OUR PICKSNeo-Nazis Are All-In on AI | Where the World Plans to Test Nuclear Weapons Next | US Bans Kaspersky Software, and more

Published 20 June 2024

·  Neo-Nazis Are All-In on AI
Extremists are developing their own hateful AIs to supercharge radicalization and fundraising—and are now using the tech to make weapon blueprints and bombs. And it’s going to get worse

·  Biden’s Strategy: Help Immigrants in the U.S., but Stop Others from Arriving
President Biden’s recent actions on immigration put his approach to one of the most divisive issues in the 2024 election into focus

·  Congress Debates Expanded Draft Amid Military Recruitment Challenges
Republicans and Democrats are weighing proposals to expand military conscription to women and make registration automatic. Both proposals face an uphill path to becoming law

·  Where the World Plans to Test Nuclear Weapons Next
All three pre-eminent nuclear powers are modernizing and expanding their testing infrastructure, adding new buildings, cutting new roads and boring new tunnels in recent years

·  US Bans Kaspersky Software
Using a Trump-era authority, the US Commerce Department has banned the sale of Kaspersky’s antivirus tools to new customers in the US, citing alleged threats to national security

Neo-Nazis Are All-In on AI  (David Gilbert, Wired)
Extremists across the US have weaponized artificial intelligence tools to help them spread hate speech more efficiently, recruit new members, and radicalize online supporters at an unprecedented speed and scale, according to a new report from the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), an American non-profit press monitoring organization.
The report found that AI-generated content is now a mainstay of extremists’ output: They are developing their own extremist-infused AI models, and are already experimenting with novel ways to leverage the technology, including producing blueprints for 3D weapons and recipes for making bombs.
Researchers at the Domestic Terrorism Threat Monitor, a group within the institute which specifically tracks US-based extremists, lay out in stark detail the scale and scope of the use of AI among domestic actors, including neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and anti-government extremists.

Biden’s Strategy: Help Immigrants in the U.S., but Stop Others from Arriving  (Zolan Kanno-Youngs, New York Times)
There are hundreds of thousands of immigrants in the United States who have been living in the country illegally for years, working and making a living, starting families and sending their children to school. President Biden says they can stay.
And then there are the more recent arrivals, who have crossed the U.S.-Mexico border in record numbers, seeking protection from poverty and persecution. They will have to wait.
Mr. Biden has taken two major actions on immigration this month, expanding legal protections for undocumented spouses of American citizens while also sealing the border to most people seeking asylum in the United States.
Taken together, the decisions put Mr. Biden’s approach to one of the most polarizing issues of the 2024 campaign into sharp focus: He will help immigrants who are already here, but try to keep the border shut to those trying to get in.
The strategy, described by one former White House official as a “border-in vs. border-out” approach, is a reflection of the political complexity of immigration, a top concern for voters of both parties in the 2024 presidential campaign. Polls show that American voters see the situation at the southern border as a problem and that more tend to trust former President Donald J. Trump to handle it than trust Mr. Biden.