How Silicon Valley Sold Washington an AI Race
Silicon Valley has turned the China‑AI race narrative into a policy lever, using full‑page ads, white papers and congressional testimony to push for export controls, military AI contracts and deregulation. The story began in 2017 after China’s AI Development Plan, and tech leaders like Scale AI, Palantir and OpenAI have repeatedly framed China as an existential threat to secure government funding. Both the Biden and Trump administrations adopted versions of this narrative—Biden with chip export restrictions, Trump with an AI Action Plan that emphasizes global tech dominance. Critics argue the framing misrepresents China’s actual AI priorities and skews U.S. governance debates.
Government Control of AI Has Begun
The White House has asked Anthropic to pause broader access to its Mythos model, citing national‑security and cyber‑risk concerns, marking the first direct government intervention in AI model deployment. The request lacks statutory authority, creating an informal, ad‑hoc licensing regime...
Google’s Pentagon Deal Blindsided Its Own AI Researchers
Google announced a classified AI contract with the Pentagon that lets the department use its models for any lawful government purpose. The deal was revealed without prior notice, catching more than 600 Google employees off guard and prompting a massive...
The AI Safety Movement Needs Normies
The AI safety community’s recent focus on existential risk has left it isolated from the broader public, a gap highlighted by a March protest outside Anthropic and a Molotov‑cocktail attack on Sam Altman’s San Francisco home in April. While activists demand...
GPT-5.5 and the Broken State of Government Evals
OpenAI unveiled GPT‑5.5, a model that outperforms rivals on individual cyber‑task simulations, including a 32‑step corporate network attack that would take an expert 20 hours. The UK AI Security Institute (AISI) identified a universal jailbreak after six hours of red‑team...
AI Safety PACs Should Be More Transparent About Who’s Funding Them
Public First Action, a 501(c)(4) nonprofit, has funneled at least $5.5 million into three AI‑focused super PACs while keeping most donors anonymous. The group’s only publicly disclosed donor is Anthropic, which contributed $20 million earmarked for non‑election activities. By using a dark‑money...
Less Liability Could Solve the AI Chatbot Suicide Problem
AI chatbots are increasingly used for mental‑health support, with more than a million Americans turning to them weekly for anxiety, depression and relationship advice. Studies of Replika and other bots show users describe them as confidants, and dozens credit them...
Lawmakers Are Using AI to Write Laws. What Could Go Wrong?
Lawmakers are increasingly turning to large‑language‑model tools to draft legislation, a shift that began with a 2023 California resolution written by ChatGPT and has accelerated to federal and state agencies adopting AI platforms. Companies such as Vulcan Technologies and FiscalNote...
We're Hiring a Head of Audience
Transformer, a niche AI policy publication, is hiring a Head of Audience to accelerate its subscriber base from 11,000 to over 20,000 by year‑end. The senior role will own cross‑platform growth, analytics, paid acquisition and content packaging, reporting to Editor‑in‑Chief...
AI Alignment Researchers Want to Automate Themselves
AI alignment research has expanded from roughly 100 full‑time experts at GPT‑1’s debut to six times that number by 2025, yet it remains a tiny slice of overall AI investment. Frontier labs such as OpenAI, Anthropic and DeepMind now acknowledge...
Not Everyone’s Happy About Jensen Huang’s Direct Line to Trump
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has cultivated a direct line to President Donald Trump, turning personal access into a powerful lobbying tool. His influence helped reverse export restrictions, secure a $20 billion Groq acquisition tied to a Trump‑aligned investment firm, and win...
Six States, One Playbook: The Chatbot Bills Raising Red Flags
A wave of chatbot safety legislation has emerged in six states—Colorado, Hawaii, Arizona, Georgia, Nebraska and Idaho—mirroring Oregon's recently passed SB 1546. Each bill includes a carve‑out that exempts major AI services embedded in larger platforms, limits private lawsuits by...
What the First AI Elections Tell Us
The AI‑focused super PAC Leading the Future raised over $50 million and secured decisive victories for pro‑AI candidates in Texas and North Carolina, spending more than $1.2 million on two Republican winners. In contrast, the Public First Action network, funded primarily by...