Limited-time offer: Get more than 30% off a Vox Membership. Join today to support independent journalism. Federal civil servants are supposed to enjoy robust protections against being fired or demoted for political reasons. But President Donald Trump has effectively stripped them of these protections by neutralizing the federal agencies that implement these safeguards.An agency known as the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) hears civil servants’ claims that a “government employer discriminated against them, retaliated against them for whistleblowing, violated protections for veterans, or otherwise subjected them to an unlawful adverse employment action or prohibited personnel practice,” as a federal appeals court explained in an opinion on Tuesday. But the three-member board currently lacks the quorum it needs to operate because Trump fired two of the members.Trump also fired Hampton Dellinger, who until recently served as the special counsel of the United States, a role that investigates alleged violations of federal civil service protections and brings related cases to the MSPB. Trump recently nominated Paul Ingrassia, a far-right podcaster and recent law school graduate to replace Dellinger.The upshot of these firings is that no one in the government is able to enforce laws and regulations protecting civil servants. As Dellinger noted in an interview, the morning before a federal appeals court determined that Trump could fire him, he’d “been able to get 6,000 newly hired federal employees back on the job,” and was working to get “all probationary employees put back on the job [after] their unlawful firing” by the Department of Government Efficiency and other Trump administration efforts to cull the federal workforce. These and other efforts to reinstate illegally fired federal workers are on hold, and may not resume until Trump leaves office.Which brings us to the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit’s decision in National Association of Immigration Judges v. Owen, which proposes an innovative solution to this problem.As the Owen opinion notes, the Supreme Court has held that the MSPB process is the only process a federal worker can use if they believe they’ve been fired in violation of federal civil service laws. So if that process is shut down, the worker is out of luck.But the Fourth Circuit’s Owen opinion argues that this “conclusion can only be true…when the statute functions as Congress intended.” That is, if the MSPB and the special counsel are unable to “fulfill their roles prescribed by” federal law, then the courts should pick up the slack and start hearing cases brought by illegally fired civil servants.For procedural reasons, the Fourth Circuit’s decision will not take effect right away — the court sent the case back down to a trial judge to “conduct a factual inquiry” into whether the MSPB continues to function. And, even after that inquiry is complete, the Trump administration is likely to appeal the Fourth Circuit’s decision to the Supreme Court if it wants to keep civil service protections on ice.If the justices agree with the circuit court, however, that will close a legal loophole that has left federal civil servants unprotected by laws that are still very much on the books. And it will cure a problem that the Supreme Court bears much of the blame for creating.The “unitary executive,” or why the Supreme Court is to blame for the loss of civil service protectionsFederal law provides that Dellinger could “be removed by the President only for inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office,” and members of the MSPB enjoy similar protections against being fired. Trump’s decision to fire these officials was illegal under these laws.But a federal appeals court nonetheless permitted Trump to fire Dellinger, and the Supreme Court recently backed Trump’s decision to fire the MSPB members as well. The reason is a legal theory known as the “unitary executive,” which is popular among Republican legal scholars, and especially among the six Republicans that control the Supreme Court.If you want to know all the details of this theory, I can point you to three different explainers I’ve written on the unitary executive. The short explanation is that the unitary executive theory claims that the president must have the power to fire top political appointees charged with executing federal laws – including officials who execute laws protecting civil servants from illegal firings.But the Supreme Court has never claimed that the unitary executive permits the president to fire any federal worker regardless of whether Congress has protected them or not. In a seminal opinion laying out the unitary executive theory, for example, Justice Antonin Scalia argued that the president must have the power to remove “principal officers” — high-ranking officials like Dellinger who must be nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate. Under Scalia’s approach, lower-ranking government workers may still be given some protection.The Fourth Circuit cannot override the Supreme Court’s decision to embrace the unitary executive theory. But the Owen opinion essentially tries to police the line drawn by Scalia. The Supreme Court has given Trump the power to fire some high-ranking officials, but he shouldn’t be able to use that power as a back door to eliminate job protections for all civil servants.The Fourth Circuit suggests that the federal law which simultaneously gave the MSPB exclusive authority over civil service disputes, while also protecting MSPB members from being fired for political reasons, must be read as a package. Congress, this argument goes, would not have agreed to shunt all civil service disputes to the MSPB if it had known that the Supreme Court would strip the MSPB of its independence. And so, if the MSPB loses its independence, it must also lose its exclusive authority over civil service disputes — and federal courts must regain the power to hear those cases.It remains to be seen whether this argument persuades a Republican Supreme Court — all three of the Fourth Circuit judges who decided the Owen case are Democrats, and two are Biden appointees. But the Fourth Circuit’s reasoning closely resembles the kind of inquiry that courts frequently engage in when a federal law is struck down.When a court declares a provision of federal law unconstitutional, it often needs to ask whether other parts of the law should fall along with the unconstitutional provision, an inquiry known as “severability.” Often, this severability analysis asks which hypothetical law Congress would have enacted if it had known that the one provision is invalid.The Fourth Circuit’s decision in Owen is essentially a severability opinion. It takes as a given the Supreme Court’s conclusion that laws protecting Dellinger and the MSPB members from being fired are unconstitutional, then asks which law Congress would have enacted if it had known that it could not protect MSPB members from political reprisal. The Fourth Circuit’s conclusion is that, if Congress had known that MSPB members cannot be politically independent, then it would not have given them exclusive authority over civil service disputes.If the Supreme Court permits Trump to neutralize the MSPB, that would fundamentally change how the government functionsThe idea that civil servants should be hired based on merit and insulated from political pressure is hardly new. The first law protecting civil servants, the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act, which President Chester A. Arthur signed into law in 1883.Laws like the Pendleton Act do more than protect civil servants who, say, resist pressure to deny government services to the president’s enemies. They also make it possible for top government officials to actually do their jobs.Before the Pendleton Act, federal jobs were typically awarded as patronage — so when a Democratic administration took office, the Republicans who occupied most federal jobs would be fired and replaced by Democrats. This was obviously quite disruptive, and it made it difficult for the government to hire highly specialized workers. Why would someone go to the trouble of earning an economics degree and becoming an expert on federal monetary policy, if they knew that their job in the Treasury Department would disappear the minute their party lost an election?Meanwhile, the task of filling all of these patronage jobs overwhelmed new presidents. As Candice Millard wrote in a 2011 biography of President James A. Garfield, the last president elected before the Pendleton Act, when Garfield took office, a line of job seekers began to form outside the White House “before he even sat down to breakfast.” By the time Garfield had eaten, this line “snaked down the front walk, out the gate, and onto Pennsylvania Avenue.” Garfield was assassinated by a disgruntled job seeker, a fact that likely helped build political support for the Pendleton Act.By neutralizing the MSPB, Trump is effectively undoing nearly 150 years worth of civil service reforms, and returning the federal government to a much more primitive state. At the very least, the Fourth Circuit’s decision in Owen is likely to force the Supreme Court to ask if it really wants a century and a half of work to unravel.See More:

