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Large tech companies pursue deals with Open AI even as the Ai field remains largely without rules that make the technology safe and regulation against monopolies.

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Private credit market has grown to $2 trillion in 2025 in 10 years  reaching $3.5 trillion in 2028 yet remains unregulated. Private credit is when investment funds such as Blackstone and Apollo, others, loan money to large companies. After the 2009 financial crisis bank regulation was tightened so that riskier loans were kept off the banks books to avoid another financial crisis. This led to the private credit market as a source of loans for small companies.Over 10 years the loans are now going to large companies and it is growing fast. As is typical in the capitalist economies regulation falls behind new financial developments or tech developments. Congress is always playing catchup and is distracted by other issues or has lobbyists asking for less regulation.  This report in the WSJ says when companies like Blackstone have private credit loans of $260 billion this can pose substantial risks for the US economy when this area of lending has no regulation as is required for a modern economy to function correctly. Private credit offers returns of 14-16% for these funds with risks associated and regulators are not asked to set the required rules. It only makes bank regulation ineffective as lending goes to unregulated parts of the economy. ...

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The regulation of Google, Meta, Twitter and other tech companies needed to ensure that the serious negative impact on society, on women and children, and on education and society, with its damaging effects can be removed. This is essential to build the better society of tomorrow after the pandemic.

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Prof. Barry Naughton at the University of California, San Diego, looks at how China has approached tech regulation in a way that has not yet happened in the US and Europe. It says tech regulation expands the role of the government, yet is one that has "a reasonable regulatory rationale," and can be easily supported on an individual basis. It says the US and Europe have recognized the issues that need to be tackled as tech companies were left with no checks or regulation after growing in insidious ways in the last ten years, but have so far failed to act on this knowledge. Some of the goals pursued in China made sense for China it says- technology self-reliance after delinking with the US, data security, de-risking the housing market, getting on a path to carbon neutrality. Other goals such as de-licensing tutoring companies and reregistering as non profit companies-  this was because of president Xi's concern that excessive costs and stress were discouraging Chinese families from having more children as China's population ages rapidly. This means the government plays a bigger role yet Naughton says when it coms to the goal of reducing inequality China has still to come up with ways to use tax policy and other ways to mitigate an extremely unequal distribution of wealth in China. Today this is limited to donations and giving by companies. In the US and Europe social democratic governments from Biden, Scholz and others are taking serious steps and have plans to address these problems of common prosperity with plans to help families and workers. ...

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The Biden administration informs the WHO that it no longer supports the approach taken by previous administrations from Bush through Obama and Trump of not regulating Tech companies. Tech companies Google, Facebook and Apple have through heavy lobbying written the regulatory framework of no regulations. This has resulted in monopolistic behaviours, suppressing competition, ignoring customer needs, not considering privacy of information and other problems. Farah Stockman of the NYT traces how this happened and why the Biden administration is taking action.

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Microsoft is calling for governments worldwide to enact regulation of facial recognition technology in 2019 so that it requires independent assessment of accuracy and prevents ongoing surveillance of specific individuals without a court order. Facebook and Google face questions on respect of privacy. Microsoft's president and chief legal officer, Mr. Smith, says delays could "exacerbate social issues" and stated that society is badly served by "a commercial race to the bottom."  Smith cited George Orwell's novel, "1984," in which a government tracks citizen's movements. China is using mass surveillance technologies. Smith says three areas of concern are racial and gender bias, privacy and mass government surveillance. Export of these technologies is also an issue being raised by many people. AI Now co-founders from Microsoft and Google are also raising questions about harmful effects of AI and its use by tech companies without regulation. ...

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The idea of "two tier policing" in Britian has been spread by Tommy Robinson and other figures and by social media actors yet it does not pass scrutiny says this report in The Guardian. It is in situations such as these that social media cannot be considered a technological advance but one that takes society back many steps. The lack of regulatory scrutiny and regulation of social media through Tech industry acting on its agenda may be one of the serious threats facing Democracy in the US, Europe and the World.

