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WIRED
8 hours ago
- Business
- WIRED
DOGE Is Busier Than Ever—and Trump Says Elon Musk Is 'Really Not Leaving'
Makena Kelly Leah Feiger Zoë Schiffer May 30, 2025 3:01 PM Federal workers from six agencies tell WIRED that DOGE-style work is escalating in their departments as both new and familiar DOGE faces have appeared in meetings and at new offices. Elon Musk delivers remarks as he joins U.S. President Donald Trump for an executive order signing in the Oval Office at the White House on February 11, 2025 in Washington, DC. Photograph:Elon Musk will not be fully exiting the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)—and its activities are only intensifying. On Friday, President Donald Trump threw cold water on the idea that Musk would fully disappear from DOGE and the White House forever. "Elon's really not leaving,' Trump said in a joint press conference with Musk in the Oval Office. 'He's gonna be back and forth. It's his baby, he's going to be doing a lot of things." 'I expect to continue to provide advice," Musk, wearing a black hat with DOGE written on it and a black shirt reading 'DOGEFATHER,' said during Friday's press conference, while noting that his legal limit for service as a special government employee was coming to an end. "I expect to remain a friend and an advisor.' Federal workers from at least six agencies tell WIRED that DOGE-style work is escalating in their departments. Both new and familiar DOGE faces have also been recently detailed to new agencies, according to sources. Members of Musk's early DOGE team, including Luke Farritor, Gavin Kliger, Edward Coristine, and Sam Corcos, have met with a number of departments and agencies—including the Treasury, the Office of Management and Budget, and the FBI—in recent days, seemingly continuing business as usual, WIRED has learned. The team also appears to be actively recruiting, according to documents viewed by WIRED. Over the last week, federal workers have also been asked to urgently review and potentially cancel contracts across the government. Trump appeared to confirm that contracts were under review at Friday's press conference: "Many contracts, Elon, right now are being looked at,' he said. Some agencies have also received visits from DOGE at their headquarters, WIRED has learned. 'This doesn't sound like a group that is going away, it sounds like one that's digging in like a parasite,' an IT specialist at the Department of Agriculture (USDA) tells WIRED. Since DOGE first began its work in Washington in late January, its representatives have been eager to cut what they see as superfluous spending in government. In recent weeks, the pressure to slash and cancel contracts, specifically focused on workforce management and IT, has drastically increased, multiple sources at a variety of agencies tell WIRED. 'Biggest thing is we are being asked to cut as many contracts for software and labor as possible,' one tech worker at the Department of the Interior (DOI) tells WIRED, saying that the stated goal, as they understand it, has been 'to save money and efficiency in consolidated IT.' 'We are cutting developers, telecom, server admins, call center staff etc.,' the DOI source says. 'Some things were bloated and could use the cut. Others are going to suffer, and our service to the public is going to be degraded.' Employees at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and all the agencies under its umbrella, were told that contracts would have to go through a new approval process called the Departmental Efficiency Review (DER). Any requisitioning or contract approval is paused until after workers submit a form to start the DER and the deputy secretary's office reviews the funding, according to an email about the process obtained by WIRED. The email also states that the review will flag any contracts that appear to be expensive and excessive. Urgent contract oversight is also occurring at the Department of Labor (DOL). 'There is a LOT of pressure to end these contracts as soon as possible, within the next few days,' a source at the DOL told WIRED on Thursday. At other agencies, like the USDA and the Treasury, some tech workers were recently notified that they may be asked to interview with someone at DOGE for an unspecified reason. 'Just last week we were warned of possible contact from DOGE for interviews,' the USDA IT source says, adding that no one told workers what the interviews would be about. At Treasury, employees were told those who perform 'some of the more technical functions' would be pulled into these interviews. Tech contractors at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), one of the first agencies DOGE burrowed into, were suddenly let go after returning from the long Memorial Day weekend. Their termination letters credited DOGE with their dismissal. 'The United States Office of Personnel Management (OPM), under the direction of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has modified the IT services contract with RMCI [an IT contractor] that you support,' the termination letters say. 'As a result, it is with regret that your work on the OPM contract will end.' During Friday's press conference, Trump gifted Musk what appeared to be a golden key in a box that had a picture of the White House, thanking him for his last few months of government work. 'DOGE is integral to the federal government's operations, and its mission, as established by the President's executive order, will continue under the direction of agency and department heads in the Trump administration,' White House spokesperson Harrison Fields tells WIRED. 'DOGE has delivered remarkable results at an unprecedented pace, and its work is far from complete.' United States DOGE Service administrator Amy Gleason did not respond to multiple requests for comment. 'Elon may be stepping away, but DOGE's mission remains stronger than ever. Exposing reckless, wasteful government spending isn't about one individual—it's about a lasting overhaul of Crazy Town,' congressman Aaron Bean, chair of the House DOGE caucus, tells WIRED about the group's continued work. 'From reducing fraudulent payments by reforming the Treasury payment system to modernizing federal processes, like the OPM retirement system, the House DOGE Caucus is working to codify targeted spending cuts to rein in government overreach and deliver real accountability to the American people. We are also working closely with the White House to ensure recession packages reflect DOGE's critical findings—turning transparency into action. Rest assured, the House DOGE Caucus is here for the long haul, and our work is just getting started.' Matt Giles and Vittoria Elliott contributed reporting.
