Silicon Valley’s close alignment with Donald Trump and his pro-AI allies has become a political liability after Democrats won both chambers of Congress in the midterm elections. The piece argues that voters’ concern about unchecked AI development, data-centre expansion and the influence of wealthy tech donors helped drive the backlash. Republicans received more than $600mn from tech donors, while the Trump administration opposed state AI-safety measures and dismissed local protests. Republican strategists and Maga activists now urge the party to distance itself from figures including Elon Musk, Nvidia chief Jensen Huang and Trump adviser David Sacks, and to respond quickly to voters’ demands for regulation.
Democrats plan to use their congressional majority to investigate tech executives and companies doing business with the federal government, compel testimony and pursue restrictions on AI; some want a pause on advanced development. In Texas, Democrats’ victories threaten Musk’s plans for major computing and chip facilities, with the governor-elect promising a moratorium on new data centres. Tech companies have begun courting Democrats, hiring lobbyists, reconsidering political donations and offering communities benefits such as school funding and infrastructure investment. But activists warn that rebranding data centres or endorsing regulation will not erase suspicion, and Democrats face pressure not to accept industry money. Companies, meanwhile, expect political fortunes to shift again and intend to maintain ties across party lines.
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Richard Sutton argues that brute-force computation alone cannot produce intelligence and that AI needs clever new methods. He says the science of AI is far from finished. (twitter.com)
Anthropic is accused of charging Russian Claude users before identity checks, then cutting off access after verification and retaining biometric data. Critics say account bans can affect linked GitHub projects and Russian citizens living abroad, and accuse the company of failing to answer public questions. (twitter.com)
LLM coding agents boost workplace productivity but can prevent developers from learning through hands-on problem-solving and weaken their technical skills. Developers should preserve their expertise by building projects manually, studying fundamentals, and practicing without AI tools in their own time. (ducktape.blot.im)
A fabricated Newtype interview led The Diplomat to retract its article about a Korean startup’s AI war test in Ukraine. The retraction followed a diplomatic dispute. (thediplomat.com)
Microsoft Research’s AI Frontiers group brought together about 50 researchers to develop agent systems and foundational AI advances. After the team joined Microsoft AI in September, its research-first approach clashed with leadership’s emphasis on scaling. (hunch.net)
Microsoft researcher John Langford has left the company. Microsoft’s AI Frontiers group has been declared finished. (businessexaminer.ca)
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