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Seib draws parallels between the situation in 1889 with the large immigration, growing inequality, impact of science and technology, and progressive parts of the two main political parties. Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson pulled together progressives in the Republican and Democratic parties in the next two decades, and FDR-Truman continued progressive policies in the nineteen thirties and forties to tackle the Depression and promote economic recovery. Financial crises are not mentioned by Seib. The recurring financial crises since that period led to the creation of the central bank, the U.S. Federal Reserve and financial regulations for banks. The financial crises with asset bubbles in 2000 for tech and bubble in real estate in 2009, resulted from the lifting of financial regulation and lack of close supervision of financial markets.

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Google, Meta, Apple, Microsoft effort to cancel all AI regulation by states, effectively leaving AI unregulated. What was Senator Ted Cruz doing sponsoring a 10 year rule of this kind that required protections to be put in place for child online safety so that the dangerous AI law for unregulation, no supervision, would not intrude into other areas such as child online safety. What was Senator Blackburn of Tennessee thinking when she joined that effort and had second thoughts pulling back to 5 years from 10 years of unregulated AI. Everyone from the entire Democratic caucus, Steve Bannon and advocacy groups fighting for citizen control over AI, and many Republican Senators who were not clear why such a law was being proposed by AI interests and Cruz's willingness to take the Tech monopolies interests in a dangerous direction of no regulation. “The way these provisions are written, they’re very sweeping, and they would trip up almost any attempt to regulate the harmful use of AI.”  -Ed Wytkind, interim director of the AFL-CIO’s technology institute. “Google and Meta had AI amnesty in the bag yesterday at 10 a.m. Then the Article III Project and Steve Bannon’s War Room sprang into action. Sometimes feeling the heat makes people see the light. We are pleased 99 senators finally decided to side with kids and content creators over AI amnesty and Big Tech profits.”-Mike Davis founder Article III Project ...

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Was president Biden right to get the Fed, the FDIC and Treasury to cover the uninsured deposits in Silicon Valley Bank. Is it a good use of taxpayer money? $25 billion was provided by the Treasury to the Fed to stabilize other medium sized banks. The answer from the administration is that it was necessary to protect working families from any effects on the overall economy of the ripple effect on medium sized banks that were left unregulated by former president Trump's 2018 roll back of regulation on banks with less than 250 billion in assets.The Office of the Budget has shown that the government recovered all except $31 billion from the much larger bailout of 2008. Paul Krugman in NYT says the assets of SVB are invested in long term US Treasury securities which have value and should cover most of the cost of insuring depositors. Moral hazard is covered by the management at SVB and Signature losing their jobs and by the losses in stock value and bonds which are left unprotected as a cautionary signal to investors. A much larger impact is hidden in the hearts and minds of Silicon Valley who will be expected to reflect on the nature of their self serving deal where they oppose regulation of tech monopolies and of regulatory action except where it serves their  own interests, and see a laissez faire system that works for them but not for workers and families across communities in states across America. A situation made worse by the loss of America's manufacturing base on which issue Silicon Valley neither reflected or acted. ...

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William Barr, Attorney general of the US 1991-1993 and again 2019-2020, says serious regulation to breakup the power and chokehold on communications of Big Tech should be the first priority of 2023. He says they have too much power and pose a threefold danger. First they have a chokehold over essential channels of communications and commerce, letting them be the gatekeepers to the digital world. Second they vacuum up a trove of personal information of users that permits manipulating user beliefs and behaviour. Third, they distort the "marketplace of ideas"  and as gatekeepers can pursue their own political and economic agendas. He cautions antitrust litigation is too slow and case by case approach is not the way. And too much time is misspent on proving misconduct, when that is not necessary, as regulatory intervention has been needed whether or not there is misconduct for a fair and good market system to work. He says new dangers are happening and it is time for Congress to stop being all talk and no action even as digital platforms are taking unfair advantage and endangering the fairness of the market system. ...

