Politico

Worried about too many screens in the classroom, a small but growing number of parents are getting so fed up they’re switching to low-tech private schools — or even pulling their kids out and opting to homeschool them, analog style.

The volatile combination of kids and chatbots has already started to galvanize lawmakers and advocates. Worried that beguiling AI “companions” could push impressionable youth to harm themselves or withdraw from human relationships, they’re racing to put guardrails around the nascent industry. But that could be a far deeper problem—and far harder to solve—than the current bills envision.

After aggressively criticizing government censorship during the Biden administration, Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr is getting sucked into his own free-speech imbroglio.

The rapacious energy needs of data centers finally seem to have taken a political toll. In recent elections, candidates in Virginia, New Jersey and elsewhere ran—and won—on voters’ frustration with rising utility bills caused partly by America’s enormous AI buildout.

The nationwide push to protect kids from AI chatbots is entering a new frontier: adults. OpenAI was recently hit with seven lawsuits claiming that ChatGPT led users to lose touch with reality, which in some cases resulted in suicide. All but one of the alleged victims were adults. The lawsuits represent a new, murkier front for lawmakers and Big Tech in the national argument about the harms and risks of chatbots.

When Chinese President Xi Jinping visited South Korea, the centerpiece of his trip wasn’t some multibillion-dollar “Art of the Deal” transaction he’d brokered. Rather, it was his proposal to establish a global organization to set AI standards. In the vacuum left by President Donald Trump—who flew home from South Korea before the conference officially started—Xi pitched a Shanghai-based group that would set rules for international AI governance. This would allow China—rather than America or Europe—to mold how the world approaches AI. These aren’t just idle prospects.