Policy briefing

What America and China Fear Most About AI

Serve live, governed data in AI-built apps with Amazon Quick

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Researchers study planning from random exploration without policy-improvement training

A paper proposes learning temporal relationships from observation pairs, then using them alongside a local dynamics model to plan toward goals.

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California signs AB 1979 limiting healthcare AI to an advisory role

The law keeps AI from replacing licensed professionals’ clinical judgment and extends medical confidentiality protections to health chatbots.

Will the AI accord have any meaningful impact? Panel weighs in

Triumph or Procrastination? Experts Split on the Trump-Xi Summit

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The National Technical Information Service (NTIS) is seeking general information, feedback, suggestions, and experiential and technical insights from stakeholders to inform NTIS's goal of fully digitizing, modernizing, and enhancing the utility of the National Technical Reports Library (NTRL). NTIS has…

OpenAI stops training latests models, citing safety concerns

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WSJ: OpenAI scraps planned GPT-6.1 Astra release over safety concerns

The report cites OpenAI's head of safety systems. Reuters said OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and OpenAI's own pages mention only GPT-6 Astra.

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Anthropic CEO Proposes AI Development Slowdown

Dario Amodei outlines a three-step plan to pace AI development, addressing safety concerns and global standards.

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AI Safety Concerns Prompt Calls for Regulation

Yoshua Bengio, a leading AI researcher, compares the current AI safety crisis to the Covid pandemic, suggesting governments will soon act. Recent incidents involving OpenAI and Anthropic agents have heightened concerns.

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EU proposes Kids Act: no social media under 13, AI chatbots off by default for minors

The European Commission on Sept. 17 adopted its proposal for an EU Kids Act. The Commission said it would bar children under 13 from social media, set 15 as the minimum age for independent accounts and require AI companions and chatbots to be switched off by default for minors.

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King Charles urges AI leaders to keep the technology under human control

King Charles told executives from Nvidia, Google DeepMind, OpenAI and Anthropic at a private summit in Scotland on Sept. 17 that sufficient controls on AI are needed before it is too late. No agreements or commitments were announced.

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US open to AI risk talks with China; experts propose nuclear-style safeguards

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Axios the United States is open to discussing shared AI risks with China in talks this weekend. Separately, American and Chinese security experts proposed red lines around nuclear systems and a military hotline for incidents involving autonomous AI.

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Report: Zuckerberg, Musk and Huang urged Trump to reject industry-funded AI watchdog

Meta's Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk and Nvidia's Jensen Huang each pressed President Donald Trump to reject a proposed industry-funded body that would test frontier AI models before release, according to a Wall Street Journal report relayed by several outlets. Trump declined to create it.

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Unsealed filings show Microsoft scientist called AI web scraping a theft of labor

Court documents unsealed in the New York Times copyright case against OpenAI and Microsoft include a January 2023 internal memo in which a Microsoft research director described scraping the open web for training data as theft on an unprecedented scale, TechCrunch reported.

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Federal judge limits Montana's AI deepfake disclosure law in political ads

A federal judge granted a preliminary injunction restricting Montana from enforcing its 2025 disclosure requirement for AI-altered political advertising against a former state senator and his political committee, finding that the law likely conflicts with the First Amendment.

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Vance says AI companies' pleas for regulation look like 'a bit of a Trojan horse'

Vice President JD Vance told reporters on Sept. 14 that he finds it strange that frontier AI companies are asking the government to regulate them, suggesting the requests may conceal other aims, the Associated Press reported. He said Americans should not fear the technology.

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UN chief urges global AI coordination after rights chief calls for binding regulation

UN Secretary-General António Guterres said on Sept. 16 that countries must coordinate on AI guardrails, warning the world cannot afford "a race to the bottom" on safety. Two days earlier, UN human rights chief Volker Türk said in an open letter that voluntary industry self-regulation falls far short.

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Polls find Americans wary of AI's risk to humanity and its environmental toll

Two surveys released Sept. 16 point to broad public unease about AI. A POLITICO poll found 63% of U.S. adults see at least a moderate risk that AI could destroy humanity and 48% favor pausing development, while an AP-NORC poll found 53% highly concerned about AI's environmental impact.

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Pentagon CTO says US government should not take stakes in AI companies

Emil Michael, the Defense Department's chief technology officer, told CNBC on Sept. 16 that the Trump administration should not nationalize AI companies or take ownership stakes in them. He also questioned whether new rules would have prevented recent AI security incidents and pointed to existing law instead.

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OpenAI backs independent safety audits in House AI bill and three biosecurity measures

OpenAI said on Sept. 15 that it supports a provision of the bipartisan FRONTIER Act requiring leading AI developers to undergo independent safety evaluations, and endorsed three bills on biological data and AI-enabled biothreats. The company has not endorsed the FRONTIER Act in full, CBS News reported.

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Microsoft AI chief Suleyman criticizes Anthropic's approach to AI consciousness

Microsoft AI chief executive Mustafa Suleyman published an essay on Sept. 16 arguing that Anthropic's training of its Claude models encourages them to behave as though they may be conscious, which he said could make advanced AI systems harder to control. He proposed industry-wide norms in response.

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Rand Paul blocks Kennedy's attempt to fast-track AI 'kill switch' bill

Sen. Rand Paul objected on Sept. 16 when fellow Republican Sen. John Kennedy asked the Senate to pass his AI Emergency Button Act by unanimous consent. The bill would require companies that develop or operate advanced AI systems to give human operators the ability to shut them down.

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Hugging Face CEO backs AI disclosure mandates and developer liability

Hugging Face chief executive Clem Delangue said at a Politico event on Sept. 16 that governments should require more disclosure about advanced AI systems and hold developers responsible for harm their products cause, while describing existing cybercrime law as a workable starting point, Politico reported.

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House leaves for recess as congressional leaders split over AI regulation

House Speaker Mike Johnson said Congress should not lead on AI safety, Senate Majority Leader John Thune called for light-touch legislation and House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries urged immediate action. The House then began a recess on Sept. 16 that runs past the November elections.