It has been 3 months since ACSA canceled the Fall 2025 Journal of Architectural Education (JAE) issue about Palestine and fired its interim executive editor, McClain Clutter. In response, the JAE editorial board resigned in protest. ACSA subsequently put out a solicitation for services to honor its contract with Taylor & Francis, who publishes JAE, and it sought new theme editors to publish an alternative Winter 2025 issue. ACSA also hired Maverick Publishing Specialists to conduct an independent review of JAE and ACSA editorial policy and practices related to the terminated 79.2 Palestine issue. University of Houston’s Rafael Longoria and Michelangelo Sabatino of the Illinois Institute of Technology are the Winter 2025 JAE 79:2 editors. Their theme for the issue? “Educating Civic Architects.” The new call for papers situates itself in our “increasingly complex economic, environmental, and political reality.” Theme editors seek “contributions that explore the full range of expressions of civic architecture and community design—past, present, and future.” The word “civic” is repeated throughout the open call, which echoes the Trump administration’s recent mandate for “beautiful federal civic architecture.”  The open call asks: “How might educating civic-minded architects help inspire and guide the profession? How do architecture schools foster a culture of collaboration with community and city leaders? How can design research inform the evolving role that civic-minded architects can play? Beyond the design studio, what role should the teaching of history, theory, professional practice, policy, technology, and other disciplines play in educating civic architects?” The open call cites Luiz Paulo Conde, an architect who became the mayor of Rio de Janeiro; former Peruvian architect-turned-president ​​Fernando Belaúnde Terry; and Jaime Lerner, an architect-turned-mayor-turned-governor from Brazil as cases to emulate. Terry organized PREVI, an ambitious social housing competition in Lima in the 1970s, but he also launched a settler-colonial campaign in Peru’s Indigenous territories. (Terry’s effort was outlined in his 1965 book Peru’s Own Conquest.) Italian mayors Giulio Carlo Argan and Massimo Cacciari, of Rome and Venice, respectively, were other examples of aesthete politicians JAE cited. Domestic examples are also offered, like Joseph P. Riley Jr., former mayor of Charleston, South Carolina; Harvey Gantt, former mayor of Charlotte, North Carolina; and Maurice Cox, who was mayor of Charlottesville, Virginia, before going on to leadership roles in Detroit and Chicago city government. Practicing architects are cited, like Richard Rogers and Johanna Hurme of 5468796 Architecture. The editors also invite reflections on postmodernism as it led to “increased attention on contextual design, vernacular architecture, and perhaps more significantly a reinvigorated interest in urban design.” ACSA executive director Michael Monti told AN: “We solicited proposals from a number of potential editorial teams. The interim editorial team for the Fall 2025 issue was selected through a committee of the Board of Directors. They authored the theme and the Call for Papers.” “The organization continues with the next steps for the journal that we communicated to our membership in the spring. This includes an external assessment of decisions, processes, and structures related to JAE and ACSA,” Monti added. “We are also convening a special committee to provide guidance on broader threats and issues facing our member schools. Those steps will inform the appointment of a new Executive Editor and Editorial Board in the upcoming months as well as the direction of the journal.” Disclosure: The author previously responded to the JAE’s call for papers for its now-canceled issue on Palestine.

This is today's edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what's going on in the world of technology. The Trump administration has shut down more than 100 climate studies The Trump administration has terminated National Science Foundation grants for more than 100 research projects related to climate change, according to an MIT Technology Review analysis of a database that tracks such cuts. The move will cut off what’s likely to amount to tens of millions of dollars for studies that were previously approved and, in most cases, already in the works. Many believe the administration’s broader motivation is to undermine the power of the university system and prevent research findings that cut against its politics. Read the full story. —James Temple This architect wants to build cities out of lava Arnhildur Pálmadóttir is an architect with an extraordinary mission: to harness molten lava and build cities out of it. Pálmadóttir believes the lava that flows from a single eruption could yield enough building material to lay the foundations of an entire city. She has been researching this possibility for more than five years as part of a project she calls Lavaforming. Together with her son and colleague Arnar Skarphéðinsson, she has identified three potential techniques that could change how future homes are designed and built from repurposed lava. Read the full story.—Elissaveta M. BrandonThis story is from the most recent edition of our print magazine, which is all about how technology is changing creativity. Subscribe now to read it and to receive future print copies once they land. The must-reads I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology. 1 America is failing to win the tech race against China In fields as diverse as drones and energy. (WSJ $)+ Humanoid robots is an area of particular interest. (Bloomberg $)+ China has accused the US of violating the pair’s trade truce. (FT $)2 Who is really in charge of DOGE? According to a fired staffer, it wasn’t Elon Musk. (Wired $)+ DOGE’s tech takeover threatens the safety and stability of our critical data. (MIT Technology Review) 3 Brazilians will soon be able to sell their digital dataIt’s the first time citizens will be able to monetize their digital footprint. (Rest of World) 4 The Trump administration’s anti-vaccine stance is stoking fear among scientists It’s slashing funding for mRNA trials, and experts are afraid to speak out. (The Atlantic $)+ This annual shot might protect against HIV infections. (MIT Technology Review)5 Tech companies want us to spend longer talking to chatbots Those conversations can easily veer into dangerous territory. (WP $)+ How we use AI in the future is up to us. (New Yorker $)+ This benchmark used Reddit’s AITA to test how much AI models suck up to us. (MIT Technology Review)6 Tiktok’s mental health videos are rife with misinformationA lot of the advice is useless at best, and harmful at worst. (The Guardian) 7 Lawyers are hooked on ChatGPTEven though it’s inherently unreliable. (The Verge) + Yet another lawyer has been found referencing nonexistent citations. (The Guardian)+ How AI is introducing errors into courtrooms. (MIT Technology Review)8 How chefs are using generative AI 👩‍🍳NYT $) + Watch this robot cook shrimp and clean autonomously. (MIT Technology Review)9 The influencer suing her rival has dropped her lawsuit The legal fight over ownership of a basic aesthetic has come to an end. (NBC News)10 Roblox’s new game has sparked a digital fruit underground market And players are already spending millions of dollars every week. (Bloomberg $) Quote of the day “We can’t substitute complex thinking with machines. AI can’t replace our curiosity, creativity or emotional intelligence.” —Mateusz Demski, a journalist in Poland, tells the Guardian about how his radio station employer laid him off, only to later launch shows fronted by AI-generated presenters. One more thing ​​Adventures in the genetic time machineAn ancient-DNA revolution is turning the high-speed equipment used to study the DNA of living things on to specimens from the past. The technology is being used to create genetic maps of saber-toothed cats, cave bears, and thousands of ancient humans, including Vikings, Polynesian navigators, and numerous Neanderthals. The total number of ancient humans studied is more than 10,000 and rising fast.The old genes have already revealed remarkable stories of human migrations around the globe.But researchers are hoping ancient DNA will be more than a telescope on the past—they hope it will have concrete practical use in the present. Read the full story. —Antonio Regalado We can still have nice things A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet 'em at me.) + The ancient Persians managed to keep cool using an innovative breeze-catching technique that could still be useful today.+ Knowledge is power—here’s a helpful list of hoaxes to be aware of.+ How said it: Homer Simpson or Pete Hegseth?+ I had no idea London has so many cat statues.

