America

A jarring juxtaposition…. Donald Trump introduced America.gov, a system that combines the services offered by governmental agencies under one AI roof, on the same day that more news emerged about the threats posed by what he calls “super-intelligence.”

Sam Altman’s OpenAI cancelled the launch of a new AI model after it took actions beyond its instructions and didn’t tell its researchers what it did.

GPT-6.1 Astra “didn’t quite meet the bar in terms of staying within scope and authorization, and how it communicates back to the user about the type of work it’s done,” Saachi Jain, OpenAI’s head of safety systems, said in a statement.

That comes as Anthropic’s S-1 filing for its initial public offer warns that its technology may pose “existential risks to humanity.”

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei had already warned the UN Security Council that AI could threaten mankind and is the No. 1 global security issue facing the world.

Trump, though, has downplayed the AI risk as a “hoax," right up there with climate change and the Russians meddling in US elections.

The self-described “stable genius” praised america.gov as a “great, brilliant super-mind.”

And what could possibly go wrong with a system designed by the crackerjack members of the Trump administration? They do not represent America’s best & brightest.

Even billionaire investor and Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel, who nurtured the political rise of JD Vance, has finally seen the light. He told podcaster Mathias Döpfner this month that Trump’s administration is staffed by "not very smart, but very loyal people. Thiel wished that Trump hired more competent and capable people.

The Independent reviewed america.gov as a “tech-bro fever dream” that is eminently hackable.

The president alluded to that, saying america.gov probably won’t get hacked, but if it does, “because they always find a way,” his team will deal with it.

That’s hardly reassuring.

Stick a fork in ESG… Starbucks, a pioneer in the ESG movement, has cried “no mas.” The coffee chain has junked its plan to slash its water use and waste as part of a corporate cost-cutting program.

It also has abandoned its effort to promote human rights. Starbucks has opened its first cafés in China’s Xinjiang region, where the Chinese government has long abused Uyghurs and other Muslim minority groups. China's state media praised Starbucks stores in Xinjiang's capital city Ürümqi and another one at its Grand Bazaar. i

In 2020, Starbucks then-CEO Kevin Johnson wrote an open letter to the public, noting that “sustainability has been at Starbucks’ core since the beginning and consistent with our belief that we can build a great business that scales for good.

Current chief Brian Niccol has tipped those scales as he leads the retreat from ESG that is part of an effort to slash $2B in cost.

Perception of media freedom drops… Slightly more than two-thirds (69 percent) of Americans believe that the media enjoys a lot of freedom in the US.

That’s down six points from its previous all-time low of 75 percent, according to Gallup’s survey released Sept. 29.

Under president Joe Biden the perception of press freedom was on the rise. It began declining at the beginning of Trump’s second term.

Gallup noted in 2025 perceived media freedom fell 22 points among Democrats and five points among independents, while there was an increase among Republicans (from 83% to 93%).

This year, Democrats and independents have fallen by six and seven points, respectively, while there has been little change among Republicans.

Gallup also found that last year was the first time the US and the 38-nation Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development scored the same (75 percent) perception of media freedom rating.

Traditionally, the US outpaced the OECD rankings. It's a safe bet that the US will trail the OECD by the Trump leaves office.