 |
|
|
|||||
A bipartisan group of lawmakers on Wednesday vowed to keep Chinese artificial intelligence systems out of federal agencies while pledging to ensure the U.S. will prevail against China in the global AI competition. We are in a new Cold War, and AI is the strategic technology at the center, said Rep. John Moolenaar, the Republican chair of the House Select Committee on China, as he opened a hearing on the matter. The future balance of power may very well be determined by who leads in AI. The hearing on Capitol Hill comes about five months after a Chinese technology startup called DeepSeek introduced an AI model that rivaled platforms from OpenAI and Google in performance, but cost only a fraction to build. This raised concerns that China was catching up to the U.S. despite restrictions on chips and other key technologies used to develop AI. The ever-tighter race is now a central part of the U.S.-China rivalry. And so much is at stake that the U.S. must win, witnesses told the congressional panel. The two countries are in a long-term techno-security competition that will determine the shape of the global political order for the coming years, said Thomas Mahnken, president and CEO of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. Jack Clark, cofounder and head of policy at Anthropic, told the committee that AI has built-in values. I know that AI systems are a reflection of the societies they are built from. AI built in democracies will lead to better technology for all of humanity. AI built in authoritarian nations will . . . be inescapably intertwined and imbued with authoritarianism, Clark said. We must take decisive action to ensure America prevails. Earlier this year, Chris Lehane, OpenAIs head of global affairs, told reporters in Paris that the U.S. and China were the only two countries in the world that could build AI at scale. The competition, which he described as one between democratic AI and autocratic AI, is very real and very serious, and the stakes are enormous, he said, for the global rails of AI will be built by one of those two countries. The 2025 AI Index Report by Stanford Universitys Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence center has the U.S. in the lead in producing top AI models. But the report notes China is rapidly closing the performance gap, reaching near parity in 2024 on several major benchmarks. It also shows that China leads in AI publications and patents. At the hearing, Clark urged the lawmakers to maintain and strengthen export controls of advanced chips to China. This competition fundamentally runs on compute, he said. The U.S. must control the flow of powerful chips to China, Clark said, or else you’re giving them the tools they will need to build powerful AI to harm American interests. Mark Beall Jr., president of government affairs at The AI Policy Network, said there are a number of very glaring gaps in the U.S. export controls that have allowed China to obtain controlled chips. Lawmakers earlier this year introduced a bill to track such chips to ensure they would not be diverted to the wrong hands. In another legislative step, Republican and Democratic lawmakers in both the House and the Senate on Wednesday introduced a bill to ban Chinese AI systems in the federal government. The U.S. must draw a hard line: Hostile AI systems have no business operating inside our government, Moolenaar said. The No Adversarial AI Act, as proposed, seeks to identify AI systems developed by foreign adversaries and ban their use in the U.S. government, with exceptions for use in research and counter-terrorism. By Didi Tang, Associated Press
Category:
E-Commerce
Zohran Mamdani, 33, a New York City assemblymember who was practically a political unknown prior to his campaign, is the presumptive winner of the New York mayoral primary. On Tuesday evening, Mamdani led the first-choice vote count with 44% of the vote. Former Governor Andrew Cuomo, trailing at 36%, conceded the race in a major upset. On Wednesday morning, Mamdani spoke to supporters in an emotional speech in which he quoted Nelson Mandela, saying, “It always seems impossible until it’s done.” New Yorkers have a city where they can do more than just struggle, one where those who toil in the night can enjoy the fruits of their labor in the day, where hard work is repaid with a stable life, he continued. The mayor will use their power to reject Donald Trumps fascism, to stop masked ice agents from deporting our mayor, and to govern our city as a model for the Democratic Party, a party where we fight for working people with no apology.” When will all the votes be counted? Due to New York City’s ranked voting system, which allows voters to cast five votes on their ballot, the final tally will take some time. Since none of the candidates received more than 50% of the vote on Tuesday night, ranked choice voting will determine the true winner (though Mamdani is the clear presumptive winner) until a candidate reaches that threshold.According to the Associated Press, ranked-choice tabulations won’t start until July 1, so the city has time to receive mail-in ballots. New Yorkers and other interested parties can stay up-to-date with the latest counts on the New York Times‘ live election result page. Find it here. What to know about Zohran Mamdani Tuesday night’s historic win makes Mandani the first Muslim candidate to ever win the mayoral primary in the state of New York. He did so by running his campaign on issues including making New York City an affordable place for residents, by freezing rent, making childcare free, and making public transportation accessible to everyone. He also wants to increase taxes on big corporations, as well as the wealthiest New Yorkers.Mamdani positioned himself as a candidate who will fight for the people to make their lives better and easiersomething many don’t feel their leaders are all that concerned with at present. He also proved during his campaign that he would not back down in the face of name-calling and propaganda. The young candidate managed to captivate New York voters, a population that’s heavily Jewish, while speaking up for Palestinian rights. In this contentious political climate, that’s not a small task. As the war between Israel and Hamas wages on in Gaza, pro-Palestine speech has been heavily politicized, and even deemed “hate speech” or anti-semetic in some cases. But Mamdani has repeatedly pushed back on the narrative that speaking out against the war is anti-semetic. What has the reaction to Zohran Mamdani’s win been? Mamdani’s presumptive win Tuesday has set off a massive reaction across the country and on social media. There seems to be a strong feeling that the candidate’s win could set off a firestorm of candidates with similar, socialist views being elected elsewhere in the nation.