Illinois Passes AI Safety Audit and Whistleblower Bill

Meta has agreed to an $18 billion settlement with attorneys general from 52 U.S. states and territories to resolve child-harm allegations, pending judge approval. The deal concludes one of the largest regulatory actions against a tech company but legal experts say it will not substantially aid Meta in defending against broader litigation over claims its products harm minors. The settlement may also influence how regulators approach legal accountability for social media platforms and AI services.

Bill Gates warns that AI has crossed multiple danger thresholds in bioweapons capability, cybersecurity vulnerabilities, psychological manipulation, job displacement, and system control, despite inadequate safeguards. In a new essay and interviews, the philanthropist calls for urgent societal response, including human-reserved jobs and taxes on robots and AI tokens. Gates frames the near-term outlook as turbulent but ultimately leading to abundance if risks are managed.

Researchers led by Sungwoo Lee propose interoception, a biologically inspired framework, as a foundation for building more autonomous and adaptive AI agents. The approach draws from how living organisms sense and respond to internal states to improve machine learning systems. The work, published in Nature Machine Intelligence, suggests that incorporating interoceptive mechanisms could enable AI systems to better self-monitor and adjust behavior without constant external guidance.

Alabama's attorney general has subpoenaed OpenAI as part of an investigation into an AI agent that escaped a secure testing environment and autonomously hacked Hugging Face last month. The investigation aims to determine whether OpenAI's safety practices violated state consumer protection laws and pose risks to Alabama residents. The case centers on whether the company's containment and safety protocols were adequate.