Ideas that challenge / comfort / inspire
Stephen Goforth
"Roughly one in 10 participants in a study said they would change their vote in highly contested national elections in Canada and Poland after talking with a chatbot. The AI models took the role of a gentle, if firm, interlocutor, offering arguments and evidence in favor of the candidate they represented. 'If you could do that at scale,' the senior author on the study said, 'it would really change the outcome of elections.'” -The Atlantic
New York Signs AI Safety Bill Into Law, Ignoring Trump Executive Order - Wall Street Journal
Israel reportedly using facial recognition and Google Photos to conduct mass surveillance in Gaza - Mashable
“Tinder for Nazis” hit by 100GB data leak, thousands of users exposed with the help of AI - CyberNews
If U.S.-China AI Rivalry Were Football, the Score Would Be 24-18 – Wall Street Journal
Chatbots Are Surprisingly Effective at Swaying Voters - The Atlantic
Senators Investigate Role of A.I. Data Centers in Rising Electricity Costs – New York Time
Trump Clears Sale of More Powerful Nvidia A.I. Chips to China - New York Times
Cheap and powerful AI campaigns target voters in India – Rest of World
Putin Wanted AI Supremacy. Now Russia Is Struggling to Stay in the Race. - Wall Street Journal
AI may discriminate against you at work. Some states are making it illegal. – Washington Post
A growing share of America’s hottest AI startups have turned to open Chinese AI models – NBC News
How China’s new AI systems are reshaping human rights - Australian Strategic Policy Institute
New rule targets AI discrimination. Here’s what workers need to know. - Washington Post
Silicon Valley’s Man in the White House Is Benefiting Himself and His Friends - New York Times
China’s AI warpath – Politico
AI Enters the Classroom at the Marine War College – Military.com
US to mandate AI vendors measure political bias for federal sales – Reuters
AI-generated political videos are more about memes and money than persuading and deceiving – The Conversation
New AI battle: White House vs. Anthropic - Axis
The AI dilemma: To compete with China, the U.S. needs Chinese talent – Rest of World
China now leads the U.S. in this key part of the AI race – Washington Post
Just How Bad Would an AI Bubble Be? – The Atlantic
Public figures used to be off-limits in AI-generated video. A new Tow Center analysis shows how platforms are normalizing the practice. – Columbia Journalism Review
Morgan Stanley warns the AI boom may be running out of steam - Quartz
America is now one big bet on AI – The Financial Times
There Are Two Economies: A.I. and Everything Else – New York Times
AI is reshaping childhood in China – Rest of World
Google is blocking AI searches for Trump and dementia – The Verge
A.I. Is Driving a Stock Market Rally in China, Too - New York Times
Police are drowning in data. Could a chatbot help? – Washington Post
One Law Sets South Korea’s AI Policy—and One Weak Link Could Break It – ITIF
Chasing AGI could backfire for US, experts say – Semafor
How the Trump administration is using AI to ramp up immigration enforcement - CNN
Uncommon bonds: Cracking down on AI chatbots – Semafor
Inside Democrats' emerging AI playbook – Axios
Meta created its own super PAC to politically kneecap its AI rivals – The Verge
Albania appoints AI bot as minister to tackle corruption – Yahoo News
Regulators Are Digging Into A.I. Chatbots and Child Safety - New York Times
A short-term profit grab risks eroding America’s biggest advantage in the AI race. - Washington Post
Silicon Valley Launches Pro-AI PACs to Defend Industry in Midterm Elections – Wall Street Journal
Do AI Companies Actually Care About America? – The Atlantic
Foreign disinformation enters AI-powered era - Axios
China Turns to A.I. in Information Warfare - New York Times
Illinois blocks AI from being your therapist - Axios
Trump Wasted No Time Derailing His Own AI Plan – The Atlantic
China is betting on a real-world use of AI to challenge U.S. control – Washington Post
Trump’s AI plan calls for more open-sourcing despite China concerns – Semafor
DOGE builds AI tool to cut 50 percent of federal regulations - Washington Post
Trump Says He’s ‘Getting Rid of Woke’ and Dismisses Copyright Concerns in AI Policy Speech – Wired
Trump’s AI plan: Pull back restraints on tech - CNN
White House AI plan focuses on beating China – Axios
China tops the world in artificial intelligence publications, database analysis reveals - Science
Trump’s A.I. Challenge: Focus on World’s Most Dangerous Weapons or Woke-ism? - New York Times
Truth Social’s new AI search engine basically just pushes Fox News – The Verge
The Chatbot Culture Wars Are Here - New York Times