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President Xi Jinping to introduce regulation into what was once an essentially unregulated economy, including a housing sector with financial risks built on ever increasing leverage, are expected to slow the economy to 6-7% growth rate. This is seen as acceptable to address the other goals president Xi sees as essential for the long term future of China. China urban is what most people in the US and Europe see. This is only 60% of China. The other 40% is stuck with lower incomes at about a third of urban areas and with few opportunities. Within urban areas there are the people with moderate incomes who are spooked at housing prices and living in small flats, and now with the pandemic there are many more who are unemployed as China lacks an unemployment insurance system like the US. This and Xi's close connections to farmers in Hebei, and other provinces where he has spent time as party secretary, mean he will now give all of China's people an even chance for a better life. Just as in the US with president Biden, president Xi is tackling social and economic problems left after decades of tech driven expansion aggravated income inequality and poverty. ...

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In a two and half hour news conference prime minister Li Keqiang of China gives some insights into the new thinking of China's leadership on issues of trade with the U.S.,charges made against Huawei, and handling China's slowing economy. On Huawei or Chinese tech companies conducting spying for the Chinese government Li Keqiang stated: This is not consistent with Chinese law. This is not how China behaves, We do not do that and will not do that in the future." To tackle the slowing economy Li said the government is reducing taxes and cutting interest rates and the money banks are required to hold as reserves. By reducing expenditures the government will save 1 trillion yuan ($148 billion, collecting higher dividends from state firms, and retrieving unspent state funds allocated earlier. The purpose Li repeatedly emphasized is to free up credit to help private companies and prevent "layoff waves." On the trade issues with the U.S. Li believes it is not possible to uncouple the two countries economies, and said he expected the trade talks to lead to a positive outcome. China's national legislature he said passed a new foreign investment law as proof of its commitment to creating a fair environment for foreign companies, including complaint responding mechanisms, transparency in information disclosure and fast followup in issuing regulations that put the law in effect. ...

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Where changes are being made that make America stronger business leaders wholeheartedly support and value the president's work and the people on his team working on it. Brad Smith of Microsoft says of Biden on cybersecurity "he has done more in his presidency than any president ever." CEO's of auto companies (Stellantis, GM, Ford) and Intel CEO Geisinger value the investment the government is making for climate change transition and investments in rebuilding semiconductor manufacturing to level the playing field with China, something the US Chamber of Commerce never advocated. It is the policy officer of the US Chamber of Commerce who uses the word "complicated" because the positions taken by the US Chamber of Commerce are at odds with what the American people need, or are demanding of the president. If one is talking about large oil companies, so called Tech companies such as Google and Apple that are not paying their fair share of taxes, and Pharma companies that are charging exorbitant prices, the president is only doing what is best for the American people. One could see this in the recent Senate hearings with Big Pharma companies ,when out of sheer frustration the senior Republican senator Mike Braun of Indiana warned the Pharma companies, that they were following a path that he other Republicans could no longer support. Banks faced tighter regulation because of banking crises including the 2009 crisis caused by the banks that hurt workers and middle class. Business relations with the Biden administration are being shaped then by a new vision for America and the American people, to point to a brighter future, not to pull back to the past. ...

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Ezra Klein of the NYT looks at proposed US, EU and Chinese regulatory framework for AI. He points out the problems with the EU- too specific, US- too broad, and China's - state oriented. Klein gives specific points that need to be considered carefully including setting up the regulatory agency like the FDA to strictly regulate AI systems and companies.

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That social media is likened to cigarettes and Joanna Stern gives this WSJ video titled  "Facebook and Big Tobacco: Why Social Media is (and isn't) like Cigarettes" itself tells a lot about the way the public in the US perceives the dangers of social media. Social media regulation is compared to the experience with tobacco regulation in the US in this WSJ report. Senators Amy Kobluchar, Democrat of Minnesota and Chuck Grassley Republican of Iowa lead the effort for regulation in the US Senate in the face of lobbying millions spent by so-called tech companies. Tech in history goes back to the period following the Renaissance in Europe when hundreds of scientific discoveries changed the way we live and work with advances in medicine, science, manufacturing, infrastructure, rail, flight, and computers  whereas the tech of tech companies such as Google and Facebook, Amazon, and Apple is around for 15-20 years, and built on the hundreds of years of innovation coming before, and now degenerated into monopolistic profit seeking. With negative consequences for women, children, and which violate basic ideas of fairness on which America is built.  ...

