"Friends, family members, or caregivers designated as a 'Trusted Contact' will be notified if OpenAI detects that a person may have discussed topics like self-harm or suicide with the chatbot."

Huge News from me! My work is featured in the @obamafoundation.bsky.social Presidential Center. I’m honored to be included in Imagine Your Impact, a collection of real stories from changemakers who are making their communities better. Learn more and get your tickets here. www.obama.org/visit/

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There are lots of lessons that can be learned from high-stakes AI tools deployed years before LLMs came into existence (like facial recognition surveillance, which has existed for over a deade) Addressing automation bias and human-in-loop-in-name-only is a top-tier issue.

New from 404 Media: ICE plans to develop its own smart glasses to "supplement" its facial recognition app, according to a DHS official told about the plans in a meeting. A second person who attended a conference this week heard a senior ICE official discuss the plans www.404media.co/ice-plans-to...

Singapore and Malaysia have rolled out platform worker laws to improve gig worker protections, reports Tech Policy Press fellow Lam Le. But workers say they’re seeing lower pay and longer hours, raising questions about whether the reforms improve day-to-day conditions in the gig economy.

Meta is harvesting employee activity to train AI agents that could replace them, raising questions about data exploitation, labor disruption, and whether privacy-focused EU rules can keep up, writes Tech Policy Press fellow Liz Carolan.

Kashmir has become a dense site of surveillance, where biometric systems, CCTV, and other technologies and policies shape everyday life. Tech Policy Press Fellow Petra Molnar speaks with a Kashmiri journalist who describes reporting under continuous monitoring, intimidation, and fear.

"A study published Wednesday in the journal Nature finds that TikTok’s algorithm systematically prioritized pro-Republican content in three states leading up to the 2024 US elections."

Much of the world's population, including in the EU (based on our research), is asking for clear AI regulation. The EU today: Restrictions on high-risk uses of artificial intelligence in the EU will be postponed by more than a year! www.politico.eu/article/eu-c...

Singapore and Malaysia have rolled out platform worker laws to improve gig worker protections, reports Tech Policy Press fellow Lam Le. But workers say they’re seeing lower pay and longer hours, raising questions about whether the reforms improve day-to-day conditions in the gig economy.

"Dario Amodei, the chief executive of Anthropic, said on Wednesday that his artificial intelligence company had planned for growing about 10 times as big this year, only to reach a growth rate that could make it 80 times as big this year instead."

Ireland’s regulator has opened a new Digital Services Act investigation into Meta over dark patterns, writes Tech Policy Press fellow Liz Carolan. The probe comes amid rising scrutiny of Ireland’s role as the EU’s de facto tech watchdog and growing public demand for tougher platform regulation.

"Washington and Beijing are weighing the launch of official discussions about artificial intelligence, said people familiar with the matter, as their AI competition threatens to become the arms race of the digital era."

The much-covered xAI data center in South Memphis called Colossus 1 was previously used to train the Grok models, before SpaceX's February merger with xAI. Now, it will be used by Anthropic. Unclear what Colossus 2 will be used for.

Washington Post satellite imagery analysis finds Iran strikes on US installations far more accurate and effective than disclosed; US bases unprepared for drones. "The amount of destruction is far larger than what has been publicly acknowledged by the U.S. government or previously reported."

"The private credit industry’s role in fuelling the AI boom could backfire, with a sharp correction leading to 'sizeable' losses, the Financial Stability Board has warned."

"College leaders and students are organizing phone-free spaces to foster real-life connections and address the negative impacts of technology."

Fordham Law Prof. Chinmayi Sharma (@chinmayisharma.bsky.social) discusses her new Article, "Immigration Enforcement Intermediaries" (co-authored with student Sam Adler '26 JD, @samadler.bsky.social), with Tech Policy Press (@techpolicypress.bsky.social)'s Justin Hendrix (@justinhendrix.bsky.social).

wait

"Allow me to nail to the wall 14 theses on the current state of political violence in the United States and its facilitation by media, social media and generative AI companies."

NIST's AI security center is partnering with Google, Microsoft, and xAI to evaluate their new AI models before deployment: www.nist.gov/news-events/... "To date, CAISI has completed more than 40 such evaluations, including on state-of-the-art models that remain unreleased."

"Pennsylvania has sued the artificial intelligence company behind Character.AI to stop its chatbot from posing as doctors. Governor Josh Shapiro on ​Tuesday called the lawsuit against Character Technologies the first of its ‌kind by a U.S. governor."

"A group of publishers have filed a class action lawsuit against Meta Platforms, alleging the tech conglomerate illegally used their copyrighted works to source and train its AI platform. Publishers including Cengage Learning, Hachette, Macmillan, McGraw & Scott Turow are demanding a jury trial..."

A side quest.

The EU AI Act, the most comprehensive AI regulation to date, was not written with agents in mind, write Kathrin Gardhouse and Amin Oueslati. They analyze five governance challenges AI agents pose and identify key gaps for the EU to address.

