Latest Technology Posts

On November 25, 2025, the National Association of Attorneys General, led by Connecticut Attorney General William Tong, sent a letter on behalf of a bipartisan coalition of 36 state attorneys general to Congress. The letter urged Congress leaders to reject the proposed ban on state-level artificial intelligence (AI) laws.  The attorneys general argue that a broad federal law would prevent individual states from addressing and responding to AI risks quickly.

Tech billionaires are spending at historic levels to influence politics in California.  Google and Facebook, and their  CEO’s, are donating heavily to key races in November 2026, as are venture capitalists, cryptocurrency entrepreneurs, and Palantir’s co-founders. Whether or not the candidates they are backing win, they will have an impact.

Two new reports document the alarming rise of online violence against women and girls. Sex trafficking, sexualized images, and stalking and exploitation online are nothing new.  But Artificial Intelligence has exacerbated the problem.  Deepfakes almost exclusively target women; in fact, some of the technology used to create them, developed by mostly male teams, only works on female forms.

In 2025, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) signaled that it would use existing federal law to address algorithmic discrimination in automated decision-making services regarding hiring, lending, and tenant screening. Some tech companies argue that the FTC is overreaching in the absence of explicit AI laws. The FTC’s push highlights how federal agencies are reshaping AI governance on a case-by-case basis rather than implementing broad new laws.

The Federal-State battle over AI regulation has heated up after President Trump signed an executive order on Dec. 11 that blocks states from enforcing their own regulations on artificial intelligence. The order seeks to create a “single national framework” for AI. However state lawmakers, tech experts, and civil rights organizations are worried about what this means for the country. Many believe that federal regulations could slow down America’s competitiveness in the global AI race and will have serious implications for national security.

When Uber and Lyft came on the scene, taxi drivers protested vociferously.  Now it’s the rideshare drivers protesting, as their earnings go down and the threat of autonomous vehicles looms.  Organizing by rideshare drivers has had some success, but how effective hard-won changes will be remains to be seen.  Workers scored an apparent victory in securing collective bargaining rights in California.  But a similar law in Massachusetts has yet to yield results and the California law was a compromise that included enormous giveaways to the companies.

The future of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is not fully determined, but it will continue to have a significant impact on our society and the way we live. The ways it currently impacts society are through improvements in efficiency, productivity, and accessibility. Self-driving cars relying on AI, AI-powered robots are used to provide aid and assistance in the healthcare system, and AI security systems are used to automate threat detection, among other examples. Although AI creates positive advantages and impacts, it also creates negative effects. The negative effects cover the environment, employment and other fields. These examples are often caused by  products that use and incorporate AI, but what (potential) harm is created due to inaccuracies within the actual systems of AI?

California styles itself as a leader in AI regulation.  Two landmark bills were signed by Governor Newsom this year over the usual industry objections.  But the bills don’t go as far as safety advocates wanted, and don’t offer sufficient protections to young, vulnerable users.

Complaints about META’s failure to protect children from the ills of social media continue to plague the company.  Most recently, unauthorized images of children were used in ads for Meta’s Threads app, and a significant study of the company’s improvements in response to previous concerns criticized its efforts as largely ineffective.

Google’s critics and competitors celebrated a court decision last year that found Google in violation of antitrust laws due to its monopolies over search services and online advertising.  Smaller companies, increasingly dependent on search rankings and online ads, simply can’t compete