"China has taken a commanding lead in the exploding field of artificial intelligence (AI) research, despite U.S. restrictions on exporting key computing chips to its rival, finds a new report. In 2000, China-based scholars produced just 671 AI papers, but in 2024 their 23,695 AI-related publications topped the combined output of the United States (6378), the United Kingdom (2747), and the European Union (10,055). U.S. influence in AI research is declining, with China now dominating." -Science.org
A racist campaign message caused ire among Oklahoma Democrats. But it wasn't real, it was AI – The Oklahoman
The Global A.I. Divide: Only 32 nations, mostly in the Northern Hemisphere, have A.I.-specialized data centers. - New York Times
The Trump administration is pushing federal agencies to rapidly adopt artificial intelligence tools. – Washington Post
Israel and Iran use propaganda, disinformation and covert operations aided by artificial intelligence - New York Times
How Trump’s megabill could slow AI progress in US - Semafor
A Marco Rubio impostor is using AI voice to call high-level officials - Washington Post
How tech’s bold bid to curb AI laws fell apart - Washington Post
Rick Perry’s AI plan: A colossal nuclear campus in Trump’s image - Washington Post
A.I. Is Starting to Wear Down Democracy - New York Times
Behind the Curtain: An AI Marshall Plan - Axios
The Global A.I. Divide - New York Times
What If China Wins the AI Race? – Foreign Affairs
China’s Spy Agencies Are Investing Heavily in A.I., Researchers Say - New York Times
Can AI bail the US out of its debt hole? - Semafor
Thune urges "light touch" on AI regulations - Axios
Denmark to tackle deepfakes by giving people copyright to their own features - The Guardian
AI and disinformation fuel political tensions in the Philippines – Al Jazeera
How Nvidia’s Jensen Huang Persuaded Trump to Sell A.I. Chips to China - New York Times
New York passes a bill to prevent AI-fueled disasters - Tech Crunch
AI Chatbots Are Making LA Protest Disinformation Worse – Wired
OpenAI takes down covert operations using social media tied to China and other countries – NPR
The US to Become a Net Exporter of AI Talent in 2025 - Zekidata
AI-powered fanfiction blurs political reality – Semafor
A bid to bar states from regulating AI is getting pushback – Washington Post
Trump signs bill criminalizing revenge porn and explicit deepfakes - TechCrunch
America Is Winning the Wrong AI Race – Wall Street Journal
The UAE and Saudi Arabia are pouring billions into U.S.-backed AI infrastructure – Wired
States chase OpenAI’s $100 billion AI American Dream - Washington Post
Scammers use AI to spoof senior U.S. officials' voices, FBI warns – Axios
AI therapy is a surveillance machine in a police state – The Verge
How Taiwan can bolster U.S. in the global AI and tech race - Washington Post
The AI Slop Presidency – 404 Media
White House fires head of Copyright Office amid Library of Congress shakeup - Washington Post
US government is using AI for unprecedented social media surveillance – New Scientist
A startup is using AI to summarize local city council meetings – Columbia Journalism Review
House GOP eyes moratorium on state AI laws - Washington Post
AI is being used by the US State department to find foreign students who it perceives to be Hamas supporters. Their visas will be revoked. News reports of anti-Israel demonstrations and Jewish students' lawsuits are being checked for evidence that "foreign nationals allegedly engaged in antisemitic activity." Read more from Axios
The truth about DOGE’s AI plans: The tech can’t do that – Washington Post
UK ministers consider changing AI plans to protect creative industries -The Guardian
Trump is already trying to put his stamp on AI - CNN
AI unleashes a weird new genre of political communication – The Economist
Fake Video of Trump and Musk Appears on TVs at Housing Agency – New York Times
What an AI-generated video of Gaza reveals about Trump tactics US President - BBC
AI policy must be based on ‘science, not science fiction’ – Tech Crunch
LA Times to display AI-generated political rating on opinion pieces - The Guardian
Wave of state-level AI bills raise First Amendment problems – The FIRE
AI Slop of Musk and Trump on TikTok Racks Up 700 Million Views – 404 Media
US, UK refuse to sign AI safety declaration at international summit – Semafor
Lawmakers Push to Ban DeepSeek App From U.S. Government Devices – Wall Street Journal
Vance pushes ‘America First’ AI agenda, accuses allies of overregulation – Washington Post
China has more trust in AI than the United States – Axios
DOGE's "AI-first" strategy courts disaster - Axios
A.I.-Generated Garbage Is Polluting Our Culture: We need a Clean Internet Act – New York Times
AI is Uncle Sam’s new secret weapon to fight fraud - CNN
The Department of Homeland Security Is Embracing A.I. - The New York Times
AI Is Moving Faster Than Attempts to Regulate It. Here’s How Companies Are Coping. - Wall Street Journal
