Politico
Social media ‘absolutely’ causing increases in anxiety and depression, Utah governor says (Politico)
Submitted by zwalker@benton.org on Tue, 01/02/2024 - 16:37Millions of Americans could lose internet aid months before the 2024 election
Washington is battling over whether to keep the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) going — potentially cutting off more than 22 million households from a subsidy they’ve come to rely on. The ACP launched with bipartisan support in 2020, but is now trapped in a partisan war between Democrats who want to renew it, and Republicans worried it will let President Joe Biden take too much of a victory lap during a campaign year. If Congress can’t find a way to fund the program by spring, the federal government will have to quickly unwind it.
FTC Chair Lina Khan’s ambitions to cut back on corporate power could be a huge part of Biden’s legacy — if they come to fruition (Politico)
Submitted by zwalker@benton.org on Tue, 12/26/2023 - 14:095 questions for Matt Stoller (Politico)
Submitted by benton on Fri, 12/15/2023 - 15:53Key Congress staffers in AI debate are funded by tech giants like Google and Microsoft (Politico)
Submitted by zwalker@benton.org on Tue, 12/05/2023 - 15:52You’ve (maybe) got mail
President Joe Biden announced what he called a “big step” toward internet for all, rolling out a $42 billion investment to deliver broadband to unserved and underserved communities. “With this funding, along with other federal investments, we’re going to be able to connect every person in America to reliable high-speed Internet by 2030,” President Biden said of the funds, allotted through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
Why Altman and Musk pose a problem for Washington
The collision of Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover and the recent chaos at OpenAI reveals something even bigger than social media’s shifting tectonic plates—the extent of the society-shaping power wielded by a very small cadre of Silicon Valley titans. Individual personalities—and individual fortunes—matter far more in the world of Silicon Valley startups than they do in corporate America’s more consensus-oriented, traditional bureaucracies.