Happy Tuesday! Here’s your Tuesday Tech Drop, some of the past week’s top stories from the intersection of technology and politics.
Florida has filed a lawsuit accusing OpenAI of putting the public at risk by prioritizing profit over safety. The suit accuses the artificial intelligence company of aiding and abetting mass shooters and makes reference to the alleged use of ChatGPT to help plan a shooting at Florida State University last year.
OpenAI previouslydenied responsibilityin the fatal shooting at FSU, which has led to a civil lawsuit against the company, and said it implements safeguards to “detect harmful intent, limit misuse, and respond appropriately when safety risks arise.”
Read more atNPR.
A recent report from The New York Times on the Epstein files — that is, the ones not currently being withheld by President Donald Trump’s Justice Department — reveals details about late financier Jeffrey Epstein’s arrangements to have his sperm held in a cryobank after he died.
The arrangement, made with a California-based company that said it no longer has Epstein’s genetic material, raises obvious questions about the convicted sex offender’s reported goal ofseeding the human race with his DNA.
Read more atthe Times.
Google is seeking the federal government’s permission to release up to 32 million mosquitoes in Florida and California as part of a project aimed at lowering the number of illness-spreading bugs.
Read more atThe Guardian.
Connecticut Attorney General William Tong has launched an investigation into Roblox over reports about the gaming platform leaving children vulnerable to abuse. Roblox haspreviously respondedto such concerns by saying that “no system is perfect” and that it has implemented “rigorous safeguards.”
Read morehere.
Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., has launched an inquiry to determine whether TikTok’s U.S. operations and Oracle — the tech company that signed on to be the “trusted security partner” for TikTok in the U.S. — are “protecting against national security risks, including potential Chinese-driven algorithmic manipulation.”
Read morehere.
Two months removed from herrole as attorney general, Pam Bondi was appointed to the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, a panel on which she’ll be tasked with helping AI companies “clear bureaucratic hurdles” in states across the country. The move comes amid broad public skepticism about AI companies and concern about their impact on society.
Read more atThe Hill.
