We’re expanding our national security and defense work, and welcoming Boyan Milanov to the team. Boyan is a research scientist evaluating cybersecurity risks in agentic AI systems related to national security, defense, and safety-critical infrastructure. ainowinstitute.org/contributor/...

Sigal's asking (and answering) such good questions here about how to build a movement around making sure that AI works for us and not the other way around...feels like we only scratched the surface of a deep and important convo.

Tech companies are betting big on nuclear energy to meet AI’s massive power demands—and Trump’s done a lot to make it easier for them. Heidy Khlaaf, the head AI scientist at the AI Now Institute, tells us why that’s dangerous. @mjgault.bsky.social has the story: www.404media.co/power-compan...

New podcast! Justin Hendrix discussed whether the AI investment boom is an unsustainable bubble and how a crash could reshape policy and public sentiment with Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research's Ryan Cummings, AI Now Institute's Sarah West, and Blood in the Machine's Brian Merchant.

Absolute must read on the AI bailout-in-progress: apparently it's not enough that lifetimes of human ingenuity and creativity have been stolen and enclosed to create generative AI and balloon billionaire wealth - much more public looting is in store...

"Federal policy has jumped the gun: We don’t yet know if AI will transform the economy or even be profitable. Yet Washington is insulating the industry from all sorts of risk. If a bubble does pop, we’ll all be left holding the bag." [Gift Link] www.wsj.com/opinion/you-...

New Report: Fission for Algorithms. We draw on our nuclear expertise to dissect the risky fast-tracking initiatives hastening nuclear development in service of AI. This includes proposals to use Gen AI for nuclear licensing, whilst lowering well-established nuclear thresholds.

OUR @wsj.com OPED: The AI bubble debate misses what's already happening: a massive gov bailout, fast-tracked infrastructure, guaranteed contracts & regulatory exemptions. AI firms get a taxpayer-funded insurance policy that dot-com companies could only dream of. www.wsj.com/opinion/you-...

New podcast! I discussed whether the AI investment boom is an unsustainable bubble and how a potential crash could reshape policy and public sentiment with Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research's Ryan Cummings, AI Now Institute's Sarah West, and Blood in the Machine's Brian Merchant.

This week Open AI walked back a call for the govt to backstop financing for its trillion dollar investments in data centers. This was only the tip of the iceberg; a slow bailout for AI firms is already underway. Read more from @ambakak.bsky.social and I in @wsj.com: www.wsj.com/opinion/you-...

New work on the effects of the 'AI arms race' on nuclear licensing and deployment. It highlights that key protections - particularly to ensure the safety of communities where nuclear plants are operating - are being rolled back in order to speed AI deployment. Read more below 👇

This is one of our biggest arguments: that OpenAI is vampirizing universities for the cachet and legitimacy that affiliation with higher education affords

I've been feeling a little bit crazy reading the news lately about what's going on in the AI market and what it means for the economy at large. So I'm grateful I got to knit the threads together with @alixdunn.com last week.

In today’s Senate Commerce Hearing the White House endorsed support for federal preemption of state AI laws. The fight against preemption did not disappear with the moratorium—in fact, Sen. Cruz introduced a bill today putting us directly on the path to preemption. A thread on its risks below: 🧵

Oracle is among the latest firms to announce major layoff rounds due to AI - I spoke to @marketplace.org about why shortchanging staff talent is a misplaced gamble: www.marketplace.org/story/2025/0...

Last week, @smw.bsky.social spoke at @atlanticcouncil.bsky.social about the AI arms race and mythologies around AGI. "If policymakers are hinging significant decision making on pursuit of AGI and foregoing near term concerns, that's a risky and irresponsible bet."

New census bureau data shows that the rate of AI adoption by corporations is now in decline - rough news for OpenAI, whose capital expenditure projections are now at an astonishing *$80 billion* above prior estimates: gizmodo.com/ai-adoption-...

Really thrilled about the recognition of Heidy's pathbreaking and deeply necessary work - first in TIME #AI100 and now in MIT Tech Review. Wait till you see what she's cooking up next!

Today at 10:30am ET, the @atlanticcouncil.bsky.social is hosting a conversation with @smw.bsky.social, Kemba Walden, Jayshree Ullal, and others exploring the tech and trust relationships that shape global AI infrastructure. Watch the livestream here: www.atlanticcouncil.org/event/truth-...

Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000 Episode 61 “Winning the Race to Hell” www.buzzsprout.com/2126417/epis... in which AI Now Institute’s @kate-brennan.bsky.social and @smw.bsky.social join me and @alexhanna.bsky.social to wade through the muck that is Trump’s AI Action Plan

NEW: DOGE affiliate Chris Sweet has developed an AI tool that is being used to rapidly slash government regulations, according to details of a meeting reviewed by @wired.com. Scoop by me: www.wired.com/story/sweetr...

You have at least four new stops in the llm/ai pipeline: service provider, inference provider, model owner, and infrastructure provider. I wish they would prove that each of these are not just secure for users but that data is being used ethically at each stop!

Only two industries in America are thriving: Big Banks and Big Tech. And they both appear to want only one industry in America to thrive. So they're taking each other on in a series of regulatory fights. From me: prospect.org/power/2025-0...

