Canada's Bill C-36 tackles AI privacy. In an era of artificial intelligence, deepfakes and data-driven decision-making, Canada is moving to revise its privacy laws through Bill C-36, the Protecting Privacy and Consumer Data Act. Announced in June, Bill C-36 is Canada's first major overhaul of private-sector privacy legislation in more than 25 years. The bill explicitly recognises privacy as a fundamental right and also aims to give children's personal information stronger protections, enhance deletion rights and require greater transparency where automated systems make significant decisions about people. The 18-year-old shooting suspect allegedly used ChatGPT before the attack. The victims' families are now suing OpenAI, stating the company's AI safety team identified violent prompts but did not alert law enforcement.

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Senator Ed Markey says: 'We need to make sure these datacenters don't turn into pollution bombs.' Senator Ed Markey says: 'We need to make sure these datacenters don't turn into pollution bombs.' 'AI accountability agenda': US senator unveils package of bills to curb tech's harms US senator Ed Markey is worried about the perils of unregulated artificial intelligence. All of it: the costs associated with thirsty, energy-guzzling datacenters, intrusive workplace surveillance, bias in discriminatory algorithms, AI overriding workers' judgments, and deepening economic inequality - as those who profit most from AI rake in extraordinary windfalls. The Massachusetts Democrat's interest in convincing Congress to rein in the harmful effects of AI has only grown, as the technology embeds itself deeper across industries. Markey has already authored close to a dozen bills aimed at tackling these problems.

Companies will once again be allowed to scan citizens' personal texts, emails, and social media messages via the "chat control" bill to find child abuse material online. The European Parliament has voted to extend legislation allowing tech companies to voluntarily scan users' private messages for child sexual abuse material, despite a majority of lawmakers voting against the proposal. The ruling reinstates permissions for firms including Meta, Google, and Microsoft to scan private text, email, and social media messages through a bill nicknamed "Chat Control" by critics. End-to-end encrypted chats, such as those on WhatsApp and Signal, remain exempt. "It will mean that private companies may deny your right to have confidential digital conversations," Simeon de Brouwer, policy advisor at Brussels-based advocacy group European Digital Rights tells WIRED, "they could, if they want to, read every message you write, every email you send, every picture you share."

The $28 Million Mistake That Inspired Estonia's AI "Fuckup Finder" Now Estonia is using AI to spot legal errors before they become law--and to automate more of the state. Estonia's AI embarrassment began with a single wrong phrase. In December, the Riigikogu, Estonia's parliament, passed changes to the country's Gambling Tax Act meant to lower the tax rate on remote gambling. But the wording of the law referred only to "skill games" for that year, not games of chance or remote gambling. Estonia's entire gambling industry is worth around €300 million ($343 million), and its online gambling market is one of the fastest growing in the EU.

For decades, the senator has argued that concentrated wealth threatened American democracy. Now he's betting that frustration with Big Tech, billionaires, and unchecked AI is reaching a tipping point. It's hard to believe Bernie Sanders . Not because the longtime Vermont senator bears the hallmarks of a liar. Yes, he's a career politician, but the 84-year-old progressive torchbearer counts more viral memes than scandals to his name. Rather, it's hard to believe Bernie Sanders because, for decades, he's told Americans that this country can radically change, while championing ideas too far afield from the status quo to really have a chance. He wants to bring billionaires to heel, for one. And implement universal, government-run health care. If Sanders had his way, it wouldn't even exist. I believe it, and WIRED champions it. Sanders, though, is now hard at work adding one more big, improbable change to the pile: Since 2023, he's been advocating for firm and decisive regulation of the AI industry . In March of this year, Sanders and his frequent collaborator, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, proposed legislation that would halt data center construction until a series of safeguards are implemented. In June, Sanders announced the American AI Sovereign Wealth Fund Act, which would essentially tax AI's richest companies and result in direct payments to American citizens. I wanted to talk to Sanders about those bills, and his perspective on AI more broadly. On a deeper level, though, I was curious about how Sanders sees the barriers to regulation--from tech oligarchs and deep-pocketed super PACs, to a federal administration happier to enrich itself via technology than actually govern it--and whether he thinks those seemingly intractable obstacles can be overcome. After a few months of haranguing, Sanders agreed to sit down, which is how I found myself in his modest DC campaign office watching the senator--thoughtful, genuine, vociferous as ever--grapple in real time with what he describes as "the most consequential, transformational technology in the history of humanity." Sanders and I spoke on Tuesday, June 23, as the New York Democratic primary was underway. I woke up the next day, our conversation echoing in my head, to find that a coalition of democratic socialists had swept their respective elections and sent party stalwarts into an existential tailspin. A few hours later, New Jersey representative Frank Pallone, the top Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, became the most mainstream member of the party to publicly support an AI data center moratorium .

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Follow this author to personalize your feed and get instant alerts. Follow Go to your personalized feed WHY FOLLOW? Smart Alerts: Get notified about major news as it happens. Gun violence is the leading cause of death for children in the United States. Each year, more than 4,400 children and teens are shot and killed, and over 17,000 are shot and wounded--an average of 60 per day .

Illinois Lawmakers Just Passed America's Strongest AI Safety Bill The bill requires companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google to have third parties confirm they're following safety standards. The Illinois House of Representatives passed a bill on Wednesday requiring frontier AI labs like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google DeepMind to have their safety practices audited by a third party. If signed into law, AI safety experts tell WIRED, it would be the nation's leading check on the power of major AI companies . The bill, SB 315, now heads to governor JB Pritzker's desk. In a post on social media on Wednesday, Pritzker said he plans to sign the bill, citing a need to hold Big Tech accountable.

Global affairs chief Chris Lehane wants to tone down the debate over AI's societal impacts--and get states to pass laws that won't derail OpenAI's meteoric rise. Three months ago, OpenAI cofounder Greg Brockman told me his concerns about a mounting public relations crisis facing artificial intelligence companies: Despite the popularity of tools like ChatGPT, an increasingly large share of the population said they viewed AI negatively. Since then, the backlash has only intensified. College commencement speakers are now getting booed for talking about AI in optimistic terms. Last month, someone threw a Molotov cocktail at OpenAI CEO Sam Altman's San Francisco home and wrote a manifesto advocating for crimes against AI executives.