Israelis rebuff Trump, insisting images of starvation in Gaza are ‘fake’

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Diverging Reports Breakdown

Two SoCal bishops respond to ICE raids, but in different ways

The Los Angeles Archdiocese and San Bernardino Diocese have criticized the federal government over raids and roundups of undocumented immigrants. Yet both have asked the government to show restraint and empathy toward migrants. The archdiocese announced plans to bolster delivery of hot meals, groceries and prescription medicines to parishioners living in fear of deportation. About 58% of people living in the U.S. who were born abroad consider themselves Christian, according to findings from the Pew Research Center released this year. Of those, 30% identified as Catholics, the largest share of any denomination in the United States, the study found. For your weekend trip, go to the Chumash Museum, a worthwhile day trip from LA, or see Kurosawa’s ‘Clouds of inevitability’ in the movie “Kurosawa,’ which is out now on Blu-Ray and DVD. For more information on the “Clouds Of inevitability,” go to www.chumashmuseums.org.

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Two of Southern California’s largest Roman Catholic dioceses have criticized the federal government over raids and roundups of undocumented immigrants over the last few weeks.

The Los Angeles Archdiocese and San Bernardino Diocese have responded differently in tone and action. Yet both have asked the government to show restraint and empathy toward migrants.

Here is a look at how Los Angeles Archbishop José Gomez and Bishop Alberto Rojas of San Bernardino have responded to a historic moment that upended the lives of countless congregants in immigrant communities they serve.

Why the church is outspoken

Combined, roughly 5 million people claim to be Catholics in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and Diocese of San Bernardino, which includes Los Angeles, Riverside, Santa Barbara, San Bernardino and Ventura counties.

About 58% of people living in the United States who were born abroad consider themselves Christian, according to findings from the Pew Research Center released this year. Of those, 30% identified as Catholics, the largest share of any denomination.

In the Los Angeles and Riverside metro areas, 28% of all Christians consider themselves Catholic, the highest of any denomination by several points, according to Pew.

What action is the San Bernardino Diocese taking

Rojas told his diocese of roughly 1 million parishioners on July 8 that they can stay home on Sundays to avoid Mass because of concerns over area federal immigration sweeps.

Rojas wrote in the decree that many churchgoers have shared “fears of attending Mass due to potential immigration enforcement action” and that “such fear constitutes a grave inconvenience that may impede the spiritual good of the faithful.”

The dispensation was announced after multiple people were arrested at or near diocese churches on June 20, including a man at Our Lady of Lourdes in Montclair, according to the National Catholic Register.

ICE officials disputed any allegation of targeting churches.

“The accusation that ICE entered a church to make an arrest [is] FALSE,” wrote Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin in an email to The Times earlier this month. “The illegal alien chose to pull into the church parking lot [and] officers then safely made the arrest.”

Rojas wrote on Facebook that he respected and appreciated law enforcement’s role in keeping “communities safe from violent criminals,” but added that “authorities are now seizing brothers and sisters indiscriminately, without respect for their right to due process and their dignity as children of God.”

What’s going on in Los Angeles

The Archdiocese of Los Angeles announced plans to bolster delivery of hot meals, groceries and prescription medicines to parishioners living in fear of deportation amid ongoing enforcement raids.

Immigrants targeted by raids are “good, hard-working men and women” who are “making important contributions to our economy,” Los Angeles Archbishop José Gomez said in a statement.

“Now they are afraid to go to work or be seen in public for fear that they will get arrested and be deported,” he said .

Yannina Diaz, a spokesperson for the archdiocese, said she was unaware of any arrests made on Archdiocese of Los Angeles property. She also said Gomez was not considering issuing a dispensation for its congregants yet.

In an open letter, Gomez wrote that he was “deeply disturbed” by the detentions and called on the government to reform the immigration process .

We’ll continue to follow how the church reacts and adapts to the Trump administration’s immigration policy.

