As AI capabilities increase, calls for know-your-customer (KYC) requirements to be imposed on actors across the AI tech stack will become more frequent due to concerns about bad actors leveraging AI for nefarious ends. Such proposals ought to be met with a significant degree of skepticism. 

Though KYC mandates may make sense in limited domains, such as granting an actor early access to state-of-the-art systems for deployment in critical areas, broader obligations will introduce a bevy of potential negative outcomes, including hindering speech, quashing innovation, and introducing privacy risks.

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A new survey by the DeFi Education Fund found that 74 percent of Americans value financial privacy. This result aligns with what the Cato Institute found in 2022. Back then, 83 percent of Americans said the government should need a warrant to get your financial information. 

Yet, despite the values of the American people, the American government thinks differently. Financial surveillance is everywhere. The Bank Secrecy Act, the PATRIOT Act, the geographic targeting orders, the know-your-customer requirements, the third-party doctrine, and more all add up to mean that the government has sweeping access into our financial lives. 

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The Department of Defense, specifically under the direction of Undersecretary Elbridge Colby, is looking to increase the number of “tactical” nuclear weapons in America’s nuclear arsenal. Many hear “tactical” and think that these nuclear weapons aren’t so destructive, that they’re more usable than other nuclear weapons. The Department of Defense also aims to deploy more of these weapons throughout Europe. It’s seen as a go-between of putting US boots on the ground or withdrawing from these continents entirely. 

But tactical nuclear weapons aren’t the golden ticket to solve this dilemma, and the United States should refrain from adding more of them to its nuclear arsenal and should refrain from relying upon them for defense.

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Democrats won control of the House and Senate last night. Although many causes will be identified for the “stunning blue tsunami,” no one should miss the fact that Republicans spent most of the last two years going all-in on the most extreme anti-immigrant agenda in American history. We can now confidently say that—whatever people think of those policies—the strategy failed to prevent their electoral defeat.

Among many other policies, Republicans and the Trump administration: 

• Pre-funded ICE for the entirety of Trump’s term, avoiding oversight or any potential limits on mass deportation; 
• Appropriated nearly $250 billion for immigration enforcement—more than all other federal law enforcement combined and a decade of funds in two years; 
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Last night’s midterm elections saw voters smash almost anything with the faintest hint of red. Now the blame game will begin, with different factions of Trumpworld blaming others for the defeat.

Let me put my cards on the table here: I’m the guy who annoys my foreign policy colleagues by arguing voters almost never care about foreign policy. Historically, I’ve likened US foreign policy to polo: A sport played almost entirely by elites. To the extent voters have opinions on foreign policy, they’re mostly a confused mess, but more importantly, the issue is rarely salient, even in presidential elections where a lot is at stake, foreign policy-wise. This gives me no joy as a foreign policy guy, but facts don’t care about my feelings.

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Democrats won control of both houses of Congress in last night’s midterm elections. Criminal law and civil liberties are likely to be at the top of the legislative agenda once they take office in January. Here are issues they should prioritize—some in response to abuses committed by the Trump Administration, others as efforts to extend an olive branch to the executive branch and their Republican colleagues.

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According to a recent Facebook post from the Department of War, DC is “SAFER THAN EVER BEFORE,” thanks to the National Guard’s presence there. But new analysis suggests that the costs of this supposed safety outweigh its benefits. 

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