This is today's edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what's going on in the world of technology. The Trump administration has shut down more than 100 climate studies The Trump administration has terminated National Science Foundation grants for more than 100 research projects related to climate change, according to an MIT Technology Review analysis of a database that tracks such cuts. The move will cut off what’s likely to amount to tens of millions of dollars for studies that were previously approved and, in most cases, already in the works. Many believe the administration’s broader motivation is to undermine the power of the university system and prevent research findings that cut against its politics. Read the full story. —James Temple This architect wants to build cities out of lava Arnhildur Pálmadóttir is an architect with an extraordinary mission: to harness molten lava and build cities out of it. Pálmadóttir believes the lava that flows from a single eruption could yield enough building material to lay the foundations of an entire city. She has been researching this possibility for more than five years as part of a project she calls Lavaforming. Together with her son and colleague Arnar Skarphéðinsson, she has identified three potential techniques that could change how future homes are designed and built from repurposed lava. Read the full story.—Elissaveta M. BrandonThis story is from the most recent edition of our print magazine, which is all about how technology is changing creativity. Subscribe now to read it and to receive future print copies once they land. The must-reads I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology. 1 America is failing to win the tech race against China In fields as diverse as drones and energy. (WSJ $)+ Humanoid robots is an area of particular interest. (Bloomberg $)+ China has accused the US of violating the pair’s trade truce. (FT $)2 Who is really in charge of DOGE? According to a fired staffer, it wasn’t Elon Musk. (Wired $)+ DOGE’s tech takeover threatens the safety and stability of our critical data. (MIT Technology Review) 3 Brazilians will soon be able to sell their digital dataIt’s the first time citizens will be able to monetize their digital footprint. (Rest of World) 4 The Trump administration’s anti-vaccine stance is stoking fear among scientists It’s slashing funding for mRNA trials, and experts are afraid to speak out. (The Atlantic $)+ This annual shot might protect against HIV infections. (MIT Technology Review)5 Tech companies want us to spend longer talking to chatbots Those conversations can easily veer into dangerous territory. (WP $)+ How we use AI in the future is up to us. (New Yorker $)+ This benchmark used Reddit’s AITA to test how much AI models suck up to us. (MIT Technology Review)6 Tiktok’s mental health videos are rife with misinformationA lot of the advice is useless at best, and harmful at worst. (The Guardian) 7 Lawyers are hooked on ChatGPTEven though it’s inherently unreliable. (The Verge) + Yet another lawyer has been found referencing nonexistent citations. (The Guardian)+ How AI is introducing errors into courtrooms. (MIT Technology Review)8 How chefs are using generative AI 👩‍🍳NYT $) + Watch this robot cook shrimp and clean autonomously. (MIT Technology Review)9 The influencer suing her rival has dropped her lawsuit The legal fight over ownership of a basic aesthetic has come to an end. (NBC News)10 Roblox’s new game has sparked a digital fruit underground market And players are already spending millions of dollars every week. (Bloomberg $) Quote of the day “We can’t substitute complex thinking with machines. AI can’t replace our curiosity, creativity or emotional intelligence.” —Mateusz Demski, a journalist in Poland, tells the Guardian about how his radio station employer laid him off, only to later launch shows fronted by AI-generated presenters. One more thing ​​Adventures in the genetic time machineAn ancient-DNA revolution is turning the high-speed equipment used to study the DNA of living things on to specimens from the past. The technology is being used to create genetic maps of saber-toothed cats, cave bears, and thousands of ancient humans, including Vikings, Polynesian navigators, and numerous Neanderthals. The total number of ancient humans studied is more than 10,000 and rising fast.The old genes have already revealed remarkable stories of human migrations around the globe.But researchers are hoping ancient DNA will be more than a telescope on the past—they hope it will have concrete practical use in the present. Read the full story. —Antonio Regalado We can still have nice things A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet 'em at me.) + The ancient Persians managed to keep cool using an innovative breeze-catching technique that could still be useful today.+ Knowledge is power—here’s a helpful list of hoaxes to be aware of.+ How said it: Homer Simpson or Pete Hegseth?+ I had no idea London has so many cat statues.

One of Elon Musk's austerity operatives discovered that the government had far less glut than he'd banked on — and tellingly, admitting as much publicly got him fired.Sahil Lavingia, a tech founder and erstwhile software engineer with Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), revealed in a recent blog post that he had "got[ten] the boot" from the agency after telling Fast Company last month that the federal workforce had turned out to be way more efficient than he anticipated.In that initial interview, the Gumroad founder said he was impressed to find that his coworkers at the Department of Veterans Affairs "love their jobs" and worked hard at them — an honest admission that seems to have cost him his job.Just a day after the FastCo interview was published, Lavigina found that his "access" — to the VA's computer networks, presumably — had been "revoked without warning.""My DOGE days," the jilted techie wrote, "were over."Lavigina also revealed in the blog post, which detailed his 50-day tenure at the agency, that he didn't end up getting much done — a slap in the face to the agency's mandate to save taxpayer dollars and abolish the "tyranny of bureaucracy," as Musk put it earlier this year."I didn't make any progress on improving the [user experience] of veterans' filing disability claims or automating/speeding up claims processing, like I had hoped to when I started," the former DOGE staffer lamented. "I built several prototypes, but was never able to get approval to ship anything to production that would actually improve American lives — while also saving money for the American taxpayer."He also suggested that DOGE staffers were more like middle managers than actual workers."DOGE was more like having McKinsey volunteers embedded in agencies rather than the revolutionary force I'd imagined," the fired engineer recounted in reference to the McKinsey Corporation, the management consulting firm that allegedly fixed bread pricesformerly employed presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg."The public was seeing news reports of mass firings that seemed cruel and heartless, many assuming DOGE was directly responsible," he continued. "In reality, DOGE had no direct authority. The real decisions came from the agency heads appointed by President Trump, who were wise to let DOGE act as the 'fall guy' for unpopular decisions."It sounds a lot like DOGE jobs are the ultimate a waste of time and taxpayer money — though thankfully, Lavigina volunteered to work there for free.Share This Article

This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. The Trump administration has shut down more than 100 climate studies The Trump administration has terminated National Science Foundation grants for more than 100 research projects related to climate change, according to an MIT Technology Review analysis of a database that tracks such cuts. The move will cut off what’s likely to amount to tens of millions of dollars for studies that were previously approved and, in most cases, already in the works. Many believe the administration’s broader motivation is to undermine the power of the university system and prevent research findings that cut against its politics. Read the full story. —James Temple This architect wants to build cities out of lava Arnhildur Pálmadóttir is an architect with an extraordinary mission: to harness molten lava and build cities out of it.Pálmadóttir believes the lava that flows from a single eruption could yield enough building material to lay the foundations of an entire city. She has been researching this possibility for more than five years as part of a project she calls Lavaforming. Together with her son and colleague Arnar Skarphéðinsson, she has identified three potential techniques that could change how future homes are designed and built from repurposed lava. Read the full story.—Elissaveta M. Brandon This story is from the most recent edition of our print magazine, which is all about how technology is changing creativity. Subscribe now to read it and to receive future print copies once they land. The must-reads I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology. 1 America is failing to win the tech race against ChinaIn fields as diverse as drones and energy. (WSJ $)+ Humanoid robots is an area of particular interest. (Bloomberg $)+ China has accused the US of violating the pair’s trade truce. (FT $) 2 Who is really in charge of DOGE?According to a fired staffer, it wasn’t Elon Musk. (Wired $)+ DOGE’s tech takeover threatens the safety and stability of our critical data. (MIT Technology Review) 3 Brazilians will soon be able to sell their digital dataIt’s the first time citizens will be able to monetize their digital footprint. (Rest of World) 4 The Trump administration’s anti-vaccine stance is stoking fear among scientistsIt’s slashing funding for mRNA trials, and experts are afraid to speak out. (The Atlantic $)+ This annual shot might protect against HIV infections. (MIT Technology Review) 5 Tech companies want us to spend longer talking to chatbotsThose conversations can easily veer into dangerous territory. (WP $)+ How we use AI in the future is up to us. (New Yorker $)+ This benchmark used Reddit’s AITA to test how much AI models suck up to us. (MIT Technology Review) 6 Tiktok’s mental health videos are rife with misinformationA lot of the advice is useless at best, and harmful at worst. (The Guardian) 7 Lawyers are hooked on ChatGPTEven though it’s inherently unreliable. (The Verge)+ Yet another lawyer has been found referencing nonexistent citations. (The Guardian)+ How AI is introducing errors into courtrooms. (MIT Technology Review) 8 How chefs are using generative AI They’re starting to experiment with using it to create innovative new dishes. (NYT $)+ Watch this robot cook shrimp and clean autonomously. (MIT Technology Review) 9 The influencer suing her rival has dropped her lawsuitThe legal fight over ownership of a basic aesthetic has come to an end. (NBC News) 10 Roblox’s new game has sparked a digital fruit underground marketAnd players are already spending millions of dollars every week. (Bloomberg $) Quote of the day “We can’t substitute complex thinking with machines. AI can’t replace our curiosity, creativity or emotional intelligence.” —Mateusz Demski, a journalist in Poland, tells the Guardian about how his radio station employer laid him off, only to later launch shows fronted by AI-generated presenters. One more thing ​​Adventures in the genetic time machineAn ancient-DNA revolution is turning the high-speed equipment used to study the DNA of living things on to specimens from the past.The technology is being used to create genetic maps of saber-toothed cats, cave bears, and thousands of ancient humans, including Vikings, Polynesian navigators, and numerous Neanderthals. The total number of ancient humans studied is more than 10,000 and rising fast.The old genes have already revealed remarkable stories of human migrations around the globe.But researchers are hoping ancient DNA will be more than a telescope on the past—they hope it will have concrete practical use in the present. Read the full story.  —Antonio Regalado We can still have nice things A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.) + The ancient Persians managed to keep cool using an innovative breeze-catching technique that could still be useful today.+ Knowledge is power—here’s a helpful list of hoaxes to be aware of.+ How said it: Homer Simpson or Pete Hegseth?+ I had no idea London has so many cat statues.

