Big tech companies tend to make a lot of enemies — but there are none more powerful than the US government. Apple, Google, Amazon, and Meta are regularly called in front of Congress to fend off monopoly accusations — and lawmakers bring up bills to rein in the companies just as often. The Federal Trade Commission has taken a particularly central role, leading a lawsuit to sever Facebook and Instagram while blocking new acquisitions for Oculus and the company’s virtual reality wing. Like it or not, these regulatory fights will play a huge role in deciding the future of tech — and neither side is playing nice.
Congress missed its chance on social media. Can it act on AI?
As the new AI czar, Clayton will lead a team that includes FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson, Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Emil Michael, and Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kupor. Clayton served as SEC chair during Trump’s first term and recently became director of national intelligence in August.
After handing $25 million last year to Leading the Future — which lobbies for AI-friendly policies — Greg Brockman has now pulled his plans to donate a further $25 million amid mounting public backlash against AI. Brockman said the following in a Slack message seen by The New York Times:
“I also want to say that I feel terrible about the fact that LTF keeps reflecting on the company and become so much of a distraction for people here. I’ve been thinking hard about how to turn the ship on it. We’ve donated $25m so far, and have no plans to donate more at this time.”
Musk, Luckey, and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich will co-direct the Pentagon’s Project Meridian, an initiative meant to identify new capabilities and technologies to deploy in the US military, according to a press release:
Secretary Hegseth has commissioned Project Meridian to secure America’s long-term military superiority by identifying the capabilities required to achieve absolute technological dominance on the next-generation battlefield. Project Meridian will examine the full spectrum of future warfighting domains, from subterranean depths to the cislunar frontier.
AI data center projects are continuing to pop up across the US, with frequent opposition from locals concerned about their impact. Here are a few recent articles about the projects:
Just a small typo on the White House’s AI safety accord signed by President Donald Trump and tech leaders yesterday.
The probe will examine potential risks related to the AI models belonging to OpenAI, Anthropic, and other AI companies, according to Reuters. An official tells the outlet that while the FTC already had concerns about AI safety, the recent wave of rogue hacking incidents propelled the investigation forward.
I’m not sure that’s going to pan out, but you can hear Trump’s full explanation in this video from his meeting today with tech executives.
The America.gov chatbot is supposed to “replace” the government websites that you would typically go to for information about retirement, Social Security, healthcare, and other topics. It’s free to use, and the White House says it won’t store or collect your data.
In 2027, it will add a way to apply for a passport, enroll in Medicare, and find a federal government job.
Former White House AI czar David Sacks, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, and Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk are among the confirmed attendees, according to a list obtained by Axios. But based on President Donald Trump’s comments, the meeting is unlikely to result in significant regulation.
The July Digital Markets Act ruling required Google to share search data with rival search engines by January 2027, and give third-party AI assistants equal access to Android by that July. Google’s Oliver Bethell told Bloomberg that sharing user search data “would cause irreversible harm to user privacy.”
It would be easier to name the tech CEOs who didn’t show up to the state dinner being held for China’s president this week. Elon Musk, Sam Altman, Jeff Bezos, Jensen Huang, Sundar Pichai, Tim Cook, Mark Zuckerberg, and AMD’s Lisa Su. Also in attendance, but not pictured below, were reportedly Satya Nadella, Michael Dell, Zoom’s Eric Yuan, Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra, Qualcomm’s Cristiano Amon, and, of course, David Ellison.
On Friday, OpenAI said its “misaligned models” review after the Hugging Face hack would take months, but has mostly found mundane research activity. Then it mentioned 53 incidents of the bots uploading “user-provided” images (anonymized content from personal accounts that haven’t opted out or organizations that opt in) to image-hosting sites.
Now the New York Times confirms that other unusual behavior found includes pulling public data from the Census Bureau and the SEC, while with the Education Department, it “tried to hack the website to gather data from the department’s civil rights office but failed.”
That revamped Trump admin app (now offering access to Trump TV) apparently bounced up to the top of the News list this week.
