Happy Tuesday! Here’s your Tuesday Tech Drop, the past week’s top stories from the intersection of politics and technology.
GAO’s DOGE probe hampered
Officials at some federal agencies are reportedly stonewalling the Government Accountability Office’s investigation into what sensitive information Elon Musk and other federal employees may have accessed while working for the so-called Department of Government Efficiency.
The Washington Post reported on officials who have spurned requests from the GAO, which conducts audits and investigations into federal misconduct. Wouldn’t you like to know whether and how Musk and his minions garnered access to some of the government’s most highly guarded documents? I, for one, am certainly curious why some officials are blocking these efforts.
A GAO spokeswoman told the Post that the agency remains “committed to fulfilling our statutory audit responsibilities,” adding, “Timely cooperation from [a] federal agency is essential to ensuring Congress has the information it needs to conduct effective oversight.”
I don’t know about you, but to me that sure sounds like “you better hand over the documents.”
Read more at The Washington Post.
Elon’s latest L
Musk lost his lawsuit against OpenAI that could have led to a massive overhaul of the artificial intelligence company. The ruling, which the X owner has vowed to appeal, was something of a victory for OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman.
But Altman didn’t survive unscathed, as there were parts of the trial that made him appear quite untrustworthy.
Read more at Bloomberg.
Trump’s stock trades
I wrote about a new financial disclosure showing that President Donald Trump bought and sold stocks in tech companies, including Palantir and Nvidia, while his administration has had a hand in regulating — and enriching — these companies. As I see it, the Palantir stock purchases in particular raise fresh concerns about the motivations behind the president’s anti-immigrant crackdown.
Read more at MS NOW.
‘Purge Palantir’ movement notches a win
Speaking of Palantir, Germany’s spy agency has reportedly decided to use a French software company rather than the American firm. The decision marks a victory for the “Purge Palantir” movement, a growing push for governments and businesses to sever ties with the Trump-aligned company.
Read more at Politico.
MAGA world’s AI worries
Steve Bannon and a bunch of MAGA influencers are fretting over the AI revolution and what it could mean for humans, so they all sent an open letter to Trump, begging him to impose his will on the industry. I wrote about why their push for Trump to take a central role in AI regulation is a terrible idea.
Read more at MS NOW.
Grassley extends an invitation to Big Tech
In a post on X late last week, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, invited top CEOs from Google, TikTok, Meta and Snapchat to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee next month to discuss what measures they’re taking to keep children and families safe.
Why Grassley, the committee chairman, neglected to invite Musk, whose scandal-plagued platform he used to make the announcement, is certainly worth pondering.
Pope’s AI encyclical
Pope Leo is linking up with a co-founder of AI company Anthropic to launch an encyclical — basically, a guide on the church’s philosophy on different topics — focused on AI. The pope recently condemned the use of AI weapons in war, warning they can lead to a “spiral of annihilation.”
Read more at Bloomberg.
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