 |
|
|
|||||
The Republican Partys 800-page One Big Beautiful Bill Act is now being debated in the Senate, with a final up-or-down vote expected as soon as Monday night. On the issue of artificial intelligence, much of the attention has focused on the bills proposed moratorium on state-level laws regulating the development or application of AI models and apps. Notably, Senate negotiations reduced the proposed moratorium from 10 years to five, and added exceptions for state rules that protect kids and copyrights, so long as the rules do not unduly or disproportionately burden AI systems and models. However, state preemption is only one of several major AI-related proposals in the bill. It appropriates billions of dollars for new AI initiatives across multiple federal agencies, including the departments of Defense, Homeland Security, Commerce, and Energy. Homeland Security The bill allocates $6.1 billion for infrastructure and systems used in border surveillance. A portion of the funding will go toward acquiring new and upgraded surveillance systems that use artificial intelligence, machine learning, or computer vision to detect, identify, classify, and track items of interest. It also directs DHS to develop new nonintrusive inspection equipment, potentially using AI, to detect illicit narcotics crossing the border. Defense For fiscal year 2025, the bill provides $450 million to develop AI and autonomous robotics systems for naval shipbuilding. It allocates $145 million for AI in aerial and naval attack drones and systems. An additional $250 million is proposed to expand AI projects within U.S. Cyber Command, and $115 million is set aside to develop AI systems that help protect nuclear facilities from cyberattacks. Another $200 million is included to improve the speed, efficiency, and cybersecurity of the systems that the Pentagon uses to audit its financial statements. Commerce The bill amends existing law to include AI systems and automated decision systems as eligible projects under the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program. It also adds $500 million in funding to the program for fiscal year 2025. In addition, the bill allocates $25 million to the Commerce Department for constructing, acquiring, and deploying AI infrastructure required to run AI models and systems. The bill states that any state not complying with the five-year moratorium on AI regulation will be ineligible for these funds. Public interest and tech advocacy groups have strongly criticized the provision, arguing it effectively forces states to choose between essential broadband funding and their ability to oversee AI development responsibly. Congress should abandon this attempt to stifle the efforts of state and local officials who are grappling with the implications of this rapidly developing technology, and should stop abdicating its own responsibility to protect the American people from the real harms that these systems have been shown to cause, Center for Democracy and Technology CEO Alexandra Reeve Givens said in a statement Monday. Energy The bill provides $150 million to the Energy Department to develop and share data and AI models. It instructs the agency to work with national and commercial labs to curate Department of Energy data for use in new AI models. The government believes this energy usage data can support the private sector in developing next generation microelectronics that consume less power. The Energy Department will also share its AI models with private-sector researchers to accelerate innovation in discovery science and engineering for new energy technologies.
Category:
E-Commerce
Colombian gangs are using social media to reach and recruit children, the United Nations has warned. Gangs and rebel groups are enticing children to enlist by posting videos on platforms like TikTok and Facebook that showcase the perks of the lifestyle. Some clips promise money, mobile phones, and, in some cases, cosmetic surgery, according to Scott Campbell, Colombias representative for the U.N. high commissioner for human rights. Its horrific, toxic, and ugly. Illegal groups are using social media to lure girls and boys into their ranks, which is increasing violence across the country and strengthening narco trafficking, Campbell told The Guardian. Other social media posts featured parties in clubs, designer clothes, and heavy weapons, added Elizabeth Dickinson, an analyst at the International Crisis Group. Although the recruitment of children into gangs is not new, the expansive reach of social media is intensifying the issue. In the first quarter of 2025, the U.N. Human Rights Council reported 118 allegations of recruitment or use of children, verifying 51 of them. The International Crisis Group recently warned that the rate of child recruitment has reached its highest level in more than a decade. Experts have called for greater investment in both automated tools and human moderators to remove these videos from social media and protect children targeted online, especially those from marginalized communities. We ban dangerous organizations tied to terrorism and criminal organizations while supporting law enforcement efforts globally to combat them, including in their efforts to recruit children, a Meta spokesperson told Fast Company. This is an adversarial space, which is why we also collaborate with other companies to share information and take action against these evolving threats across the internet. TikTok has also been working to identify and remove content and accounts that violate its community guidelines on this issue. The platform says it is collaborating closely with authorities and local entities, including the National Police of Colombia, National Army of Colombia, and CIPRUNNA (a group dedicated to preventing the recruitment and use of children and adolescents by illegal armed groups and organized criminal groups). The U.N. has described the situation as a matter of grave concern. Experts warn that more action is still needed. Campbell told The Guardian: If children were being recruited into illegal groups in London or Silicon Valley, social media companies would be putting huge resources into this.
