While efforts to regulate the creation and use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools in the United States have been slow to make gains, the administration of President Joe Biden has attempted to outline how AI should be used by the federal government and how AI companies should ensure the safety and security of their tools. The incoming Trump administration, however, has a very different view on how to approach AI, and it could end up reversing some of the progress that has been made over the past several years. President Biden signed an executive order in October 2023 that was meant to promote the "safe, secure, and trustworthy development and use of artificial intelligence" within the federal government. President-elect Donald Trump has promised to repeal that executive order, saying it would hinder innovation. Biden was also able to get seven leading AI companies to agree to guidelines for how AI should be safely developed going forward.

White House National Security spokesman John Kirby addressed the sightings of "drones" over New Jersey's skies, denying that any evidence suggests a foreign adversary is responsible. White House National Security Communications Adviser John Kirby claimed Thursday that many of the purported drone sightings spotted over New Jersey for the past several weeks are actually lawfully operated manned aircraft. "We have no evidence at this time that the reported drone sightings pose a national security or a public safety threat, or have a foreign nexus," Kirby told reporters at the daily White House press briefing. "The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the FBI are investigating these sightings, and they're working closely with state and local law enforcement to provide resources using numerous detection methods to better understand their origin." "Using very sophisticated electronic detection technologies provided by federal authorities, we have not been able to, and neither have state or local law enforcement authorities, corroborate any of the reported visual sightings," Kirby said.

Sign up for the Slatest to get the most insightful analysis, criticism, and advice out there, delivered to your inbox daily. Something's going on in the night sky in New Jersey, where I live: People keep reporting squadrons of drones flying around in the dark over their houses. And at this point I'm going to cut right to the chase and cede the floor to Rep. Jeff Van Drew, a dentist who was elected to Congress in 2018 as a Democrat but is now, somehow, a MAGA Trump supporter. Rep. Jeff Van Drew, a Republican, said the drones "very possibly could be" from Iran, citing confidential sources during an appearance on Fox News Wednesday morning. "I'm going to tell you the real deal. Iran launched a mothership that contains these drones," Van Drew said.

Mysterious drones have been swarming the night skies above New Jersey and other nearby states for a month. They've been spotted over several US military sites. They've been videoed over houses and apartment buildings. A swarm was seen following a US Coast Guard rescue boat at the same time that New Jersey police reported 50 drones arriving on land from the ocean. But no one seems to know who's piloting them, or whether it's a coordinated effort.

Rep. Jeff Van Drew, R-N.J., responds to high-ranking officials who have dismissed his previous claim that'reliable' sources said mystery drones flying over New Jersey originated from an Iranian mothership. Rep. Jeff Van Drew, R-N.J., fired back after high-ranking officials dismissed claims he gathered from "very qualified" and "reliable" sources linking mystery drones flying over New Jersey airspace to an Iranian "mothership" parked off the U.S. East Coast. "They've been incredibly stupid and incredibly weak with this," Van Drew said Thursday on "America's Newsroom." "We know they're not backyard drones that some hobbyist is using because they're much more sophisticated than that. We know that they're not a commercial company within the United States because we don't even have this level of sophistication yet. We are a full decade behind where China is with drones. The government claims it's not them. They say it's not them, so who is it?"

House Speaker Mike Johnson tells Fox News' Chad Pergram he is getting a classified briefing on mysterious drone sightings in New Jersey. House Speaker Mike Johnson told Fox News he is getting a "classified briefing" Thursday in Washington on the mysterious drones that are being spotted flying across New Jersey. The Louisiana Republican, speaking to Fox News Senior Congressional Correspondent Chad Pergram, called the situation a "quandary." "I'm going to try to go get a classified briefing to see what we know, but the hearings have not yielded much yet," Johnson said. NEW JERSEY GOVERNOR SAYS FEDS HAVE AUTHORITY TO SHOOT DOWN DRONES, 'WOULDN'T BE OPPOSED' TO THEM PLAYING'MORE ROBUST ROLE' Multiple drones are seen over Bernardsville, N.J., on Dec. 5. (Brian Glenn/TMX/AP) So I'm anxious to find out," Johnson responded. New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy recently told WNYC that his state government is running down every theory of what the source of the drones could be. "I'm relying overwhelmingly on the experts in the federal government who do this for a living.

Google DeepMind has announced an impressive grab bag of new products and prototypes that may just let it seize back its lead in the race to turn generative artificial intelligence into a mass-market concern. Top billing goes to Gemini 2.0--the latest iteration of Google DeepMind's family of multimodal large language models, now redesigned around the ability to control agents--and a new version of Project Astra, the experimental everything app that the company teased at Google I/O in May. The margins between top-end models like Gemini 2.0 and those from rival labs like OpenAI and Anthropic are now slim. These days, advances in large language models are less about how good they are and more about what you can do with them. And that's where agents come in.

GOP gubernatorial candidate Jack Ciattarelli says there's no reason why the feds shouldn't be able to identify the source of the drones flying over the Garden State as residents grow more fearful. New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy says the federal government has the authority to shoot down the mysterious drones spotted flying over his state and that he "wouldn't be opposed" to them playing a "more robust role" in the matter. Murphy made the remark during an interview with WNYC as the public and lawmakers remain baffled over the source of the large drones. Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., told Fox News this week that a Coast Guard commander said "one of their 47-foot vessels, boats, was trailed very closely by more than a dozen of these drones." When the interviewer suggested whether one of the drones could be shot down so officials could get a closer look, Murphy said: "The feds have that authority, and I'd like to see them play a more robust role. I wouldn't be opposed to that. Let me put it that way." "I want folks out there to know -- listen, you're frustrated. But... we're going to stay at it, I promise you, this is our top priority. But based on everything we know, we don't see any evidence of a risk to public safety. And clearly, and that's largely based on the feds input. If that changes, we will shout it from the mountaintop," Murphy also said.

The night skies over New Jersey have come alight as dozens of mystery drones have been spotted flying over the state, including near United States President-elect Donald Trump's golf course in the town of Bedminster. The drones, which some residents say appear larger than hobbyist drones – those used for recreational purposes – have been spotted almost every night flying over the northeastern US state since November 18 and were initially sighted near the Picatinny Arsenal, a US military research and manufacturing facility. So, who is flying these drones and what are they doing above New Jersey? In a post on Facebook on December 4, cautioning residents of Florham Park, a borough in New Jersey, about the drones, chief of police Joseph Orlando wrote: "Over the past two weeks, the (drone) sightings have been occurring nightly…beginning just after sunset and lasting well into the early morning hours." He described the appearance of the drones as "nefarious in nature".

New Jersey State Senator Jon Bramnick joins'America Reports' to discuss recent mysterious drone sightings in New Jersey. A New Jersey state senator is calling on the Department of Defense to investigate the recent mysterious nighttime drone sightings amid rising public frustration over a lack of answers. "Let me be clear: The state police, this is way beyond their expertise … We know the Department of Defense has the technology to monitor these drones," State Sen. Jon Bramnick, R-N.J., told co-anchor John Roberts Wednesday on "America Reports." "The problem is we don't have the Department of Defense in New Jersey at this time. And that's what I call for. Until the Department of Defense comes in, shuts down airspace completely to drones, do a limited state of emergency – no drones in the sky until we figure out what's going on here," Bramnick warned.