/May 30, 2025/4:28 p.m. ETTrump Attacks Harvard With Social Media Screening for All VisasThis pilot program will soon be expanded across the country.Spencer Platt/Getty ImagesThe Trump administration has begun carrying out its expanded vetting for student visa applicants, surveilling their social media accounts to make sure they aren’t posting anything in support of Palestine, which the administration considers antisemitic. This vetting will start with Harvard visa applicants but is expected to be adopted nationwide.Secretary of Stato Marco Rubio sent a cable to all U.S. embassies and consulates on Thursday ordering them to “conduct a complete screening of the online presence of any nonimmigrant visa applicant seeking to travel to Harvard University for any purpose.” That would apply not just to students but also to faculty, staff, and researchers visiting the university.The Trump administration is taking particular interest in people who have their social media accounts on “private,” an obvious, ominous crossing of boundaries.The State Department has ordered officers to examine “whether the lack of any online presence, or having social media accounts restricted to ‘private’ or with limited visibility, may be reflective of evasiveness and call into question the applicant’s credibility.”This is yet another instance of Harvard serving as a test subject for the administration’s larger crackdown on free speech and international students at American universities. Trump has already revoked billions of dollars in research funding from the Massachusetts school, and even banned it from admitting any international students at all, although the latter policy was temporarily revoked by a judge. Most Recent Post/May 30, 2025/3:53 p.m. ETStephen Miller Grilled on Musk’s Drug Use as Wife Lands New GigTrump’s chief adviser seems desperate to avoid questions on Elon Musk. Does that have anything to do with his wife’s new job? Francis Chung/Politico/Bloomberg/Getty ImagesStephen Miller had a dismissive response Friday to new reports of Elon Musk’s drug use during Trump’s campaign last year. CNN’s Pamela Brown asked the far-right Trump adviser if there was “any drug testing or requests for him to drug test when he was in the White House given the fact that he was also a contractor with the government.”  A chuckling Miller ignored the question and said, “Fortunately for you and all of the friends at CNN, you’ll have the opportunity to ask Elon all the questions you want today yourself,” before he then segued into the Trump administration’s anti-immigrant agenda. “The drugs I’m concerned about are the drugs that are coming across the border from the criminal cartels that are killing hundreds of thousands of Americans,” Miller said. Perhaps Miller laughed instead of answering because his wife, Katie Miller, has left her job as adviser and spokesperson for the Department of Government Efficiency to work full-time for Musk and his companies. Miller has probably had enough of Musk, as he has also been subtweeting the tech oligarch, trying to refute Musk’s criticisms that the Republican budget bill would raise the deficit. “The Big Beautiful Bill is NOT an annual budget bill and does not fund the departments of government. It does not finance our agencies or federal programs,” Miller said, in a long X post earlier this week. Is there bad blood between Miller and Musk that has now spiraled because Miller’s wife is working for the tech oligarch and fellow fascism enthusiast? Most Recent Post/May 30, 2025/3:19 p.m. ETOld Man Trump Repeatedly Fumbles in Weird Speech Praising Elon MuskDonald Trump couldn’t keep some of his words straight as he marked the supposed end of Elon Musk’s tenure at the White House.Kevin Dietsch/Getty ImagesHours after reports emerged Friday that Elon Musk had been under the influence of heavy drugs during his time advising the president, Musk and Donald Trump stumbled and fumbled their way through a White House press conference recognizing the end of the tech billionaire’s special government employee status.The wildly unusual joint conference featured Musk’s black eye, a giant gold key that Trump said he only gives to “very special people,” cringe-worthy regurgitations by Musk of Trump’s take on his Pulitzer Board defamation suit, and claims that Musk’s unpopular and controversial time in the White House was not quite over.But as Trump continued to praise Musk and his time atop the Department of Government Efficiency, the president’s verbal gaffes became more apparent. He claimed that DOGE had uncovered $42 million in wasteful spending, referring to expenditures related to Uganda, which Trump pronounced as “oo-ganda.” The 78-year-old also mentioned he would have Musk’s DOGE cuts “cauterized by Congress,” though he quickly corrected himself by saying they would be “affirmed by Congress,” instead. Trump’s on-camera slippage has gotten worse in recent weeks: Earlier this month, Trump dozed off while in a meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. That is despite the fact that the president received a clean bill of health in a medical report released in April that described Trump as being in “excellent health,” including neurological functioning.Musk, meanwhile, refused to acknowledge emerging reports of his alleged drug use. But the news of White House drug use under Trump’s helm is nothing new: In fact, if the reports prove true, it would be little more than a return to form. Last year, a report by the Department of Defense inspector general indicated that the West Wing operated more like a pill mill than the nation’s highest office. Common pills included modafinil, Adderall, fentanyl, morphine, and ketamine, according to the Pentagon report. But other, unlisted drugs—like Xanax—were equally easy to come by from the White House Medical Unit, according to anonymous sources that spoke to Rolling Stone.While other presidents were known to take a mix of drug cocktails to fight off back pain (like JFK) or bad moods (like Nixon), no previous administrations matched the level of debauchery of Trump’s, whose in-office pharmacists unquestioningly handed out highly addictive substances to staffers who needed pick-me-ups or energy boosts—no doctor’s exam, referral, or prescription required.“It was kind of like the Wild West. Things were pretty loose. Whatever someone needs, we were going to fill this,” another source told Rolling Stone in March 2024.Meanwhile, pharmacists described an atmosphere of fear within the West Wing, claiming they would be “fired” if they spoke out or would receive negative work assignments if they didn’t hand pills over to staffers.Read more about the press conference:Trump and Elon Musk Have Ominous Warning About Future of DOGEMost Recent Post/May 30, 2025/3:00 p.m. ETElon Musk Gives Strange Excuse for Massive Black EyeMusk showed up a press conference with Donald Trump sporting a noticeable shiner.Kevin Dietsch/Getty ImagesElon Musk sported what looked like a black eye during his DOGE goodbye press conference with President Trump on Friday. When asked about it, he blamed the bruise on his 5-year-old son punching him in the face. “Mr. Musk … is your eye OK? What happened to your eye; I noticed there’s a bruise there?” one reporter finally asked near the end of the press conference.“Well, I wasn’t anywhere near France,” Musk said, in a weak attempt at a joke regarding footage of French President Emmanuel Macron’s wife slapping him in the face.“I was just horsing around with [my son] little X and said, ‘Go ’head and punch me in the face,’ and he did. Turns out even a 5-year-old punching you in the face actually does—”“That was X that did it? X could do it!” Trump chimed in. “If you knew X …”“I didn’t really feel much at the time; I guess it bruises up. But I was just messing around with the kids.”Musk chose an impeccable time to show up to a press conference with a black eye. Earlier in the day, The New York Times reported on Musk’s rampant drug use on and off the campaign trail, as the world’s richest man frequently mixed ketamine and psychedelics and kept a small box of pills, mostly containing Adderall. The shiner only adds to speculation around his personal habits.More on that Times report:Elon Musk Was on Crazy Combo of Drugs During Trump CampaignMost Recent Post/May 30, 2025/2:51 p.m. ETTrump and Elon Musk Have Ominous Warning About Future of DOGEElon Musk’s time as a government employee has come to an end, but his time with Donald Trump has not.Kevin Dietsch/Getty ImagesDespite the fanfare over Elon Musk’s supposed departure from the Department of Government Efficiency, Donald Trump says that the billionaire bureaucrat isn’t really going anywhere.