Melania Trump's AI Era Is Upon Us The ever elusive first lady has emerged with a brief to exert thought leadership over AI, for the children. Some insiders are excited; others won't touch the subject with a 10-foot pole. Even more so than the first time around, Melania Trump's tenure as first lady thus far has been more notable for her absence than her presence. But that's beginning to change. The ever elusive first lady, who has been highly sparing in her public appearances, emerged in recent weeks to highlight the newest addition to her slim policy portfolio: artificial intelligence, for the children.

Late yesterday afternoon, the president of the United States transformed, very briefly, into the comms guy for a new tech company. At a press conference capping his first full day back in the White House, Donald Trump stood beside three of the most influential executives in the world--Sam Altman of OpenAI, Larry Ellison of Oracle, and Masayoshi Son of SoftBank--and announced the Stargate Project, "the largest AI infrastructure project, by far, in history." Although Trump's rhetoric may seem to suggest otherwise, Stargate is not a new federal program but rather a private venture uniting these three companies with other leaders in the AI race, such as Microsoft and Nvidia. The new company--for which Son will serve as chairman and OpenAI will be in charge of operations--will spend a planned 500 billion over the next four years to build data centers, power plants, and other such digital infrastructure in the United States, all in hopes of developing ever more advanced AI models. Trump presented Stargate as a victory for his "America First" agenda, saying that it may "lead to something that could be the biggest of all"--an apparent reference to superintelligent machines.

Artificial intelligence that can generate text, images and other content could help improve state programs but also poses risks, according to a report released by the governor's office on Tuesday. Generative AI could help quickly translate government materials into multiple languages, analyze tax claims to detect fraud, summarize public comments and answer questions about state services. Still, deploying the technology, the analysis warned, also comes with concerns around data privacy, misinformation, equity and bias. "When used ethically and transparently, GenAI has the potential to dramatically improve service delivery outcomes and increase access to and utilization of government programs," the report stated. The 34-page report, ordered by Gov. Gavin Newsom, provides a glimpse into how California could apply the technology to state programs even as lawmakers grapple with how to protect people without hindering innovation.

It's been four full days since Sam Altman's shocking dismissal from OpenAI, and we still have no idea where he's going to land. There are suggestions that Altman, one of the most powerful figures in AI, could return to the company if the board changes significantly--talks are reportedly under way. But there is also an offer on the table from Microsoft to start a new AI research group there, which would be a cruelly ironic outcome for OpenAI, which was founded as a nonprofit with the goal of drawing talent away from Silicon Valley's biggest companies and developing AI safely. How Altman got to this moment is telling. In the days after his firing, he managed to prove that he is far more than a figurehead, winning over a majority of OpenAI employees (including Ilya Sutskever, the company's chief scientist and the reported architect of his dismissal--it's, uh, complicated) and some of the tech industry's biggest luminaries.

Last month, I found myself in a particular seat. A few places to my left was Elon Musk. Down the table to my right sat Bill Gates. Across the room sat Satya Nadella, Microsoft's CEO, and not too far to his left was Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Google. At the other end of the table sat Sam Altman, the head of OpenAI, the company responsible for ChatGPT.

The scientist behind a landmark letter calling for a pause in developing powerful artificial intelligence systems have said tech executives did not halt their work because they are locked in a "race to the bottom". Despite support from more than 30,000 signatories, including Elon Musk and the Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, the document failed to secure a hiatus in developing the most ambitious systems. Speaking to the Guardian six months on, Tegmark said he had not expected the letter to stop tech companies working towards AI models more powerful than GPT-4, the large language model that powers ChatGPT, because competition has become so intense. "I felt that privately a lot of corporate leaders I talked to wanted [a pause] but they were trapped in this race to the bottom against each other. So no company can pause alone," he said.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday signed an executive order directing state agencies to examine the benefits and risks of artificial intelligence that can generate text, images and other content. The executive order sets the stage for potential regulation around what's known as generative AI technology, which has already raised concerns about misinformation, plagiarism, bias and child safety. The governor and California lawmakers thus far have been cautious about regulating technology they might not fully understand and hindering business innovations that fuel the state's economy. "We recognize both the potential benefits and risks these tools enable. We're neither frozen by the fears nor hypnotized by the upside," Newsom said in a statement.

Tom Newhouse, vice president of Convergence Media, discusses the potential impact of artificial intelligence on elections after an RNC AI ad garnered attention. Sen. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., warned this week that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is using artificial intelligence to stoke disinformation globally through "deep fakes." "The CCP will stop at nothing to sow chaos and confusion within our country and around the world." Ricketts said at a Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee hearing. "Deep fakes are the newest chapter in disinformation operations used to weaken the United States and our allies. We must develop a cross-government strategy to combat these threats."

'Cut to the Chase' podcast host Laura Curran, Fox News contributor Joe Concha and political analyst Gianno Caldwell discuss Biden's 2024 efforts after a poll showed 28% of Democratic primary voters prefer other candidates. President Biden assigned himself a light schedule this week with no public events from Tuesday through Thursday, and let Vice President Kamala Harris take the lead on a meeting with companies on artificial intelligence. The only listed activity from Biden today was a private briefing with Harris, who will then meet with tech executives on AI and then depart to Richmond, Virginia, for an event on small businesses. The president is not listed as an attendee for either event. President Biden has no scheduled events Thursday as he tapped Vice President Kamala Harris to lead a meeting on artificial intelligence.

AI varies from industry to industry. There are just as many use cases for AI as there are companies. For healthcare organizations, AI is playing a role in monitoring equipment, while retailers see AI as a way to better understand customers. Transportation executives are banking on AI to drive autonomous vehicles. The common denominator across all industry groups is the rate that AI is changing the way things get done.