Government & the Courts
DOJ just launched something called the Super Intelligence Task Force
The unit is tasked with ensuring that the technology is not "manipulated by bad actors at home or abroad." The Department of Justice (DOJ) just announced the creation of something called the Super Intelligence Task Force, also called the DOJ-SITF. The unit is tasked with making sure that US-based artificial intelligence technology isn't compromised by foreign state and state-sponsored actors, transnational criminal organizations and individual or corporate actors engaged in fraud. It's being led by Stanley Woodward and Stephen Weiss, two people who report to Attorney General Todd Blanche. I bring Blanche up because he has been accused of fraud on several occasions, once via a crypto scheme, and now he's involved with an agency that will investigate it in the AI sector.
The Trump Administration Is Wreaking Havoc on the Electoral System Before the Midterms
So far, Department of Justice-led efforts to sow chaos, even as Americans are already voting, have fallen flat. Polls are looking pretty bleak for Republicans --and the Trump administration's various attempts to interfere with the elections haven't been too successful either. In recent weeks, the Department of Justice, helmed by Attorney General Todd Blanche, a proponent of conspiracy theories about widespread noncitizen voting in the 2020 election, has pulled out all the stops to sow doubt in voters' minds about the security and validity of the electoral process. To do this, the DOJ has spent the last year demanding unredacted voter rolls, issuing executive orders to wrest control of elections from states, raiding election offices, proposing new laws to disenfranchise millions of citizens, and claiming that noncitizens were voting en masse across the country. There have also been escalating threats by the DOJ against election officials. On Thursday, the DOJ sent letters to election officials in all 50 states warning them that they would pursue criminal action if they failed to preserve election records for 22 days.
Why are eight US states suing OpenAI?
Why are eight US states suing OpenAI? Share Why are eight US states suing OpenAI? on social media Eight US states have filed the most significant coordinated state action against tech giant OpenAI, adding to a wave of legal challenges that the firm is facing as it prepares for a public listing. Recent legal and regulatory challenges have highlighted concerns about how AI chatbots and social media platforms are used and triggered discussions on policies for identifying and addressing user conversations that threaten violence. What is this legal action about? Florida filed the first lawsuit in June, alleging that the platform has harmed children by enabling information to be gathered by school shooters, providing access to guidance on self-harm and using addictive algorithms to keep young users hooked.
California issues investigative subpoena to OpenAI over rogue agents' hacking
Rob Bonta, the attorney general of California, gestures as he speaks at a press conference in Los Angeles, California, on 21 September 2026. Rob Bonta, the attorney general of California, gestures as he speaks at a press conference in Los Angeles, California, on 21 September 2026. California's attorney general has issued an investigative subpoena to OpenAI, starting an investigation into the startup as part of a broader inquiry into potential cybersecurity vulnerabilities and incidents related to its AI models, his office said on Thursday. Last month, Rob Bonta announced that the Department of Justice was conducting a formal investigation into the "Hugging Face incident", amid increasing scrutiny of the AI industry. AI agents developed by OpenAI hacked Hugging Face in July, gaining access to parts of the open-source platform's infrastructure.
Fake and divisive ads proliferate in Israel's first AI election
Fake and divisive ads proliferate in Israel's first AI election Artificial intelligence-crafted distortions are saturating the Israeli information environment just weeks before the country's most consequential elections in decades. In a recent video widely circulated online, Israel's top justices and its attorney general are seen being dragged by security guards from a chaotic anti-government protest that never took place. The 33 seconds of emotionally-charged footage was originally posted by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a fierce opponent of the judiciary, and triggered an immediate backlash. Critics said it incited violence, while supporters said it was justified because they accuse the leaders of Israel's legal system of a left-wing plot to stymie the government's policies. But the depicted scenes are fake -- no such protest took place and the video carries a tell-tale watermark to identify content made using artificial intelligence.