josh hawley

Last Thursday, the Biden administration announced it would investigate the security risks posed by Chinese-made smart cars, which could “collect sensitive data about our citizens and our infrastructure and send this data back to the People’s Republic of China,” the statement from White House claims. While many other technologies from China have been scrutinized because of security concerns, EVs have largely avoided that sort of attention until now. After all, they represent a technology that will greatly help the world…

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) on Tuesday objected to a request to pass by unanimous consent a bill approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee to strip big tech companies of legal immunity for child pornography and other child predatory material posted on their social media platforms. Wyden argued the legislation would weaken the encryption safeguards of popular websites and apps and inadvertently make it easier for predators to gain access the communications and photos of children.…

Welcome to AI This Week, Gizmodo’s weekly deep dive on what’s been happening in artificial intelligence.What to Watch For: Taylor Swift's "Midnights" What to Watch For: Taylor Swift's "Midnights" vinyl salesConcerns about AI porn—or, more commonly “deepfake porn”—are not new. For years, countless women and girls have been subjected to a flood of non-consensual pornographic imagery that is easy to distribute online but quite difficult to get taken down. Most notably, celebrity deepfake porn has been an ongoing source of…

In 2018, Mark Zuckerberg waltzed into the halls of Congress for the most high-profile moment of his career. He was pale and glass-eyed, his tie wrapped loosely around his neck, and his hair cropped high and thin in a bizarre homage to Augustus Caesar. His speech was practiced and robotic, and while his performance made him out to be a freak in the eyes of the public, the hearing was a victory. Zuckerberg’s empire was at the height of its power, and he demonstrated the government could engage with even the basic questions…

January 31, 2024 @ 10:19 AM Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg addressed the families of victims harmed online present at Wednesday’s congressional hearing, standing up to apologize for all they have gone through.  Senator Josh Hawley encouraged the interaction during a testy exchange with the tech CEO and founder of Facebook.  “So you didn’t take any action,” Hawley said referring to child safety on the platforms owned by Meta.  “That’s not true senator,” Zuckerberg replied. …

This week, there’ve been rumblings that a bipartisan bill that would ban AI platforms from protection under Section 230 is getting fast-tracked. The landmark internet law protects websites from legal liability for the content they host and its implications for the fate of AI are unclear. The legislation, authored by Sens. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), would strip “immunity from AI companies” when it comes to civil claims or criminal prosecutions, a press release from Hawley’s office claims. It’s…

A US Federal Judge blocked a Montana law Thursday that would have banned TikTok in the state starting on January 1st, arguing the bill is unconstitutional on the basis that it violates users’ right to free speech.“Even AI Rappers are Harassed by Police” | AI UnlockedU.S. District Judge Donald Molloy issued a temporary injunction to halt the law, saying it “violates the Constitution in more ways than one.” Molloy said the ban on the Chinese-owned app is permeated with a “pervasive undertone of anti-Chinese sentiment.”…

Image: Andrey_Popov (Shutterstock)Maybe AI-Written Scripts are a Bad Idea?Could organizations use artificial intelligence language models such as ChatGPT to induce voters to behave in specific ways?Sen. Josh Hawley asked OpenAI CEO Sam Altman this question in a May 16, 2023, U.S. Senate hearing on artificial intelligence. Altman replied that he was indeed concerned that some people might use language models to manipulate, persuade and engage in one-on-one interactions with voters.Altman did not elaborate, but he might…

Photo: Bill Clark (AP)OpenAI CEO Sam Altman sat before a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee Tuesday and responded to lawmakers grilling him over the potential unintended consequences of generative artificial intelligence. Altman surprised some lawmakers Tuesday by encouraging them to quickly enact new AI laws and regulations that could set the standards for how OpenAI, Google, and other tech firms train and release new AI systems.“We think that regulatory intervention by governments will be critical to mitigating the risks of…

Photo: Samuel Corum (AP)U.S.government efforts to ban TikTok over national security grounds, once considered a pie-in-the-sky pipe dream, are looking more and more likely by the week, especially after Congress browbeat TikTok’s CEO for five hours last week. That said, we’ve been here before. Various players in the federal government have attempted to ban TikTok before, all unsuccessfully. In just three short months, at least four new bills have reached the House and Senate demanding, in various forms, a national ban of…