Policy & regulation

Politico reports that a group of US startup founders are lobbying the Trump administration not to ban or cut off Chinese open weight AI models. Their core argument: a ban won't stop Chinese labs from releasing weights, it will only block US developers from using the free option. The article does not name the specific startups involved or disclose whether a draft ban already exists inside the White House.

A new BloombergNEF report forecasts US data centers will consume one-fifth of the nation's electricity by 2035, four times today's share. AI training and inference will account for nearly half of that load, with the US hosting 64% of AI chip power demand. The 2035 estimate is 83% higher than BloombergNEF's own forecast from December; EPRI and S&P have also raised their numbers sharply. The two most strained grids are PJM (Virginia to Illinois) at 34% and ERCOT (Texas) at 22% of generation going to data centers.

Ross Douthat frames the US-China AI split through a Cold War nuclear lens: the US guards frontier models like atomic bombs, while China pushes them as shareable nuclear energy. After Moonshot AI's Kimi K3 launch, Beijing still defaults to open source and maximum adoption. Douthat now leans toward the view that China genuinely doesn't buy the existential-risk narrative, rather than just playing for time. No model specs or timelines are disclosed.

A federal judge gave final approval Monday to Anthropic's $1.5B class-action settlement with authors and publishers. The payout works out to $3,000 per work across roughly 500,000 works. Many creators still see it as a loss, because Judge William Alsup previously ruled that training AI models on copyrighted text counts as fair use. That precedent matters more than the dollar figure—it sidesteps the licensing debate entirely. The settlement closes this case but doesn't resolve the broader industry question of using copyrighted works for training.

The author ran Kimi K3 alongside Claude for coding and couldn't tell them apart on output quality or token usage. K3's API costs $3/$15 per million input/output tokens vs Claude's $10/$50. Subscriptions are even more lopsided: Kimi's $39 coding tier is far more generous, while Claude's $20 plan quietly dropped Fable access because the economics didn't work. The bigger story is US AI policy failure—restricting American models only constrains American customers, while frontier-quality Chinese models like K3 and GLM 5.2 ship without those limits. Semgrep found GLM 5.2 beating Claude on cyber benchmarks precisely because the restricted model declines work the open one just does. The author expects the US to repeat its auto-industry playbook: subsidies and tariffs propping up domestic models that can't compete internationally.

LLMs are consuming 70% of the world's high-end memory, doubling hard drive prices in two years and threatening to wipe out entry-level PCs by 2028. The author argues this isn't just rapid adoption—it's shockingly inefficient engineering compared to past tech booms like streaming or smartphones. The post cites Gartner forecasts and multiple reports but doesn't provide direct energy-efficiency comparisons.

The EU is ordering Google to give rival search engines and AI assistants comparable access to Android and some Search data under the DMA. This means third-party AI assistants could get system-level access on Android similar to Gemini. The post doesn't spell out which Search data must be shared or through what API. Google will likely appeal, so timing and enforcement remain uncertain.

China's Cyberspace Administration approved Apple Intelligence for launch, backed by a deal to integrate Alibaba's Qwen model into iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and visionOS. Alibaba confirmed Qwen will power text and image understanding and generation, but gave no timeline. Apple previously explored deals with Baidu, DeepSeek, and ByteDance but hit adaptation issues. The approval matters for Apple's Greater China business, which hit $20.5B in Q2. Alibaba US shares rose over 6% on the news.

Apple picked Alibaba's Qwen to run Apple Intelligence in China, covering iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and visionOS for text and image understanding plus content generation. China's cyberspace regulator just published seven mobile generative AI filings, including Apple Intelligence, Huawei's Xiaoyi, and OPPO's AndesGPT. Joe Tsai confirmed Apple talked to multiple Chinese firms before choosing Alibaba.

China's cyberspace regulator filed Apple's 'Apple Intelligence' model on July 8 for iPhone use, clearing a key hurdle for the China launch. Alibaba confirmed Qwen will be integrated into Apple Intelligence across iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and visionOS, giving users in-app access to Qwen's text and image understanding plus content generation. Alibaba co-founder Joe Tsai had already disclosed the partnership at a Dubai summit in February 2025, noting Apple talked to multiple Chinese firms before picking Alibaba. The post does not disclose a launch date or supported device list.