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Microsoft CEO Brad Smith is taking a different approach with regulators than tech rivals Apple and Google. In this report by WSJ he says that tech is now in the same situation that the financial companies were after the financial misdeeds of 2008 which caused a global financial crisis. Banks had to adapt to the regulation that followed. Tech says Brad Smith will have to do the same after missteps of its own. Better for Microsoft to work proactively with regulators than to stall regulation is Smith'e view.

To do this Smith brings 30 years of experience working with Microsoft and seven as president. During this time he had extensive interface with regulators and government, so that he brings more experience in this field than his peers at Google or Apple. 

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The recent appointment of fast food executive Andrew Puzder as Labor Secretary has caused great concern among union leaders. Puzder supports a $9 minimum wage compared to $15 supported by Democrats. Unions now represent 7% of the labor force, down from a high of 20% during Reagan's time when Reagan appointed a construction company executive as Labor Secretary and cut regulations.  Globalization has thinned the ranks of workers in unions. And the failure of Democratic administrations to stem the shift of factories overseas to China, Mexico and other places, as part of global supply chains focussed on cost, has weakened Democratic support among workers since the period of Bill Clinton. It eroded to the point where Obama won 65% of support among unions and Hillary Clinton won 56% in 2016. Interestingly the Republican Romney gained 33% versus 37% for Trump, showing voters were more inclined to move away from Democrats and only a smaller number willing to support Republicans, but the shift enough to give Republicans a win in 2016 for the presidency. The figures are from a Election Day survey of trade union AFL-CIO, and a larger proportion in midwestern states showed disaffection with policies from Clinton to Obama. In fact Obama spent years promoting another free trade agreement TPP that favored tech more than auto and older industries, just as Bill Clinton had promoted NAFTA, without giving thought to what this was doing to its worker base of support. A similar situation happened with Social Democrats in Germany as a SPD administration moved to the centre and handed Christian Democrats led by Merkel a win in parliamentary elections. As Democrats such as former Labor Secretary Reich, a professor at UC Berkeley who served under Bill Clinton, describe the problems of working class people their is less reflection on the impact of the changes from globalization and how Democrats handled or mishandled it, and more on the politics between the two parties.   ...

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US president Biden signs a broad executive order on July 9, that is directed at promoting competitive behaviour in the American economy, and taking action against companies that have anti competitive behaviours. It also aims to limit corporate dominance that then can lead to anti competitive behaviours. These types of behaviours puts consumers, workers and small compoanies at a disadvantage. The Biden plan stretches from the smaller items such as hearing aids and baggage fees, to the task of putting in place the first antitrust regulation on tech companies Apple, Google, Amazon and others. Industries Biden sees as needing help are agriculture, healthcare, shipping, transportation, technology, and labor practices that limit wages and mobility. In making the executive order the White House says it "will lower prices for families, increase wages for workers and promote innovation and even faster economic growth." As each step is taken by the Biden administration to help workers, families, women and children, the situation is a reminder of the actions taken by Franklin Delano Roosevelt at another period of crisis in the nation's history. The July 9 executive order will create a Competition Council as proposed by Tim Wu, special assistant to the president for technology and competition policy in the White House National Economic Council. The Compeititon Council task will be to get federal agencies to take action to promote competitive behaviours for the first time since the 1980's when Republican presidents Reagan, Bush, and Democratic presidents Clinton, Obama, allowed such behaviours in some industries to get entrenched. In Biden's own words "the rise of monopolies weaken labor." In each industry agencies will now have the task of pushing back against anti-competitive behaviours already put in place by companies. In agriculture it will help small farmers, in pharmaceutical sector it will help the American people deal with a problem that has no end in sight of high drug prices and practices that support this. In all areas of the economy the Biden plan is for a new coordinated effort across all the agencies of the government and under the leadership of the president, to restore the vibrant economy to what it was before the long deterioration through anti-competitive behaviours. ...