WIRED
8 hours ago
- Politics
- WIRED
A Hacker May Have Deepfaked Trump's Chief of Staff in a Phishing Campaign
Andy Greenberg Matt Burgess Lily Hay Newman May 30, 2025 2:42 PM Plus: An Iranian man pleads guilty to a Baltimore ransomware attack, Russia's nuclear blueprints get leaked, a Texas sheriff uses license plate readers to track a woman who got an abortion, and more. Photo-Illustration: Wired Staff;For years, a mysterious figure who goes by the handle Stern led the Trickbot ransomware gang and evaded identification—even as other members of the group were outed in leaks and unmasked. This week German authorities revealed, without much fanfare, who they believe that enigmatic hacker kingpin to be: Vitaly Nikolaevich Kovalev, a 36-year-old Russian man who remains at large in his home country. Closer to home, WIRED revealed that Customs and Border Protection has mouth-swabbed 133,000 migrant children and teenagers to collect their DNA and uploaded their genetic data into a national criminal database used by local, state, and federal law enforcement. As the Trump administration's migrant crackdown continues, often justified through invocations of crime and terrorism, WIRED also uncovered evidence that ties a Swedish far-right mixed-martial-arts tournament to an American neo-Nazi 'fight club' based in California. For those seeking to evade the US government surveillance, we offered tips about more private alternatives to US-based web browsing, email, and search tools. And we assembled a more general guide to protecting yourself from surveillance and hacking, based on questions our senior writer Matt Burgess received in a Reddit Ask Me Anything. But that's not all. Each week, we round up the security and privacy news we didn't cover in depth ourselves. Click the headlines to read the full stories. And stay safe out there. The FBI is investigating who impersonated Susie Wiles, the Trump White House's chief of staff and one of the president's closest advisors, in a series of fraudulent messages and calls to high-profile Republican political figures and business executives, the Wall Street Journal reported. Government officials and authorities involved in the probe say the spear phishing messages and calls appear to have targeted individuals on Wiles' contact list, and Wiles has reportedly told colleagues that her personal phone was hacked to gain access to those contacts. Despite Wiles' reported claim of having her device hacked, it remains unconfirmed whether this was actually how attackers identified Wiles' associates. It would also be possible to assemble such a target list from a combination of publicly available information and data sold by gray market brokers. 'It's an embarrassing level of security awareness. You cannot convince me they actually did their security trainings,' says Jake Williams, a former NSA hacker and vice president of research and development at Hunter Strategy. 'This is the type of garden variety social engineering that everyone can end up dealing with these days and certainly top government officials should be expecting it.' In some cases, the targets received not just text messages but phone calls that impersonated Wiles' voice, and some government officials believe the calls may have used artificial intelligence tools to fake Wiles' voice. If so, that would make the incident one of the most significant cases yet of so-called 'deepfake' software being used in a phishing attempt. It's not yet clear how Wiles' phone might have been hacked, but the FBI has ruled out that a foreign nation is involved in the impersonation campaign, the Bureau reportedly told White House officials. In fact, while some of the impersonation attempts appeared to have political goals—a member of Congress, for instance, was asked to assemble a list of people Trump might pardon—in at least one other case the impersonator tried to trick a target into setting up a cash transfer. That attempt at a money grab suggests that the spoofing campaign may be less of an espionage operation than a run-of-the-mill cybercriminal fraud scheme, albeit one with a very high-level target. 