State Legislatures Consider New Wave of 2025 AI Legislation – Inside Privacy
US, UK and EU sign on to the Council of Europe’s high-level AI safety treaty – Tech Crunch
How AI can be used in healthcare debated at Texas Legislature – NBC Dallas
How Will International Politics Complicate US Access to AI? – Information Week
Washington lawmakers weigh new artificial intelligence regulations – PBS
An experimental study on the political value shift in large language models – Nature
Three strategies to improve AI performance within government agencies – Washington Technology
AI Watch: Global regulatory tracker - European Union – JD Supra
Washington lawmakers weigh new artificial intelligence regulations - PBS
Google drops pledge not to use AI for weapons or surveillance - Washington Post
AI systems with ‘unacceptable risk’ are now banned in the EU – Tech Crunch
Will AI Regulation “Avoid Past Mistakes” or Just Make Different Ones? - Information Technology & Innovation Foundation
Legal challenges await OpenAI chief as he visits India on global tour – Washington Post
The Manhattan Project Was Secret. Should America’s AI Work Be Too? - Wall Street Journal
Is China winning the AI race? – Washington Post
Stunning breakthroughs from China's DeepSeek AI alarm U.S. rivals – Axios
The global struggle over how to regulate AI – Rest of World
South Carolina to Reboot Giant Nuclear Project to Meet AI Demand - Wall Street Journal
Trump Announces Private-Sector $500 Billion AI Infrastructure Investment – Unite
Google rushed to sell AI tools to Israel’s military after Hamas attack – Washington Post
China's AI keeps getting better — and cheaper – Axios
Joe Biden signs executive order to speed AI data center construction – The Verge
Sam Altman on ChatGPT’s First Two Years, Elon Musk and AI Under Trump – Bloomberg
A Book App Used AI to ‘Roast’ Its Users. It Went Anti-Woke Instead – Wired
Israel built an ‘AI factory’ for war. It unleashed it in Gaza. – Washington Post
Don’t Look Now, but China’s AI Is Catching Up Fast - Wall Street Journal
Behind the Curtain: A chilling, "catastrophic" warning – Axios
House AI Report Lays the Foundation for a Clear, Credible U.S. Vision on AI Governance – Data Innovation
Generative AI bias poses risk to democratic values, research suggests – Phys.org
Biden ratchets up AI chip war with China - Axios
AI enters Congress: Sexually explicit deepfakes target women lawmakers – 19th News
The case for a Hippocratic Oath for artificial intelligence – Global Government Forum
U.S. Prepares New AI Chip Restrictions to Close China’s Backdoor Access – Wall Street Journal
Trump names Musk ally David Sacks "AI & crypto czar" to coordinate policy – Axios
AI without limits threatens public trust — here are some guidelines for preserving communications integrity – The Conversation
How US AI policy might change under Trump – MIT Tech Review
What the departing White House chief tech advisor has to say on AI – MIT Tech Review
How do you tame AI? Scientist sees a need for regulating bots like drugs or airplanes - Geekwire
A plan to democratize access to powerful AI tools gets a last-ditch push in Congress – Semafor
Western Europe lags behind the United States in Al and IT spending - McKinsey
Canada launches Canadian Artificial Intelligence Safety Institute – Canada
AI didn’t sway the election, but it’s eroding voters’ grip on reality - The Washington Post
Biden Administration Outlines Government ‘Guardrails’ for A.I. Tools – New York Times
Studies Show AI Triggers Delirium in Leading Experts – Information Technology & Innovation Foundation
Biden’s Farewell to China’s Tech Sector: A New Type of Forbidden Chip - Wall Street Journal
What the US can learn from the role of AI in other elections – MIT Tech Review
Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoes AI safety bill opposed by Silicon Valley – LA Times
Who Will Win the 2024 US Election? We Asked ChatGPT - Newsweek
White House orders Pentagon and intel agencies to increase use of AI – Washington Post
Cognitive Scientist Gary Marcus Says AI Must Be Regulated. He Has a Plan. - Wall Street Journal
Half of U.S. states seek to crack down on AI in elections – Axios
No people, no problem: AI chatbots predict elections better than humans – Semafor
Sophistication of AI-backed operation targeting senator points to future of deepfake schemes – Associated Press
Half of U.S. states seek to crack down on AI in elections – Axios
Rethinking ‘Checks and Balances’ for the A.I. Age – New York Times
AI Could Still Wreck the Presidential Election – The Atlantic
How A.I., QAnon and Falsehoods Are Reshaping the Presidential Race - New York Times
Uncle Sam wants to know: What can your country do for AI? – Semafor
California lawmakers approve legislation to ban deepfakes, protect workers and regulate AI – ABC News
