Big tech companies tend to make a lot of enemies — but there are none more powerful than the US government. Apple, Google, Amazon, and Meta are regularly called in front of Congress to fend off monopoly accusations — and lawmakers bring up bills to rein in the companies just as often. The Federal Trade Commission has taken a particularly central role, leading a lawsuit to sever Facebook and Instagram while blocking new acquisitions for Oculus and the company’s virtual reality wing. Like it or not, these regulatory fights will play a huge role in deciding the future of tech — and neither side is playing nice.
First, it was the Gulf of Mexico. Then the Kennedy Center. Then Lake Ontario. And let’s not forget about the Department of Defense. Now the president is trying to leave his mark on artificial intelligence. The only real surprise is that American Intelligence wasn’t on his short list.
Former DOJ antitrust boss Jonathan Kanter on AI slowdowns, competition, and cartels.
According to CNN, the US military had planes in the air and armed personnel ready to board a Chinese ship in the Middle East this spring because of an intelligence report saying it carried parts for a nuclear weapons program. The only problem? Their sources say that report was an AI-bot-generated hallucination:
It was only just before the planned operation that officials dug deeper into the report put together by a special operations command analyst and found it had been generated with the help of artificial intelligence (AI) — and that a chatbot the analyst had used inaccurately identified the material the ship was carrying.
Separately, Bloomberg reports a Pentagon investigation into the deadly February 28th missile attack on an Iranian school has identified failures that include “overreliance on artificial-intelligence technology.”
The three CEOs have apparently have been encouraging him to be hands-off with his approach to AI and “successfully stalled” a plan for an industry-funded AI regulator pitched by Google DeepMind’s Demis Hassabis, according to The Wall Street Journal. Trump also likes to call Huang while he’s onstage.
[The Wall Street Journal]
The video, posted by Inner City Press, was shown during the DOJ’s trial against Huawei, which kicked off last week and follows the 2018 arrest of Huawei’s CFO and an indictment in 2020.
Mustafa Suleyman on the AI safety debate, why AI isn’t consciousness, and how the industry pushes toward alignment.
They’ll be joining Nvidia’s Jensen Huang next week at a White House state dinner for Xi Jinping. It’s the first chance for Tim Cook to earn that $47 million pay package in his new role as Apple’s dedicated Trump whisperer: You is smart, you is strong, you is important.
It’s the first official confirmation, delivered by Air Force Secretary Troy E. Meink:
“We are increasing readiness against existing threats, and the United States has on-orbit space control weapons capable of defending the Joint Force against hostile adversary action.”
It’s like the race to build self-improving superintelligence before the other guy does, only with space guns. Meink apparently never saw Gravity.
When asked about the flurry of weekend blog posts and tweets from the CEOs of Anthropic, OpenAI, Microsoft, SpaceX, (and Alphabet’s Hassabis) calling for a coordinated slowdown on the development of advanced AI models, a spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry said, “Fear mongering, confrontation, competition will just disrupt [the] process of global AI governance.”
That partially aligns with Trump’s view that the execs are overreacting and “bringing up things that won’t happen,” but at least Beijing supports international regulation.
According to The Washington Post, the spy agency is set to undergo its largest restructuring in over a decade. Army general and NSA director Joshua M. Rudd is leading the effort. According to the Post:
Rudd’s initiative calls for the creation at NSA’s Fort Meade, Maryland, headquarters of five new organizations inside the agency, in artificial intelligence, China, cybersecurity, combat support or warfighting, and global intelligence. Each will be led by a newly elevated “mission director” …
[The Washington Post]
The ban, announced in July, has caused chaos for many manufacturers of robot vacuums, pool cleaners, lawn mowers, and more. Swedish company Husqvarna has secured the first exception to the rule for its 305v IQ, 310v IQ, 420v IQ, and 440v IQ after the Defense Department decided they don’t pose a national security risk.
Kimmel said he couldn’t air his interview with the Democratic Texas Senate candidate on TV after the FCC “threatened” him. Instead, you can watch it on the the Jimmy Kimmel Live YouTube channel:
Under AB1709, social platforms can’t provide algorithmic recommendations, infinite scroll, or autoplay features to users under 16 unless they receive parental consent.
Governor Gavin Newsom signed a package of other online safety-focused bills into law as well, including new rules requiring chatbot makers to notify young users that they’re not talking to a human.
[The New York Times]
Answering your Decoder questions about surveillance, AI coverage, and the Nilay rant.
The New York Times delves into Trump’s mental health through the lens of his increasingly unhinged postings on his also-ran Truth Social platform. Here’s how the White House responded to criticisms:
“Truth Social is the most powerful and popular social media platform in the world because it serves as President Trump’s authentic voice, where he communicates directly with the American people and the world without the biased media taking him out of context.”
[The New York Times]
AI data center projects are continuing to pop up across the US, with frequent opposition from locals concerned about their impact. Here are a few recent articles about the projects:
As reported by CoinDesk, the memecoin peaked at $190.81 two minutes after it debuted on Wednesday. Its value tumbled quickly after that, with LAPTOP now sitting at around $2.16 — a more than 98 percent drop.
President Donald Trump’s memecoin has similarly dipped in value, resulting in more than $3.8 billion in losses.
Crooked Ideas, the nonprofit arm of Crooked Media, is tapping Chaotic Era author Kyle Tharp to head up the iniative, which will support existing political influencers and focus on creating content related to issues like AI safety, climate change, healthcare, and “enshittification,” according to a report from Semafor.
Searches related to hotels and flights will now more prominently display results linking to price comparison sites, after the EU found Google was breaking antitrust rules by prioritizing its own Shopping, Flights, and Hotels tools, fining it €460 million. Google told Reuters it’s the largest reduction in search quality for 29 years.
$LAPTOP plays on the infamous device that dragged him into the political spotlight. It also takes aim at Donald Trump’s similar crypto currency by distributing tokens to wallets that have lost money on $TRUMP, and pledging more if the Democrats win in 2028 or Biden’s crypto market cap overtakes the Trump coin’s.
[Wall Street Journal]
The president posted an image that purports to show the next generation of United States Space Force dress uniforms and, well… they sure look a lot like Imperial officer garb. (Which itself is inspired in part by German SS uniforms.)
It’s a customized Cisco and you can’t have it. Nobody tell Dom.
The San Antonio Express-News reports that a request from Pflugerville, TX, resident Sam Aly found that hundreds of unauthorized agencies were searching the city’s Flock data, even though the company claims only two agencies were improperly included. The City Council canceled Flock’s contract last week and covered its cameras.
Aly:
Between February 16 and August 15, 2026, outside agencies searched Pflugerville’s camera data 1,597,918 times. 1.6 million searches in six months. 459 different agencies searched us. That works out to roughly 8,900 outside searches per day, every day. Our own police department ran 5,078 searches in the same period. So for every 1 search by Pflugerville PD, outside agencies ran 315.