'There's an argument here for using something like Signal—yes, the irony—or another messaging platform that offers an independent form of authentication if users want to validate who they're talking to,' Hunter Strategy's Williams says. "The key thing as always is for government officials to be using vetted tools and following all federally mandated protocols rather than just winging it on their own devices." Iranian Man Behind Baltimore Ransomware Attack Pleads Guilty The 2019 ransomware attack against the city government of Baltimore represents one of the worst municipal cybersecurity disasters on record, paralyzing city services for months and costing taxpayers tens of millions of dollars. Now the Department of Justice has unexpectedly revealed that it arrested one of the hackers behind that attack, 37-year-old Sina Gholinejad, in North Carolina last January, and that he's pleaded guilty in court. Gholinejad has admitted to being involved in the larger Robbinhood ransomware campaign that hit other targets including the cities of Greenville, North Carolina and Yonkers, New York. It's still far from clear how Gholinejad was identified or why he traveled from Iran to the US, given that most ransomware criminals are careful to remain in countries that don't have extradition agreements with the US government and are thus beyond US law enforcement's reach. Indeed, the indictment against him names several unnamed co-conspirators who may be still at large in Iran. Russia's Nuclear Blueprints Exposed in Huge Document Leak More than two million documents left exposed in a public database have revealed Russia's nuclear weapons facilities in unprecedented levels of detail, according to reporting this week by Danish media outlet Danwatch and Germany's Der Spiegel. Reporters examined the huge trove of documents relating to Russian military procurement—as Russian authorities slowly restricted access—and found blueprints for nuclear facilities across the country. Experts called the leak an unparalleled breach of Russia's nuclear security, with the data potentially being incredibly useful for foreign governments and intelligence services. The documents show how Russia's nuclear facilities have been rebuilt in recent years, where new facilities have been created, detailed site plans including the locations of barracks and watchtowers, and the locations of underground tunnels connecting buildings together. There are descriptions of IT systems and security systems, including information on surveillance cameras, electric fences being used, and the alarm systems in place. 'It's written explicitly where the control rooms are located, and which buildings are connected to each other via underground tunnels,' Danwatch reports. Cops Used License Plate Recognition Cameras in Search for Woman Who Got an Abortion License plate recognition cameras are creating huge databases of people's movements across America—capturing where and when cars are traveling. For years there have been concerns that the cameras could be weaponized by law enforcement officials or private investigators and turned against those seeking abortions or providing abortion related care. Officials from Johnson County Sheriff's Office in Texas—where nearly all abortions are illegal—searched 83,000 Flock license plate reader cameras at the start of this month while looking for a woman they claim had a self-administered abortion, 404 Media reported this week. Sheriff Adam King said that the officials weren't trying to 'block her from leaving the state' and were searching for the woman as her family were concerned about her safety. However, experts say that conducting a search across the entire United States shows the sprawling dragnet of license plate reader cameras and highlights how those seeking abortions can be tracked. 'The idea that the police are actively tracking the location of women they believe have had self administered abortions under the guise of 'safety' does not make me feel any better about this kind of surveillance,' Eva Galperin, director of cybersecurity at the Electronic Frontier Foundation told 404 Media. Investment Scam Company Linked to $200 Million in Losses Sanctioned by US Government Philippines-based company Funnull Technology Inc and its boss Liu Lizhi have been sanctioned by the Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) for their links to investment and romance scams, which are often referred to as 'pig butchering' scams. 'Funnull has directly facilitated several of these schemes, resulting in over $200 million in U.S. victim-reported losses,' OFAC said in a statement announcing the sanctions. The company purchases IP addresses from major cloud service providers and then sells them to cybercriminals who could use them to host scam websites—OFAC says Fullnull is 'linked to the majority' of investment scam websites reported to the FBI. In January independent cybersecurity journalist Brian Krebs detailed how Fullnull was abusing Amazon and Microsoft's cloud services.