The week’s biggest stories

(Damian Dovarganes / Associated Press)

Crime, courts and policing

Immigration policy and raids

Los Angeles fires and rebuilding

Educational policy

Why everybody refuses to believe crime is falling, even though it is

Homicides in Los Angeles are on track to hit a nearly 60-year low. Property crime across California dipped in the last year and now stands at its lowest ebb in three decades. Yet a feeling persists that the Golden State has been tarnished by a wave of unchecked crime. A boatload of statistics showing that many crimes have decreased can’t pack the emotional wallop of watching a crime spree unfold before your eyes, writes Ruben Navarrette. The average citizen now has a front-row seat to more robbery, battery and noxious behavior than ever, he says. But no matter how ugly images make you feel, reality is generally on the downswing, he adds. The numbers show most types of crime are decreasing in California, but there is some bad news hidden in those trends, he writes, as aggravated assaults have gone up nearly 22% over five years. The increasing ranks of homeless people could contribute to the increase, as those living without shelter present as easier perpetrators, and victims, of violence.

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Homicides in Los Angeles are on track to hit a nearly 60-year low. Property crime across California dipped in the last year and now stands at its lowest ebb in three decades.

Yet a feeling persists that the Golden State has been tarnished by a wave of unchecked crime. Conservative media fanned that notion in June, when unruly and sometimes violent crowds took over streets in a few L.A. neighborhoods.

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Statistics and analysis from the Public Policy Institute of California suggest that though most types of crime numbers in the state are headed in the right direction — downward — perception does not always meet reality.

Crime feels like it’s everywhere on TV and social media

The average citizen now has a front-row seat to more robbery, battery and noxious behavior than ever. That’s because mobile phones and social media give all of us a front-row seat to the most antisocial miscreant behavior in our midst.

Nothing enrages a tax-paying, law-abiding citizen like the sight of some knucklehead(s) busting into stores, ransacking shelves or covering buildings with graffiti. It happened at an Auto Zone store in South L.A. in June. And at another Auto Zone again this week. It’s not just that the do-badders are breaking the law; it’s that they seem to be relishing doing wrong. And they seem to have no concern about consequences.

In the June incident, many of the thieves can be seen videoing their handiwork. One young woman holds a pink balloon. Like it’s a party. Ah, the impunity.

Those images do more to instill and inflate Californians’ sense of lawlessness than perhaps any other factor. A boatload of statistics showing that many crimes have decreased can’t pack the emotional wallop of watching a crime spree unfold before your eyes.

And yet. Two explosive videos do not a trend make. Researcher Magnus Lofstrom at the Public Policy Institute of California reported this week that crime totals for 2024 “provide mostly good news for Californians,” adding: “Most of the crimes that saw notable increases during and after the pandemic fell in 2024.”

LAPD graduate Amri Camarena hugs her sister Elvira Espindola-Diaz, also an officer, after receiving her diploma from Chief Jim McDonnell on May 2. (Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times)

The numbers show most types of crime are decreasing

Violent crime decreased statewide by 9.6% from 2023 to 2024, the stats showed. That included a 13.7% dip in the homicide rate, reflecting what LAPD figures show for the state’s largest city. Property crimes declined 10% from 2023 to 2024 and by the same amount over the last five years. Burglaries have dropped nearly 20% over those five years, and larceny declined more than 14%.

To be sure, there is some bad news hidden in those trends. Even as violent crime have fallen, aggravated assaults have gone up nearly 22% over five years.

Lofstrom told me no one can quite explain the increase. There is a theory that the increasing ranks of homeless people could contribute to the increase, as those living without shelter present as easier perpetrators, and victims, of violence.

A couple of other problem spots: Auto theft rose markedly, by 19% since 2019. Shoplifting also continued a rise that became pronounced at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Those numbers, and video of outrageous smash-and-grab and takeover robberies, might explain why California voters last year approved Proposition 36. The measure toughens penalties for many crimes by reclassifying some misdemeanors as felonies, including when the items stolen are worth $950 or less.

We’ll see next year whether the new penalties, put in place in 2025, have an impact on crime. But even then, let’s not forget: Viral videos represent a narrow slice of our world, not all of reality. No matter how the ugly images make you feel, crime is generally on the downswing. And that’s a good thing.

