My latest for @brennancenter.org on why the Trump admin’s moves on AI and cybersecurity confound rather than clarify. Ban on foreign access to Claude’s most advanced models underscores the challenges of governing when the admin’s instincts are anti-regulatory: www.brennancenter.org/our-work/ana...

It is now crystal clear who is obstructing reauthorization. Cornyn & other reform opponents would rather see Sec. 702 expire than allow reforms to protect Americans’ privacy. Sen. Wyden offered an easy path forward for extending the law. Reform opponents would prefer sunset. 2/2

Senator Cornyn just blocked a 9-month extension of Section 702 with a warrant requirement for backdoor searches. He then blocked a 5-week extension with no warrant requirement, just basic transparency measures. 1/2

In the guise of an AI powered truth tribunal, Peter Thiel and Balaji Srinivasan are backing a new platform to supercharge attacks on the press and promote "justice" without judges or juries. Don't buy it: www.codastory.com/polarization...

The risks of military AI "are already existential," says @amostoh.bsky.social -- "both for civilians swept up in the violence and destruction of AI-enabled wars and troops that have to live with the consequences of potentially unsafe weapons they can’t control.” theintercept.com/2026/05/01/e...

What happens when the US military races to implement AI in war? I spoke with @amostoh.bsky.social, senior counsel at the @brennancenter.org, about what really goes on in these massive, secretive US military-tech contracts. Listen to the conversation here: www.themaybe.org/podcast/comp...

@theinformation.com just revealed key details of Google’s deal with the Pentagon to deploy Gemini in warfare. Charlie Bullock and I explain how loopholes in the deal pave the way for Gemini’s use in mass domestic surveillance and fully autonomous weapons - Google’s supposed red lines.

critical intervention from @stevenfeldstein.bsky.social, on how Big Tech is resetting the terms of warfare. Steve foreshadowed the use of "good enough" drones as geopolitical chips - and look at where we are now foreignpolicy.com/2025/11/17/d...

"The Capture of the Congressional Intelligence Committees" is forthcoming from the UC Irvine Law Review! It argues that Congress's intelligence oversight committees have become the intelligence community's biggest boosters on Capitol Hill. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Very excited to share the cover of my forthcoming book, OUTED: LBJ’S CONFIDANT AND THE ARREST THAT TRANSFORMED A PRESIDENCY. Coming October 13 from University of Chicago Press! press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...

SCOTUS may well affirm the constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship. But how we got to the point where this is even up for debate speaks volumes about the Supreme Court’s failures. Must-read 🧵 from @tomtmwolf.bsky.social 👇

Glad to see you quoted @amostoh.bsky.social, but there shd be more emphasis on the fact that the tech elites placing the bets worked hard to make them pay off. It's not just a bet, it was an aim, enaced with millions of #$S in lobbying & shaping policy over a decade. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

A clear-eyed rebuke of executive overreach and a decisive victory for the First Amendment. But the administration shows no signs of stopping its crusade against "woke AI," the data brokers' loophole is still wide open, and thousands are dying or displaced in an AI-fueled war. Where is Congress?

We at @brennancenter.org found that Palantir’s defense revenue surged over the last decade. 2025 was their most profitable year ever. Numbers can mislead. But sometimes they just don’t lie. www.brennancenter.org/our-work/res...

Great post, particularly around the concept of “decision.” Decision has been used to describe what computers do going back at least to Shannon? And now it’s slipping to suggest that if an LLM makes a “decision” then a human has not. But a human is still making a decision about how to decide.

”debased” (adj.): 👇

Illuminating story from @sheeraf.bsky.social @nytimes.com, situating the Iran war in Silicon Valley’s decade-long push to transform warfare. Who stands to lose the most when industry bets big on war? Civilians and taxpayers. @brennancenter.org explains why: www.brennancenter.org/our-work/res...

The Dept. of Defense's headlong rush to adopt AI means overreliance on just a handful of tech companies and weak oversight, says the Brennan Center's @amostoh.bsky.social.

This is an incredibly valuable report and I recommend everyone read it and get a primer on how far down the rabbit hole of AI warfare we've traveled so far.

Note how the AI "recommendations" are completely obscured with little to no ability to actually verify or trace their outputs. This is what we mean when we say the distinctions between DSS and AWS are superficial in practice, especially when operators are given seconds to approve.

As @amostoh.bsky.social and I explain in our new report, the military has been ramping up its adoption of AI, while oversight and safeguards have failed to keep up. But the Pentagon’s dispute with Anthropic has brought a grave threat into focus: using AI to pry into Americans’ private lives 🧵 1/

Both things can be true: The Pentagon’s blacklisting of Anthropic is an abuse of executive power. The daylight between the Pentagon and Anthropic is less than you think. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/01/t...

