Aaron Mak

The 2017 “alternative facts” statement made by the White House was a turning point. We are now in a place where the person who gets their version of the truth out fastest and biggest wins. The fact that President Trump has a social network he calls “Truth Social” is not an accident. He wants to own the word “truth.” We’re past the point where there’s a singular truth or a singular fact.

One of the Supreme Court’s latest rulings has raised concerns that internet service providers will be let off the hook when it comes to copyright infringement. The country’s highest court recently decided that Cox Communications was not liable for failing to prevent customers from using its internet services for online piracy.

AI development is often framed as a race among countries, companies and academic researchers. But figuring out who’s actually “winning” is far from straightforward. There’s no single yardstick, and models can look more or less advanced, depending on what you measure.

Infiltrating phone apps has become an increasingly common practice, both for propaganda and surveillance. Hacking a phone app can be more effective than trying to tap into a computer, according to Nicholas Reese, former director of emerging technology policy at the Department of Homeland Security. People generally store more personal information on their phones, often without realizing it. Accessing a computer typically requires infiltrating popular cloud services, which have sophisticated and standardized security protections.

Hawkish fears about falling behind China are helping to drive forward American AI development. However, some scholars, activists, and proponents of AI regulation warn the race between the two countries could get out of hand.

As more and more people divulge their innermost secrets to AI companions, platforms face the wrenching dilemma of determining when those admissions might signal a deadly threat to the public.

As the transatlantic standoff over content moderation rages on, tech industry groups and advocates are arguing that something doesn’t quite add up about the U.S.’s position regarding online speech.

As Venezuela and Iran grapple with immense political tumult, Starlink has become a lifeline for internet access. Iranian activists have disseminated images of troops suppressing protestors by connecting to Starlink, while Venezuelans are relying on the service to get information on President Nicolás Maduro’s removal.

Sexualized deepfakes have led to some of the most trenchant criticism of generative artificial intelligence (AI) after affecting everyone from Taylor Swift to high school students.

If AI is as transformative an economic force as its greatest advocates (and detractors) believe it might be, then humans might need a new kind of economic policy to deal with it. Federal AI policy mostly involves incentivizing data center construction and keeping Washington out of the way. Even for many advocates, that misses a very large aspect of its potential impact.