POLITICO Tech

Charles Jennings ran software companies for decades. The last one developed AI-powered facial recognition technology. But now he argues the most sophisticated artificial intelligence systems are too powerful to be left in private hands. On today’s POLITICO Tech, Jennings tells Steven Overly why the government should take over. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Center for Countering Digital Hate tracks hate speech and harmful content across social media platforms like TikTok and X. And in recent weeks, the tiny organization has drawn heat from Elon Musk and House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan for its work. On today’s POLITICO Tech, CEO Imran Ahmed tells Steven Overly how his organization is now responding by “setting a few” fires of its own. Learn more...

DC went all out for a major hacking convention this week. On today’s POLITICO Tech, Steven Overly and Mohar Chatterjee discuss the unconventional but necessary alliance between the federal government and the hacking community, and what to expect next. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Republican Congressman Ken Buck pushed for legislation to challenge the market dominance of companies like Google and Amazon. Many of those bills fell short. On today's POLITICO Tech, Buck tells Steven Overly how he is “laying the groundwork” for a future fight while shifting focus to more viable issues, including artificial intelligence. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoi...

Canada’s Liberal government picked a fight with two U.S. tech giants by passing legislation forcing Meta and Google to pay news publishers for content. But the battle hasn’t gone quite as expected. Steven Overly talks with Politico Canada reporter Kyle Duggan about Canada's stalemate with Meta and Google. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Supreme Court's ruling against affirmative action has prompted conservatives to target corporate diversity programs. On their list are the biggest companies in tech, an industry that has long struggled to hire a diverse workforce. On today's POLITICO Tech, Steven Overly talks with Brookings Institution expert Nicol Turner Lee about the potential consequences — for the companies and for their u...

A major gathering of “white hat” hackers will attack popular AI systems this weekend in an attempt to uncover security flaws. The so-called “red-teaming” exercise has attracted the support of the White House amid questions about the security of these powerful technologies. POLITICO tech reporter Mohar Chatterjee talks to one of the event’s organizers, SeedAI founder Austin Carson. Learn more about...

The 2024 campaign cycle is expected to unleash a torrent of AI-generated “deepfake” videos and images capable of deceiving voters. The Federal Election Commission is scheduled to vote today on a petition, initiated by advocacy group Public Citizen, that calls for banning political campaigns from distributing fake audio, video and images of their opponents. But the measure has failed before and ear...

Biden authorized $52 billion to rebuild the U.S. semiconductor industry one year ago today. Mike Schmidt is the guy charged with doling out the money. As director of the Commerce Department’s CHIPS Program Office, he manages the national security and finance experts picking the projects that will get a boost from taxpayers. On today’s episode, Schmidt lays out the agency’s vetting process — even a...

Gerard de Graaf opened the European Union’s first San Francisco office nearly a year ago, making him the bloc’s de facto ambassador to the U.S. tech industry. His position is part cop, part counselor, part hype man. De Graaf speaks with Steven Overly about the EU’s ambitions in Silicon Valley and what has surprised him most about the place, including CEOs who are more comfortable with regulation t...

First came Denmark. Then the U.K. and, more recently, the EU. A growing list of governments are setting up de facto embassies in Silicon Valley, largely to develop closer relationships with tech companies. POLITICO’s Steven Overly and Brendan Bordelon break down the purpose of these outposts, what they’re really like on the inside, and what they signal about the political and commercial pull of th...

On Friday, writers and studios are slated to hold the first talks they will have had in three months. Steven Overly talks with filmmaker Justine Bateman, who predicts expects artificial intelligence will be the harbinger of the end of movies and television as we know it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Republican Todd Young is one of four senators charting the chamber’s path forward on artificial intelligence — a path he doesn’t expect will lead to sweeping AI legislation. In this episode, Steven Overly talks with Young about his vision for regulating this fast-moving technology and why the solution to concerns about bias, national security and even "doomsday scenarios" lies outside Congress. Le...

Ronnie Chatterji — one of President Biden's key players on microchips — is leaving the White House this week, Politico exclusively reports. Chatterji joined the Commerce Department during the height of the supply chain crisis and quickly focused his attention on chips. Steven Overly talks with Chatterji about what’s left to do on chips, how well global competition is being managed, and what to wat...

Starting Wednesday, the POLITICO Tech podcast is your daily download on the disruption that technology is bringing to politics and policy. From AI and the metaverse to disinformation and microchips, we explore how today’s technology is shaping our world — and driving the policy decisions, global rivalries and industries that will matter tomorrow. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.f...

Want a personal insight into some of the world's most notorious cybercriminals through a neutral party? We interviewed a malware librarian to find out how the geopolitics surrounding the Russia-Ukraine war actually played out in the cybercriminal underground and the complex motivations of the people launching dangerous malware attacks against critical computing systems. Learn more about your ad ch...

This episode, we're setting our gaze on the other side of the Atlantic. Laurens Cerulus, our Politico colleague in Brussels, joins us to talk about how European diplomacy has evolved to take on the cross-borders challenge of investigating and prosecuting cybercrime. We talk about the Budapest Convention, an international legal framework governing cybercrime investigations. We take the pulse on how...

There are numerous agencies in the federal government involved in investigating and taking down cybercriminals. But Congress passes regulations that can improve that fight. We talk to Congressman Jim Himes (D-Ct.), chair of the House Subcommittee on National Security, International Development, and Monetary Policy. Rep. Himes is of the few people who can tell elaborate on how crypto comes into pla...

We kick off the second week of this limited series by taking you behind the scenes on the interdepartmental and intercontinental effort to successfully prosecute darknet cybercrimes. Across federal agencies, we find that a few digitally savvy investigators and prosecutors are leading the charge on revamping the law enforcement strategy for taking on cybercriminals. We talk to Zia Faruqui — a feder...

Now at the halfway point of the series, we talk to a former military cyber-intelligence officer about the feedback loop between the defense community and the private sector and unpack the domestic threats posed by nation-state actors in the cybercriminal underground. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Funded by the Secret Service, the National Computer Forensics Institute is tasked with training law enforcement officers across the country in the tools they need to combat crime in an increasingly digital world. In this episode of our series on darknet forums, we dig into the top-down information-sharing model between federal, state, and local law enforcement officials. We see how jurisdictional...

In the third episode of our series on darknet marketplaces, we’ll meet investigators who spent their careers examining these dark corners of the internet with a magnifying glass. We learn how to follow the money with the woman who pioneered what would eventually become the DEA’s Cyber Support Section. We talk to an ex-FBI agent who brought down global hacking collectives and darknet forums. N matt...

In the second episode of our series on darknet marketplaces, we look at the personalities that helped build popular darknet forums and learn about the communication technologies and cryptocurrencies their members rely on. We also dig into how the geopolitics of the Russia-Ukraine war changed the nature of cooperation amongst cyber criminals on the dark net. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit...

Welcome to POLITICO Tech. We’re kicking off with a limited series exploring darknet marketplaces, some of the least regulated parts of the world wide web. As malware and cybercrime attacks become increasingly frequent, regulators and law enforcement agencies work different angles to shut these platforms down, but new, often more unassailable, marketplaces pop up. We’ll trace the latest evolution o...

The account of a 10-year-old Ohio girl seeking an abortion in Indiana has garnered international attention amid the fall of Roe v. Wade. Indiana's Attorney General is threatening criminal charges against the doctor who performed the abortion. Alice Miranda Ollstein reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices