Key takeaways from a new survey by Pew Research: 1. Americans are much more concerned than excited about the increased use of AI in daily life, with a majority saying they want more control over how AI is used in their lives.
2. Far larger shares say AI will erode than improve people's ability to think creatively and form meaningful relationships.
3. At the same time, a majority is open to letting AI assist them with day-to-day tasks and activities.
4. Most Americans don't support AI playing a role in personal matters such as religion or matchmaking. They're more open to AI for heavy data analysis, such as for weather forecasting and developing new medicines.
5. Americans feel strongly that it's important to be able to tell if pictures, videos or text were made by AI or by humans. Yet many don't trust their own ability to spot AI-generated content.

Anthropic has declined requests from federal law enforcement contractors to use its Claude AI models for surveillance activities, deepening tensions with the Trump administration, Semafor reported Wednesday, citing two senior officials. The company's usage policies prohibit domestic surveillance, limiting how agencies including the FBI, Secret Service, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement can deploy its technology. While Anthropic maintains a $1 contract with federal agencies through AWS GovCloud and works with the Department of Defense on non-weapons applications, administration officials said the restrictions amount to making moral judgments about law enforcement operations.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: As Jonathan Roll neared completion of a master's degree in science and technology policy at Arizona State University three years ago, he did some research into recent developments by China's ascendant space program. He came away impressed by the country's growing ambitions. Now a full-time research analyst at the university, Roll was recently asked to take a deeper dive into Chinese space plans. "I thought I had a pretty good read on this when I was finishing grad school," Roll told Ars. "That almost everything needed to be updated, or had changed three years later, was pretty scary. On all these fronts, they've made pretty significant progress. They are taking all of the cues from our Western system about what's really galvanized innovation, and they are off to the races with it."

Roll is the co-author of a new report, titled "Redshift," on the acceleration of China's commercial and civil space activities and the threat these pose to similar efforts in the United States. Published on Tuesday, the report was sponsored by the US-based Commercial Space Federation, which advocates for the country's commercial space industry. It is a sobering read and comes as China not only projects to land humans on the lunar surface before the US can return, but also is advancing across several spaceflight fronts to challenge America. "The trend line is unmistakable," the report states. "China is not only racing to catch up -- it is setting pace, deregulating, and, at times, redefining what leadership looks like on and above Earth. This new space race will not be won with a single breakthrough or headline achievement, but with sustained commitment, clear-eyed vigilance, and a willingness to adapt over decades." "The key takeaway here is that there is an acceleration," said Dave Cavossa, president of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation. "The United States is still ahead today in a lot of areas in space. But the Chinese are advancing very quickly and poised to overtake us in the next five to 10 years if we don't do something."

"There's other things along the lines of budget battles," Cavossa said. "We don't want to see the US government scaling back its reliance on commercial satellite communications. We don't want to see them scaling back commercial remote sensing data buys, which is what they've been doing, or at least threatening to do. We want to make sure that there's a seamless transition from the ISS to commercial LEO destinations, and then a transition away from old programs of record to commercial transportation alternatives. That's what the US government can do and Congress can do here in the next couple of years to make sure that we stay ahead."

The FTC is investigating whether Ticketmaster is doing enough to prevent bots from illegally reselling tickets on its platform, with a decision on the matter coming within weeks, according to Bloomberg (paywalled). Reuters reports: The 2016 law prohibits the use of bots and other methods to bypass ticket purchase limits set by online sellers. As part of the probe, FTC investigators are assessing whether Ticketmaster has a financial incentive to allow resellers to circumvent its ticket limit rules, according to the report. A settlement is also possible, Bloomberg reported. If the FTC pursues a case and Live Nation loses, the company could face billions of dollars in penalties, as the law permits fines of up to $53,000 per violation.

404 Media: A data broker owned by the country's major airlines, including American Airlines, United and Delta, is selling access to five billion plane ticketing records to the government for warrantless searching and monitoring of peoples' movements, including by the FBI, Secret Service, ICE, and many other agencies, according to a new contract and other records reviewed by 404 Media.

The contract provides new insight into the scale of the sale of passengers' data by the Airlines Reporting Corporation (ARC), the airlines-owned data broker. The contract shows ARC's data includes information related to more than 270 carriers and is sourced through more than 12,800 travel agencies. ARC has previously told the government to not reveal to the public where this passenger data came from, which includes peoples' names, full flight itineraries, and financial details.

