OUR PICKSTrump Says a Smart President Is All That’s Needed to Rein In A.I. | Growing Fears of a Biological Weapons Race | Experts Sound Alarm over US Counter-Terror Efforts, and more

Trump Says a Smart President Is All That’s Needed to Rein In A.I.  (Jonathan Swan, New York Times)
The president again rejected calls to try to regulate the industry, even as some of its leaders are speaking more openly about the risks of rapidly developing artificial intelligence.

Trump Wants to Push Tempo of AI Race, Countering Tech Leaders’ Call for Slowdown  (Ian Duncan and Gerrit De Vynck, Washington Post)
Leaders at Anthropic, OpenAI and Google endorsed limiting the pace of AI development and have been discussing the creation of a new safety body.

A.I. Queries from Abroad Raise Fears of a Biological Weapons Race  (Carl Zimmer, New York Times)
Today’s chatbots aren’t likely to help lone actors invent a deadly pathogen, experts say. But newer models, trained in biology, may need stronger safeguards.

Whistle-Blower: Federal Agents May Have Broken State Laws in Search for Voter Fraud  (Nick Corasaniti and Hamed Aleaziz, New York Times)
Agents expressed concern about being directed by top Homeland Security leaders to use private information to look up voter records in state databases.

‘Institutional Neglect’: 25 Years on from 9/11, Experts Sound Alarm over US Counter-Terror Efforts  (Jason Burke, Guardian)
Budget cuts, loss of knowledgeable officials and diverted resources raise risk of another attack, experts warn

After 9/11, the U.S. Built an Anti-terror Apparatus. Trump Is Using It at Home.  (Warren P. Strobel, Washington Post)
Waning attention to international terrorism and other threats has former officials worried.