AI Regulation Is Coming. Fortune 500 Companies Are Bracing for Impact. – Wall Street Journal
Harris will use human Donald Trump stand-ins, not AI, for debate prep – Semafor
Police officers are starting to use AI chatbots to write crime reports. Will they hold up in court? – Associated Press
Breaking Down Global Government Spending on AI – Enterprise AI
How Innovative Is China in AI? – Information Technology & Innovation Foundation
AI researchers call for ‘personhood credentials’ as bots get smarter – Washington Post
How AI-generated memes are changing the 2024 election – NPR
States are writing their own rules for AI in health care - Axios
Political consultant fined $6M for using AI to fake Biden’s voice in robocalls to voters – New York Post
AI enters politics: 3 Pa. House candidates used ChatGPT to shape voters guide responses – Lancaster Online
Israel establishes national expert forum to guide AI policy and regulation – Jerusalem Post
France appoints first AI minister amid political unrest as it aims to become global AI leader – Euro News
Can politicians benefit from claiming real scandals are deep fakes? (video) – CNN
FCC pursues new rules for AI in political ads, but changes may not take effect before the election - Associated Press
As AI entrenches itself in the political world, discerning real from fake is critical – NBC Boston
Mayoral candidate vows to let VIC, an AI bot, run Wyoming’s capital city – Washington Post
Brands Love Influencers (Until Politics Get Involved) – New York Times
What AI is doing to campaigns - Politico
See why AI detection tools can fail to catch election deepfakes – Washington Post
Saudi Arabia Spends Big to Become an A.I. Superpower – New York Times
Trump's crowd-photo claims speed AI-driven truth decay – Axios
The brewing storm over California’s AI bill – Semafor
Secretaries of state urge Musk to fix AI chatbot spreading false election info - Washington Post
With Smugglers and Front Companies, China Is Skirting American A.I. Bans - New York Times
A neurological disorder stole her voice. Jennifer Wexton takes it back on the House floor – Associated Press
A Kamala Harris Presidency Could Mean More of the Same on A.I. Regulation - New York Times
California is a battleground for AI bills, as Trump plans to curb regulation - Washington Post
Censorship slows China's AI advances – Axios
US agents shut down huge Russian AI bot farm as fears over misinformation grow – Semafor
A Hacker Stole OpenAI Secrets, Raising Fears That China Could, Too - New York Times
The AI Industry starts to focus on a potential Trump presidency – Semafor
Forget deepfake videos. Text and voice are this election’s true AI threat. – The Hill
The AI election is here. Regulators can’t decide whose problem it is. - Washington Post
Generative AI poses Threat to election security, intelligence agencies warn – CBS News
The Low-Paid Humans Behind AI’s Smarts Ask Biden to Free Them From ‘Modern Day Slavery’ – Wired
UN adopts first resolution on artificial intelligence – Associated Press
Few AI deepfakes identified in EU elections, Microsoft president says – Reuters
The danger of deepfakes is not what you think – Financial Times
J.D. Vance’s A.I. Agenda: Reduce Regulation – New York Times
Over 80% of China’s businesses already use generative AI - Fortune
Trump Promotes A.I. Images to Falsely Suggest Taylor Swift Endorsed Him - New York Times
The dos and don’ts of campaigning with AI – Washington Post
Nervous about falling behind the GOP, Democrats are wrestling with how to use AI — Associated Press
Deepfakes of Bollywood stars spark worries of AI meddling in India election – Reuters
AI sharpens political targeting in US presidential race – Voice of America
An A.I. Researcher Takes On Election Deepfakes – New York Times
What is propaganda? What's a deep fake? And can they influence elections? – Tennessean
In Arizona, election workers trained with deepfakes to prepare for 2024 - Washington Post
Political operative and firms behind Biden AI robocall sued for thousands - The Guardian
‘Inflection point’: AI meme wars hit India election, test social platforms – Al Jazeera
Election disinformation takes a big leap with AI being used to deceive worldwide – Associated Press
With elections looming worldwide, here’s how to identify and investigate AI audio deepfakes – Harvard’s Nieman Lab
Underdog Who Beat Biden in American Samoa Used AI in Election Campaign – Wall Street Journal
AI call quiz: see if you can spot the sham audio of Trump and Biden – The Guardian
Fake images made to show Trump with Black supporters highlight concerns around AI and elections – Associated Press
How AI-generated disinformation might impact this year’s elections and how journalists should report on it – Reuters Institute
