Tag: technology

Labor leaders blast Gavin Newsom over AI, demand more regulation

Posted on by Lone Candle

“National labor unions are pushing AI regulations as a top policy priority amid polls showing growing and bipartisan majorities fear the technology’s potential impacts. Those include AI-fueled layoffs, youth suicides allegedly linked to AI chatbots and increasing use of high-tech surveillance technologies in workplaces. Layoffs have been particularly acute in California and other tech hubs as giants like Amazon and Meta shed staff to compete for AI dominance.

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Newsom has defended his AI stance as striking a balance between curbing safety concerns associated with technology and promoting its innovation to boost California’s budget, which is heavily reliant on tax income from Silicon Valley and the ultra-rich. In 2025, he signed an internationally-watched AI safety bill from Democratic state Sen. Scott Wiener among a slate of other rules for chatbots and AI-generated deepfakes, despite vetoing a labor priority.

The California Labor Fed began unveiling its latest AI agenda this week. Proposed measures include SB 951, which would require employers laying off workers due to AI to give advance notice, as well as SB 947, which would again attempt to require human oversight over algorithms used to make discipline or firing decisions.

Gonzalez also vowed to continue work on a bill introduced in 2025, AB 1331, which would ban the use of surveillance tools in bathrooms and public spaces in the workplace. She said the rest of the bills will largely fall under addressing surveillance issues, safety concerns related to AI and combatting joblessness.”

https://www.politico.com/news/2026/02/04/labor-leaders-blast-gavin-newsom-over-ai-demand-more-regulation-00764927

The End of the Steam Age? China’s Breakthrough CO2 Generator

Posted on by Lone Candle

Using supercritical CO2 instead of water for steam engines, we can more efficiently make electricity. They can be built anywhere and work better because the CO2 is like a water and a gas. China currently leads this technology race.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNDrC6fkjf0

When Russian Engineers Tested China’s Su-27 Copy — They Refused to Fly It Back to Moscow

Posted on by Lone Candle

When Russia licensed China to manufacture their own Su-27s, China broke the contract by reverse engineering the aircraft, making improvements, and then building them completely on their own, stealing Russian technologies.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vt7QIlN87TY

Venezuela strike marks a turning point for US cyber warfare

Posted on by Lone Candle

“Internet tracking group NetBlocks reported a loss of internet connectivity in Caracas that occurred around the same time as power cuts in the country. Venezuela’s electric energy ministry said Monday that power cuts in some areas of the country were due to U.S. attacks.

Chinese-made radar systems and Russian-made air defense systems were also reportedly disrupted during the strikes, hampering the Venezuelan government’s ability to effectively respond.

In a statement, a Space Command spokesperson declined to comment on details of its operations, but noted that “space-based capabilities such as Positioning, Navigation and Timing and satellite communications are foundational to all modern military activities,” and that “U.S. Space Command possesses the means and willingness to employ combat-credible capabilities that deter and counter our opponents.”

These efforts point to a more aggressive use of U.S. military technology and cyber expertise in foreign operations — a shift that the administration has repeatedly touted since Trump’s first term. In 2018, a classified national security policy memorandum was signed, expanding the Pentagon’s authorities to conduct offensive cyber strikes. This policy was later refined under the Biden administration.

Joshua Steinman, who served as senior director for cyber on the National Security Council under the first Trump administration, said that the Venezuela strikes demonstrate that the U.S. “is finally in a place where we can use cyber as a tool of national power.””

https://www.politico.com/news/2026/01/07/venezuela-us-cyber-warfare-00713507