“Many of the DOGE people are staying behind, so they’re not leaving. And Elon’s not really leaving. He’s gonna be back and forth, I think. I have a feeling. It’s his baby, and he’s gonna be doing a lot of things,” Trump said during a press conference in the Oval Office Friday.The press conference was held to mark the end of Musk’s time as a so-called “special government employee,” a title that allowed him to bypass certain ethics requirements during his 134-day stint in Trump’s administration. The president made sure to give Musk a gaudy golden key—what it actually unlocks went totally unaddressed—to make sure he could get back into the White House. “This is not the end of DOGE, but really the beginning,” Musk said, promising that DOGE’s “influence” would “only grow stronger” over time.Earlier Friday, the billionaire bureaucrat shared a post on X asserting that the legacy of DOGE was more psychological than anything else. Surely, it will take longer than four months to forget the image of Musk running around with a chainsaw. Read more about Musk:Elon Musk Was on Crazy Combo of Drugs During Trump CampaignMost Recent Post/May 30, 2025/1:21 p.m. ETDem Governor Vetoes Ban on Surprise Ambulance Bills in Shocking MoveThe bill had unanimous support in both chambers of the state legislature.Michael Ciaglo/Getty ImagesColorado’s Democratic Governor Jared Polis has vetoed a bill that would ban surprise billing by ambulance companies, over the unanimous objections of both chambers of the state legislature. Why would Polis veto a bill that’s popular with everyone, even Colorado Republicans? The governor wrote in his veto statement that drafting errors in the bill made it “unimplementable” and estimated that it would make insurance premiums go up by as much as $0.73 to $2.15 per person. “I am committed to working with proponents and sponsors to protect Coloradans from surprise bills, but I encourage all parties to work towards a more reasonable reimbursement rate that mitigates premium impacts and nets a better deal for Colorado families,” Polis wrote. In Colorado, if legislators in both chambers repass the bill with a two-thirds majority, they can override the governor’s veto, especially considering that the bill passed with the support of every single legislator. But the legislature adjourned on May 7, meaning that the bill has to be passed again when the legislature reconvenes in January.  For some reason, ending surprise ambulance billing nationally is not the slam-dunk issue it should be. Congress ended most surprise medical bills in 2020 but exempted ground ambulances from the bill. Was Polis’s veto due to badly drafted language and a (seemingly modest) price hike in insurance premiums, as he said, or was it for a different, more nefarious reason? We might not know unless and until the bill is reintroduced next year. More on surprise ambulance bills:Congress Doesn’t Care About Your Surprise Ambulance Bill Most Recent Post/May 30, 2025/12:21 p.m. ETTrump’s Pardons Since Jan 6 Spree Show an Infuriatingly Corrupt TrendSince his January 6 pardon spree, Donald Trump has tended to grant clemency a little closer to home.Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty ImagesA good chunk of the white-collar criminals pardoned by Donald Trump after his massive “Day One” pardoning spree either have a political or financial tie to him.The president has issued 60 pardons since he offered political forgiveness to some 1,600 individuals charged in the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. But out of those subsequent 60 unrelated to the attack, 12 people—or roughly one in five—were already in Trump’s orbit, according to ABC News.They included several politicos, including former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, who was convicted on several counts of corruption, including for an attempt to sell Barack Obama’s Senate seat after he left the position for the White House; former Republican Representative Michael Grimm, who pleaded guilty to tax fraud; former Nevada gubernatorial candidate Michele Fiore, who allegedly stole public funds intended to commemorate a slain police officer; and former Tennessee state Senator Brian Kelsey, who pleaded guilty to campaign finance fraud in 2022.Trump also pardoned major financiers of his presidential campaigns. Trevor Milton, the founder of the Nikola electric vehicle company, donated nearly $2 million toward Trump’s 2024 campaign. Imaad Zuberi, who has donated to both parties, issued “at least $800,000 to committees associated with Trump and the Republican Party,” ABC reported.Others helped Trump advance his retribution campaign against his political enemies, or helped advance his own image in the broader Republican Party. Devon Archer and Jason Galanis, both former business partners of Hunter Biden, accused the younger Biden of leveraging his father’s name and influence in order to conduct business overseas. Archer had defrauded a Native American tribal entity, while Galanis was serving time for multiple offenses. Trump also forgave Todd and Julie Chrisley—reality TV stars known for their show Chrisley Knows Best who were sentenced to a combined 19 years on fraud and tax evasion charges—after their daughter Savannah Chrisley spoke at the 2024 Republican National Convention.Speaking to press Friday after her parents’ release, Savannah Chrisley said that the “biggest misconception right now is I either paid for a pardon or slept for a pardon—,” but she couldn’t finish her sentence before Todd interjected: “That’s something I would have done,” he said.Read who else Trump is thinking of pardoning:Trump Considering Pardons for Men Who Tried to Kill Gretchen WhitmerMost Recent Post/May 30, 2025/12:04 p.m. ETTrump Knew He Was Deporting Innocent People to El Salvador All AlongMany of the people deported to El Salvador have no criminal record, and Donald Trump knew it.Michael M. Santiago/Getty ImagesDonald Trump’s administration was well aware that many of the 238 Venezuelan immigrants it shipped off to a notorious megaprison in El Salvador had no criminal records at all, according to a Friday report from ProPublica.  While Trump officials claimed that the deportees were brutal gang members and “the worst of the worst,” only 32 of the deportees had actually been convicted of crimes, and most of them were minor offenses such as traffic violations, according to data from the Department of Homeland Security reviewed by ProPublica, The Texas Tribune, and a team of journalists from Venezuelan media outlets. One of the men, 23-year-old Maikol Gabriel López Lizano, faced a misdemeanor charge after he was arrested in 2023 for riding his bike and drinking a can of beer.Little more than half of the deportees, 130 of the 238, were charged only with violating U.S. immigration laws. Twenty of them had criminal records from other countries. The U.S. government data showed that 67 individuals had pending charges, with only six being for violent crimes. In several cases, the government data about the pending charges differed from what ProPublica was able to find. In some cases, the men had actually been convicted, and in one, the charges had been dropped. But in many cases, these individuals were remanded to a foreign prison before their criminal cases were ever resolved. The Trump administration has touted allegations of gang affiliation as a justification for denying the deportees their due process rights. But none of the men’s names appeared on a list of roughly 1,400 alleged Tren de Aragua members kept by the Venezuelan government, ProPublica reported. Trump’s border czar Tom Homan tried desperately in March to downplay reporting that many of these individuals did not have criminal records. “A lot of gang members don’t have criminal histories, just like a lot of terrorists in this world, they’re not in any terrorist databases, right?” Homan said on ABC News. But the methods the government relies on to classify individuals as gang members—such as identification of gang-affiliated tattoos—have been disproven by experts. Not only were many of the men who were deported not proven gang members, they weren’t even criminals, and by denying them the right to due process, they were remanded to a foreign prison notorious for human rights abuses without ever getting to prove it. Trump has continued to pressure the Supreme Court to allow him to sidestep due process as part of his massive deportation campaign, claiming that the judiciary has no right to intrude on matters of “foreign policy.” But immigrants residing on U.S. soil—who are clearly not the bloodthirsty criminals the administration insists they are—are still subject to protections under U.S. law. Read more about the deportations:Trump Asks Supreme Court to Help Him Deport People Wherever He WantsMost Recent Post/May 30, 2025/11:41 a.m. ETJoni Ernst Stoops to Shocking Low When Told Medicaid Cuts Will KillSenator Joni Ernst had a disgusting answer when confronted by a constituent at her town hall about Trump’s budget bill.Drew Angerer/Getty ImagesRepublican Senator Joni Ernst had a particularly unhinged response to questions from her constituents at a town hall in Parkersburg, Iowa, on Friday.Ernst was asked about the GOP’s budget bill kicking people off of Medicaid, and her condescending answer quickly became callous and flippant as the Iowa politician smirked at the audience.“When you are arguing about illegals that are receiving Medicaid, 1.4 million, they’re not eligible, so they will be coming off, so—” Ernst began, before an audience member shouted, “People are going to die!”