All this talk of advanced AI targeting and the U.S. still fired a Tomahawk at an elementary school where an outdoor playground has been visible on Google Maps since 2017 www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

1/ As the US continues AI-enabled strikes on Iran, new @brennancenter.org research from @emileayoub.bsky.social and me examines how the military’s investments in the technology have been building to this moment. Congress must step up and reckon with AI’s dangers to life, liberty, and democracy 🧵:

Emile Ayoub and Amos Toh: Senior Counsels, Liberty and National Security Program, Brennan Center for Justice ( @emileayoub.bsky.social and @amostoh.bsky.social):

In this Tech Policy piece, I criticize how framings of Anthropic’s & OpenAI’s negotiations with the US’s DoW overindex on myopic interpretations of human oversight, papering over what should be the real target of our scrutiny: that generative AI algorithms are a flawed and inaccurate technology.

The expanding war in Iran brought to the fore questions about the role of technology in armed conflict, including the controversial use of new artificial intelligence technologies. Tech Policy Press invited perspectives from experts on what they are watching for as the situation unfolds.

As @amostoh.bsky.social and I explain, the Pentagon's dispute with Anthropic should not distract from the broader crisis at hand: Congress's failure to regulate some of the riskiest uses of AI - namely, amplifying surveillance and automating the use of lethal force.

Important 🧵on how the military’s use of Claude and other agentic AI could blow open the data broker loophole. @emileayoub.bsky.social, @jlkoepke.bsky.social and @jakelaperruque.bsky.social are all experts on this - follow them!

Trump's "massive and ongoing operation" against Iran is a clear violation of the Constitution's separation of powers. In our democracy, the president does not have the kingly power to plunge the nation into war without democratic debate and sanction. /1 www.brennancenter.org/our-work/ana...

this is really good background and context

new details about the Pentagon's fight with Anthropic are coming in fast and still under dispute, but this excellent analysis from @rightsduff.bsky.social and @amostoh.bsky.social from friday is very much worth your time. bsky.app/profile/just...

DoDD 3000.09 *does not* prohibit fully autonomous weapons. It’s a framework for *authorizing* autonomous weapons, including weapons that do not require human confirmation between target ID and firing. NSA surveillance sweeping up Americans’ communications overseas is also traceable to EO 12333:

so much for that davos speech

Last July, we warned that the administration’s policy against “woke AI” would heap pressure on the tech industry to quash dissent. Today, it is pressuring industry to roll back safeguards aimed at preventing the mass surveillance of Americans, and lethal targeting without human oversight.

Guardrails don’t undermine military AI. In fact, they're needed to improve the tech’s safety and reliability, says @amostoh.bsky.social defensescoop.com/2026/02/27/p...

Anthropic will not cave to the Pentagon’s demands. The company’s restrictions on using Claude to spy on Americans and deploy fully autonomous weapons aren’t just its ethical red lines. They are also what a good faith interpretation of the Fourth Amendment and the law of war require. More in 🧵👇

clarifying timeline by @techpolicypress.bsky.social on the fast-moving dispute between Anthropic and the Pentagon on the limits of using AI in warfare

The Pentagon is threatening to use the Defense Production Act against Anthropic. It's a terrible policy, but legally it depends on whether they're seeking to avoid Anthropic's terms of service or have Anthropic retrain Claude. My latest for @lawfaremedia.org. www.lawfaremedia.org/article/what...

The Pentagon is giving Anthropic until Friday to waive its restrictions on using Claude for mass surveillance of Americans and lethal targeting without human involvement, per @axios.com My thread below breaks down how these uses could be unlawful or unconstitutional👇

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth will meet tomorrow to discuss the terms of Claude's use, per @mccuri.bsky.social and Dave Lawler @axios.com. www.axios.com/2026/02/23/h... Here's what's at stake 👇

1/ The dispute between Anthropic and DOD over the limits of using AI in warfare is escalating. I’ll have more to say on what these limits should be in a @brennancenter.org report out next month. But for now, here’s what you need to know, and what’s truly at stake 🧵: www.nytimes.com/2026/02/18/t...

You’ll never guess but the solution to people not having money is to give them money.

Enough: The NAACP Legal Defense Fund calls to abolish ICE and the DHS infrastructure that enables its wanton, lawless abuse. This follows our earlier letter demanding sweeping cuts to DHS policing, intelligence, and other harmful programs. See LDF's statement here: www.naacpldf.org/press-releas...

Brian’s book is a profound meditation on the privilege of making mistakes. Addiction, for example, is not a mistake or choice per se, but does involve frequently catastrophic mistakes and choices. Whether these lead to homelessness is largely shaped by economic forces beyond individual control.

Excellent piece on the "Commercial off the shelf" or COTS exceptions the tech industry is constantly looking to expand.

Congress is on the verge of passing the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Its failure to right-size industry’s role in developing AI for national security purposes could have lasting repercussions, writes Brennan Center Liberty and National Security Program senior counsel Amos Toh.

My analysis of the AI provisions in the annual defense policy bill - good, weird, and just bad - is up on @techpolicypress.bsky.social. www.techpolicy.press/the-good-bad... Thanks @justinhendrix.bsky.social for the nudge and assist!

1/ The AI provisions in the annual defense policy bill, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), need more attention. They will shape AI’s impact on national security for decades to come. Here’s the good, the just plain weird, and the really really bad: