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day of the dalek writes:

Per Bloomberg (Alternate sources: CNBC and Reuters), the Trump Administration is weighing the US government potentially buying a stake in Intel. As CNBC reports:

Intel is the only U.S. company with the capability to manufacture the fastest chips on U.S. shores, although rivals including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company and Samsung also have U.S. factories. President Donald Trump has called for more chips and high technology to be manufactured in the U.S.

The government's stake would help fund factories that Intel is currently building in Ohio, according to the report.

This comes a week after Donald Trump called for Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan to resign. While the reason behind Trump's call for Tan's resignation was not entirely clear, it is believed that it was due to Tan's investments in Chinese businesses. From CBS:

"The CEO of Intel is highly CONFLICTED and must resign, immediately," Mr. Trump posted on Truth Social, without providing additional details. "There is no other solution to this problem. Thank you for your attention to this problem!"

The president's call for Tan's resignation comes after Sen. Tom Cotton, a Republican from Arkansas, sent a letter to Intel Chairman Frank Yeary on Tuesday expressing concern over Tan's investments and ties to Chinese businesses.

"Mr. Tan reportedly controls dozens of Chinese companies and has a stake in hundreds of Chinese advanced-manufacturing and chip firms," Cotton wrote in the letter. "At least eight of these companies reportedly have ties to the Chinese People's Liberation Army."

Tan is an American citizen who was born in Malaysia, spent his youth in Singapore, and attended graduate school at MIT where he received a degree in nuclear engineering. Despite the comments about Tan last week, Trump's position on Tan remaining CEO of Intel seemed to soften earlier this week following a meeting between them (Alternate sources: AP and CNBC). From the New York Times article:

After the afternoon meeting at the White House, Mr. Trump posted on Truth Social that his discussion with Mr. Tan "was a very interesting one," though he did not elaborate. Mr. Trump said that Mr. Tan and cabinet members would meet next week and "bring suggestions to me," adding that the Intel chief's "success and rise is an amazing story."

Mr. Trump's post appeared to signal that he was changing his mind about any national security risk posed by Mr. Tan, 65, who became Intel's chief executive in March. Mr. Trump's call last week for Mr. Tan to resign, citing his past investments in Chinese companies, was one of the first times the president had attempted to directly intervene to change the leadership at a major publicly traded company.

The report that the Trump Administration is considering purchasing a stake in Intel seems to be a continuation of Trump's change in attitude toward the company and its CEO. In response to the Bloomberg report, Intel's stock surged 7% on Thursday. This is a developing story, and the White House has not yet commented.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Trump caving on Nvidia H20 export curbs may disrupt his bigger trade war:

The next front in Donald Trump's trade war will be chip tariffs—which could come by next month—but national security experts are warning that the president may have already made a huge misstep that threatens to disrupt both US trade and national security.

In a letter Monday to Department of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, 20 policymakers and professionals with a background in national security policy urged Trump to reverse course and block exports of Nvidia's H20 chips to China.

In April, the Trump administration decided against imposing additional export curbs on H20 chips after Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang paid $1 million for a seat at a Mar-a-Lago dinner, NPR reported. Apparently, Nvidia's promise to invest $500 billion in AI data centers helped persuade Trump to change course, as did the terms of a temporary truce with China, in which the US promised to halt H20 chip controls in exchange for China restoring imports of rare earth minerals into the US.

In their letter, national security experts expressed "deep concern" that Trump may not have considered how Nvidia's H20 chips could endanger the US military's "edge in artificial intelligence" while serving as a "potent accelerator of China's frontier AI capabilities."

While these chips can't be used for AI training like the Blackwell and H100 chips still restricted by export curbs, they're "optimized for inference, the process responsible for the dramatic capabilities gains made by the latest generation of frontier AI reasoning models," experts warned.

Most likely, China will use the chips for AI models deployed by its military to "enable autonomous weapons systems, intelligence surveillance platforms, and rapid advances in battlefield decision-making," experts said. In that way, "by supplying China with these chips, we are fueling the very infrastructure that will be used to modernize and expand the Chinese military," they warned.

The Trump administration is notably investigating how chip tariffs and imports could harm national security, with a report due out in two weeks, Lutnick announced today. That report will supposedly help Trump determine if relying too much on other countries for chips poses a national security threat.

But experts seem to fear that Trump isn't paying enough attention to how exports of US technology could threaten to not only supercharge China's military and AI capabilities but also drain supplies that US firms need to keep the US at the forefront of AI innovation.

"More chips for China means fewer chips for the US," experts said, noting that "China's biggest tech firms, including Tencent, ByteDance, and Alibaba," have spent $16 billion on bulk-ordered H20 chips over the past year.

Meanwhile, "projected data center demand from the US power market would require 90 percent of global chip supply through 2030, an unlikely scenario even without China joining the rush to buy advanced AI chips," experts said. If Trump doesn't intervene, one of America's biggest AI rivals could even end up driving up costs of AI chips for US firms, they warned.

"We urge you to reverse course," the letter concluded. "This is not a question of trade. It is a question of national security."

USA bombs Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan
US President Donald Trump says American forces have conducted "very successful" strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan and that all US planes are now out of Iranian airspace.

Trump's Truth Social
"We have completed our very successful attack on the three Nuclear sites in Iran, including Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan. All planes are now outside of Iran air space. A full payload of BOMBS was dropped on the primary site, Fordow. All planes are safely on their way home. Congratulations to our great American Warriors. There is not another military in the World that could have done this. NOW IS THE TIME FOR PEACE! Thank you for your attention to this matter."

[Updated 22 Jun 1313z - following statements by Secretary of Defence and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff--JR]

Operation Midnight Hammer

75 x TLAMs - Precision Guided Weapons (PGW), 14 x MOPs GBU-57 used by 7 B2s, operational feint by sending 6 x B2s westward into the Pacific area, 7 x B2s continued eastwards. The B2s are still airborne and were observed refuelling over the Azores a few hours ago on FlightRadar24 (at least 18 tanker aircraft operating racetracks but the B2s were still radio silent). TLAMs were also fired by USN assets in the southern Persian Gulf. Over 120 aircraft involved in the mission including F16, F22, F35, ISTAR, AAR. Battle damage assessment will take time to collect and analyse.

US forces involved in the attack were not engaged and appear to have achieved total surprise. All assets are accounted for but some are still airborne.

Original Submission

day of the dalek writes:

The Real ID Act was passed in 2005 on the grounds that it was necessary for access control of sensitive facilities like nuclear power plants and the security of airline flights. The law imposed standards for state- and territory-issued ID cards in the United States, but was widely criticized as an attempt to create a national ID card and would be harmful to privacy. These concerns are explained well in a 2007 article from the New York Civil Liberties Union:

Real ID threatens privacy in two ways. First, it consolidates Americans' personal information into a network of interlinking databases accessible to the federal government and bureaucrats throughout the 50 states and U.S. territories. This national mega-database would invite government snooping and be a goldmine for identity thieves. Second, it mandates that all driver's licenses and ID cards have an unencrypted "machine-readable zone" that would contain personal information on Americans that could be easily "skimmed" by anybody with a barcode reader.

These concerns are based on what happens when criminals access the data, but also how consolidating data from many government agencies into a central database makes it easier for bad actors within the government to target Americans and violate their civil liberties. These concerns led to a 20 year delay in enforcing Real ID standards nationally, and as a USA Today article from 2025 warns, once Americans' data is stored on a central repository for one purpose, mission creep is likely. If the centralized database is used to make student loan applications and income tax processing more efficient, what's to stop law enforcement from accessing it to identify potential criminals? Over the past two decades, criticism of the Real ID Act has come from across the political spectrum, with many people and organizations on both the left and right decrying it as a serious threat to privacy and civil liberties.

Much of these concerns have never been realized about the Real ID Act, but they are renewed with Executive Order #14143, signed by Donald Trump on March 20, 2025. This directs for the sharing of government data between agencies except when it is classified for national security purposes. The executive order does not include any provisions to protect the privacy of individuals.

Although Trump has not commented on how this data sharing will be achieved, the Trump Administration has hired a company called Palantir to create a central registry of data, which would include a national citizen database. Recent reporting describes a database with wide-ranging information about every American that is generally private:

Foundry's capabilities in data organization and analysis could potentially enable the merging of information from various agencies, thereby creating detailed profiles of American citizens. The Trump administration has attempted to access extensive citizen data from government databases, including bank details, student debt, medical claims, and disability status.

Palantir does not gather data on their own, but they do provide tools to analyze large repositories of data, make inferences about the data, and provide easy-to-use reports. There are serious concerns about the lack of transparency about what data is being integrated into this repository, how it will be used, the potential for tracking people in various segments of the population such as immigrants, and the ability to use this data to target and harass political opponents. Concerns about how Trump's national citizen database will be used echo fears raised from across the political spectrum about the Real ID Act, except that they are apparently now quite close to becoming reality.

Additional reading:

• Trump appears to be building an unprecedented spy machine that could track Americans (MSNBC)
• What is Palantir? The secretive tech company behind Trump's data collection efforts (Mashable)
• Former Palantir workers condemn company's work with Trump administration (NPR)
• Palantir filed to go public. The firm's unethical technology should horrify us (The Guardian)
• The Gleeful Profiteers of Trump's Police State (Mother Jones)
• Donald Trump's Reported Database Move Sparks Alarm: 'Dystopian' (Newsweek)

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

The head of the US Copyright Office has reportedly been fired, the day after agency concluded that builders of AI models use of copyrighted material went beyond existing doctrines of fair use.

The office’s opinion on fair use came in a draft of the third part of its report on copyright and artificial intelligence. The first part considered digital replicas and the second tackled whether it is possible to copyright the output of generative AI.

The office published the draft [PDF] of Part 3, which addresses the use of copyrighted works in the development of generative AI systems, on May 9th.

The draft notes that generative AI systems “draw on massive troves of data, including copyrighted works” and asks: “Do any of the acts involved require the copyright owners’ consent or compensation?”

That question is the subject of several lawsuits, because developers of AI models have admitted to training their products on content scraped from the internet and other sources without compensating content creators or copyright owners. AI companies have argued fair use provisions of copyright law mean they did no wrong.

As the report notes, one test courts use to determine fair use considers “the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work”. If a judge finds an AI company’s use of copyrighted material doesn’t impact a market or value, fair use will apply.

The report finds AI companies can’t sustain a fair use defense in the following circumstances:

When a model is deployed for purposes such as analysis or research… the outputs are unlikely to substitute for expressive works used in training. But making commercial use of vast troves of copyrighted works to produce expressive content that competes with them in existing markets, especially where this is accomplished through illegal access, goes beyond established fair use boundaries.

The office will soon publish a final version of Part 3 that it expects will emerge “without any substantive changes expected in the analysis or conclusions.”

Arthur Wellesley writes:

The XKCD cartoon 'PhD Timeline' ( https://xkcd.com/3081/ ) with its rollover, protests.

Original Submission

canopic jug writes:

Harvard University is pushing back via a lawsuit against micromanagement and censorship attempts emanating from the White House.

What is the rationale for the IRS revisiting Harvard's exemption status? A theory is needed, because section 501(c)(3) of the federal tax code says that an organization "shall"—not "may"—be exempt from taxation if it meets criteria listed in the statute. One of those criteria is for an institution to be organized exclusively for "educational purposes."

— The Conservative Case for Leaving Harvard Alone.   The Atlantic.

The university's sudden decision to stand up, according to insiders, wasn't the plan a week earlier—and came about because the White House sent a list of demands so detailed, so humiliating, and so crudely anti-intellectual that Harvard was left with no option but to reject it. (There is growing suspicion here that Trump's demands were deliberately crafted to be rejected, setting the stage for more Trumpian melodrama and hysteria.)

— Harvard Stands Up.   The Nation.

The Harvard Crimson has started to cover this lawsuit:

"The tradeoff put to Harvard and other universities is clear: Allow the Government to micromanage your academic institution or jeopardize the institution's ability to pursue medical breakthroughs, scientific discoveries, and innovative solutions," Harvard's lawyers wrote in the Monday filing.

The 51-page complaint, filed in a United States district court, asks for the court to halt and declare unlawful the $2.2 billion freeze, as well as any freezes made in connection with "unconstitutional conditions" in the Trump administration's April 3 and April 11 letters outlining demands to Harvard.

— Harvard Sues Trump Administration Over $2.2 Billion Funding Freeze.   The Harvard Crimson.

upstart writes:

The Israeli spyware maker, still on the US Commerce Department's "blacklist," has hired a new lobbying firm with direct ties to the Trump administration, a WIRED investigation has found:

Shortly after Donald Trump declared victory in November, NSO Group cofounder and majority owner Omri Lavie rushed to X to congratulate him, speaking of a "new chapter where the world goes back to common sense," while accusing the outgoing Biden administration of being "weak." In another tweet, he gushed in Hebrew that Republicans "won in every category: the presidency, Congress, Senate, and the popular vote."

Lavie's enthusiasm is understandable. His company—frequently associated with alleged human rights abuses, most recently in February when journalists in Serbia were targeted with its Pegasus spyware—had a significant stake in a Trump victory, with the hopes of regaining the ability to freely do business with US entities. In a comment to Amnesty International, NSO stated, in part, that its "commitment to maintain the highest standard of ethical conduct as well as confidentiality towards our customers is paramount and is consistent with industry norms and our legal obligations."

The Israeli spyware vendor has been on the US Commerce Department's "blacklist" for more than three years, meaning it cannot do business with US companies without specific government approval. NSO Group poured at least $1.8 million into an aggressive pre-election lobbying effort, focusing primarily on Republican senators and representatives, with some meetings occurring as often as eight times. Yet the company remains on the Entity List.

Now, with a new occupant in the White House, NSO Group appears to be shifting its political strategy.

The company seems to have either terminated or altered its engagement with several of its previous lobbying consultancies in Washington—some of which were closely aligned with the Democrats—and has started working with a key new lobbying partner: the Vogel Group.

Founded by Alex Vogel, who served as chief counsel to former Senate majority leader Bill Frist, the Vogel Group is providing NSO Group with "strategic advisory on cybersecurity policy matters," according to lobbying disclosure documents filed on March 10.

[...] NSO Group's recent lobbying efforts appear to have mainly focused on Republican lawmakers, more than executive branch power players, particularly as the Biden administration had been engaged in a crackdown on commercial spyware. The company previously worked with several lobbying contractors, with whom it appears to have either terminated or altered its registrations.

[...] As of early March—before Vogel Group's registration as a lobbyist for NSO Group—there had been no indication that the Trump administration intended to remove the company from the Entity List, according to a source familiar with the administration's moves regarding spyware, who asked not to be named in order to discuss confidential matters. However, recent comments by NSO Group's Lavie soft-peddled the impact of the Entity List on the company's ability to operate in the US.

[...] ​​Lobbying efforts can target different parts of the US government. By lobbying the executive branch (the president and agencies), lobbyists can influence how laws are enforced rather than what the laws say. In contrast, when lobbying Congress, the focus is on passing, blocking, or amending laws by influencing legislators.

[...] Asked whether the Trump administration intends to uphold the EO, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt declined to comment.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

More doubt is being cast over the US CHIPS Act program with the Trump administration threatening to halt payments unless companies in line to receive funding commit to substantially expand their own investments.

President Donald Trump has issued an Executive Order to establish a new office within the Department of Commerce titled the United States Investment Accelerator.

