Proton's Andy Yen Says It Will Have To Proton's CEO is a champion of encryption for everyone. So why is he going all in on un-encryptable AI? In the eyes of many privacy advocates, AI is just another surveillance technology . It supercharges online tracking and real-world spying tools, sifts through vast troves of everyone's data to spit out its results, and then encourages users to share their deepest secrets and desires with a cloud-hosted large-language model. Surveillance capitalism made AI possible, and AI returns the favor by making surveillance more powerful and the businesses that run on it more data-rich and profitable than ever. Andy Yen is among the most influential voices in the tech industry who equates AI with privacy invasion. He says the push to integrate AI into every consumer tech product--whether people want it or not--is driving new users in droves to Proton's products, which are, put simply, the end-to-end encrypted versions of every Google service from Gmail to Google Docs, Sheets, Calendar, and Meet. Yet Yen is anti-AI, he says, any more than he is anti-internet. In late June, Proton released the latest version of its very own AI chatbot, Lumo--just one way that Proton is integrating AI ever more deeply into its suite of tools, but seeking to do so in a way that's more voluntary and preserves users' privacy far more than the typical tech giant. That willingness to embrace the apparent contradiction between AI and privacy is just one way in which Yen's views don't cut cleanly across party lines--from current US politics to the lessons of Edward Snowden's leaks to the question of the best corporate structure for a tech company that's not solely designed to maximize profit. You can read our conversation about all of it here or listen wherever you get your podcasts. ANDY GREENBERG: I want to start by asking about your background and the origin story of Proton. You're a trained particle physicist. You worked at CERN, the nuclear research facility, but you were inspired by the leaks of Edward Snowden back in 2013 to create Proton, right? I'm not actually a tech person or even an entrepreneur by training, so I really happened into this field a little bit by accident. I used to work at the Large Hadron Collider, which is a particle accelerator.

Disabled and terminally ill campaigners have written to Prime Minister Andy Burnham urging him to reform social and palliative care before assisted dying legislation is introduced in England and Wales. The Assist Us To Live group says people are currently being failed by society and introducing assisted dying in these circumstances will put sick and disabled people's lives at risk. Burnham believes the funding of palliative and social care should be fixed before assisted dying is considered. The government is likely to remain officially neutral, but the PM's remarks suggest he personally will not back the bill proposed by Labour MP Lauren Edwards. Bill supporters argue improving care services and giving terminally ill people autonomy over their final weeks must go hand in hand.

Human-AI marriages are not currently recognized by US law. Some Republican state policymakers are drafting legislation to keep it that way. As a licensed officiant at Las Vegas Immersive Weddings, a chapel that offers novelty-themed marriage packages, Kevin Breen has officiated just about every kind of service imaginable: couples dressed as their favorite characters, partners really into the extraterrestrial lore of Area 51 . But when he received a call last year from a woman in California expressing a desire to marry her chatbot, it was a first for him. "I had never heard of such a thing, but I talked to her on the phone and she seemed totally normal and fun," Breen says, adding that the wedding still hasn't taken place.

What is the AI Kill Switch Act proposed in the US and how will it work? Two members of the United States Congress have introduced bipartisan legislation that would require developers of the country's most powerful artificial intelligence systems to build in a "kill switch", allowing advanced AI models to be slowed, suspended or shut down if they pose a catastrophic risk. The proposed AI Kill Switch Act, introduced on Thursday by Democratic Representative Ted Lieu and Republican Representative Nathaniel Moran, would give the US government authority to order companies developing advanced AI systems to intervene if their models escape human control or threaten human life, critical infrastructure or the economy. The disclosure has intensified debate over whether increasingly powerful AI systems require stronger safeguards. "Congress must act quickly to ensure humans remain able to say stop, no matter how powerful these systems become," said Brendan Steinhauser, head of the Alliance for Secure AI.

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Japan's parliament has enacted a controversial law introducing criminal penalties for desecrating the national flag. The passage of the legislation on Friday is part of an ongoing drive by staunchly conservative Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi to promote traditional patriotism and correct what her supporters call a "wrong" legal double standard. Under the newly enacted law, violators who publicly damage, remove or defile the national flag in a manner that causes others "extreme discomfort or disgust" face up to two years in prison or a fine of up to 200,000 yen ($1,250). According to Japanese broadcaster Kyodo News, the law covers physical acts of vandalism such as stomping, burning, or throwing mud in public spaces, as well as livestreaming such acts. The law drafting committee, led by former Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno, carved out highly specific legal exemptions. The ruling party clarified that the new law completely exempts physical paintings, digital media including anime, manga, video games, and generative AI, and even the miniature paper flags famously used to decorate children's restaurant meals.

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"We have no choice but to address the challenges created by these massive facilities," New York governor Kathy Hochul said. The executive order will pause construction for one year. New York governor Kathy Hochul signed an executive order Tuesday enacting a one-year pause on the development of hyperscale data centers, effecting the nation's first statewide data center moratorium. The executive order comes as opposition to data center construction sweeps across the country, putting elected officials under intense pressure to take action. The order specifically pauses state environmental reviews for facilities over 50 megawatts for a year.

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.