Happy Tuesday! Here’s your Tuesday Tech Drop, the past week’s top stories from the intersection of technology and politics.
Meta Oversight Board’s AI warning
A review from Meta’s Oversight Board found the social media platform isn’t doing enough to combat the spread of artificial intelligence-generated deepfakes. The ruling from Meta’s Oversight Board reversed the company’s decision to leave up a deepfake video that purported to show buildings damaged in Israel amid the country’s 12-day conflict with Iran last year. In its decision, the board said Meta needs to do more to warn the public about deepfake content, saying Meta’s “approach to surfacing AI-generated content must evolve.”
It continues:
This includes providing details at scale about the origin of media, based on content provenance standards, investing in stronger detection tools and developing better methods for appropriate labeling. Meta needs to create a new, separate set of rules to ensure users can reliably recognize AI-generated content. Additionally, it should amend its current policies to ensure a timely and adequate response to deceptive AI-generated output. The company needs to meet its public commitments and employ its own tools and others available across the industry to effectively address deceptive generative AI content that spreads among platforms.
The revelation comes as Meta fights ongoing litigation alleging its platforms fuel mass harm, including to children.
Read the full ruling from Meta’s Oversight Board here.
Droning on
Donald Trump’s sons are investing in a new drone company in their latest effort to profit from the war economy, as their father’s administration inserts the U.S. into global conflicts.
Donald Trump Jr. joined the advisory board of drone maker Unusual Machines in November 2024, and his older brother, Eric Trump, is an investor in Israeli drone company Xtend.
Read more at The Wall Street Journal here.
Musk and xAI take an early loss
A judge last week denied Elon Musk’s AI company, xAI, a preliminary injunction seeking to block California’s AI transparency law from going into effect. The law requires AI companies to offer some transparency about the data being used to train their AI tools.
Read my blog on the ruling for MS NOW here.
States snub Live Nation settlement
Live Nation, the entertainment company that has faced antitrust scrutiny and public outrage over its ticket pricing, reached a settlement with the Trump administration that was announced Monday. As Ars Technica reported, the settlement appears to have blindsided several states that had raised concerns about Live Nation — many of which are refusing to sign agreements to the settlement’s terms.
Read more at Ars Technica here.
Trump dogged by data center backlash
Donald Trump’s Big Tech photo op last week, centered on growing concerns about energy costs linked to resource-reliant data centers, went big on bluster — and small on specifics.
Read my blog about it for MS NOW here.
Anthropic goes to war
AI company Anthropic has filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over its decision to label the company a supply chain risk, a decision that followed the company’s refusal to lift restrictions on its tools being used for mass surveillance and unmanned weapons.
Read more from my colleague Jordan Rubin over on the Deadline: Legal Blog here.
Golden dome grift?
Several contracts related to the construction of Trump’s “golden dome” missile defense system have gone to a firm founded by billionaire Deputy Defense Secretary Steve Feinberg, who just last year left his private job for a role in Trump’s administration. The relationship raises all kinds of ethical concerns, in part because Feinberg oversees the office leading the golden dome project.
The Pentagon told ProPublica that Feinberg does not “have direct responsibility for any Golden Dome acquisitions.” The department would not comment on whether Feinberg or anyone in his office had met with any contractor representatives, according to the outlet.
Read more at ProPublica here.
Trump buys Netflix and Warner Bros. bonds
Trump purchased Netflix and Warner Bros. bonds as he and his administration were helping steer Warner Bros. Discovery away from an acquisition deal with Netflix and toward Trump-friendly Paramount instead.
Read more from CNBC here.
Virginia vies for social media restrictions
The state of Virginia filed an appeal last week seeking to lift an injunction blocking the state’s law requiring social media platforms to implement more age verification rules and to limit users under 16 years old to one hour of screen time per day.
Read more from WWBT in Virginia here.