"Americans' privacy rights shouldn't depend on whether they bought their tickets directly from the airline or via a travel agency. ARC's sale of data to U.S. government agencies is yet another example of why Congress needs to close the data broker loophole by passing my bipartisan bill, the Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act," Senator Ron Wyden told 404 Media in a statement.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced that the U.S. and China have reached a tentative "framework" agreement on TikTok's U.S. operations, with Presidents Trump and Xi set to finalize details Friday. "It's between two private parties, but the commercial terms have been agreed upon," he said. The update comes two days before TikTok parent company ByteDance faces a Sept. 17 deadline to divest the platform's U.S. business or potentially be shut down in the country. The deadline may need to be pushed back yet again to get the deal signed. CNBC reports: Both President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping will meet Friday to discuss the terms. Trump also said in a Truth Social post Monday that a deal was reached "on a 'certain' company that young people in our Country very much wanted to save."

Bessent indicated the framework could pivot the platform to U.S.-controlled ownership. China's lead trade negotiator, Li Chenggang, confirmed the framework deal was in place and said the U.S. should not continue to suppress Chinese companies, according to Reuters.

President Donald Trump called Monday for companies to report earnings every six months instead of quarterly. Trump posted on social media that semi-annual reporting would save money and let managers focus on running companies. The SEC mandated quarterly reports in 1970. Trump made similar comments in 2018 that prompted SEC public comment but no regulatory changes.

Critics argue quarterly reporting increases costs and encourages short-term thinking. Supporters say frequent disclosures maintain investor trust and reduce market manipulation risks.

Further reading: The Renewed Bid To End Quarterly Earnings Reports.

Toxic fumes from jet engines are leaking into aircraft cabins at an accelerating rate, reaching 108 incidents per million departures in 2024 compared to 12 in 2014, a Wall Street Journal investigation found. The fumes contain neurotoxins and carbon monoxide that have caused brain injuries in crew members. JetBlue flight attendant Florence Chesson suffered permanent neurological damage after inhaling engine oil vapors in 2018, diagnosed by neurologists as equivalent to an NFL linebacker's concussion.

The surge is driven by Airbus A320 aircraft, particularly the A320neo model introduced in 2016. WSJ reports Airbus loosened maintenance requirements under airline pressure despite knowing the changes would increase incidents. The FAA received over 700 fume event reports from major U.S. airlines in 2024. Most commercial jets except Boeing's 787 use a "bleed air" system that pulls cabin air through engines.

AI is transforming corporate America, yet the boom remains understated in government growth statistics, according to Goldman Sachs. From a report: Analysts at Goldman pointed to the scale of the boom in a Saturday note: "Revenue at US companies providing AI infrastructure has risen by $400 billion since 2022, which at first glance seems to suggest that AI has been a meaningful driver of economic growth recently." But official numbers tell a different story.

AI technology has lifted real US economic activity by about $160 billion since 2022, or 0.7% of GDP, the analysts calculated. Yet only around $45 billion, or 0.2% of GDP, of AI-spurred growth has been recorded in official statistics. That leaves roughly $115 billion uncounted, according to the analysts. That gap highlights the difference between what companies report and what the government measures due to the Commerce Department's Bureau of Economic Analysis method for calculating growth.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Rainmaker Technology's bid to deploy cloud-seeding flares on small drones is being met by resistance from the airline pilots union, which has urged the Federal Aviation Administration to consider denying the startup's request unless it meets stricter safety guidelines. The FAA's decision will signal how the regulator views weather modification by unmanned aerial systems going forward. Rainmaker's bet on small drones hangs in the balance.

The Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) told the FAA that Rainmaker's petition "fails to demonstrate an equivalent level of safety" and poses "an extreme safety risk." Rainmaker is seeking an exemption from rules that bar small drones from carrying hazardous materials. The startup filed in July, and the FAA has yet to rule. Instead, it issued a follow-up request for information, pressing for specifics on operations and safety. In its filing, Rainmaker proposed using two flare types, one "burn-in-place" and the other ejectable, on its Elijah quadcopter, to disperse particles that stimulate precipitation. Elijah has a maximum altitude of 15,000 feet MSL (measured from sea level), which sits inside controlled airspace where commercial airliners routinely fly. Drones need permission from Air Traffic Control to fly inside this bubble. Rainmaker's petition says it will operate in Class G (uncontrolled) airspace unless otherwise authorized. ALPA notes the filing doesn't clearly state where flights would occur or what altitudes would be used. Rainmaker and ALPA did not reply to TechCrunch's requests for comment.