WIRED
11 hours ago
- Entertainment
- WIRED
Jackie Chan Answers The Web's Most Searched Questions
This is Jackie Chan. This is Wired Autocomplete Interview. [upbeat music] Three, two, one. [claps] Go! [upbeat music] Okay. So one drop, so I took this one first. [interpreter speaking in a foreign language] I can speak Cantonese, Mandrin, a little bit English, and Shandong, Shanghai. A lot of Korean, Japanese. And Taiwanese. Not many. Eight. [paper tearing] Oh. Doing his. [Interpreter] Own stunts. Yes, I'm still doing my own stunt. Why? Because even now, today, the technology so good. But the world audience still like to see Jackie Chan doing the own things. Maybe 40 years ago, I can do a triple kick. Ba-ba-boom. Ba-ba-boom. 20 years later, double kick. But now I do one kick. Okay. I just do, show the one kick. This is how I'm do it. If right now, jumping the floor, no. I do need a double now. Stunt. [Interpreter] Double. [interpreter speaking in foreign language] It depends. Like, when I have drive a helicopter, we need some professional. When I doing a triple kick, then I need, I have 100 students. We can, in the middle, I can pick out who do the best, who do this, who do that. Oh. Training. I have my training camp with all my stunt team. Like, three hour. Most of the time, we punch and talking, kicking and think about choreograph, how to different than some other movies, Use what kind of weapon, a chair. The board. How to fight with the board. Yeah. Yeah. What is Jackie Chan first job? First job, when I was eight, I was child actor. [paper tearing] First movie. Same. When I was seven, I was like a angel, and I'm singing. [Jackie singing in foreign language] That's me. The first job. First movie. [paper tearing] [Jackie speaking in foreign language] [Interpreter] Famous quote. My famous quote? I can do it. Never give up. Whenever I do the stunt, I will look at the dangerous things, I say, I can do it. I can do it. I can do it. Don't give up. Boom! Then I jump. Then breaking ankle. Then break my skull. [paper tearing] [interpreter speaking in foreign language] [Interpreter] What car does Jackie Chan drive? The first car I drive. Ah! The boss gave to me. It was a Volkswagen. The one exactly like Karate Kid, the Jaden Smith, I was break the car, the same car. Right now, it's Toyota. [Interpreter] Alpha. Alpha. More people can sit down. Easy. Not like it used to be, sport car. But now, I'm most comfortable as possible. More low-key as possible. Next board. Right on your face. Oh. No. [beep] [Jackie speaking in foreign language] [interpreter speaking in foreign language] No. My family rule, no ear hole, no tattoo. Even my son. [paper tearing] [interpreter speaking in foreign language] Can I sing? ♪ Wherever you go, whatever you do ♪ ♪ I will be right here waiting for you ♪ ♪ Whatever you do or how my heart break ♪ ♪ I will be right here waiting for you ♪ Ha-cha-cha-cha-cha! Fighting. Okay. Another one. Why so many question? Huh? [interpreter speaking in foreign language] Where I'm living? I'm based in Hong Kong. But right now, I'm staying Beijing. I'm filming in Beijing right now. And this moment, I'm in Myanmar between China border filming in the jungle. [interpreter speaking in foreign language] Now? Right now? Right this moment, I'm in London. [interpreter speaking in foreign language] Oh, my teacher from China. There so many teacher in that time from China. So we teach singing, dancing, stick fight, knife fight, kicking, punch, all kind of things for 10 years. [interpreter speaking in foreign language] My father, I'm growing up in French embassy until I'm seven. [interpreter speaking in foreign language] I'm filming Panda Project 2 The first one, last year was released. This year, we're making Panda Project 2. Filming between Yunnan and Myanmar's, China's border. [interpreter speaking in foreign language] When I learn in school, I learn southern style. After 10 years, I learn northern style. So I know both style. Southern style more jumping. Northern style more on the ground. Not so many jumping. And after that, I learn karate, hapkido, judo, boxing. I learn so many things. Because in that time, we don't have cell phone, we don't have karaoke, we don't have anything. And most important, I don't have money. Most of the time, we stay in the dojo school. Karate-ing with all of the friends. That's how we spent every day. Not like this day, you can have karaoke, drinking bar, mostly cell phone. We don't. But I'm glad. Because at that time, we don't have these kind of things, I training a lot. Change. [interpreter speaking in foreign language] Oh. When I was young, I was very big, very fat. So in Chinese name, call me Pao. It's like a canyon. My mom speak Shanghainese, just called me Apo. In the embassy, everybody call me Po. I thought it's a English Po. It's not Shanghainese Pao. My father went to Australia, American embassy. When I get there, everybody call me, What's your name? I said, Okay, my name's Po. At that time, I want to learn English. Then I go to the night school. Then the teacher asked me, What's your name? I said, My name is Chan Kong-Sang. No, your name is Steven. I said, Okay. Embassy, Po. School, Steven. Then