Category:
E-Commerce
From the outset, President Trumps One Big Beautiful Bill Act was always going to be bad for renewables (and U.S. energy consumers), because it rolled back clean energy tax credits that have spurred billions of dollars of investments into technology like wind, solar, batteries, and electric vehicles. But recent changes to the bills text go even further, more aggressively phasing out the current clean energy tax incentives, and also adding a new tax on solar and wind projects. These changes will effectively kill many clean energy projects, cut millions of jobs, and raise the average American’s electricity bills in every state, experts say. The Senate reconciliation bill is now more than 900 pages long. Tucked into that lengthy bill were changes released the night of June 27 that would impose a new tax on solar and wind projects. That tax would essentially be a penalty on these projects tied to the amount of materials they get from China, or other prohibited foreign entities. That means solar and wind products would need to drastically change their supply chainsa reshoring process made more difficult without the tax incentives from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) of 2022. The bill terminates clean energy production and manufacturing tax credits for projects after 2027. It would also eliminate the EV tax credits by the end of September (under the IRA, these credits were set to start phasing out at the end of 2032), and the residential solar credits after this year (originally, in the IRA, these ended in 2034). The new language effectively takes both wind and solar electric supply off the table, at a time when there is $300 billion of investments underway, and this generation is among the only source of electricity that will help to reduce costs and keep the lights on through the early 2030s, the American Council on Renewable Energy said in a statement. Wind and solar are the fastestand cheapestnew sources of energy to build, which is crucial, as energy demand is expected to surge, in part because of the increase of data centers and energy-hungry AI systems. Taking these off the table, the ACORE statement continued, not only increases costs and ensures supply shortages, but it also ensures thousands of layoffs and factory closures. The Senate reconciliation bill would now make the grid less reliable by cutting back 50% of the new capacity that was expected to be added to it within the next decade, according to the nonprofit Evergreen Action, and also stall the American-made EV industry. Sean McGarvey, president of North America’s Building Trades Unions, said in a statement that if the bill now passes with these changes, it stands to be the biggest job-killing bill in the history of this country. Simply put, it is the equivalent of terminating more than 1,000 Keystone XL pipeline projects. The bill threatens 1.7 million construction jobs and more than 3 billion work hours, for a total of $148 billion lost in wages and benefits. By curtailing jobs and clean energy investment, the Senate bill would also give yet another lifeline and competitive advantage to China in the race for global energy dominance, McGarvey added. Multiple Democratic lawmakers spoke out about the changes as well. Hawaii Sen. Brian Schatz wrote on X, in all capital letters: WE ARE GOING TO HAVE ELECTRICITY SHORTAGES BECAUSE THIS BILL KILLS SOLAR. New Mexico Sen. Martin Heinrich wrote: Its hard to believe, but the tax language in the Senate budget bill is actually worse than the original House language. A retroactive tax on energy projects in the pipeline. Brace for higher electricity bills. Elon Musk is criticizing the bill again, writing on X that a massive strategic error is being made right now to damage solar/battery that will leave America extremely vulnerable in the future. Voting on the bill in the Senate begins on June 30. Trump aims to have the bill passed by July 4.
Category:
E-Commerce
All news |
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||