The union also objects to the flares themselves, citing concerns about foreign object debris and fire safety. ALPA points out that the petition does not include trajectory modeling of the ejectable casings or analysis on the environmental impacts of chemical agents. However, Rainmaker says the flights will occur over rural areas and over properties owned by private landlords "with whom Rainmaker has developed close working relationships." [...] What happens next hinges on whether the FAA thinks those mitigations are sufficient. However it's decided, the agency's response will likely set the tone for novel cloud-seeding approaches.

US EV sales hit a record 146,332 in August, grabbing nearly 10% of all new car sales, according to Kelley Blue Book. That's the highest yet and up from 9.1% in July. Electrek reports: With the federal EV tax credit set to expire on September 30, analysts say Q3 2025 is shaping up to be the strongest quarter for EV sales in US history. The current record holder is Q4 2024, when 365,824 EVs were sold.

Prices ticked higher, too. The average transaction price (ATP) for an EV in August was $57,245, 3.1% more than July's revised lower ATP of $55,562. Year-over-year, though, EV prices were basically flat, down just 0.1%. The wave of EV sales also helped push up the overall market's ATP.

Incentives, while not as high as July's record, remained hefty. EV buyers received discounts averaging over $9,000 in August, equal to 16% of ATP. That's more than double the incentive rate in the overall auto market and up from 13.6% a year ago. A separate report from Rho Motion found that global EV sales surged 25% in 2025, led by strong growth in Europe and China. "That amounts to 12.5 million EVs, although the data combines both battery EVs and plug-in hybrid EVs for the total," reports Ars Technica.

As for North America? "EV sales are still growing but barely -- up just 6 percent between January and August 2025 compared to the same time period in 2024."

California's legislature this week approved a bill to let renters opt out of bulk-billing arrangements that force them to pay for Internet service from a specific provider. ArsTechnica: The bill says that by January 1, a landlord must "allow the tenant to opt out of paying for any subscription from a third-party Internet service provider, such as through a bulk-billing arrangement, to provide service for wired Internet, cellular, or satellite service that is offered in connection with the tenancy." If a landlord fails to do so, the tenant "may deduct the cost of the subscription to the third-party Internet service provider from the rent," and the landlord would be prohibited from retaliating.

The bill passed the state Senate in a 30-7 vote on Wednesday but needs Gov. Gavin Newsom's signature to become law. It was approved by the state Assembly in a 75-0 vote in April. Assemblymember Rhodesia Ransom, a Democratic lawmaker who authored the bill, told Ars today that lobby groups for Internet providers and real estate companies have been "working really hard" to defeat it. But she expects Newsom will approve. "I strongly believe that the governor is going to look at what this bill provides as far as protections for tenants and sign it into law," Ransom said in a phone interview.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Wired: The United States has emerged as the largest investor in commercial spyware -- a global industry that has enabled the covert surveillance of journalists, human rights defenders, politicians, diplomats, and others, posing grave threats to human rights and national security. In 2024, 20 new US-based spyware investors were identified, bringing the total number of American backers of this technology to 31. This growth has largely outpaced other major investing countries such as Israel, Italy, and the United Kingdom, according to a new report published today by the Atlantic Council.

The study surveyed 561 entities across 46 countries between 1992 and 2024, identifying 34 new investors. This brings the total to 128, up from 94 in the dataset published last year. The number of identified investors in the EU Single Market, plus Switzerland, stands at 31, with Italy -- a key spyware hub -- accounting for the largest share at 12. Investors based in Israel number 26. US-based investors include major hedge funds D.E. Shaw & Co. and Millennium Management, prominent trading firm Jane Street, and mainstream financial-services company Ameriprise Financial -- all of which, according to the Atlantic Council, have channeled funds to Israeli lawful-interception software provider Cognyte, a company allegedly linked to human rights abuses in Azerbaijan and Indonesia, among others. [...]