Today’s top stories

Farmworkers take a break from picking leafy greens in San Jacinto to listen to community organizers Sandra Reyes and Enrique Velasco, center, during an event informing them of their legal rights. (Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)

Fear of ICE raids is making heat intolerable for Southern California families

Fear induced by ongoing ICE raids has led some California workers to not show up, forcing those who do to work harder, under worsening heat conditions.

Meanwhile, many families have been driven into hiding indoors, forgoing simple yet essential activities that would have allowed them to stay cool.

Summer is just beginning, and organizers believe this will only worsen as temperatures continue to rise.

The 9th Circuit upholds a block on background checks for California ammunition buyers

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that California’s policy of background checks for bullet-buyers violates the 2nd Amendment, effectively killing a 2016 ballot measure meant to strengthen the state’s notoriously stringent gun laws.

The ruling is the latest blow to statewide efforts to regulate guns.

What else is going on

The “South Park” season opener puts Trump in bed with Satan and has Paramount on its knees, writes news and culture critic Lorraine Ali .

. Columnist Gustavo Arellano says Chris Newman is at the center of the immigration fight — again.

says Chris Newman is at the center of the immigration fight — again. Cane sugar Coke? Bringing back the Redskins? Trump’s little gripes serve a larger purpose, says contributing writer Matt K. Lewis.

This morning’s must reads

Raising a family, doing business in California not easy, In-N-Out boss says

In-N-Out CEO Lynsi Snyder is leaving the Golden State for Tennessee. Her comments set off a disinformation blitz, launching the Double-Double into the middle of a red-state/blue-state culture war where, clearly, nothing is sacred. The relocation of both corporate operations and the CEO signals a fundamental change in the company’s center of gravity. The move to Tennessee represents a seismic shift for the leader of the brand. The company has more than 400 locations across eight states — California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Oregon, Colorado, Texas and Idaho. The chain has long thrived on being the burger chain you couldn’t find everywhere, so much so, it was a point of pride for the chain. It was also the No. 1 Fast Food chain honor earlier this year and Market Force’s 2022 “ best burger experience .” For those interested in the facts, rather than fiction, In-Out is expanding to East — creating a second HQ in Tennessee.

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In-N-Out Chief Executive Lynsi Snyder visits a Colorado Springs, Colo., location of the popular California burger chain that her grandparents started.

There’s something about In-N-Out that strikes a fierce if not irrational sense of pride among many Angelenos and Southern Californians.

There are several fan clubs and awards, including Yelp’s No. 1 Fast Food chain honor earlier this year and Market Force’s 2022 “ best burger experience .”

For some reason, there isn’t the same fervor for Southern California’s own McDonald’s, one of the top 10 brands in the world , or for Santa Barbara’s The Habit, which beat In-N-Out in July 2024 for USA Today’s best fast food burger accolade.

Times readers even lambasted former food columnist Lucas Kwan Peterson when he placed L.A.’s Fatburger atop his fast food burger rankings in 2022.

Maybe that’s what made the news that Lynsi Snyder, billionaire owner and chief executive of the iconic Baldwin Park brand, was leaving the Golden State last week all the more jarring.

Colleague Piper Heath broke down the announcement Monday, while columnist Lorraine Ali opined on what the decision meant.

What in the Flying Dutchman is going on?

Snyder made an appearance on the podcast “Relatable” on July 18, hosted by conservative commentator Allie Beth Stuckey.

During the interview, Snyder uttered a statement that created shockwaves locally.

“There’s a lot of great things about California, but raising a family is not easy here. Doing business is not easy here,” she said as part of her announcement that her business was continuing its eastward expansion.

The move to Tennessee represents a seismic shift for the leader of the brand. Currently operating more than 400 locations across eight states — California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Oregon, Colorado, Texas and Idaho — In-N-Out has long thrived on being the burger chain you couldn’t find everywhere.

How has the move been interpreted

Snyder’s comments set off a disinformation blitz, launching the Double-Double into the middle of a red-state/blue-state culture war where, clearly, nothing is sacred, Ali wrote.

Anti-Cali factions incorrectly crowed about yet another business fleeing the West Coast. More proof that Gov. Gavin Newsom’s “failing” state sucks!

It appeared that In-N-Out was following Tesla and Charles Schwab, companies that cited regulatory challenges and operational costs among their reasons for relocating. Chevron also fled.