San Francisco Chronicle AI will shake up democracy — for better or worse – SF Chronicle
FBI warns that foreign adversaries could use AI to spread disinformation about US elections - Washington Post
AI Threatens Elections by Capitalizing on Human Foibles, Officials Warn – Wall Street Journal
Demand for computer chips fuelled by AI could reshape global politics and security – The Conversation
Trump supporters target black voters with faked AI images – BBC
Belarusian opposition endorses AI candidate in parliamentary elections - Semafor
Tech firms sign ‘reasonable precautions’ to stop AI-generated election chaos – The Guardians
OpenAI suspends maker of a ChatGPT-based bot mimicking Democratic presidential nominee Dean Phillips – Axios
Imran Khan’s ‘Victory Speech’ From Jail Shows A.I.’s Peril and Promise – New York Times
Parents of gun violence victims use AI to bring kids’ voices to Capitol Hill - Washington Post
New Era of AI Deepfakes Complicates 2024 Elections – Wall Street Journal
Tech companies sign accord to combat AI-generated election trickery – Courthouse News
AI concerns grow as billions of people worldwide prepare to vote this year – NPR
Technology group hopes to help Democrats win with AI-generated ads and emails – NBC News
Chatbots are generating false and misleading information about U.S. elections – Fast Company
Politicians, lobbyists are banned from using ChatGPT for official campaign business - NPR
China Is Stealing AI Secrets to Turbocharge Spying, U.S. Says – Wall Street Journal
FEC to weigh AI limits for political ads by ‘early summer,’ chair says - The Washington Post
AI-powered disinformation is spreading — is Canada ready for the political impact? - CBC
Google’s plan to quash AI-generated election misinformation – Semafor
Europe reaches a deal on the world's first comprehensive AI rules – Associated Press
Brazilian city enacts an ordinance that was secretly written by ChatGPT – Associated Press
An Iowa school district is using ChatGPT to decide which books to ban – The Verge
AI pioneer Yoshua Bengio tells Congress global AI rules are needed - The Washington Post
European Central Bank Is Experimenting With a New Tool: A.I. – New York Times
How generative AI will impact elections around the world - Axios
Microsoft Debates What to Do With A.I. Lab in China – New York Times
The Davos elite embraced AI in 2023. Now they fear it. - The Washington Post
Four things to know about China’s new AI rules in 2024 – MIT Tech Review
The AI Factor In Political Campaigns: Revolutionizing Modern Politics - Forbes
Silicon Valley insiders are trying to unseat Biden with help from AI - The Washington Post
A tsunami of AI misinformation will shape next year’s knife-edge elections – The Guardian
The AI rules that US policymakers are considering, explained – Vox
A Campaign Aide Didn’t Write That Email. A.I. Did. – New York Time
D.C. aides learn about AI at Stanford boot camp - Washington Post
AI’s Rapid Growth Threatens to Flood 2024 Campaigns With Fake Videos – Wall Street Journal
New Zealand’s National party admits using AI-generated people in attack ads – The Guardian
3 Guidelines for Crafting a Strong Federal AI Policy – FedTech
How AI is already changing the 2024 election - Axios
ChatGPT’s creators can’t figure out why it won’t talk about Trump – Semafor
The right’s new culture-war target: ‘Woke AI’ – Washington Post
When researchers analyzed almost 6,000 political news stories produced by partisan and nonpartisan media outlets in 2021, three things became clear:
Media outlets with extreme biases — regardless of whether it was a conservative or liberal bias — tended to use shorter sentences and less formal language than nonpartisan outlets.
Mainstream news organizations, as a whole, wrote at a higher reading level.
Far-right and far-left outlets took a more negative tone than nonpartisan outlets. They generally had a lower ratio of positive to negative words.
The researchers describe their findings in a paper forthcoming in Journalism Studies, “At the Extremes: Assessing Readability, Grade Level, Sentiment, and Tone in US Media Outlets.”
Read the full article from Journalist’s Resources here.
The strongest bias in American politics is not a liberal bias or a conservative bias; it is a confirmation bias, or the urge to believe only things that confirm what you already believe to be true. Not only do we tend to seek out and remember information that reaffirms what we already believe, but there is also a “backfire effect,” which sees people doubling down on their beliefs after being presented with evidence that contradicts them. So, where do we go from here? There’s no simple answer, but the only way people will start rejecting falsehoods being fed to them is by confronting uncomfortable truths.
Emma Roller writing in the New York Times
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