A more comprehensive analysis for @brennancenter.org of how the Trump administration's latest AI policy could leave us more divided and less informed: www.brennancenter.org/our-work/ana...

An estimated 38% of the total corporate cash savings created by Trump and Republicans’ budget bill will flow to just four Big Tech companies: Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, and Alphabet. Just so happens that each donated $1M to Trump’s inauguration. Talk about a return on investment.

📣🚨NEW: ☁️ Big Cloud—Google, Microsoft & Amazon—control two thirds of the cloud compute market. They’re getting rich off the AI gold rush. In new work with @nathanckim.bsky.social, we show how Big Cloud is expanding their empire by scrutinizing their *investments*… 🧵 📄PDF: dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn...

“Calling back to the tech boom of the mid-to-late 90s, investors have been asking about the possibility that this investment cycle for data centres could be a bubble” Huge props to the person who created this graphic for FT lmao

A reminder about the importance of healthcare to every single state www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Senate Approps proposes a $400 million increase to the NIH budget, pushing back on the by $18 billion (40%) decrease proposed in the President's budget. Watch this space.

The evidence on AI’s failures in the classroom is why the AAUP’s latest report on AI in higher education calls for faculty control in AI decisions - read their survey here: www.aaup.org/news/new-rep...

HAPPENING TODAY at 6PM ET | 3PM PT: Join us, @smw.bsky.social with @ainowinstitute.bsky.social. and Sharon Lewis with CT Coalition for Economic and Environmental Justice as we break down how Trump's AI action plan threatens to accelerate harms to our people and climate. bit.ly/our-techfuture

We’re featuring @smw.bsky.social, Co-ED at @ainowinstitute.bsky.social, and more‬, who will discuss the implications of Trump's AI plan and how we can fight back. Join us 7/30 at 6PM ET by registering today ⬇️

Trump wanted to break up Nvidia — but then its CEO won him over

NEW: U.S. Border Patrol says it needs "advanced AI" to "identify and track suspicious activity in urban environment[s]" and "dense residential areas," according to a presentation document I obtained theintercept.com/2025/07/23/c...

What Arkansas teaches us about Medicaid cuts coming to the rest of the nation. @kevindeliban.bsky.social of @techtonicjustice.bsky.social explains youtu.be/isSvH6oX8TM?... Bureaucratic hurdles are by design (& likely won’t pay for the infrastructure needed to build them).

more evidence for “a bunch of AI cultists dismantled large parts of the federal government because they believed that their LLMs were intelligent and could do the work better” thesis

Big tech promotes the story that since ChatGPT burst onto the scene, AI has been so popular it's rushed to meet the demand. The reality is different. A study by design scholars shows tech co's have had to push AI on its users with a variety of intrusive tactics. How big tech is force-feeding us AI:

A year ago I used the term "surveillance pricing" to describe companies taking your personal data and weaponizing it to set individualized prices. Just a year later, a bill in Congress proposes banning the practice, supplementing several state bills. I talked to the author, @repcasar.bsky.social:

🔥 from @hellobrittparis.bsky.social Lindsey Weinberg, and Emma May around the weaponization of AI in higher ed. academeblog.org/2025/07/22/f...

The WH is promising a ‘new frontier of scientific discovery’ even as it defunds our universities. The AI Action Plan serves only the bottom lines of a few oligarchs - that’s why we and 100+ orgs are uniting behind a People’s AI Action Plan. Read here: peoplesaiaction.com

In our new policy brief for @datasociety.bsky.social, @mwoluchem.bsky.social and I break down the myths and industry talking points attached to data centers. Who benefits from unbridled data center growth and who is most at risk when such speculative ventures fail?

When the data center lobby comes knocking, local officials might be drawn in by the supposed economic benefits that data centers can bring. And the public is told that data centers are our collective destiny, that we have no choice but to build ever more sprawling data centers at a frantic pace

Privileged to be a part of this project, led by the incomparable Britt Paris.

I spoke with @davidingram.bsky.social at NBC last week about the Pentagon’s announcement of several multimillion dollar contracts with commercial AI firms for natsec uses - a dangerous move that risks making our critical infrastructure vulnerable: www.nbcnews.com/tech/securit...

Exclusive: Stargate, an effort to supercharge the U.S.’s artificial-intelligence ambitions, has sharply scaled back its near-term plans.

The study finds that in 2022 over 26% of systems reviewed gave a disclaimed that they aren’t providing medical advice. Now? Less than 1%.

Trying to think of other revolutionary products that consumers repeatedly had to be tricked into paying for rather than ones that consumers loved and demanded

"RealPage will integrate Livble into its property management software & handle “all collections.”Last year,the US DoJ & several states sued RealPage over claims that it monopolized the market for commercial revenue management software used to set price of apartments" www.theverge.com/news/710036/...

Today the OpenAI Nonprofit Commission released a report asserting OpenAI is ‘positioned to be a force of good in this Age of Intelligence’. The report also claims that AI Now was among the orgs participating in the listening process that led to this report. We did not.

Remember: There is nothing natural or inevitable about extreme inequality; it’s the result of an economic system that values wealth and power over human dignity and justice. It doesn't have to be this way.