“People are not—well, we all are going to die,” Ernst responded, as the audience drowned her in loud protests.What was Ernst thinking with that answer? Almost every Republican town hall this year has gone badly for the politician holding it, thanks to President Trump upending the federal government, and Ernst surely knew that choosing death over Medicaid wouldn’t go over well with the crowd. Earlier this week in Nebraska, Representative Mike Flood was heckled after he admitted that he didn’t read the budget bill.Ersnt’s town hall wasn’t even the first one in Iowa to go badly for a Republican. On Wednesday, Representative Ashley Hinson was met with jeers and boos, with audience members in Decorah, Iowa calling her a fraud and a liar. But at least Hinson had the good sense not to seemingly embrace death over a vital, lifesaving government program. More on Trump’s bill:Here Are the Worst Things in Trump’s Big, Beautiful Bill Most Recent Post/May 30, 2025/11:35 a.m. ETKetanji Brown Jackson Blasts “Botched” Supreme Court Ruling on TPSSupreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, in a scathing disssent, called out the rest of the court for allowing Trump’s harmful executive order to stand.Anna Moneymaker/Getty ImagesSupreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson thinks the Supreme Court “botched” a decision to allow the Trump administration to revoke the Temporary Protected Status protections of about 500,000 Haitian, Cuban, Nicaraguan, and Venezuelan immigrants.Jackson and fellow liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor were the only two dissenters.“The Court has plainly botched this assessment today. It requires next to nothing from the Government with respect to irreparable harm,” Jackson wrote in the dissent. “And it undervalues the devastating consequences of allowing the Government to precipitously upend the lives of and livelihoods of nearly half a million noncitizens while their legal claims are pending.”TPS is a long-standing program that allowed those 500,000 immigrants to stay in the U.S. after they fled violence and risk in their home countries. After the Supreme Court’s ruling, all of them are at high risk of sudden deportation. “It is apparent that the government seeks a stay to enable it to inflict maximum predecision damage,” Jackson wrote.Read the full dissent here.View More Posts

Meta is bidding to build high-tech wearables for the US Army, as reported by Wall Street Journal. The company is teaming up with Palmer Luckey's defense firm Anduril Industries on the project, which has been dubbed EagleEye. The contract is worth around $100 million, though it hasn't been awarded yet. It's part of a larger $22 billion Army wearables project of which Anduril is the lead vendor. As expected from Meta and Luckey, EagleEye will be a line of tech-forward helmets, glasses and other wearables that provide an augmented reality or virtual reality experience. Reporting indicates that these devices will include sensors that enhance the hearing and vision of soldiers. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a statement that this tech will “protect our interests at home and abroad.” Anduril and Meta have teamed up to make the world's best AR and VR systems for the United States Military. Leveraging Meta's massive investments in XR technology for our troops will save countless lives and dollars. pic.twitter.com/t9d2vRInSe— Palmer Luckey (@PalmerLuckey) May 29, 2025 This could be used to detect drones flying miles away, for instance, or to suss out hidden targets. It'll also allow these soldiers to interact with AI-powered weapon systems, as Anduril's autonomy software and Meta's AI models will underpin each device. This all sounds very dystopian, but such are the times we find ourselves in. “I have successfully persuaded not just Meta but many others that working with the military is important," Palmer Luckey said in an interview, speaking on Big Tech's embrace of defense contract work. He's become a big player in the defense space in recent years, securing $6 billion in global government contracts and partnering up with many of the tech world's major players. "I've always said that we need to transition from being the world police to being the world gun store," he said in a recent interview with CBS News. Luckey is a long-time supporter of President Trump and recently said that Anduril "did well under Trump in his first administration" and that he thinks the company is "going to do even better now." This is something of a homecoming for Luckey. He co-founded Oculus VR, which Meta purchased. He was fired back in 2017 after news broke that he donated $10,000 to a group trying to install 4chan-style anti-Hillary Clinton memes on roadside billboards. Zuckerberg has since cozied up to Trump in various ways, so I guess the two can be friends again or whatever. “I finally got all my toys back,” Luckey told WSJ.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/meta-could-soon-start-building-tech-for-the-us-army-184405058.html?src=rss

In “The Optimist: Sam Altman, OpenAI, and the Race to Invent the Future,” Wall Street Journal reporter Keach Hagey examines our AI-obsessed moment through one of its key figures — Sam Altman, co-founder and CEO of OpenAI. Hagey begins with Altman’s Midwest childhood, then takes readers through his career at startup Loopt, accelerator Y Combinator, and now at OpenAI. She also sheds new light on the dramatic few days when Altman was fired, then quickly reinstated, as OpenAI’s CEO. Looking back at what OpenAI employees now call “the Blip,” Hagey said the failed attempt to oust Altman revealed that OpenAI’s complex structure — with a for-profit company controlled by a nonprofit board — is “not stable.” And with OpenAI largely backing down from plans to let the for-profit side take control, Hagey predicted that this “fundamentally unstable arrangement” will “continue to give investors pause.” Does that mean OpenAI could struggle to raise the funds it needs to keep going? Hagey replied that it could “absolutely” be an issue. “My research into Sam suggests that he might well be up to that challenge,” she said. “But success is not guaranteed.” In addition, Hagey’s biography (also available as an audiobook on Spotify) examines Altman’s politics, which she described as “pretty traditionally progressive” — making it a bit surprising that he’s struck massive infrastructure deals with the backing of the Trump administration. “But this is one area where, in some ways, I feel like Sam Altman has been born for this moment, because he is a deal maker and Trump is a deal maker,” Hagey said. “Trump respects nothing so much as a big deal with a big price tag on it, and that is what Sam Altman is really great at.” Techcrunch event Save now through June 4 for TechCrunch Sessions: AI Save $300 on your ticket to TC Sessions: AI—and get 50% off a second. Hear from leaders at OpenAI, Anthropic, Khosla Ventures, and more during a full day of expert insights, hands-on workshops, and high-impact networking. These low-rate deals disappear when the doors open on June 5. Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot at TC Sessions: AI and show 1,200+ decision-makers what you’ve built — without the big spend. Available through May 9 or while tables last. Berkeley, CA | June 5 REGISTER NOW In an interview with TechCrunch, Hagey also discussed Altman’s response to the book, his trustworthiness, and the AI “hype universe.” This interview has been edited for length and clarity.  You open the book by acknowledging some of the reservations that Sam Altman had about the project —  this idea that we tend to focus too much on individuals rather than organizations or broad movements, and also that it’s way too early to assess the impact of OpenAI. Did you share those concerns? Well, I don’t really share them, because this was a biography. This project was to look at a person, not an organization. And I also think that Sam Altman has set himself up in a way where it does matter what kind of moral choices he has made and what his moral formation has been, because the broad project of AI is really a moral project. That is the basis of OpenAI’s existence. So I think these are fair questions to ask about a person, not just an organization. As far as whether it’s too soon, I mean, sure, it’s definitely [early to] assess the entire impact of AI. But it’s been an extraordinary story for OpenAI — just so far, it’s already changed the stock market, it has changed the entire narrative of business. I’m a business journalist. We do nothing but talk about AI, all day long, every day. So in that way, I don’t think it’s too early. And despite those reservations, Altman did cooperate with you. Can you say more about what your relationship with him was like during the process of researching the book? Well, he was definitely not happy when he was informed about the book’s existence. And there was a long period of negotiation, frankly. In the beginning, I figured I was going to write this book without his help — what we call, in the business, a write-around profile. I’ve done plenty of those over my career, and I figured this would just be one more. Over time, as I made more and more calls, he opened up a little bit. And [eventually,] he was generous to sit down with me several times for long interviews and share his thoughts with me. Has he responded to the finished book at all? No. He did tweet about the project, about his decision to participate with it, but he was very clear that he was never going to read it. It’s the same way that I don’t like to watch my TV appearances or podcasts that I’m on. In the book, he’s described as this emblematic Silicon Valley figure. What do you think are the key characteristics that make him representative of the Valley and the tech industry? In the beginning, I think it was that he was young. The Valley really glorifies youth, and he was 19 years old when he started his first startup. You see him going into these meetings with people twice his age, doing deals with telecom operators for his first startup, and no one could get over that this kid was so smart. The other is that he is a once-in-a-generation fundraising talent, and that’s really about being a storyteller. I don’t think it’s an accident that you have essentially a salesman and a fundraiser at the top of the most important AI company today, That ties into one of the questions that runs through the book — this question about Altman’s trustworthiness. Can you say more about the concerns people seem to have about that? To what extent is he a trustworthy figure?  