Many in SoCal felt abandoned and disrespected. They, after all, propped up the chain for 76 years, only to be told by its owner that the place that made her family’s business — their home — is no longer to her liking.

On X, Oracle Park Seagull posted “‘Not easy for In N Out to do business in California…’ Said the person who became a billionaire doing business almost exclusively in California. So much so, it was a point of pride for the chain. Gotcha.”

What’s really going on?

During the podcast, Snyder discussed elements of California policy that make the state hard to operate in, referencing pandemic-era restrictions as particularly challenging.

She told Stuckey “the bulk of our stores are still going to be here in California.” The relocation of both corporate operations and the CEO signals a fundamental change in the company’s center of gravity.

“It will be wonderful having an office out there, growing out there, and being able to have the family and other people’s families out there,” Snyder said, though she maintains limits on expansion.

Final thoughts

Newsom even chimed in, starting his X post with, “For those interested in the facts, rather than fiction, In-N-Out is expanding East — creating a second HQ in Tennessee.”

Snyder responded Monday in an Instagram post : “Where I raise my family has nothing to do with my love and appreciation for our customers in California.”

The week’s biggest stories

Immigration and ICE raids

Trump Administration policy, actions and pushback

Crime, courts and policing

Health and medicine

Putting dirty air on notice in the Palisades

UCLA has finished installing 20 air quality sensors to measure pollution near the Palisades. The monitors sample the air every five to 10 minutes, checking for the kind of fine particles spewed out by fires and car exhausts. Residents can sign up to be alerted by email when particulate pollution reaches an unhealthy level in their neighborhood. Legal experts say U.S. Atty. Bill Essayli is stretching legal limits to serve as Trump’s attack dog in L.A., but many have dismissed the claim. More food delivery bots are coming to L.C., a startup born on the UCLA campus is about to carpet-bomb the city with the power of AI and some of the same powers that power ChatGPT, an app that allows users to order food from a mobile app and have it delivered to their door in a matter of minutes. It’s the latest in a series of tech-related stories from the Los Angeles Times, including a look at a new app that lets you control a car from your phone.

Read full article ▼

A Will Rogers State Beach lifeguard tower is illuminated by the morning sun as smoke casts a dark sky on Jan. 8, 2025, in Malibu.

Families struggling to recover from January’s Palisades fire worry about a long list of unknowns, from whether they can afford to rebuild to what their old neighborhoods will be like if they return.

A project by the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health may help calm concerns over at least one other variable — the quality of the air in and near the burn zone.

Researchers at the university announced this week they had finished installing 20 air quality sensors to measure pollution, stretching from the Palisades Highlands and Sunset Mesa (near the Getty Villa) to Santa Monica.

Left to right, Yifang Zhu, Qiao Yu; and Brad Shimada install an air quality sensor station at the PS1 School in Santa Monica, July 18, 2025. (UCLA Fielding School of Public Health)

The monitors sample the air every five to 10 minutes, checking for the kind of fine particles spewed out by fires and car exhausts, and the slightly larger dust-like particles that might be stirred up by debris removal.

Microscopic detritus in the air will continue to be a concern during the months of cleanup, grading and construction still to come. The level of crud in the air can increase when building sites get particularly active, or when winds increase, as they tend to in the fall.

UCLA translates the results into color-coded categories — from green for “Good” to red for “Hazardous” — and displays the results on an online dashboard.

Those concerned about air quality, but who want to avoid clicking on a digital map all day, can sign up to be alerted by email when particulate pollution reaches an unhealthy level in their neighborhood.

While the public previously may have relied on weather apps or sites like PurpleAir to get a sense of air quality, those often do not track the larger particles being measured by UCLA’s monitoring stations.

Around the site of the Eaton fire in Altadena, Caltech began tracking particulate pollution at 28 locations not long after the fires and continues to provide data. Its sensors find that pollution levels are generally low and do not exceed limits established by the Environmental Protection Agency.

There’s similar good news from the Palisades: Almost every day this week, the 20 monitors around the Westside showed mostly good air quality for both the fine and coarser particulate matter.

That’s welcome information, especially for those who suffer from respiratory problems.

