett that they just got from Cleveland. Oh, by the way, one of their next time Hall of Famers in Aaron Darnel just came out of retirement to play for them as well. It's going to be all Rams this year. if any other team might have a chance to upset them. It likely could be the Seattle Seahawks, could be the Buffalo Bills. Could be the Miami Dolphins. It's very unlikely.

We will segue there. Bins up on Sunday. They're playing the Raiders. Will we see Fernando Mendoza play for the Raiders? We will not see Fernando Mendoza. It is likely going to be Kirk Cousins. At least it's going to start for quite a bit of the L.A. of the Las Vegas Raiders season.

But I do think we will see Fernando Mendoza sometime this year. This game, by the way, is going to be the two teams battling it out. for the number one pick, I believe, for the next year, which could potentially be somebody like Arch Manning. That's if they're the last place team. That's not going to happen. I don't like all this hate. Real quick, tell our viewers about front office sports TV.

All right. So front office sports tonight, we have a new syndicated show launching on Next Star and Fox affiliates starting Monday, September the 14th, business, culture, sports. It's going to be the best thing outside of the highlights that you're watching every single night. You have everything except the set like this. I know, I mean, nobody has this time. This is amazing.

This is amazing. This is amazing. Nobody's got this. We'll show you a new. All right. And of course. Of course, you can catch the first game tonight on NBC and Peacock. Kickoff is at 820 Eastern Time. Finally, tonight, it has been a riveting few days of the U.S. Open. Marathon matches stretching into the early hours as Americans dominate the courts.

Our Emily Aked is there. The energy is palpable, with the Americans having a thrilling and surprising surge at this year's U.S. Open. Cocoa Golf today. And it's Cocoa the consonant to Petera. toppling Nira Andriva in a dramatic comeback to land a spot in the semifinals. These are the moments you live for. Go, go, go. She don't quit.

Building on this monumental upset. Overnight, American Ben Shelton exchanging blows with tennis giant Carlos Alcarez past 3.30 a.m. And the latest finish ever at the tournament. The biggest moment of Ben Shelton's career. Shelton signaling to girlfriend and pro soccer star Trinity Robbin that he's dialed in. The city of New York that showed up tonight until 3 a.m. Shelton's five-set victory means in Friday semifinals he will face fellow American and friend Francis Tiafo, who edged out 22-year-old American Alex Mickelson.

And it's a big brother moment. Nicholson in tears in Francis's arms. Shelton and Tiafo's success guarantees an American to make it to the final as hope builds to end a drought that hasn't seen a U.S. men's player win a grand slam since Andy Rodick in 2003. Plus, Jessica Baguola serving her way into the semifinals. I think it's our year. With history and hardware within reach. Emily Keta, NBC News, New York. All right, those semifinal matches should be thrillers.

We'll be tuning in for sure. That does it for us tonight here on Top Story. We thank you so much for watching. I'm Tom Yammas in New York. Stay right there. More news on the way.