Well, he’s a salesman, so he’s really excellent at getting in a room and convincing people that he can see the future and that he has something in common with them. He gets people to share his vision, which is a rare talent. There are people who’ve watched that happen a bunch of times, who think, “Okay, what he says does not always map to reality,” and have, over time, lost trust in him. This happened both at his first startup and very famously at OpenAI, as well as at Y Combinator. So it is a pattern, but I think it’s a typical critique of people who have the salesman skill set. So it’s not necessarily that he’s particularly untrustworthy, but it’s part-and-parcel of being a salesman leading these important companies. I mean, there also are management issues that are detailed in the book, where he is not great at dealing with conflict, so he’ll basically tell people what they want to hear. That causes a lot of sturm-und-drang in the management ranks, and it’s a pattern. Something like that happened at Loopt, where the executives asked the board to replace him as CEO. And you saw it happen at OpenAI as well. You’ve touched on Altman’s firing, which was also covered in a book excerpt that was published in the Wall Street Journal. One of the striking things to me, looking back at it, was just how complicated everything was — all the different factions within the company, all the people who seemed pro-Altman one day and then anti-Altman the next. When you pull back from the details, what do you think is the bigger significance of that incident? The very big picture is that the nonprofit governance structure is not stable. You can’t really take investment from the likes of Microsoft and a bunch of other investors and then give them absolutely no say whatsoever in the governance of the company. That’s what they have tried to do, but I think what we saw in that firing is how power actually works in the world. When you have stakeholders, even if there’s a piece of paper that says they have no rights, they still have power. And when it became clear that everyone in the company was going to go to Microsoft if they didn’t reinstate Sam Altman, they reinstated Sam Altman. In the book, you take the story up to maybe the end of 2024. There have been all these developments since then, which you’ve continued to report on, including this announcement that actually, they’re not fully converting to a for-profit. How do you think that’s going to affect OpenAI going forward?  It’s going to make it harder for them to raise money, because they basically had to do an about-face. I know that the new structure going forward of the public benefit corporation is not exactly the same as the current structure of the for-profit — it is a little bit more investor friendly, it does clarify some of those things. But overall, what you have is a nonprofit board that controls a for-profit company, and that fundamentally unstable arrangement is what led to the so-called Blip. And I think you would continue to give investors pause, going forward, if they are going to have so little control over their investment. Obviously, OpenAI is still such a capital intensive business. If they have challenges raising more money, is that an existential question for the company? It absolutely could be. My research into Sam suggests that he might well be up to that challenge. But success is not guaranteed. Like you said, there’s a dual perspective in the book that’s partly about who Sam is, and partly about what that says about where AI is going from here. How did that research into his particular story shape the way you now look at these broader debates about AI and society? I went down a rabbit hole in the beginning of the book, [looking] into Sam’s father, Jerry Altman, in part because I thought it was striking how he’d been written out of basically every other thing that had ever been written about Sam Altman. What I found in this research was a very idealistic man who was, from youth, very interested in these public-private partnerships and the power of the government to set policy. He ended up having an impact on the way that affordable housing is still financed to this day. And when I traced Sam’s development, I saw that he has long believed that the government should really be the one that is funding and guiding AI research. In the early days of OpenAI, they went and tried to get the government to invest, as he’s publicly said, and it didn’t work out. But he looks back to these great mid-20th century labs like Xerox PARC and Bell Labs, which are private, but there was a ton of government money running through and supporting that ecosystem. And he says, “That’s the right way to do it.” Now I am watching daily as it seems like the United States is summoning the forces of state capitalism to get behind Sam Altman’s project to build these data centers, both in the United States and now there was just one last week announced in Abu Dhabi. This is a vision he has had for a very, very long time. My sense of the vision, as he presented it earlier, was one where, on the one hand, the government is funding these things and building this infrastructure, and on the other hand, the government is also regulating and guiding AI development for safety purposes. And it now seems like the path being pursued is one where they’re backing away from the safety side and doubling down on the government investment side. Absolutely. Isn’t it fascinating?  You talk about Sam as a political figure, as someone who’s had political ambitions at different times, but also somebody who has what are in many ways traditionally liberal political views while being friends with folks like — at least early on — Elon Musk and Peter Thiel. And he’s done a very good job of navigating the Trump administration. What do you think his politics are right now? I’m not sure his actual politics have changed, they are pretty traditionally progressive politics. Not completely — he’s been critical about things like cancel culture, but in general, he thinks the government is there to take tax revenue and solve problems. His success in the Trump administration has been fascinating because he has been able to find their one area of overlap, which is the desire to build a lot of data centers, and just double down on that and not talk about any other stuff. But this is one area where, in some ways, I feel like Sam Altman has been born for this moment, because he is a deal maker and Trump is a deal maker. Trump respects nothing so much as a big deal with a big price tag on it, and that is what Sam Altman is really great at. You open and close the book not just with Sam’s father, but with his family as a whole. What else is worth highlighting in terms of how his upbringing and family shapes who he is now? Well, you see both the idealism from his father and also the incredible ambition from his mother, who was a doctor, and had four kids and worked as a dermatologist. I think both of these things work together to shape him. They also had a more troubled marriage than I realized going into the book. So I do think that there’s some anxiety there that Sam himself is very upfront about, that he was a pretty anxious person for much of his life, until he did some meditation and had some experiences. And there’s his current family — he just had a baby and got married not too long ago. As a young gay man, growing up in the Midwest, he had to overcome some challenges, and I think those challenges both forged him in high school as a brave person who could stand up and take on a room as a public speaker, but also shaped his optimistic view of the world. Because, on that issue, I paint the scene of his wedding: That’s an unimaginable thing from the early ‘90s, or from the ‘80s when he was born. He’s watched society develop and progress in very tangible ways, and I do think that that has helped solidify his faith in progress. Something that I’ve found writing about AI is that the different visions being presented by people in the field can be so diametrically opposed. You have these wildly utopian visions, but also these warnings that AI could end the world. It gets so hyperbolic that it feels like people are not living in the same reality. Was that a challenge for you in writing the book? Well, I see those two visions — which feel very far apart — actually being part of the same vision, which is that AI is super important, and it’s going to completely transform everything. No one ever talks about the true opposite of that, which is, “Maybe this is going to be a cool enterprise tool, another way to waste time on the internet, and not quite change everything as much as everyone thinks.” So I see the doomers and the boomers feeding off each other and being part of the same sort of hype universe. As a journalist and as a biographer, you don’t necessarily come down on one side or the other — but actually, can you say where you come down on that? Well, I will say that I find myself using it a lot more recently, because it’s gotten a lot better. In the early stages, when I was researching the book, I was definitely a lot more skeptical of its transformative economic power. I’m less skeptical now, because I just use it a lot more.

