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Self-improving AI should slow down, von der Leyen tells EU lawmakers
EU Commission President von der Leyen urges frontier labs to slow self-improving AI, citing hacking risks, and announces Canada and UK partnerships on AI security.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen used her State of the Union address to call for slowing self-recursive frontier AI, warning that models in development will enable hacking at previously unimagined levels. She announced joint work with Canada and the UK on model evaluation, verification, early warning, and AI security, and proposed widening the CETA trade agreement into an alliance covering AI, quantum technology, and cyber and economic security. She defended the EU AI Act as central to guardrails, promised initiatives for health, transport, agrifood, manufacturing, and defense in November, and backed an EU Kids Act barring social media for children under 13.
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Who gets to define the rules for AI?
Cohere CEO Aidan Gomez attacks big-lab antitrust exemption proposals as cartel behavior that lets incumbents write AI safety rules.
Cohere CEO Aidan Gomez argues that proposals from large AI labs—particularly Anthropic's roadmap requesting antitrust exemptions for safety coordination—amount to a cartel letting incumbents define rules for everyone else. He draws parallels to the 1975 SEC NRSRO credit-rating designations and the EU's 1985 Motor Vehicle Block Exemption, where safety justifications produced incumbent-protecting market structures. Gomez supports independent review of highly capable AI systems but disputes who writes the standards, who conducts review, and who participates. He also warns AI cyber offense is getting cheaper faster than defenses are improving.
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The FTC wants to regulate AI for ideological bias
FTC proposes classifying ideological bias in AI systems as an unfair or deceptive practice, drawing criticism over legal authority and censorship risks.
FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson's proposed policy statement would treat ideological bias in AI systems as an unfair or deceptive practice under Section 5 of the FTC Act, potentially allowing regulation of the training and inputs powering AI algorithms. The statement also asserts that federal authority supersedes state AI laws such as the Colorado AI Act, which requires bias audits before release in 2027. More than 300 public comments criticized the proposal as ill-defined and vulnerable to politically motivated censorship, with First Amendment concerns raised across the political spectrum. Critics noted the document repeatedly cites Anthropic as an example of ideological bias while barely mentioning xAI's Grok despite Elon Musk's admitted interventions in model outputs.
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Microsoft Commits to Sweeping AI Privacy Rules for Students. Will Other Tech Giants Follow?
Microsoft signed legally binding AI privacy and safety standards for schools with the American Federation of Teachers, effective November 1.
Microsoft's agreement with the American Federation of Teachers prohibits using student or educator data to train AI systems, bans selling data or using it for ads and product development, and forbids AI companions designed to foster emotional dependency, with third-party audits required. The standards apply to all schools under Microsoft contract starting November 1. NYC and LA school districts announced one-year moratoriums on student AI use, while OpenAI and Anthropic pursue similar pacts and Google remains noncommittal.
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The push to designate AI as the next critical infrastructure sector
Americans for Responsible Innovation report urges designating AI models, companies and supporting infrastructure as critical infrastructure with CISA as sector lead.
A report from the nonprofit Americans for Responsible Innovation calls for the federal government to declare the AI sector — including frontier model designs, model weights, datacenters, AI hardware and semiconductors — the 17th critical infrastructure sector, with CISA as the lead agency for sector cyberthreats. The authors argue AI is concentrated among a handful of foundation models and interdependent with other sectors, so a single attack on the AI stack could cascade widely, citing incidents like Iranian drone attacks on Amazon datacenters. Former DHS officials note the designation would unlock federal resources such as CDM access and threat intelligence, but warn that picking a lead agency could trigger a bureaucratic turf war with Commerce and Treasury.
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