How the “Mythos Moment” Can Lead to Better AI Policy

Source: The Dispatch
by Steven Weber

“For more than three years, public debate about the risk-benefit balance around artificial intelligence has been dysfunctional bordering on ridiculous, hostage to a binary so crude it would embarrass a freshman seminar. On one side are the ‘doomers,’ who are portrayed as insisting that frontier AI is an existential threat requiring immediate radical constraint. On the other are the ‘boomers,’ who treat any suggestion of oversight as a sci-fi-coded slowdown that would hand American technological supremacy to China. Each camp has its prophets, forums, think tanks, and a remarkable capacity to mistake assertion for argument. But the world just changed, and that dialogue is ready to end. That’s good news for amplifying the upside potential of AI.” (05/21/26)

https://thedispatch.com/article/artificial-intelligence-mythos-regulation-innovation/

Thomas L. Knapp

DC: Taxpayer spending on “exorcisms” derails Senate testimony

Source: Fox News

“Sen. John Kennedy [R-LA] railed against California’s Medicaid program, Medi-Cal, which is facing scrutiny from the Trump administration over fraud allegations, as Kennedy highlighted reports during a Tuesday hearing that the state covers exorcisms and other faith-based healing practices. Medi-Cal’s spending practices have faced growing scrutiny as California’s Medicaid spending has more than doubled since 2019, rising from roughly $100.7 billion to a projected $222 billion in 2026. Just last week, the Trump administration suspended $1.4 billion in federal funding for California home health and hospice programs after Vice President J.D. Vance’s anti-fraud task force identified an estimated $600 million in suspected fraud within the state’s Medicaid system. Kennedy alleged during his line of questioning to Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche that taxpayer dollars were being used to cover the cost of exorcisms, a religious practice most commonly associated with the Catholic Church, and other indigenous spiritual practices.” (05/21/26)

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/taxpayer-spending-exorcisms-derails-senate-testimony-what-hell-we-doing-about-it

Steve Trinward

Half the Answer, episode 84

Source: Liberal Currents

“Trent and Caitlin discuss recent AI news, Sam Altman’s troubles legal and otherwise, labor organizing as a strategy against the worst fears of AI experts, and whether Richard Dawkins is conscious, in this news digest episode with linguist and AI researcher Hagen Blix.” (05/21/26)

https://www.liberalcurrents.com/richard-dawkins-finds-love-isolation-as-a-societal-norm-and-other-ai-news-half-the-answer-84-with-hagen-blix/

Thomas L. Knapp

Trump’s Beijing Visit Shows the Limits of Diplomacy

Source: Libertarian Institute
by Joseph Solis-Mullen

“President Donald Trump’s recent two-day summit in Beijing with Chinese President Xi Jinping concluded much as anticipated. In an article written ahead of the trip, I noted that expectations for substantive breakthroughs in the fraught Sino-American relationship were likely to be disappointed. The events of the visit bore this out. While the tone was notably, and welcomely, warmer than in recent years and both sides touted ‘fantastic trade deals,’ the core structural tensions — trade imbalances, technology restrictions, Taiwan, and regional security — remain largely unaddressed.” (05/21/26)

https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/trumps-beijing-visit-shows-the-limits-of-diplomacy

Thomas L. Knapp

Is Chaos the Point in South Carolina?

Source: The American Prospect
by Gabrielle Gurley

“After the Supreme Court gutted voting rights in Louisiana v. Callais, it was all over but the shouting. This week in South Carolina, state lawmakers are proceeding with the Great Erasure of African American voters without the legal hindrances of the Voting Rights Act, that now timeworn relic of the late Great Society. Their goal? To create a congressional dream team of seven GOP House members by zeroing out Rep. James Clyburn, a longtimer with 33 years in Congress, and the only Black Democrat to represent South Carolina in the House in state history. Indeed, Clyburn is the ninth Black person to represent the state in Congress; the first eight were all Republicans elected during Reconstruction in the late 19th century, before Jim Crow ended Black voting in the South, and when the parties had opposite views on civil rights compared to today.” (05/21/26)

https://prospect.org/2026/05/21/is-chaos-the-point-south-carolina-congress-redistricting-clyburn/

Steve Trinward

Democrats finally release 2024 election autopsy after criticism

Source: Axios

“The Democratic National Committee released what it said was its full, unredacted autopsy of the 2024 presidential election on Thursday after months of mounting pressure on party chair Ken Martin, who was keeping the report secret. … Martin released the report, first obtained by CNN, but simultaneously issued a statement distancing himself from it and its conclusions. ‘I am not proud of this product; it does not meet my standards and it won’t meet your standards,’ he wrote in a Substack post. … The report has an unusual disclaimer, saying it ‘reflects the views of the author, not the DNC. The DNC was not provided with the underlying sourcing, interviews, or supporting data for many of the assertions contained herein and therefore cannot independently verify the claims presented.'” (05/21/26)

https://archive.is/Jp2gc

Thomas L. Knapp

Waiting for the AI Bubble to Burst: Great Collapses of the Past

Source: CounterPunch
by Dean Baker

‘As we all wait for reality, and/or China, to catch up with the Silicon Valley AI boys, it might be a good time to go back in time a bit and see what it looked like in the past when our bubbles burst, specifically the tech bubble in 2001 and the housing bubble in 2008. Fortunately, it is easy to find the key data.” (05/21/26)

https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/05/21/waiting-for-the-ai-bubble-to-burst-great-collapses-of-the-past/

Thomas L. Knapp