Tech layoffs have continued in 2025. Much of that is being blamed on a combination of a slower economy and the adoption of automation via artificial intelligence. Nearly four in 10 Americans, for instance, believe generative AI (genAI) could diminish the number of available jobs as it advances, according to a study released in October by the New York Federal Reserve Bank. And the World Economic Forum’s Jobs Initiative study found that close to half (44%) of worker skills will be disrupted in the next five years — and 40% of tasks will be affected by the use of genAI tools and the large language models (LLMs) that underpin them. In April, the US tech industry lost 214,000 positions as companies shifted toward AI roles and skills-based hiring amid economic uncertainty. Tech sector companies reduced staffing by a net 7,000 positions in April, an analysis of data released by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) showed. This year, 137 tech companies have fired 62,114 tech employees, according to Layoffs.fyi. Efforts to reduce headcount at government agencies by the unofficial US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) saw an additional 61,296 federal workers fired this year. Kye Mitchell, president of tech workforce staffing firm Experis US, believes the IT employment market is undergoing a fundamental transformation rather than experiencing traditional cyclical layoffs. Although Experis is seeing a 13% month-over-month decline in traditional software developer postings, it doesn’t represent “job destruction, it’s market evolution,” Mitchell said. “What we’re witnessing is the emergence of strategic technology orchestrators who harness AI to drive unprecedented business value,” she said. For example, organizations that once deployed two scrum teams of ten people to develop high-quality software are now achieving superior results with a single team of five AI-empowered developers. “This isn’t about cutting jobs; it’s about elevating roles,” Mitchell said. Specialized roles in particular are surging. Database architect positions are up 2,312%, statistician roles have increased 382%, and jobs for mathematicians have increased 1,272%. “These aren’t replacements; they’re vital for an AI-driven future,” she said. In fact, it’s an IT talent gap, not an employee surplus, that is now challenging organizations — and will continue to do so. With 76% of IT employers already struggling to find skilled tech talent, the market fundamentals favor skilled professionals, according to Mitchell. “The question isn’t whether there will be IT jobs — it’s whether we can develop the right skills fast enough to meet demand,” she said. For federal tech workers, outdated systems and slow procurement make it hard to attract and keep top tech talent. Agencies expect fast team deployment but operate with rigid, outdated processes, according to Justin Vianello, CEO of technology workforce development firm SkillStorm. Long security clearance delays add cost and time, often forcing companies to hire expensive, already-cleared talent. Meanwhile, modern technologists want to use current tools and make an impact — something hard to do with legacy systems and decade-long modernization efforts, he added. Many suggest turning to AI to will solve the tech talent shortage, but there is no evidence that AI will lead to a reduction in demand for tech talent, Vianello said. “On the contrary, companies see that the demand for tech talent has increased as they invest in preparing their workforce to properly use AI tools,” he said. A shortage of qualified talent is a bigger barrier to hiring than AI automation, he said, because organizations struggle to find candidates with the right certifications, skills, and clearances — especially in cloud, cybersecurity, and AI. Tech workers often lack skills in these areas because technology evolves faster than education and training can keep up, Vianello said. And while AI helps automate routine tasks, it can’t replace the strategic roles filled by skilled professionals. Seven out of 10 US organizations are struggling to find skilled workers to fill roles in an ever-evolving digital transformation landscape, and genAI has added to that headache, according to a ManpowerGroup survey released earlier this year. Job postings for AI skills surged 2,000% in 2024, but education and training in this area haven’t kept pace, according to Kelly Stratman, global ecosystem relationships enablement leader at Ernst & Young. “As formal education and training in AI skills still lag, it results in a shortage of AI talent that can effectively manage these technologies and demands,” she said in an earlier interview. “The AI talent shortage is most prominent among highly technical roles like data scientists/analysts, machine learning engineers, and software developers.” Economic uncertainty is creating a cautious hiring environment, but it’s more complex than tariffs alone. Experis data shows employers adopting a “wait and watch” stance as they monitor economic signals, with job openings down 11% year-over-year, according to Mitchell. “However, the bigger story is strategic workforce planning in an era of rapid technological change. Companies are being incredibly precise about where they allocate resources. Not because of economic pressure alone, but because the skills landscape is shifting so rapidly,” Mitchell said. “They’re prioritizing mission-critical roles while restructuring others around AI capabilities.” Top organizations see AI as a strategic shift, not just cost-cutting. Cutting talent now risks weakening core areas like cybersecurity, according to Mitchell. Skillstorm’s Vianello suggests that IT job hunters should begin to upgrade their skills with certifications that matter: AWS, Azure, CISSP, Security+, and AI/ML credentials open doors quickly, he said. “Veterans, in particular, have an edge; they bring leadership, discipline, and security clearances. Apprenticeships and fellowships offer a fast track into full-time roles by giving you experience that actually counts. And don’t overlook the intangibles: soft skills and project leadership are what elevate technologists into impact-makers,” Vianello said. Skills-based hiring has been on the rise for several years, as organizations seek to fill specific needs for big data analytics, programing (such as Rust), and AI prompt engineering. In fact, demand for genAI courses is surging, passing all other tech skills courses spanning fields from data science to cybersecurity, project management, and marketing. “AI isn’t replacing jobs — it’s fundamentally redefining how work gets done. The break point where technology truly displaces a position is when roughly 80% of tasks can be fully automated,” Mitchell said. “We’re nowhere near that threshold for most roles. Instead, we’re seeing AI augment skill sets and make professionals more capable, faster, and able to focus on higher-value work.” Leaders use AI as a strategic enabler — embedding it to enhance, not compete with, human developers, she said. Some industry forecasts predict a 30% productivity boost from AI tools, potentially adding more than $1.5 trillion to global GDP. For example, AI tools are expected to perform the lion’s share of coding. Techniques where humans use AI-augmented coding tools, such as “vibe coding,” are set to revolutionize software development by creating source code, generating tests automatically, and freeing up developer time for innovation instead of debugging code.  With vibe coding, developers use natural language in a conversational way that prompts the AI model to offer contextual ideas and generate code based on the conversation. By 2028, 75% of professional developers will be using vibe coding and other genAI-powered coding tools, up from less than 10% in September 2023, according to Gartner Research. And within three years, 80% of enterprises will have integrated AI-augmented testing tools into their software engineering tool chain — a significant increase from approximately 15% early last year, Gartner said. A report from MIT Technology Review Insights found that 94% of business leaders now use genAI in software development, with 82% applying it in multiple stages — and 26% in four or more. Some industry experts place genAI’s use in creating code much higher. “What we are finding is that we’re three to six months from a world where AI is writing 90% of the code. And then in 12 months, we may be in a world where AI is writing essentially all of the code,” Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said in a recent report and video interview. “The real [AI] transformation is in role evolution. Developers are becoming strategic technology orchestrators,” Mitchell from Experis said. “Data professionals are becoming business problem solvers. The demand isn’t disappearing; it’s becoming more sophisticated and more valuable. “In today’s economic climate, having the right tech talent with AI-enhanced capabilities isn’t a nice-to-have, it’s your competitive edge,” she said.