OUR PICKSPentagon Gives Polygraph Tests to Joint Staff Members | ICE Plans to Pay $5 Million to Create National Voting Database | A Roadmap for Safeguarding Against AI Bioweapons, and more

In Major Leak Hunt, Pentagon Gives Polygraph Tests to Joint Staff Members  (Jonathan Swan, Adam Entous, Maggie Haberman, and Eric Schmitt, New York Times)
About 50 people were tested, an unparalleled inquiry that comes in the wake of news reports about the war with Iran and the U.S. military’s diminished stocks of munitions.

A Roadmap for Safeguarding Against AI Bioweapons  (Caitlin Owens, Axios)
AI-enabled bioweapons are a potentially catastrophic yet manageable risk — if government, the scientific community, the public health sector and leading tech companies can develop appropriate safeguards, a new report argues.

The Mystery Behind an Audio Clip that Helped Upend a Senate Race  (Liz Goodwin, Washington Post)
Artificial intelligence tools increasingly allow political actors to fool voters — and help candidates cast doubt on reality.

ChatGPT Bans Campaigns from Using AI to Make Ads. They’re Doing It Anyway.  (Cat Zakrzewski, Lydia Sidhom and Clara Ence Morse, Washington Post)
A Post review found 39 campaigns that disclosed payments to AI companies, but consultants say many more do it and don’t disclose it.

ICE Wants to Know Everyone Who Bought a Certain Green Beanie from REI in the Last 2 Years  (Maddy Varner, Wired)
Homeland Security Investigations agents hit the outdoor retailer with a controversial subpoena as part of a dragnet search for the identities of protesters who entered a Minnesota church in March.

ICE Plans to Pay $5 Million to Create National Voting Database  (David Gilbert, Wired)
As part of a broader DHS surge to investigate alleged voter fraud, ICE has announced it plans to pay up to $5 million to create what amounts to a federal voter database.

Inside the D.O.J.’s Investigation of Fauci and Other Virus Scientists  (Benjamin Mueller and Glenn Thrush, New York Times)
As Dr. Anthony Fauci has faced public scrutiny from congressional Republicans, the D.O.J. has pursued a quieter and more expansive effort against a wider circle of researchers.

In Red States, Law-and-Order Republicans Turn Against Flock Cameras  (Jesus Jiménez and David Ovalle, New York Times)
The governors of Texas and Florida have taken steps to curtail the use of license-plate readers, even as the police say they help with solving crime.