Government & Policy

Senate votes to revoke California’s ability to set air pollution standards

Government & Policy /

Senate Republicans have voted 51 to 44 to overturn a waiver that allowed California to set stricter air pollution standards for vehicles. The state has received waivers more than 100 times since federal laws granted the right some 50 years ago. Sixteen other states and the District of Columbia follow California’s emissions standards, and most […]

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Amanda Scales, a Musk hire who helped lead DOGE, has returned to xAI

Government & Policy /

Amanda Scales, the former xAI HR exec who helped lead billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency initiative while working at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, recently returned to xAI, according to The New York Times. Scales used to work on talent acquisition at xAI. Since April, she’s worked on the talent side of

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Trump to sign bill criminalizing revenge porn and explicit deepfakes

Government & Policy /

President Donald Trump is expected to sign the Take It Down Act today, a bipartisan law that enacts stricter penalties for distributing non-consensual explicit images, including deepfakes and revenge porn.  The bill criminalizes the publication of such images, whether they’re authentic or AI-generated. Whoever publishes the photos or videos can face criminal penalties, including fines,

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Grok says it’s ‘skeptical’ about Holocaust death toll, then blames ‘programming error’

Government & Policy /

Grok, the AI-powered chatbot created by xAI and widely deployed across its new corporate sibling X, wasn’t just obsessed with white genocide this week. As first noted in Rolling Stone, Grok also answered a question on Thursday about the number of Jews killed by the Nazis in World War II by saying that “historical records,

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U.S. lawmakers have concerns about Apple-Alibaba deal

Government & Policy /

The Trump administration and congressional officials are scrutinizing a deal between Apple and Alibaba that would bring Alibaba-powered AI features to iPhones sold in China, according to The New York Times. Citing anonymous sources, the NYT says White House officials and members of the House Select Committee on China have asked Apple executives directly about

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Laser-powered fusion experiment more than doubles its power output

Government & Policy /

The world’s only net-positive fusion experiment has been steadily ramping up the amount of power it produces, TechCrunch has learned. In recent attempts, the team at the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Ignition Facility (NIF) increased the yield of the experiment, first to 5.2 megajoules and then again to 8.6 megajoules, according to a source

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South Korea delays decision on letting Google move hi-res map data overseas

Government & Policy /

South Korea has once again postponed a decision on whether to approve Google’s request to transfer high-precision map data on the country’s geography to its international servers. In February, Google had requested approval from the Korean National Geographic Information Institute to deploy a 1:5,000 scale map on its app in the country and also transfer

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The Kids Online Safety Act is back, with the potential to change the internet

Government & Policy /

The Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) has been reintroduced into Congress. If passed into law, this bill could impose some of the most significant legislative changes that the internet has seen in the U.S. since the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) of 1998. As it currently stands, KOSA would be able to hold social

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White House scraps plan to block data brokers from selling Americans’ sensitive data

Government & Policy /

A senior Trump administration official has scrapped a plan that would have blocked data brokers from selling Americans’ personal and financial information, including Social Security numbers.  The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) said in December 2024 it planned to close a loophole under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the federal law that protects Americans’ personal

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A new bipartisan bill aims to lift the 52-year ban on supersonic flight

Government & Policy /

U.S. lawmakers introduced Wednesday the Supersonic Aviation Modernization Act in a bid to revise the FAA’s 52-year ban on supersonic flight over U.S. soil. The bipartisan legislation – introduced by Senator Ted Budd (R-NC), Aviation Subcommittee Chair Troy Nehls (R-TX), and Representative Sharice Davids (D-KS) – would allow supersonic travel, provided no audible sonic boom

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