I went to the, some work. Then my friend bring me there. Then Do this guy have a English name? No. Okay. He use his name, put on my name. He's like, His name called Jack. In Australia, I have Po, Steven, Jack. Then Jack, Jack, Jack, Jack, Jack. After nine months, I know a little bit English because Jack Chan, no rhythm. Just like fighting. Then I put a Y. Then Jacky Chan. Then after that, when I make a movie, after famous, I sign to Golden Harvest. And the Golden Harvest said, Jackie, you're too strong, too man. You have to change a little bit. Then they take out the Y. They put the I-E. So you see '80s, my posters still J-A-C-K-Y. But after '80s, always J-A-C-K-I-E. Jackie Chan. Believe it or not, after I change it I-E, my career just boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Thing was stuck. Huh? [interpreter speaking in foreign language] Oh. I like any food. But I don't like animal stomach, inside. Especially these day, not many steaks. I don't know why. Now I like more soup, vegetable, fruit, mango, bread. Croissant. [upbeat music] I toss a lot of board. This is very fun. I see you next time. I need more board. I need more question. I need you know more about me. Bye bye. [upbeat music]
WIRED
12 hours ago
- Business
- WIRED
Republican Operatives Want to Distance Themselves From Elon Musk's DOGE
May 30, 2025 10:57 AM 'People agree with what he's trying to do. But some people just need a villain,' a source tells WIRED. Photo-Illustration: Wired Staff;For weeks, White House officials and Republican operatives weren't quite sure when, or if, Elon Musk would actually be leaving the government. Now, many Republicans are already looking to distance themselves from Musk's team entirely. 'Everybody is in a bit of a fucking pinch,' a Republican with knowledge of the situation tells WIRED. 'You know, the whole thing's just fucking ridiculous, honestly. People agree with what he's trying to do. But some people just need a villain.' WIRED spoke to a number of close advisers and operatives in Trumpworld, who were granted anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the topic. While Musk's step back seems to be imminent, those inside and around the White House are unsure of what all of this means for the future of his so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Still, none of the Republicans interviewed for this story believe DOGE is going anywhere anytime soon. 'DOGE is popular,' says a source close to the White House. 'Even if Elon, personally, is less so.' (Polls show that DOGE is not popular with the public.) The White House did not reply to requests for comment. Today, Trump will hold a dual press conference with Musk in what appears to be an attempt at a final sendoff. 'This will be his last day, but not really, because he will, always, be with us, helping all the way,' Trump posted on Truth Social, announcing the event. 'Elon is terrific!' While Musk's supposed departure has been making headlines, to those attuned to DOGE's actual workings, the most seismic move came on Thursday, when news broke that top Musk lieutenant Steve Davis would also be leaving DOGE. Davis has worked with Musk for years, including at X and as the president of the Boring Company. He has been vital to day-to-day DOGE operations, and Sahil Lavingia, a recently fired DOGE staffer, told WIRED that Davis led the group. 'Steven was the only person who was across everything,' Lavingia says. Not everyone in Trumpworld, though, was aware of his role. 'I don't know who Steve Davis is,' a well-placed source close to the White House tells WIRED, claiming that other Trump advisers and White House aides are equally in the dark about one of the most important operators in the government takeover. White House sources do say, however, that they are looking forward to the departure of Katie Miller, the wife of White House deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller, whom CNN reports will be working for Musk, with one source telling the outlet she is now with Musk 'full-time.' She's been one of Musk's key allies since his arrival in Washington, and, as WIRED reported in February, has been the one tasked with delivering him bad news. Both Millers have been credited with showing Musk around Washington and accompanying him to events. 'There's a lot of people in the business that work with her, or have worked with her, and she leaves bodies everywhere she's been,' a senior Republican strategist with knowledge of the situation tells WIRED. Katie Miller did not reply to requests for comment. Republicans also said there was a palpable sense of relief about the prospect of DOGE getting out of the headlines even before Musk and different members of his leadership team appeared to begin their departures. A Republican donor organizer and campaign adviser tells WIRED that they're unconvinced Musk won't come back. ('Nothing is cast in stone with Trump and his people,' they say.) Nonetheless, they say, they're telling clients running for office—both new candidates and incumbents—to use Musk's exit as a chance to distance themselves from the DOGE chainsaw. 'I think people need to distance themselves from it,' they say.