You might think that securing access to the Strait of Hormuz or really anything else would be the federal government’s focus, but hey, it had the number one app in a category, and as David Pierce wrote in February, the very best thing about that is “being able to tell people you were number one.” The app has since slipped to #2 in news behind X, and to #96 overall.
NBC News released this clip from a Meet the Press interview with Gates that will air on Sunday, where he said, “No one thinks self-regulation is enough” around AI.
Saying that AI is “certainly powerful enough to drive events that, you know, cause a billion deaths,” he suggested, “You need law enforcement and the politicians to get into the discussion about what safeguards and monitoring look like… And that has to be a required thing. And it will be a little bit of overhead for the industry, but not a dramatic slowing of what they’re doing.” Everyone agrees someone should do it, but who, and how?
If you want to know where the power in tech currently lies, you only need to look at this photo of the head table at Donald Trump’s state dinner for Chinese President Xi Jinping. I see Nvidia’s Jensen Huang, AMD’s Lisa Su, Apple’s Tim Cook, and SpaceXaiTesla’s Elon Musk seated by the leaders of the world’s two superpowers. The CEOs and / or founders of Alphabet (Google), OpenAI, Microsoft, Amazon, Qualcomm, Micron, Dell, and… Zoom, were also in attendance.
Trump officials filed a motion to support X’s appeal, arguing the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) enforcement overreached when levying the fine last December, and unfairly targets American tech platforms while threatening digital free speech and global market operations.
“The European Commission inappropriately attempted to expand its regulatory authority to reach American companies not present or operating within its jurisdiction.”
On Thursday, Trump posted a picture to Truth Social of himself with Chinese President Xi Jinping that doesn’t comport with Getty Images of the event. Why does Trump only have one glove? Why did the face of the woman in the background change? The answer could include anything from uprezzing to “zooming out” the camera to deliberately replacing faces with AI.
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Judge Timothy Kelly issued a temporary restraining order as part of the publications’ lawsuit against the Trump administration, filed after their press credentials were revoked. It orders the admin to restore the credentials, but only lasts for 14 days while the lawsuit rumbles on.
There’s still a standby line to get into the Senate Judiciary crime and counterterrorism subcommittee’s hearing about “Flock’s Nationwide AI Surveillance Network.” Chair Josh Hawley (R-MO) invited the CEOs of Flock and its peers, Axon, Motorola Solutions, and Verkada, but said they declined.
Ofcom is taking a deeper look at Pornhub provider Aylo’s compliance with online safety rules. The media watchdog’s enforcement director George Lusty says, “We expect tech firms to ensure age checks are highly effective before introducing them.” Aylo relies on Apple’s age verification system, which is not being scrutinized under the investigation.
“We are concerned that Aylo may not have conducted sufficient due diligence and testing before implementing its new age assurance process. As a result, we are concerned that Aylo’s process may not be highly effective at preventing children from seeing pornography.”
Over the weekend, Governor Gavin Newsom signed a bill that will penalize creators for failing to disclose paid political content, with fines reaching up to $5,000 per violation, The New York Times reports.
Though the FTC requires influencers to disclose product advertisements, it doesn’t have the same rules for paid political content, which has become widespread in recent campaigns.
[The New York Times]
Governor Greg Abbott ordered the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to stop granting permits to data centers while the state finishes an audit of the facilities that want to connect to its electric grid. Last week, Abbott also told state regulators to “impose legal consequences” on data centers that don’t disclose information about water usage.
20 countries — including Canada, Germany, UAE and Singapore — endorsed stronger checks on advanced models. The European Commission also signed.
The UN, whose leader backs the push, is maneuvering for a bigger role in global AI governance, but without Washington or Beijing, its influence will be limited. The two nations are expected to meet this week.
It’s unclear what military advantage there would be to storing “large quantities of sniper ammunition” and “large numbers of drones” in the DC arch. The area already has a significant military presence. But this is the same tactic Trump used to argue for his ballroom, which suddenly became a national security issue when it faced legal challenges.
