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Gopal Ratnam

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Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., said at a data privacy event she worries the issue will be overshadowed by AI.

Data privacy law seen as needed precursor to AI regulation

By Gopal Ratnam
Posted September 26, 2023 at 7:00am
Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., chairman of the Commerce Consumer Protection subcommittee, has proposed a framework for AI regulation alongside Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo.

As US debates, EU begins to audit AI

By Gopal Ratnam
Posted September 19, 2023 at 7:00am
Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and owner of X, arrives for the Inaugural AI Insight Forum in Russell Building on Capitol Hill, on Wednesday.

There’s consensus, not details, on AI regulation, Schumer says

By Gopal Ratnam
Posted September 13, 2023 at 7:14pm
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg (left) andSpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

Musk, Zuckerberg among tech titans converging for Senate AI forum

By Gopal Ratnam
Posted September 12, 2023 at 2:09pm
Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer has scheduled forums and briefings to bring senators up to speed on artificial intelligence.

Threats like AI-aided bioweapons confound policymakers

By Gopal Ratnam
Posted September 12, 2023 at 7:00am
Former California Democratic Rep. Jerry McNerney, who co-chaired the Congressional Artificial Intelligence Caucus, is pictured before leaving Congress last year.

Europe’s approach to regulate AI seen as too hasty for US

By Gopal Ratnam
Posted September 6, 2023 at 7:00am
FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a statement that the malware affected banks, a contractor for critical infrastructure and a medical device manufacturer.

FBI shuts down Qakbot malware tied to ransomware, financial fraud

By Gopal Ratnam
Posted August 29, 2023 at 5:35pm
Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, pushed to include a provision in the fiscal 2023 appropriations bill on tracking US investment into China's tech sector.

Biden bans US investment into China’s tech sectors

By Gopal Ratnam
Posted August 9, 2023 at 5:59pm
Arati Prabhakar, right, the director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, said the contest would be a collaboration between the government and four AI companies.

Defense agency holds contest for AI tools to boost cybersecurity

By Gopal Ratnam
Posted August 9, 2023 at 1:00pm
Texas GOP Sen. John Cornyn says national security is the main reason Congress provided the aid to semiconductor makers.

Officials juggle several US goals as they award CHIPS money

By Gopal Ratnam
Posted July 25, 2023 at 7:00am
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, testifies before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law Subcommittee on May 16.

Companies have pledged safe AI development, White House says

By Gopal Ratnam
Posted July 21, 2023 at 9:14am
White House Acting National Cyber Director Kemba Walden, second from right, participates in a panel discussion on the National Cybersecurity Strategy in Long Beach in April.

White House issues cybersecurity plan as GOP calls for restraint

By Gopal Ratnam
Posted July 18, 2023 at 7:00am
The European Union says its legislation would give consumers and companies a say on what can be done with the data generated by their connected products.

EU action on data-sharing for smart devices raises concerns

By Gopal Ratnam
Posted July 11, 2023 at 7:00am
Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y.

Congress, White House race to get arms around AI systems 

By Gopal Ratnam
Posted June 21, 2023 at 7:00am
Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., plans committee hearings on ways to keep AI-generated breakthroughs in the U.S.

Congress ponders whether AI should have the power of the patent

By Gopal Ratnam
Posted June 13, 2023 at 7:00am
Jen Easterly, director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, says steady funding is essential to meeting evolving threats.

Cybersecurity, nondefense research may face cuts in debt deal

By Gopal Ratnam
Posted June 6, 2023 at 7:01am
National Telecommunications and Information Administration head Alan Davidson has said "accountability mechanisms" can help ensure that AI is trustworthy.

Experts say AI poses ‘extinction’ level of risk, as Congress seeks legislative response

By Gopal Ratnam
Posted May 31, 2023 at 7:00am
Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., said “it would be a huge mistake for Republicans to make cuts to” science and technology funding.

House Republican deficit plan seen as shift in thinking on China

By Gopal Ratnam
Posted May 16, 2023 at 7:00am
Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., a member of the House Intelligence Committee, warned about the close proximity of U.S. and Chinese installations in the UAE.

Briefings on UAE-China ties revive lawmakers’ worry about Mideast ally

By Gopal Ratnam and Rachel Oswald
Posted May 2, 2023 at 7:00am
Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Va., led a House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations hearing into data brokers' practices.

Lawmakers eye response as data brokers target ‘rural everlasting’ and ‘married sophisticates’

By Gopal Ratnam
Posted April 25, 2023 at 7:00am
Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., ranking member of Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, says a screening policy can't harm US interests.

Screening US funds for Chinese tech raises question: Which tech?

By Gopal Ratnam
Posted April 18, 2023 at 5:00am
Ransomware, a tactic where hackers take over a computer system and demand payment to release it, is also a problem among U.S. allies.

Demand rises for US cybersecurity aid to allies, diplomat says

By Gopal Ratnam
Posted April 12, 2023 at 12:17pm
Whistleblower Frances Haugen's revelations about Meta Platforms in 2021 raised legislative concern about the harm social media can do to children.

States act to curtail kids online, raising pressure on Congress

By Gopal Ratnam
Posted April 11, 2023 at 7:00am
Chavonda Jacobs-Young, the Agriculture Department's undersecretary for research, envisions precision technology helping farmers apply fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides as they are needed.

Amid technology worries, farm sector still eyes its potential

By Gopal Ratnam
Posted April 4, 2023 at 7:00am
Rep. Jay Obernolte, R-Calif., said TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew's plege for third-party review of code wouldn't necessarily uncover a malicious actor.

Obernolte, Johnson use tech backgrounds to question TikTok CEO

By Gopal Ratnam
Posted March 28, 2023 at 7:00am
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew testifies to the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

Lawmakers reject CEO’s assurance TikTok is autonomous from China

By Gopal Ratnam
Posted March 23, 2023 at 1:02pm, Updated at 1:39pm
House Energy and Commerce Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., said TikTok 'knowingly allowed' Beijing to access Americans' data.

TikTok CEO to face skeptical lawmakers in testimony Thursday

By Gopal Ratnam
Posted March 22, 2023 at 6:54pm
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said “Big tech wants to keep its code in a black box where no one can see what they’re doing."

Critics say Big Tech uses trade deals to avoid data privacy laws

By Gopal Ratnam
Posted March 21, 2023 at 7:00am
NSF Director Sethuraman Panchanathan.

NSF eyes science alliances on ‘steroids’ to meet China challenge

By Gopal Ratnam
Posted March 14, 2023 at 7:00am
Senate Armed Services Committee member Mike Rounds, R-S.D., pushed for an extension of auction authority to Sept. 30.

FCC spectrum auction authority lapses amid questions on military need

By Gopal Ratnam
Posted March 10, 2023 at 11:40am
Sohn appears at her confirmation hearing in the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee on February 14, 2023.

Sohn withdraws after Manchin opposes her FCC confirmation

By Gopal Ratnam
Posted March 7, 2023 at 3:08pm
Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the House Appropriations chair in the last Congress, pushed to get the report requirement into law last year.

Treasury puts price on outbound technology investment scrutiny

By Gopal Ratnam
Posted March 7, 2023 at 12:44pm
House Homeland Security Chairman Mark E. Green, R-Tenn., said building trust with the private sector is to harmonize rules rather than encourage disparate and competing efforts.

White House cybersecurity strategy likely to face obstacles

By Gopal Ratnam
Posted March 7, 2023 at 7:00am
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., conducts a news conference in the Capitol after the Senate luncheons on Jan. 24.

Gaps in broadband access is backdrop to Sohn’s FCC nomination fight 

By Gopal Ratnam
Posted February 21, 2023 at 7:00am
Federal Communications Commission nominee Gigi Sohn told Senate Commerce members Tuesday that "dark money groups and surrogates" are trying to block her confirmation.