WIRED
13 hours ago
- Business
- WIRED
How the Loudest Voices in AI Went From ‘Regulate Us' to ‘Unleash Us'
May 30, 2025 10:00 AM Two years after Sam Altman pitched Congress on AI guardrails, he's back in Washington with a new message: To beat China, invest in OpenAI. Photo-Illustration: WIRED Staff; Photograph: May 16, 2023, Sam Altman appeared before a subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary. The title of the hearing was 'Oversight of AI.' The session was a lovefest, with both Altman and the senators celebrating what Altman called AI's 'printing press moment'—and acknowledging that the US needed strong laws to avoid its pitfalls. 'We think that regulatory intervention by governments will be critical to mitigate the risks of increasingly powerful models,' he said. The legislators hung on Altman's every word as he gushed about how smart laws could allow AI to flourish—but only within firm guidelines that both lawmakers and AI builders deemed vital at that moment. Altman was speaking for the industry, which widely shared his attitude. The battle cry was 'Regulate Us!' This is an essay from the latest edition of Steven Levy's Plaintext newsletter. SIGN UP for Plaintext to read the whole thing, and tap Steven's unique insights and unmatched contacts for the long view on tech. Two years later, on May 8 of this year, Altman was back in front of another group of senators. The senators and Altman were still singing the same tune, but one pulled from a different playlist. This hearing was called 'Winning the AI Race.' In DC, the word 'oversight' has fallen out of favor, and the AI discourse is no exception. Instead of advocating for outside bodies to examine AI models to assess risks, or for platforms to alert people when they are interacting with AI, committee chair Ted Cruz argued for a path where the government would not only fuel innovation but remove barriers like 'overregulation.' Altman was on board with that. His message was no longer 'regulate me' but 'invest in me.' He said that overregulation—like the rules adopted by the European Union or one bill recently vetoed in California would be 'disastrous.' 'We need the space to innovate and to move quickly,' he said. Safety guardrails might be necessary, he affirmed, but they needed to involve 'sensible regulation that does not slow us down.' What happened? For one thing, the panicky moment just after everyone got freaked out by ChatGPT passed, and it became clear that Congress wasn't going to move quickly on AI. But the biggest development is that Donald Trump took back the White House, and hit the brakes on the Biden administration's nuanced, pro-regulation tone. The Trump doctrine of AI regulation seems suspiciously close to that of Trump supporter Marc Andreessen, who declared in his Techno Optimist Manifesto that AI regulation was literally a form of murder because 'any deceleration of AI will cost lives.' Vice President J.D. Vance made these priorities explicit in an international gathering held in Paris this February. 'I'm not here … to talk about AI safety, which was the title of the conference a couple of years ago,' he said. 'We believe that excessive regulation of the AI sector could kill a transformative industry just as it's taking off, and we'll make every effort to encourage pro-growth AI policies.' The administration later unveiled an AI Action Plan 'to enhance America's position as an AI powerhouse and prevent unnecessarily burdensome requirements from hindering private sector innovation.' Two foes have emerged in this movement. First is the European Union which has adopted a regulatory regimen that demands transparency and accountability from major AI companies. The White House despises this approach, as do those building AI businesses in the US. But the biggest bogeyman is China. The prospect of the People's Republic besting the US in the 'AI Race' is so unthinkable that regulation must be put aside, or done with what both Altman and Cruz described as a "light touch.' Some of this reasoning comes from a theory known as 'hard takeoff,' which posits that AI models can reach a tipping point where lightning-fast self-improvement launches a dizzying gyre of supercapability, also known as AGI. 