The office's aim is "to encourage companies to make large investments in the United States," and among its powers will be oversight of the CHIPS Program to maximize the benefits for taxpayers, the White House states.

This move follows earlier calls by President Trump to scrap CHIPS Act funding entirely, and any remaining money to be allocated to cutting federal debt.

According to reports, Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick has indicated that he intends to withhold CHIPS Act grants already agreed in order to push the companies involved to substantially expand the projects they have planned.

The aim is to force semiconductor makers promised grants and subsidies for building new manufacturing facilities on American soil to invest even more, without increasing the size of federal grants. This follows the example of TSMC, which earlier this month pledged to spend $100 billion to expand its US fabrication plants.

However, that $100 billion figure disclosed by TSMC chief CC Wei during his meeting with Trump was merely an estimated price tag for plans the company had in the pipeline anyway. Intel's former boss, Pat Gelsinger, also pointed out recently that while TSMC is building fabs in the US, it is keeping its research and development in Taiwan.

"If you don't have R&D in the US, you will not have semiconductor leadership in the US," Gelsinger said at the end of last week.

His old company finalized an agreement with the Department of Commerce in November to receive up to $7.86 billion from the CHIPS Act, which would make it the largest beneficiary of the federal government's cash, if it actually receives it all.

That was also conditional on Intel retaining control of its foundries, amid talk that the troubled Santa Clara-based biz was potentially looking to spin them off as part of a restructure. Intel has since announced it is delaying some of its fab buildout, such as pushing back the completion of its $28 billion Ohio plant until at least 2030.

Gelsinger had previously stated that without CHIPS Act funding, Intel would continue to build new fabs in Arizona and Ohio, however the expansion would take longer, and it wouldn't be as comprehensive.

An Anonymous Coward writes:

https://www.wired.com/story/federal-trade-commission-removed-blogs-critical-of-ai-amazon-microsoft/

The Trump administration's Federal Trade Commission has removed four years' worth of business guidance blogs as of Tuesday morning, including important consumer protection information related to artificial intelligence and the agency's landmark privacy lawsuits under former chair Lina Khan against companies like Amazon and Microsoft. More than 300 blogs were removed.

On the FTC's website, the page hosting all of the agency's business-related blogs and guidance no longer includes any information published during former president Joe Biden's administration, current and former FTC employees, who spoke under anonymity for fear of retaliation, tell WIRED. These blogs contained advice from the FTC on how big tech companies could avoid violating consumer protection laws.

One now deleted blog, titled "Hey, Alexa! What are you doing with my data?" explains how, according to two FTC complaints, Amazon and its Ring security camera products allegedly leveraged sensitive consumer data to train the ecommerce giant's algorithms. (Amazon disagreed with the FTC's claims.) It also provided guidance for companies operating similar products and services. Another post titled "$20 million FTC settlement addresses Microsoft Xbox illegal collection of kids' data: A game changer for COPPA compliance" instructs tech companies on how to abide by the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act by using the 2023 Microsoft settlement as an example. The settlement followed allegations by the FTC that Microsoft obtained data from children using Xbox systems without the consent of their parents or guardians.

"In terms of the message to industry on what our compliance expectations were, which is in some ways the most important part of enforcement action, they are trying to just erase those from history," a source familiar tells WIRED.

Another removed FTC blog titled "The Luring Test: AI and the engineering of consumer trust" outlines how businesses could avoid creating chatbots that violate the FTC Act's rules against unfair or deceptive products. This blog won an award in 2023 for "excellent descriptions of artificial intelligence."

The Trump administration has received broad support from the tech industry. Big tech companies like Amazon and Meta, as well as tech entrepreneurs like OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, all donated to Trump's inauguration fund. Other Silicon Valley leaders, like Elon Musk and David Sacks, are officially advising the administration. Musk's so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) employs technologists sourced from Musk's tech companies. And already, federal agencies like the General Services Administration have started to roll out AI products like GSAi, a general-purpose government chatbot.

The FTC did not immediately respond to a request for comment from WIRED.