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Geoffrey Hinton, a pioneer in the development of AI, resigns from Google and warns about the dangers of AI. He says AI poses profound risks to humanity and society. He says it is hard to see how bad actors would not misuse AI for bad things.

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This report in The Guardian shows that ChatGPT is nothing new. The first version of this kind of generative AI was developed in 1966 at MIT by a computer scientist Weizenbaum, who called it Eliza. The buzz around it like that around ChatGPT was that it was thinking and acting on its own, the way humans like to think it did, but in fact Weizenbaum showed that it was simply code written to take what was given to the computer as input and spitting it out in a different way that made it look that it was acting on its own, when it clearly was nothing but parroting it out like a parrot. The issue of turning our world over to robots based on AI is controversial and even dangerous. A Japanese futuristic movie shows how the man who has written the code for the master computer that runs everything in Japan is disillusioned about it and finds himself in a nightmare world where the machine tries to isolate and eliminate the man who created it. Machines cannot think or have emotions like humans do and it is these emotions, rethinking, that the world depends on for its survival. Can anyone say that a machine would have made the decision that Chinese president Jinping just made in January of making a complete u turn and moving away completely from lockdowns into a complete opening with a plan that appears to have worked and is reviving China's economy following the street protests by informal groups including young women? ...

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Without human consciousness Ai's simply lack the vital elements of what makes us human. So called intelligent behaviours don't amount to much in this the most important aspect of our behaviours that makes us human in the way we have evolved over long periods of time. A recent Japanese movie showed how even the creators of AI that runs things in a futuristic Japan find themselves trapped in an AI run society, and how AI fails Japanese society.

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Rina Bliss, a professor of sociology at Rutgers, says while AI can bring information to kids it cannot make them think. To truly learn children will have to do it themselves and in interaction with teachers, parents and other children. She took the approach of a scientist and let her two children try out AI tools and software and came to this conclusion. One reason she says is that AI is based on computational intelligence and the human mind and brain are not quantifiable. The brain is flowing like a river and always learning from its environments.  There is a social environmental piece says Marin, there is interaction, there is a drive to know and connect, curiosity and passion that are part of learning.  Basically AI is developed through taking vast amounts of information collecting it and ordering it in a certain way. How each originator of the AI orders it affects how it will work. And what is in the basket of information collected will affect how it will work. There is no thinking brain outside of the human originator who put a particular version together. Like every piece of software there are implicit or explicit instructions on how to use the basket of information collected that is put in by an originator who developed the AI software. For these reasons it will only do basic tasks and is not intended for complex tasks that involve thinking processes and social-emotional aspects of human behaviour. The risks of using it begin to grow as soon as it is used for tasks it was never intended to perform such as replacing the human thinking  processes and the socio-emotional aspects of these processes.  If it is used to do things it was never intended for, the larger the activities it performs, the larger the mistakes and risks it it is liable to make or create. If it is assigned the task of transportation for a country, it will at some point be asked to think and at that point it will fail to make the right decisions, making the risks grow exponentially, very, very fast, leading to disaster. ...

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Danny Hakim's gives this indepth account on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's connections to the tobacco industry, with reporting from Ukraine, Nepal, the Philippines and other poorer nations struggling with the public health implications of widespread smoking. Since 1997 the Chamber of Commerce, which is viewed in foreign countries as an outpost of the U.S. government, has taken some controversial positions. In the U.S. the chamber has as it members the tech industry leaders such as Google and Microsoft. Yet it is increasingly at odds with these companies. In 2009 the chamber under Mr. Donahue opposed greenhouse gas emissions regulation by the EPA, leading to the departure of Apple from the group and Nike stepping down from the board. In 2013 the American subsidiary of Sweden's construction company Skanska left the group, in protest against the chamber's opposition to green building codes. Michael Bloomberg and Bill Gates have set up an international fund to fight law suits challenging international anti-smoking laws by tobacco companies. The TPP's provision for companies being able to sue foreign governments for violation of trade agreements has no exception for tobacco companies. Similiar concerns are raised about pharmaceutical companies suiing foreign governments where the governments are working to increase access to medicine for poorer sections of the population....