Apart from focusing on investment, the Atlantic Council notes that the global spyware market is "growing and evolving," with its dataset expanded to include four new vendors, seven new resellers or brokers, 10 new suppliers, and 55 new individuals linked to the industry. Newly identified vendors include Israel's Bindecy and Italy's SIO. [...] The study reveals the addition of three new countries linked to spyware activity -- Japan, Malaysia, and Panama. Japan in particular is a signatory to international efforts to curb spyware abuse, including the Joint Statement on Efforts to Counter the Proliferation and Misuse of Commercial Spyware and the Pall Mall Process Code of Practice for States. The Atlantic Council's Jen Roberts, who also worked on the report, urged expanding Executive Order 14105 to also include spyware. He also emphasized preserving Executive Order 14093, noting that U.S. purchasing power is a key lever in shaping and constraining the global spyware market. "US purchasing power is a significant tool in shaping and constraining the global market for spyware," said Roberts.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from NBC News: Global warming in the United States is amping up the country's sweet tooth, a new study found. When the temperature rises, Americans -- especially those with less money and education -- drink lots more sugary beverages and a bit more frozen desserts. That amounts to more than 100 million pounds of added sugar (358 million kilograms) consumed in the nation a year, compared to 15 years earlier, according to a team of researchers in the U.S. and United Kingdom.

When temperatures go between 54 and 86 degrees (12 and 30 degrees Celsius), the amount of sugar the average American consumes goes up by about 0.4 grams per degree Fahrenheit (0.7 grams per degree Celsius) per day, based on researchers tracking of weather conditions and consumers' purchases. At 54 degrees, the amount of added sugar for the average American is a little more than 2 grams. At 86 degrees, it's more than 15 grams. Beyond that, appetites lessen and added sugar falls off, according to the study in Monday's Nature Climate Change.

"Climate change is shaping what you eat and how you eat and that might have a bad effect on your health," said study co-author Duo Chan, a climate scientist at the University of Southampton. "People tend to take in more sweetened beverages as the temperature is getting higher and higher," Chan said. "Obviously under a warming climate that would cause you to drink more or take in more sugar. And that is going to be a severe problem when it comes to health." The findings have been published in the journal Nature Climate Change.

U.S. officials issued an advisory warning that foreign-made solar-powered highway infrastructure may contain hidden radios embedded in inverters and batteries. Reuters reports: The advisory, disseminated late last month by the U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Highway Administration, comes amid escalating government action over the presence of Chinese technology in America's transportation infrastructure. The four-page security note, a copy of which was reviewed by Reuters, said that undocumented cellular radios had been discovered "in certain foreign-manufactured power inverters and BMS," referring to battery management systems.

The note, which has not previously been reported, did not specify where the products containing undocumented equipment had been imported from, but many inverters are made in China. There is increasing concern from U.S. officials that the devices, along with the electronic systems that manage rechargeable batteries, could be seeded with rogue communications components that would allow them to be remotely tampered with on Beijing's orders. [...]

The August 20 advisory said the devices were used to power a range of U.S. highway infrastructure, including signs, traffic cameras, weather stations, solar-powered visitor areas and warehouses, and electric vehicle chargers. The risks it cited included simultaneous outages and surreptitious theft of data. The alert suggested that relevant authorities inventory inverters across the U.S. highway system, scan devices with spectrum analysis technology to detect any unexpected communications, disable or remove any undocumented radios, and make sure their networks were properly segmented.

US Senator Ron Wyden says glaring cybersecurity flaws by Microsoft enabled a ransomware attack on a US hospital system and has called on the Federal Trade Commission to investigate. Bloomberg: In a letter sent Wednesday to FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson, the Oregon Democrat accused Microsoft of "gross cybersecurity negligence," which he said had resulted in ransomware attacks against US critical infrastructure.

The senator cited the case of the 2024 breach at Ascension, one of the nation's largest nonprofit health systems. The intrusion shut down computers at many of Ascension's hospitals, leading to suspended surgeries and the theft of sensitive data on more than 5 million patients. Wyden said an investigation by his office found that the Ascension hack began after a contractor carried out a search using Microsoft's Bing search engine and was served a malicious link, which led to the contractor inadvertently downloading malware. That allowed hackers access to Ascension's computer networks.

According to Wyden, the attackers then gained access to privileged accounts by exploiting an insecure encryption technology called RC4, which is supported by default on Windows computers. The hacking method is called Kerberoasting, which the company described as a type of cyberattack in which intruders aim to gather passwords by targeting an authentication protocol called Kerberos.

The Federal Aviation Administration has issued a safety alert [PDF], warning airlines about lithium battery fire risks in passenger compartments after recording 50 incidents involving smoke, fire, or extreme heat from the devices this year.