'If you get there first, you dastardly person, I will not be able to catch you,' says former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, with the "you" being a competitor (Schmidt had been speaking about China's status as a leader in open source.) Schmidt is one of the loudest voices warning about this possible future. But the White House is probably less interested in the Singularity than it is in classic economic competition. The fear of China pulling ahead on AI is the key driver of current US policy, safety be damned. The party line even objects to individual states trying to fill the vacuum of inaction with laws of their own. The version of the tax-break giving, Medicaid-cutting megabill just passed by the House included a mandated moratorium on any state-level AI legislation for 10 years . That's like eternity in terms of AI progress. (Pundits are saying that this provision won't survive some opposition in the Senate, but it should be noted that almost every Republican in the House voted for it.) It's not surprising that Trumpworld would reject regulation and embrace a jingoistic stance on AI. But what happened to the seemingly genuine appetite in the industry for rules to ensure AI products don't run amok? I contacted several of the top AI companies this week and was pointed to published blogs and transcripts from speeches and public testimony, but no executive would go on record on the topic. (To be fair, I didn't give them much time.) Typical of those materials was OpenAI's policy blog. It asks for 'freedom to innovate,' meaning, in all likelihood, no burdensome laws; strong export controls; and an opportunistic request for 'freedom to learn.' This is a euphemistic request for Congress to redefine intellectual property as 'fair use' so OpenAI and other companies can train their models with copyrighted materials—without compensating the creators. Microsoft is also asking for this bonanza. (Disclosure: I am on the council of the Authors Guild, which is suing OpenAI and Microsoft over the use of copyrighted books as training materials. Opinions expressed here are my own.) The 'light-touch' (or no-touch) regulatory camp does have an excellent point to make: No one is sure how to craft laws that prevent the worst dangers of AI without slowing the pace of innovation. But aside from avoiding catastrophic risk, there are plenty of other areas where AI regulation would not introduce speed bumps to research. These involve banning certain kinds of AI surveillance, deepfakes, and discrimination; clearly informing people when they are interacting with robots; and mandating higher standards to protect personal data in AI systems. (I admit I cheated in making that list—not by using ChatGPT, but by drawing on the kinds of AI harms that the House of Representatives would not allow states to regulate.) Public pressure, or some spectacular example of misuse, may lead Congress to address those AI issues at some point. But what lingers for me is the about-face from two years ago when serious worries about catastrophic risk dominated conversations in the AI world. The glaring exception to this is Anthropic, which still hasn't budged from a late October blog post—just days before the presidential election—that not only urged effective regulation to 'reduce catastrophic risks' but pretty much proposed the end of times if we didn't do it soon. 'Governments should urgently take action on AI policy in the next eighteen months,' it read, in boldface. 'The window for proactive risk prevention is closing fast.' In this environment, there is virtually no chance that Anthropic will get its wish. Maybe it won't matter: It could be that fears of an AI apocalypse are way overblown. Take note, though, that the leaders of just about every single major AI company are predicting that in a few years, we will realize artificial general intelligence. When you press them, they will also admit that controlling AI, or even understanding how it works, is a work in progress. Nonetheless, the focus is now on hastening the push to more powerful AI—ostensibly to beat China. Chinese people have made it clear they don't want to report to robot overlords any more than we do. America's top geopolitical rival has also demonstrated some interest in imposing strong safety standards. But if the United States insists on eschewing guardrails and going full-speed toward a future that it can't contain, our biggest competitor will have no choice but to do the same. May the best hard takeoff win.
