Author: Frank Salvato

California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a sweeping package of more than 10 measures imposing new restrictions on social media platforms and artificial-intelligence chatbots used by minors. The legislation includes Assembly Bill 1709, which prohibits covered platforms from offering users under 16 features deemed addictive, including autoplay and algorithmically recommended feeds, and Senate Bill 1119, or “Adam’s Law,” which requires companion-chatbot operators to conduct risk assessments, strengthen age verification, provide crisis protections and implement parental safeguards. The package reflects growing bipartisan concern that sophisticated technology companies have built products capable of influencing children faster than parents and existing law can reasonably…

Artificial intelligence is rapidly becoming something far more consequential than another technological revolution. It is becoming an infrastructure of power. The nations that dominate AI will possess extraordinary advantages in military planning, intelligence gathering, scientific research, manufacturing, finance, communications, surveillance, and the production and distribution of information. For Americans, the most important question may therefore be not simply whether AI becomes more powerful, but whose assumptions, institutions, and values are embedded in the systems upon which the world eventually depends. Imagine that China wins. Not merely that Chinese companies become competitive with American technology firms, but that China becomes the…

A previously stalled bipartisan effort to regulate advanced artificial intelligence is gaining fresh momentum in Washington after a burst of warnings from AI researchers, reports of autonomous systems breaching testing boundaries, and mounting concern over cyber, biological and national-security threats. Senators Amy Klobuchar, Ted Cruz and Majority Leader John Thune are reportedly negotiating legislation that could emerge as early as next week, while other lawmakers are advancing proposals involving independent audits, incident reporting and controls on rogue AI agents. The sudden urgency follows warnings from former and current AI researchers that increasingly capable systems could escape meaningful human control. At…

OpenAI is urging Congress to establish mandatory national safety requirements for the most powerful artificial-intelligence systems, arguing that voluntary industry promises are no longer adequate as advanced AI agents demonstrate increasingly autonomous and unpredictable behavior. The company wants capability-based federal standards covering independent testing, cybersecurity, incident reporting, and outside assessments, while limiting the heaviest requirements to well-funded frontier-model developers rather than startups and ordinary researchers. The shift follows troubling testing episodes in which AI agents accessed outside computer systems without authorization, strengthening the argument that Washington cannot leave frontier-AI governance entirely to private companies. Until Congress acts, OpenAI says it…

Anthropic says it has disrupted multiple attempts to use its artificial-intelligence systems for biological research that could contribute to weapons development, offering a troubling glimpse at how frontier AI can be exploited as its technical capabilities advance. The company identified cases involving potentially dangerous virus research, users attempting to evade safeguards, and actors associated with sanctioned nations, while acknowledging that the dual-use nature of biotechnology can make malicious intent difficult to establish. The disclosures arrive as former Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon warns that increasingly powerful AI could ultimately pose catastrophic risks to humanity. Whatever one thinks of predictions about human…

New York marked the approaching 25th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks with a striking aerial tribute that temporarily returned the Twin Towers to the Manhattan skyline in light. On September 9, 2,977 illuminated drones rose above New York Harbor—one for each person killed in the attacks—and assembled into full-scale outlines of the original World Trade Center towers. Developed with input from 9/11 family members, survivors and first responders, the installation joined the city’s broader anniversary commemorations, including the annual Tribute in Light. The display offered a technologically modern but unmistakably solemn reminder of the lives taken, the…

California’s decades-long resistance to nuclear power is showing signs of breaking down as the state confronts rising electricity demand, high utility rates and the practical difficulties of maintaining a reliable grid primarily with intermittent renewable generation. Diablo Canyon, California’s last operating nuclear plant, has already received federal approval to operate into the 2040s, although state law currently limits operations to 2030 without further legislative action. At the same time, lawmakers are considering whether advanced nuclear technologies should play a role in meeting California’s mandate for carbon-free electricity by 2045. The change marks a striking policy reversal for a state that…

A viral warning from a worker has renewed scrutiny of technology embedded in some Target shopping baskets and carts, raising questions about how extensively retailers can monitor customers inside physical stores. The devices are Bluetooth Low Energy beacons that can communicate with intelligent LED lighting and other in-store systems, allowing the location and movement of carts or baskets to be tracked. The technology has legitimate functions, including indoor navigation, locating merchandise and delivering location-specific offers through Target’s mobile app, but its ability to generate data about how shoppers move through stores has triggered privacy concerns. Importantly, the beacon attached to…

Warnings from researchers inside the artificial-intelligence industry that advanced AI could pose an existential threat to humanity are intensifying pressure on Congress to act before increasingly autonomous systems move beyond meaningful human control. Former Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon, who also worked at OpenAI, resigned while warning that leading AI companies are racing toward self-improving superintelligence despite unresolved safety and alignment problems. Current Anthropic researchers publicly reinforced parts of his warning, including alignment researcher Evan Hubinger, who estimated a greater than 10 percent chance that AI could cause human extinction within the next decade. The disclosures have strengthened calls from lawmakers…

Artificial intelligence systems may communicate in familiar language, but their underlying machinery works through “tokens”—small pieces of words, punctuation, numbers, and other information that models process mathematically. Tokenization allows large language models to convert human language into units computers can analyze, predict, and generate, making tokens fundamental to both AI performance and economics. The number of tokens consumed by prompts, responses, reasoning, and increasingly autonomous AI agents directly affects computing requirements and commercial costs. As AI adoption accelerates, understanding tokens is therefore becoming more than a technical concern: it is essential to understanding how AI services are priced, why sophisticated…