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Tech News
At a rally in Highland Heights, Kentucky, President Trump claimed he called Google and that the company 'kisses his ass' now, unlike during his first term. He cited this as evidence of his increased influence, referencing the renaming of the Gulf of Mexico and Lake Ontario on Google Maps.
A wilderness survival trainer named John Williams spent years secretly embedding himself inside right-wing militia groups, rising into leadership circles that included doctors and government attorneys, according to ProPublica. He covertly recorded conversations and compiled a massive trove of documents, which he eventually shared with the news organization, while keeping an emergency bag ready in case he needed to flee.
Donald Trump and Elon Musk both denied having caused a reported partial disruption to Ukraine's military satellite network this week. Neither offered an explanation for what did cause the outage, according to the report.
A Washington Post investigation citing an internal fundraising spreadsheet found Apple and Nvidia each committed $25 million to fund Trump's planned $600 million White House ballroom, tying them as the largest donors alongside the Adelson Family Foundation and Charlie Ergen's household and donor-advised fund. Together these four donations make up roughly 30% of the $333 million in contributions documented. Other tech firms named include Google (via a $22 million settlement-linked trust), Microsoft and Palantir ($10 million each), Amazon and Meta ($5 million each), and smaller sums from HP, Micron, Salesforce, Cisco, Coinbase, Ripple, ServiceNow and T-Mobile.
Nvidia and Cisco have confirmed making multimillion-dollar donations to the renovation of a White House ballroom championed by President Trump, joining a donor list reported by The Washington Post to exceed $330 million. Nvidia and Apple each reportedly gave $25 million, while Cisco confirmed a $5 million contribution; Amazon, Palantir, ServiceNow, Meta and Microsoft were also named as major donors, funneled through a nonprofit trust.
President Trump reversed Pentagon plans to livestream the December 3 firing-squad execution of Nidal Hasan, convicted in the 2009 Fort Hood shooting that killed 13 people. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had announced the livestream last week without Trump's prior knowledge, triggering bipartisan backlash. Hasan's execution will proceed as scheduled, with families of victims still permitted to view it, but it will not be broadcast publicly.
President Trump posted a before-and-after photo on Truth Social showing a White House column touted as freshly restored, but Google's SynthID Detector flagged the 'after' image as created or edited with OpenAI tools. Reddit users noted the two photos share near-identical angles, window reflections and cardboard placement, but have mismatched and uneven numbers of steps. Other photos Trump posted of the White House facade and heliport did not trigger the AI watermark detection.
The Trump administration has launched a new government website, SI.gov, as part of an effort to rebrand artificial intelligence policy under the term 'superintelligence.' The site is tied to President Trump's push to reframe how AI is discussed in government communications.
President Trump announced that the scheduled firing squad execution of former Army psychiatrist Nidal Hasan, convicted in the 2009 Fort Hood shooting that killed 13 people, will no longer be livestreamed as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had previously proposed. Trump said the execution will proceed as planned but without public broadcast, though victims' families will still be permitted to view it.
A YouGov/Economist survey found that among voters living within a mile of an AI data center, support for Democratic candidates rose from 54% to 61% between May and October. Nationally over the same period, the Democratic voting share rose more modestly, from 53% to 55%.
Ukrainian drone units reported Starlink terminal signal failures at speeds above 160 km/h starting Wednesday, disrupting frontline logistics and strike missions without prior notice, according to military personnel and senior officials. Kyiv also said it received no advance warning from allies of a Russian missile strike on energy facilities for a second consecutive day.
During San Francisco's Tech Week, AI founders and venture capitalists discussed the Trump administration's largely voluntary approach to AI oversight, including a 308-word safety pact signed last month that asks labs to self-monitor rather than follow binding rules. At an Andreessen Horowitz-organized event, PitchBook's Kyle Stanford highlighted that the U.S. government is allocating $1 trillion to defense, with $13.5 billion earmarked for autonomous systems and AI, framing it as a major investment opportunity.