The FAA recommended airlines implement risk mitigation strategies including clear passenger messaging and updated firefighting procedures and training.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from 404 Media: Employees at Robert F Kennedy Jr.'s Department of Health and Human Services received an email Tuesday morning with the subject line "AI Deployment," which told them that ChatGPT would be rolled out for all employees at the agency. The deployment is being overseen by Clark Minor, a former Palantir employee who's now Chief Information Officer at HHS. "Artificial intelligence is beginning to improve health care, business, and government," the email, sent by deputy secretary Jim O'Neill and seen by 404 Media, begins. "Our department is committed to supporting and encouraging this transformation. In many offices around the world, the growing administrative burden of extensive emails and meetings can distract even highly motivated people from getting things done. We should all be vigilant against barriers that could slow our progress toward making America healthy again."

"I'm excited to move us forward by making ChatGPT available to everyone in the Department effective immediately," it adds. "Some operating divisions, such as FDA and ACF [Administration for Children and Families], have already benefitted from specific deployments of large language models to enhance their work, and now the rest of us can join them. This tool can help us promote rigorous science, radical transparency, and robust good health. As Secretary Kennedy said, 'The AI revolution has arrived.'" [...] The email says that the rollout was being led by Minor, who worked at the surveillance company Palantir from 2013 through 2024. It states Minor has "taken precautions to ensure that your work with AI is carried out in a high-security environment," and that "you can input most internal data, including procurement sensitive data and routine non-sensitive personally identifiable information, with confidence."

It then goes on to say that "ChatGPT is currently not approved for disclosure of sensitive personally identifiable information (such as SSNs and bank account numbers), classified information, export-controlled data, or confidential commercial information subject to the Trade Secrets Act." The email does not distinguish what "non-sensitive personally identifiable information" is. HHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment from 404 Media. [...] The agency has also said it plans to roll out AI through HHS's Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services that will determine whether patients are eligible to receive certain treatments. These types of systems have been shown to be biased when they've been tried, and result in fewer patients getting the care they need.

USA Today has an update on the curtailing of "mirror life" research: Kate Adamala had been working on something dangerous. At her synthetic biology lab, Adamala had been taking preliminary steps toward creating a living cell from scratch with one key twist: All the organism's building blocks would be flipped. Changing these molecules would create an unnatural mirror image of a cell, as different as your right hand from your left. The endeavor was not only a fascinating research challenge, but it also could be used to improve biotechnology and medicine. As Adamala and her colleagues talked with biosecurity experts about the project, however, grave concerns began brewing. "They started to ask questions like, 'Have you considered what happens if that cell gets released or what would happen if it infected a human?'" said Adamala, an associate professor at the University of Minnesota. They hadn't.

So researchers brought together dozens of experts in a variety of disciplines from around the globe, including two Nobel laureates, who worked for months to determine the risks of creating "mirror life" and the chances those dangers could be mitigated. Ultimately, they concluded, mirror cells could inflict "unprecedented and irreversible harm" on our world. "We cannot rule out a scenario in which a mirror bacterium acts as an invasive species across many ecosystems, causing pervasive lethal infections in a substantial fraction of plant and animal species, including humans," the scientists wrote in a paper published in the journal Science in December alongside a 299-page technical report...

[Report co-author Vaughn Cooper, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh who studies how bacteria adapt to new environments] said it's not yet possible to build a cell from scratch, mirror or otherwise, but researchers have begun the process by synthesizing mirror proteins and enzymes. He and his colleagues estimated that given enough resources and manpower, scientists could create a complete mirror bacteria within a decade. But for now, the world is probably safe from mirror cells. Adamala said virtually everyone in the small scientific community that was interested in developing such cells has agreed not to as a result of the findings.

The paper prompted nearly 100 scientists and ethicists from around the world to gather in Paris in June to further discuss the risks of creating mirror organisms. Many felt self-regulation is not enough, according to the institution that hosted the event, and researchers are gearing up to meet again in Manchester, England, and Singapore to discuss next steps.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: President Donald Trump said on Thursday his administration would impose tariffs on semiconductor imports from companies not shifting production to the U.S., speaking ahead of a dinner with major technology company CEOs. "Yeah, I have discussed it with the people here. Chips and semiconductors -- we will be putting tariffs on companies that aren't coming in. We will be putting a tariff very shortly," Trump said without giving an exact time or rate.

"We will be putting a very substantial tariff, not that high, but fairly substantial tariff with the understanding that if they come into the country, if they are coming in, building, planning to come in, there will not be a tariff," Trump told reporters. "If they are not coming in, there is a tariff," Trump said in his comments on semiconductors. "Like, I would say (Apple CEO) Tim Cook would be in pretty good shape," he added, as Cook sat across the table. Further reading: Trump Basks in Tech Leaders' Spending Vows at White House Dinner