Sohn blames ‘dark money’ for opposition to her joining FCC

By Gopal Ratnam
Posted February 14, 2023 at 3:24pm
Rep. Ro Khanna, a member of the new select committee on China, has called for a broad industrial strategy to revive domestic manufacturing in several sectors and subsidies to help U.S. companies compete against Chinese exports in some sectors.

Lawmakers seek to stop China’s tech rise without a ‘Great Wall’

By Gopal Ratnam
Posted February 14, 2023 at 7:00am
Rep. Mike Gallagher says the U.S. is placing more scrutiny on technology transfer to counter "malign" Chinese Communist Party-directed companies while also providing a "green light" to the capitalization of many of them.

Little-noticed US funding for China tech sector now draws scrutiny

By Gopal Ratnam
Posted February 7, 2023 at 7:00am
House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., receives a round of applause during a House Energy and Commerce Committee organizational meeting on Tuesday.

Lawmakers stumble on data privacy as another tech CEO to testify

By Gopal Ratnam
Posted February 2, 2023 at 8:07am
House Science Chair Frank Lucas, R-Okla., said the committee will "focus on the things that are five weeks, five months, five years, five decades — maybe five centuries is too long — but 150 years from now."

At ‘fun’ House Science, Lucas sees CHIPS aid as potential model for AI, quantum computing

By Gopal Ratnam
Posted January 31, 2023 at 7:00am, Updated at 10:35am
Judiciary Committee member Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., was one of four senators who proposed legislation in the last Congress that would require social media platforms to provide data to researchers on the companies’ decision-making processes. The bill didn't advance out of Judiciary.

Court cases test opposing views of online content moderation

By Gopal Ratnam
Posted January 30, 2023 at 10:37am
Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., in the Capitol on Jan. 12., the day he and two other Republicans released a bill that would prohibit federal officials from influencing third party content on social media.

White House, House GOP take aim at Big Tech, but see different targets

By Gopal Ratnam
Posted January 17, 2023 at 7:00am
Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., will chair the new Select Committee on Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party.

House finds bipartisan agreement on a China-focused committee

By Gopal Ratnam
Posted January 11, 2023 at 8:28am
Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., above, along with Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., last year introduced legislation that requires companies to disclose financial support from adversarial foreign governments in pre-merger notifications to U.S. agencies.

Congress tightens screws on Chinese tech purchases, collaboration

By Gopal Ratnam
Posted January 10, 2023 at 7:00am
Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chairman Gary Peters, D-Mich., says an overreliance on China has exacerbated U.S. drug shortages.

Peters eyes progress on unfinished cyber bills in next Congress

By Gopal Ratnam
Posted December 15, 2022 at 3:40pm
Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., expected to become chair of House Energy and Commerce next year, is expected to give greater scrutiny to the FCC's and NTIA's wireless spectrum allocations.

Lawmakers will face familiar technology issues next Congress

By Gopal Ratnam
Posted December 13, 2022 at 7:00am
Sen. Amy Klobuchar says her bill would “preserve strong, independent journalism.”

Big Tech, free-speech advocates join to oppose journalism bill

By Gopal Ratnam
Posted December 6, 2022 at 1:29pm
Senate Commerce Chair Maria Cantwell hasn't commented on a data privacy bill, but she is urging passage of two bills that would provide protections for children online.

Advocates, industry push data privacy bill in lame-duck session

By Gopal Ratnam
Posted November 22, 2022 at 7:00am
Bill Gates, chairman of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, said that "no one has been disenfranchised" because of some technical glitches Tuesday.

Glitch, website attack in two states fuel election misinformation

By Gopal Ratnam
Posted November 9, 2022 at 3:10pm
Jen Easterly, the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, warned of the threat of harassment or violence against voters and poll workers.

‘Rampant disinformation’ seen undermining safe voting technology

By Gopal Ratnam
Posted November 8, 2022 at 7:00am
Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger has linked the company's investments to the level of federal spending on semiconductor manufacturing.

Chipmakers offer big investments as they jockey for federal aid

By Gopal Ratnam
Posted October 26, 2022 at 7:00am