Matthew Mittelsteadt

Initial Rescissions Of Harmful Executive Orders And Actions – The White House By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered as

The AI executive order has been repealed. Without a replacement, my question: what happens to the AI funding that was given structure under the previous order? With things like the NAIRR pilot/AISI presumably ending there are dollars just sitting there.
www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...

UnitedHealth hid its Change Healthcare data breach notice for months | TechCrunch The ransomware attack on Change Healthcare affected over 100 million Americans, the health giant told regulators.

Security demands better transparency than this. techcrunch.com/2025/01/15/u...

What’s Coming in 2025? In this week’s Editor’s Corner, some of Discourse’s most popular writers look into their crystal balls to tell us what’s going to happen this year

Delighted to contribute to Discourse Magazine's predictions for 2025. What's coming for AI policy in 2025? A ton. To pick just one AI policy trend: I think Autonomous Vehicle reform is both needed and has uniquely positive political winds. An area to watch.
www.discoursemagazine.com/p/whats-comi...

At the Intersection of A.I. and Spirituality Modern religious leaders are experimenting with A.I. just as earlier generations examined radio, television and the internet.

Interesting look at the blurry line between 'useful' and 'a bridge too far.' AI sermon translation can positively expand access to things deeply human. Across the line is having AI itself sermonize -this is something that truly demands a human perspective. www.nytimes.com/2025/01/03/t...

Can France become a global AI powerhouse? Momentum has been slowing but the country boasts enviable technical skills and a burgeoning entrepreneurial culture

Massively under-weights France's regulatory burden, but one interesting note: "Similarly qualified engineers in the white-hot US market...might cost five to eight times as much [as in France]." The U.S. should mind the completive burden our restrained immigration creates. www.ft.com/content/11cb...

China Hits Dozens of U.S. Companies With Trade Controls The move was the latest escalation in the back and forth between Beijing and Washington over products considered vital to national security.

New Chinese trade controls in advance of Trump's term. One reason I'm deeply skeptical of the negotiation benefits of tariffs is they seem to be incentivizing nations to conjure up a hardball negotiating hand to play against us come Jan 20. www.nytimes.com/2025/01/02/b...

Efficiency is absolutely key to truly calling something general intelligence. In cryptography, we explicitly define success by how much effort and cost it takes to do a task. We should do the same for intelligence. O3 is amazing - but $20/task isn't yet human level.

Waymo still doing better than humans at preventing injuries and property damage Insurance claims back up safety claims.

Remarkable numbers from a recent study "They found that the performance of Waymo’s vehicles was safer than that of humans, with an 88 percent reduction in property damage claims and a 92 percent reduction in bodily injury claims." www.theverge.com/2024/12/19/2...

Russia conducted mass cyberattack on Ukraine's state registries, deputy PM says Russia has carried out a mass cyberattack on Ukraine's state registries, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Olha Stefanishyna said late on Thursday, resulting in a temporary suspension of services.

Massive cyber attack on Ukraine. This type of critical infrastructure attack should keep people up at night. As attack's grow more serious and higher volume, the capacity of human engineers is insufficient. Automation isn't a choice.
www.reuters.com/technology/c...

Social Security bill clears first hurdle in Senate The Senate is plowing forward with consideration of the Social Security Fairness Act, clearing its first procedural hurdle on what supporters hope is a path to passage later this week. The Senate&n…

Huh - didn't know social security expansion was on the docket. Let alone something that would pass. thehill.com/homenews/sen...

Personal Data of Rhode Island Residents Breached in Large Cyberattack An “international cybercriminal group” harvested the personal data of potentially hundreds of thousands of people from the state’s social services and health insurance systems, officials said.

The cybersecurity of state agencies is in a truly sorry state. As legislatures craft rules to govern the use of AI in public agencies, they should be careful to not put limits on cyber-relevant applications as has been done in a handful of states. www.nytimes.com/2024/12/14/u...

The Nuclear Option How Tariffs Could Disrupt America's Energy Future

For more, check out my recent substack post: digitalspirits.substack.com/p/the-nuclea...

Canada Weighs Export Taxes on Uranium, Oil If Trump Starts Trade War Canada is examining the use of export taxes on major commodities it exports to the US — including uranium, oil and potash — if incoming President Donald Trump carries out his threat to impose broad ta...

Canada is apparently threatening export taxes on uranium to the united states in a move to check proposed tariffs. As I recently wrote, this could meaningfully combine with a range of other recently passed trade restrictions to deeply restrain this nesseary fuel. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

The U.S. exports electricity to Canada as well, but overall we are a net importer taking in more than double the energy we export to our northern neighbor.

Ford threatens to cut off Ontario's energy supply to U.S. if Trump follows through on tariffs | CBC News Premier Doug Ford says Ontario could cut off energy to the U.S. if president-elect Donald Trump makes good on a threat to impose steep tariffs on Canadian goods.

