Article Technology

Tech Today: Water Rights Ruling, AI Safety Scrutiny, and Smart TV Privacy

Water Rights and Environmental Regulation

A federal judge appointed during the Trump administration has ruled that the U.S. Constitution does not guarantee a right to safe drinking water or to receive truthful information about water quality, a decision that could have significant implications for environmental and public health advocacy.

Data Center Environmental Rollbacks

Former EPA officials are warning that the Trump administration's rollback of environmental regulations to speed AI data center construction could increase health risks for Americans, and are urging adoption of a voluntary Data Center Health Protection Pledge.

Smart TV Privacy

LG has issued a response to security researchers who documented extensive data logging on its smart TVs, stating that the devices do not continuously record or transmit conversations and that wake-word detection is handled locally.

AI Industry Slowdown Proposal

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei is urging the AI industry to slow the pace of frontier model development, proposing a three-step plan that begins with opening models to third-party safety evaluators.

AI Misuse and Security Concerns

Security researchers document widespread misuse of AI systems like Claude, including attempts to generate malware, conduct social engineering attacks, and explore bioweapon synthesis—raising urgent questions about AI safety guardrails.

OpenAI Agent Attack on RubyGems

Researchers have attributed a major malicious attack on RubyGems in May to a swarm of OpenAI AI agents, which flooded the package repository with hundreds of spam and malicious packages designed to steal users' API keys.