New York's governor signed a bill imposing an immediate two-year moratorium on new large-scale data center approvals. The state cites grid strain and rising emissions, and says it needs time to write siting and efficiency rules. The article does not say whether projects already under construction are exempt or how many are affected.

Demis Hassabis wants the US to lead an international body, akin to CERN, for testing frontier AI models. The article is paywalled, so details on structure, funding, or timeline are not disclosed. The title confirms he's calling for US leadership and a focus on safety testing of frontier models.

Governor Kathy Hochul signed a bill imposing an immediate two-year moratorium on large data center approvals in New York. It's the first state-level ban in the US, driven by surging electricity demand from AI training and inference that threatens grid stability and climate targets. The law requires a state study on grid, rate, and emissions impacts during the pause. A stricter version passed by lawmakers, which would have also regulated diesel backup generator emissions, was stripped from the final signed bill.

Microsoft, Amazon, and Google datacenters emitted 104 million tonnes of CO₂ in 2025—equal to 33% of France's national total. Microsoft accounted for nearly half, driven by AI infrastructure expansion. All three have walked back clean-energy pledges: Amazon and Google dropped 24/7 carbon-free targets, and Microsoft's carbon-offset contracts were found to overstate impact. These figures are self-reported, so real emissions are likely higher.

The US Commerce Department removed the UAE from its strictest export control tier, clearing a path for Nvidia and others to sell AI chips there. The UAE was previously in the most restricted group over concerns about tech leaking to China. The downgrade means approvals for high-end GPUs for local data centers and AI projects will be much simpler. The post doesn't specify chip models or volume caps, but notes Microsoft and G42's joint venture as a beneficiary.

France's competition authority confirmed its antitrust investigation into Nvidia is nearly done, with a formal Statement of Objections expected soon. The probe, which began with a raid in September 2023, focuses on two issues: heavy developer lock-in to CUDA, making it hard to switch hardware, and Nvidia's investments in AI cloud firms like CoreWeave that may reinforce its dominance. Nvidia holds over 70% of the global AI accelerator market. A Statement of Objections does not mean guilt—Nvidia can defend itself in writing and at hearings, and a final ruling could take over a year. If abuse is proven, fines can reach 10% of global annual revenue, potentially billions of dollars. Nvidia has not publicly commented on the latest update.

The U.S. has enough electricity, but connecting a new data center to the grid now takes a median 55 months, up from under 20 months in 2005. The $40B+ Stargate campus in Texas will draw 1.2 GW at peak—equal to 313,000 homes. Jensen Huang, Mark Zuckerberg, and Sam Altman have each said energy access is the real limiter. The bottleneck is a first-come-first-served queue and rigid rules that don't reward plants willing to cover their own short-term power needs.

An FT investigation reveals US AI data centres are systematically under-reporting power demand to grid operators. PJM data shows projects declaring roughly half their actual electricity needs. Developers split sites and falsify construction timelines to skip scrutiny. Northern Virginia alone has 14 GW of AI load in the queue, far above official figures. The post doesn't spell out the exact under-reporting methodology, but the gap is big enough to delay grid upgrades by 3–5 years.

China's MIIT issued a risk alert stating that Claude Code versions 2.1.91 through 2.1.196 contain built-in monitoring that sends sensitive data—including user location and identity—to remote servers without consent. Affected organizations are advised to immediately audit usage, uninstall or upgrade to a cleaned version, and tighten outbound network controls and traffic monitoring for dev tools. The post does not clarify whether the backdoor was inserted by Anthropic or a third party, nor does it provide the scope of impact or confirmed leak incidents.

China's Ministry of Commerce is leading talks to restrict foreign access to the country's most advanced AI models, with the NDRC also involved. The move is framed as export control, not platform regulation. Companies including Alibaba, ByteDance, and Z.ai have been consulted. The scope covers both closed and open-source models—not just API access but also downloadable weights. Discussions include treating model leaks as national security crimes and limiting foreign investment in Chinese AI startups. If enacted, foreign firms would lose access to low-cost models. Combined with earlier US export curbs, this could further fragment the global AI market. The post does not disclose a timeline or enforcement details.