“Congratulations to @zohrankmamdani on an historic victory tonight,” Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who endorsed Mamdani, posted on Instagram. “Its time we acknowledge that not all Democrats are the same. Weve got people, theyve got money.” While those who wanted to see the young candidate take the race are thrilled with the presumed victory, not everyone is so pleased. The historic results have sparked outrage among MAGA supporters. Conservative commentator Laura Loomer posted a series of tweets on X in which she floated the idea that a Muslim mayor could lead to attacks on NYC. “There will be another 9/11 in NYC and @ZohranKMamdani will be to blame,” she wrote.New Yorkers forgot all about the victims of 9/11 killed by Muslims,” Loomer continued. “Now a Muslim Communist will be the mayor of New York City. Get out while you can, Loomer wrote, adding the unfounded view that Mamdani is “literally supported by terrorists.” When is the NYC mayor general election? While Mamdani’s presumed win is a huge victory for Democratic socialists, he still has to win the general election. Mamdani will take on Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa, the lone Republican who entered the race. Sliwa is the founder of The Guardian Angels, a nonprofit known for its volunteer crime-fighting patrols. It’s possible Andrew Cuomo will run again in the general election, too, facing off with Mamdani a second time. Incumbent Mayor Eric Adams and attorney Jim Walden will run as Independents. The general election will take place this November.
Category:
E-Commerce
A federal judge Tuesday ordered the Trump administration to release billions of dollars in funding for the build out of electric vehicle chargers in more than a dozen states.U.S. District Judge Tana Lin in Washington state partially granted a preliminary injunction that sought to free up the money approved under then-President Joe Biden that the Trump administration withheld earlier this year. Sixteen states and the District of Columbia sued over the move, arguing that the administration did not have the authority to block the congressionally approved funds. The program was set to allocate $5 billion over five years to various states, of which an estimated $3.3 billion had already been made available.Lin ordered that funding be released in 14 of the states, including in Arizona, California and New York. But she denied granting the preliminary injunction for D.C., Minnesota and Vermont, saying that they did not provide enough evidence that they would face “irreparable harm” if the money wasn’t immediately freed up.Lin said the Trump administration overstepped its constitutional authority when it froze the funding previously approved by Congress in 2021 as part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.“When the Executive Branch treads upon the will of the Legislative Branch, and when an administrative agency acts contrary to law, it is the Court’s responsibility to remediate the situation and restore the balance of power,” she wrote.The order will go into effect July 2 unless the Trump administration appeals. The Federal Highway Administration did not immediately respond to an email request for comment on the decision.The Trump administration in February directed states to stop spending money for electric vehicle charging under the program. The move was part of a broader push by the Republican president to roll back environmental policies advanced by his Democratic predecessor.States suing the Trump administration said the decision to freeze funding halted projects midstream, requiring immediate court intervention.California Attorney General Rob Bonta, a Democrat, said after the ruling that the Trump administration could not “dismiss programs illegally.”“We are pleased with today’s order blocking the Administration’s unconstitutional attempt to do so, and California looks forward to continuing to vigorously defend itself from this executive branch overreach,” he said in a statement.The Trump administration argued that it was working on new guidance for the program and was only pausing future funding in the meantime.The program was meant to assuage concerns about electric vehicles and build infrastructure along highway corridors first, then address gaps elsewhere once the state highway obligations were met.Some states with projects running under the program have already been reimbursed by the Biden-era federal funds. Others are still contracting for their sites. Still more had halted their plans by the time the Trump administration ordered states to stop their spending. Regardless, getting the chargers installed and operating has been a slow process with contracting challenges, permitting delays and complex electrical upgrades.It was expected that states would fight against the federal government’s efforts to slow the nation’s electric vehicle charger build out. New York, for example, which is part of the lawsuit, has been awarded over $175 million in federal funds from the program, and state officials say $120 million is currently being withheld by the Trump administration. Sudhin Thanawala and Sophie Austin, Associated Press
Category:
E-Commerce
All news |
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||