Trump Quietly Killed AI Safeguard After Accepting Millions

A new report tracks the series of donations AI executives made before Trump scrapped a major regulation.

President Trump scuttled a major AI guardrail after a series of tech executives donated to his political operation.

The Lever reports that in September 2024, the Biden administration began the process of implementing a rule that required AI companies to report their experiments to regulators at the federal government. At the time, officials said that the rule was aimed at preventing “dangerous accidents” that “could result in injury or even loss of life.”

AI investors and companies such as OpenAI balked at the requirement, even as many safety officials resigned or were pushed out over its warning about lax safety regulations. Leading AI investors started donating millions to Trump’s reelection campaign, and after he won in November, they opened their wallets even further.

Just before Trump’s inauguration, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s Tools for Humanity company donated $5 million to Trump’s super PAC, MAGA Inc. Only nine days later, Trump signed an executive order ending Biden’s AI policies, including the reporting rule, although it was still on the federal regulatory agenda.

Then more tech donations arrived in Trump’s coffers. In February, Open AI investor Marc Adreesson donated $500,000 to MAGA Inc., and his partner Ben Horowitz matched the donation. The next month, they donated another $5 million, and in June, Elon Musk, who has his own xAi venture, donated $5 million himself. In September, OpenAI co-founder and president Greg Brockman and his wife donated a combined $25 million to MAGA Inc.

In December, more than a year after the Biden administration proposed the AI disclosure rule, it was formally withdrawn from the federal regulatory agenda. Today, these same AI leaders are claiming they always supported regulating the technology and are demanding lawmakers step in after some high-profile hacking incidents. It’s a far cry from the millions they spent to ensure the government would leave them alone.

Russian Plot to Infiltrate Secret Service Exposed

An American man allegedly concealed his company’s Russian ties to help with the plot.

A software company contracted by the U.S. government claimed it had no ties to Russia. That does not seem to be the case.

Oxygen Forensics CEO Lee Reiber and Russian national Oleg Sergeyevich Davydov were arrested and charged by the Department of Justice with conspiracy to commit wire fraud earlier this week.

Reiber allegedly advertised that his company, which provides forensic and archival services for electronic data, exclusively sold American-made software and had no foreign ownership.

Yet five Russian nationals, including Davydov, reportedly owned and controlled Oxygen Forensics through a holding company based in Cyprus, according to a criminal complaint released by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California. The company’s software, too, was Russian, the complaint alleged.

Several executive agencies were affected by the scheme: the Defense Department and components of the Department of Homeland Security, including the Secret Service, the National Computer Forensics Institute, Homeland Security Investigations, and the DHS Office of Inspector General.

The Secret........

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