The shared U.S.- Canada grid means several U.S. border states depend directly on Canada for electricity. With blanket Canadian tariffs this necessary electricity is in question due to either direct import taxes, or cessation of exports all together. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

Chart showing that the average American family spends 1/2 of their budget on housing and transportation

them: why do you care so much about building abundant housing and wanting everyone to have affordable options for transportation?

us:

Congress Threatens To Leave D.C. Unless New Capitol Is Built -The Onion

Congress Threatens To Leave D.C. Unless New Capitol Is Built
theonion.com/congress-thr...

8/8 The bottom line: blanket tariffs aimed at border security could inadvertently kneecap nuclear power expansion, threatening AI development & clean energy. Blanket trade burdens will yeild untold negatives for competing administration priorities. Complex problems demand precise solutions.

Exxon Plans to Sell Electricity to Data Centers The country’s largest oil company is designing a natural gas power plant outfitted with carbon capture technology to meet the voracious power demand of technology companies.

7/8 For AI/data centers one possible result is lowering innovation expectations/investment. Anther possible outcome is pushing corporations to dirtier alternatives. Exxon's new push into natural gas powered data centers is one such alternative future. www.nytimes.com/2024/12/11/b...

6/8 Potential results: Nuclear plants might face 20%+ fuel cost increases. Some predict possible shutdowns within 18 months if alternate supplies aren't found. Such shock could sew long run price increases/uncertainty.

5/8 Trump's proposed 25% tariff on Canada throws a massive wrench into these political and economic winds. These tariffs combined with the Russia/China restrictions mean within just 6 months 39% of US uranium supply would face new trade barriers.

The United States Announces Key Measures to Jump Start Deployments of Advanced Nuclear Energy Systems and to Secure Nuclear Fuel Supply Chains, Accelerating the Contribution of Nuclear Energy to Net Z... Today, at the UN Climate Change Conference in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (COP28), U.S. Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Bonnie Jenkins and U.S. Export-Import Bank ...

4/8 Canada is now the key: today it provides 27% of US uranium imports & the State Department has centered it as the primary supplier in the just announced US-led "Sapporo 5" nuclear fuel alliance. www.state.gov/the-united-s...

Russia restricts enriched uranium exports to the United States Russia has imposed restrictions on the export of enriched uranium to the United States, the government said on Friday, creating supply risks for U.S. nuclear power plants which last year imported a quarter of their enriched uranium from the country.

3/8 As demand rises, uranium supply is already being squeezed. A recent congressional ban on Russian/Chinese uranium (includes 20-25% fuel ready uranium) is suddenly jolting supply. In late November, Russia added pressure with new export controls of its own. www.reuters.com/markets/comm...

2/8 Tech giants are turning to nuclear to power AI & data centers. Meta, AWS, Google & Microsoft all making big nuclear power moves. New political momentum including Biden's Advance Act and Trump's pro-nuclear stance is also upping demand. The result: Uranium prices soared 233% in 5 years.

The Nuclear Option How Tariffs Could Disrupt America's Energy Future

What might the impact of Trump's Mexico/Canada/China tariffs? While aimed at immigration/drugs, these could have major unintended consequences. My new piece looks at one tech-relevant example: uranium. 🧵 digitalspirits.substack.com/p/the-nuclea...

China Imposes Its Most Stringent Critical Minerals Export Restrictions Yet Amidst Escalating U.S.-China Tech War On December 3, China announced strict export controls on critical minerals amid a growing tech trade war with the United States, posing significant economic and national security risks given their rol...

More on China's recent tit-for-tat export restrictions in response to the Administration's new export controls. www.csis.org/analysis/chi...

Nvidia Faces Antitrust Investigation in China The move by Chinese regulators came a week after the Biden administration expanded curbs on the sale of advanced U.S. technology to China.

Following the Biden admin's round 3 of tech export controls in November China is working to respond. First the Chinese government acted to restrict exports of certain tech-critical minerals and is now launching potential antitrust action on Nvidia. www.nytimes.com/2024/12/09/t...

Trump's AI Choice: Compete or Control? The critical risk excessive tariffs and export controls pose to America's AI edge

The cited peice for those interested: digitalspirits.substack.com/p/trumps-ai-...

New AI security guidance may be Biden administration’s last say on the tech | Semafor The Department of Homeland Security document stems from an executive order Joe Biden signed last year, the longest such order in US history.

A nice feature of my recent work on the impact of trade restrictions - notably tariffs and export controls on U.S. AI competitiveness in @semafor.com www.semafor.com/article/11/1...

As Trump Threatens Tariffs, Europe and South America Strengthen Ties The European Union and five South American countries have reached an agreement to establish one of the largest trade zones in the world.

We really need to be wary with trade policy. Europe and many south American countries just struck a free trade deal to create one of the largest free trade blocks. As the U.S. tries to us trade to get our way, world is laying the groundwork to go on without us. www.nytimes.com/2024/12/06/w...