Just dropped · Trial Balloon · Ep. 193
The Magnificent Seven
“It sounds like something that James Bond would use: a gadget that self-destructs if it falls into the wrong hands. But it’s actually an open-source operating system that can be downloaded onto Android phones,” the New York Times reports.
“Federal prosecutors in Atlanta are bringing an obstruction charge against a U.S. citizen who gave customs officers what is known as a duress passcode, which activated software that erased the contents of his phone.”
“Satellite imagery shows damage to two Amazon.com Inc. data centers in Bahrain, supporting Iran’s claims last week that it struck the sites with missiles,” Bloomberg reports.
Wired: “With little interagency coordination in the administration, policy will almost certainly end up being set by the people with the most influence with the president. In an effort to map the forces at play, here’s a list of the current power brokers involved in the race to regulate AI.”
Wall Street Journal: “The push to expand head count, at least modestly, is a reversal from the prevailing corporate messaging during much of the AI era. Major employers largely held back on adding people due to economic uncertainties or a belief that artificial intelligence could shoulder more tasks on the job.”
“But some executives say the costs and limitations of AI now demand that more people be added; others want to hire people back following layoffs.”
“In a decision likely to intensify trans-Atlantic trade tensions, European Union regulators on Thursday hit Google with a $1 billion fine for illegally undercutting competition through its dominance as a search engine,” the New York Times reports.
“President Trump has previously threatened to retaliate against the European Union for what he views as the unfair targeting of American technology companies. The Google decision comes when he is weighing a new batch of tariffs on the European Union and other major trading partners.”
“The trap began with a routine bureaucratic ritual: the head of a family-run contracting company and a small town public-works director trading emails about when the municipality would cut a six-figure check for utility work,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“But lurking online, a cybercriminal pounced with staggering ease. Someone posing as a company employee emailed the director to request an electronic transfer instead. Days later, the town sent $545,598.30 to a Utah bank account that wasn’t the company’s.”
“Surfside Beach had fallen victim to a ‘business email compromise’ scam, a cyber-swindle that cost $3 billion nationally last year, the Federal Bureau of Investigation says.”
“In such ruses, fraudsters fool people with malicious software, phishing emails or tweaked digital addresses. Once in, they can spot legitimate email threads about invoices and business matters.”
“A Chinese government spokesperson fired back Wednesday at the Trump administration’s allegations that Chinese researchers are stealing American trade secrets about artificial intelligence,” NBC News reports.
“The Trump administration is split over how to respond to the rapid rise of China’s leading AI models, according to multiple people familiar with deliberations,” Wired reports.
“The debate is broadly divided between parts of the White House, which has pushed for stricter controls on Chinese AI that may soon rival the most powerful U.S. models, and the Commerce Department, which has viewed those restrictions as unworkable.”
“There is an adage in the financial world: The stock market is not the economy,” the New York Times reports.
“Except that, right now, maybe it is.”
“Major stock indexes have set record after record in recent years, fueled by seemingly boundless appetite among investors for anything connected to artificial intelligence. The total value of the U.S. stock market has more than doubled over the past decade to over $75 trillion, roughly two and a half times the annual output of the entire U.S. economy, itself a record ratio.”
“Much of that value exists only on paper, bets on future profits that may or may not materialize in the years ahead. But the boom is supporting real economic activity today, pumping trillions of dollars of investment into semiconductor factories, data centers, power plants and transmission lines. And the wealth it is creating is helping to drive consumer spending, particularly among affluent Americans, whose appreciating stock portfolios make them more willing to shell out for luxury vacations, pricey electronics and meals at high-end restaurants.”
Annie Lowrey: “No less an authority than Sam Altman is arguing that we are in an AI bubble. The International Monetary Fund is citing it as a significant risk to financial stability and warning about what might happen when it bursts: diminished investment, tighter credit, reduced consumption, disrupted trade flows.”
“That’s pretty much what happens when any bubble pops, as a Dutch tulip obsessive could have told you in 1637 or a bitcoin evangelist could have told you in 2011, 2013, 2014, 2018, or 2022. Yet the AI bubble is no ordinary bubble. Hyper-rich corporations are stoking it, rather than kitchen-table investors. They’re blowing it up when credit is fairly expensive, not dirt cheap. That might make the bubble less fragile and longer lasting than those of the past. But it won’t make it any less painful when it pops.”
“Progressive groups are opening a vicious new front in the fight over crypto legislation, targeting Sen Kirsten Gillibrand as she tries to broker a compromise on the CLARITY Act, which has unresolved issues on its ethics provisions,” Axios reports.
“The blistering — and deeply personal — attack from Indivisible, Demand Progress and the Revolving Door Project complicates already delicate negotiations.”
“Most of President Trump’s Cabinet will launch TikTok accounts Tuesday, a move that comes days after the Justice Department told federal employees it was safe to use the app because of its sale to a U.S.-approved owner,” Axios reports.
“Why it matters: The move is a striking shift from Trump’s first term, when his administration argued that TikTok posed a national security threat because of its ownership by China’s ByteDance.”
“The Trump administration is showing signs it could ban cutting-edge Chinese AI models — a momentous move that could lock in dominance by OpenAI and Anthropic,” Axios reports.
“Why it matters: Parts of the administration have tried to implement de facto bans on foreign open-source models before, knowledgeable sources tell Axios. Last week’s rise of Chinese model Kimi is reigniting those efforts.”
New York Times: “Candidates have long had to worry about their reputations among voters. Now, they have to worry about what A.I. thinks about them, too. And a new industry has sprung up to help them navigate this world.”
“The Justice Department determined this week a federal law banning TikTok from government devices no longer applies to the social video app,” CBS News reports.
“Donald Trump’s social media company has discussed charging Wall Street traders and investment firms as much as U.S.$100,000 a month for faster access to the U.S. president’s posts on his Truth Social platform, according to people familiar with the matter,” Reuters reports.
“Trump Media & Technology Group, which owns Truth Social, has in recent weeks also pitched a discounted plan of U.S.$60,000 per month if the firms sign up for a three-year plan.”
Reuters: “In this deeply polarized country, opposition to data centers is among the few issues that unite voters across ideological lines. Just a third of Americans approve of the pace of data-center construction, according to a June Reuters/Ipsos poll. Only 14% of respondents would support a data center being built in their community.”
“That tension is increasingly pronounced in Michigan, where at least 13 data centers are in various stages of planning — and communities in Saline and beyond are fighting back.”
“Trump Media and Technology Group, the company behind President Donald Trump’s Truth Social platform, announced Thursday it’s launching a service that will sell faster access to posts on the site — including Trump’s regular markets-moving diatribes,” NOTUS reports.
“A spokesperson for Trump Media told Reuters that the application, called Truth API, will give paying users access to posts from the 10 most influential accounts at a faster pace than normal Truth Social push notifications. Trump is by far the most followed account on the platform, with 12.9 million followers.”
Taegan Goddard
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire -- which for more than two decades has been one of the nation's most influential political news sites.
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