Policy & RegulationTechCrunch AI · March 21, 2026

Hachette Pulls Horror Novel 'Shy Girl' After AI-Generated Text Suspicions

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Policy & Regulationabout 2 months ago

AI-Generated Pro-Trump Women Soldiers, Truckers & Cops Go Viral — and Many Think They're Real

Social media accounts are spreading AI-generated images of women depicted as pro-Trump soldiers, truckers, and police officers, with thousands of users apparently believing these fabricated personas are real people. The trend highlights the growing challenge of distinguishing AI-generated content from authentic social media profiles. The viral spread of these accounts underscores how AI image generation tools are being weaponized for political influence campaigns.

Techmeme

Policy & Regulationabout 2 months ago

Kaiser Therapists Strike Over AI-Assisted Screening System They Say Endangers Mental Health Patients

About 2,400 northern California Kaiser Permanente mental health workers, represented by the National Union of Health Care Workers (NUHW), staged a one-day strike to protest a new patient screening system introduced in January 2024 that replaced licensed therapists with clerical workers and online questionnaires for initial mental health assessments. Therapists claim the changes have caused high-risk patients to wait longer for care while low-risk patients clog the system, with over 70 reported negative care outcomes filed in an administrative complaint. Workers also raised alarms about Kaiser's potential use of AI to replace licensed therapists, citing concerns around tools like the AI note-taking software Abridge and an algorithm allegedly used to generate triage scores.

The Guardian AI

Policy & Regulationabout 2 months ago

NC Man Pleads Guilty to $10M AI Music Fraud Scheme — One of the First of Its Kind

Michael Smith, 52, of Cornelius, North Carolina, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud after flooding music streaming platforms with thousands of AI-generated songs and using bots to rack up billions of fake streams, netting over $10M in fraudulent royalties. The scheme, which ran from 2017 to 2024, is among the first successful prosecutions of AI-related fraud in the music industry. Smith now faces up to five years in prison and must forfeit over $8 million when sentenced in July.

The Guardian AI

Policy & Regulationabout 2 months ago

FBI Admits Buying Americans' Location Data, Exposing Mass Surveillance Loophole That AI Makes Far More Dangerous

FBI Director Kash Patel confirmed under oath that the agency purchases commercially available data on Americans, including location data, bypassing the warrant requirements established by the Supreme Court. This revelation comes amid Anthropic's high-profile standoff with the Pentagon over preventing its AI from being used for domestic mass surveillance, highlighting how data broker loopholes already enable large-scale surveillance without AI — and how AI could make it exponentially more powerful. OpenAI, which signed a Pentagon contract Anthropic refused, added language prohibiting "intentional" domestic surveillance, but privacy experts warn the wording is too vague to be enforceable.

The Guardian AI

Policy & Regulationabout 2 months ago

UK-OpenAI Partnership All Talk, No Action — Zero Trials Eight Months In

Eight months after the UK government signed a high-profile memorandum of understanding with OpenAI, a Freedom of Information request has revealed that the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) has conducted zero trials under the agreement. Despite ministers touting the partnership as a means to "address society's greatest challenges" through AI-led public service reform, the only tangible outcome cited was enabling Ministry of Justice civil servants to access ChatGPT. Critics and policy experts are questioning the government's intent, accountability, and the lack of measurable goals in these voluntary big-tech AI partnerships.

The Guardian AI

Policy & Regulationabout 2 months ago

Publishers Blocking Internet Archive to Fight AI Are Destroying Decades of Historical Records

Major news publishers like The New York Times and The Guardian have begun blocking the Internet Archive's web crawlers, citing concerns over AI companies scraping copyrighted content. While publishers are locked in legal battles with AI firms over training data, the Internet Archive — a nonprofit digital library — is being caught in the crossfire despite having no role in commercial AI development. The article argues this misguided response risks permanently erasing decades of invaluable historical web records relied upon by journalists, researchers, historians, and courts.

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