India's online content blocking orders quadrupled in 2 years—from ~6,000/year to 24,300 in 2025. Tech Policy Press fellow Apar Gupta examines the political economy of digital censorship and how AI panic became the latest accelerant:

"Workers developing Google’s artificial intelligence products in the UK have voted to unionize, in part out of concerns about a deal between the company and the US military that was announced last week."

“Under pressure to deliver in the fight against serious cross-border crime, Europol built and operated a shadow data analysis platform containing large volumes of sensitive information, which operated without key legal and technical safeguards.” www.computerweekly.com/news/3666425...

Google DeepMind workers are unionizing over AI military contracts

"President Trump, who promoted a hands-off approach to artificial intelligence and gave Silicon Valley free rein to roll out the technology, is considering the introduction of government oversight over new A.I. models, according to U.S. officials and people briefed on the deliberations."

Under the banner of addressing prison overcrowding, the UK is accelerating efforts to develop and deploy surveillance tech to monitor people in the community, effectively outsourcing criminal justice to private technology firms, writes Jessica Pandian.

@reuters.com wins the Pulitzer for Beat Reporting on their Meta series: www.reuters.com/investigates...

If there's one thing you can dedicate time to read today, make it @nathaliemarechal.net's latest article, a deep dive on where we are in tech policy space and how we must confront our priorities to challenge the root causes behind the concentration of power www.techpolicy.press/tech-policy-...

“The AI & Big Tech industries’ will to power is among the proximate causes of the US’s accelerating descent into autocracy. “AI” is both the motivation and the instrument of authoritarian consolidation.”

“The study conducted by Stanford University and CDT reveals that popular AI tools such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, Anthropic’s Claude, and Mistral’s Le Chat might be promoting eating disorders.”

NEW: DHS subpoenaed Google for a Canadian man's location and account activity after he criticized ICE. The man hasn't been in the US in 10+ years, and DHS used an import law from the 1930s to try to get his data. ACLU is fighting it. @regret.bsky.social w/ the scoop: www.wired.com/story/dhs-de...

The Rise of Authoritarian Middle Powers The world’s “middle powers” were once bastions of defense for a liberal rules-based international order. But no more. A new kind of authoritarian middle power has emerged, undermining democratic norms and safeguards.

Excellent reporting, alarming findings. Bloomberg's @dmehro.bsky.social et al found U.S. state government health websites are sharing people's personal info (sex, citizenship & race data) with tech giants via pixel-sized webpage trackers. Several states pulled the trackers after Bloomberg disclosed.

Tech policy used to be a relatively bipartisan field, writes Nathalie Maréchal. But positions that would be defensible in a different political context simply aren’t at this time, she says, arguing that regardless of where you sit in industry, government or civil society, the time to choose is now.

RightsCon's cancellation marks a major escalation in transnational repression and is a testament to China’s influence on global digital rights far beyond its borders, writes Article19's Michael Caster. He calls for a true reckoning with China’s influence and meaningful cross-movement coordination.

"The increase in attacks on US politicians and business leaders has sparked a rise in demand for previously niche active-shooter insurance, with brokers noting new interest from 'almost every sector' of the economy."

"Still, teachers have been thrilled with the change, reporting fewer distractions from personal cellphone use. Over time, students in schools with strict bans reported a greater sense of personal well-being."

Guest essay from Dean Ball and Ben Buchanan, former AI advisors for Trump and Biden, respectively, on what they agree is necessary to address AI and national security. Frames it as a 'race' with China.

More than just canceling a conference: “China’s assault on RightsCon is further emblematic of its broader efforts to influence global digital norms-setting” In @techpolicypress.bsky.social www.techpolicy.press/chinas-disru...

RightsCon's cancellation marks a major escalation in transnational repression and is a testament to China’s influence on global digital rights far beyond its borders, writes Article19's Michael Caster. He calls for a true reckoning with China’s influence and meaningful cross-movement coordination.

#China's Disruption of RightsCon is a Wake-Up Call To Counter Its Authoritarian Influence, I write at @techpolicypress.bsky.social www.techpolicy.press/chinas-disru...

New podcast! In this episode, Tech Policy Press fellow Chris Mills Rodrigo speaks with Katie Wells, a senior fellow at the AI Now Institute and the author of two reports on the 'gig-ification' of nursing, to dig into how AI is reshaping the profession from the inside out.

Zambia’s new cyber legislation permits warrantless interception, lacks data safeguards, and broadens “law enforcement officer” to anyone designated by the President, writes Chilombo Mukena. RightsCon’s cancellation underscores the unpredictable context in which these laws operate.

Stories like this are citations in the growing evidence base that the United States is building an authoritarian panopticon from the top down and the bottom up. Local police departments hiring firms like Peregrine amd promising only to use it for major crimes, trafficking....