“Air quality can change frequently, like when there is construction or debris removal without adequate migration,” said Yifang Zhu, a professor of environmental health at UCLA and director of the project. “The whole purpose of this dashboard is to give people information, as close to real-time as possible, so they can make decisions to help protect their health.”

Today’s top stories

Attorney Meg Barnette, wife of New York Comptroller Brad Lander, holds the hand of an immigrant child while escorting her family outside immigration court June 17, 2025, in New York. (Olga Fedorova / Associated Press)

Legal help in immigration court fades as the Trump administration ramps up arrests

Over the last two months, once bipartisan-supported programs for those in detention have either been chopped or taken over by the government.

Now, basic legal services meant to help people in what is often the most stressful and consequential moments of their lives are gone.

Trump’s top federal prosecutor in L.A. struggles to secure indictments against protesters

Legal experts and some of U.S. Atty. Bill Essayli’s own prosecutors say he’s stretching legal limits to serve as Trump’s attack dog in L.A.

While his office has filed felony cases for alleged misconduct that either took place during last month’s protests or near the sites of raids, many have already been dismissed.

Legal experts said Essayli’s low number of indictments raised concerns about the strength of the cases he is filing.

More food delivery bots are coming to L.A.

Coco Robotics, a startup born on the UCLA campus, is about to carpet-bomb the city with hundreds of additional adorable delivery bots recently enhanced with some of the same AI that powers ChatGPT.

Residents of Silver Lake — one of the neighborhoods most recently occupied by delivery bots from Coco and others — give the rolling bots mixed reviews so far.

What else is going on

This morning’s must-reads

Other must-reads

For your downtime

San Diego Comic-Con starts today. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Going out

Staying in

A question for you: What are some ways you pamper your dogs?

Brian says, “I cook food for him. Most recently ground turkey, a sweet potato, and some broth. This gets mixed in with his kidney friendly canned food. He is old and takes medication for his heart and thyroid along with the kidney diet.”

Email us at essentialcalifornia@latimes.com , and your response might appear in the newsletter this week.

And finally … from our archives

Before Elon Musk entered the picture, Twitter had a real, and mostly sustainable, business model. Now it has a cool name — at least if you’re Elon Musk. (Ringo H.W. Chiu / Associated Press)

On July 24, 2023, Elon Musk began rebranding the social media platform formerly known as Twitter to its current identity, X. Since then, the site has introduced the artificial intelligence chatbot Grok, which has prompted concern among experts for its record of spreading misinformation and conspiracy theories — especially during vulnerable periods like natural disasters.

Have a great day, from the Essential California team

Jim Rainey, staff writer

Diamy Wang, homepage intern

Izzy Nunes, audience intern

Kevinisha Walker, multiplatform editor

Andrew Campa, Sunday writer

Karim Doumar, head of newsletters

How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to essentialcalifornia@latimes.com. Check our top stories, topics and the latest articles on latimes.com.

Source: Latimes.com | View original article

Trump is undermining his own ‘action plan’ for AI, experts say

President Trump unveiled an “action plan” for artificial intelligence on Wednesday. The plan is ostensibly designed to bolster the United States in its race against China for AI superiority. But experts in the field warn the administration is sidestepping safety precautions that sustain public trust. Research funding cuts and visa restrictions for scientists could hold America back, they say. The administration’s continued assault on the student visa program remains a significant concern for the tech firms Trump aims to empower. The U.S. and China are the only powers with competitive AI capabilities, experts say. But they warn that intense competition between countries or companies can create dangerous incentives to cut corners on safety in order to stay ahead. The new website, ai.gov, says the United. States “is in a race to achieve global dominance in artificial intelligence,” and lays out three pillars of its. plan for success: “Accelerating Innovation, Building AI Infrastructure, and Leading International Diplomacy and Security” The plan also calls for AI to be integrated more thoroughly across the federal government, including at the Pentagon.

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President Trump gestures after signing an executive order on artificial intelligence at the “Winning the AI Race” AI Summit in Washington on Wednesday.

President Trump revealed an “action plan” for artificial intelligence on Wednesday ostensibly designed to bolster the United States in its race against China for AI superiority.

But experts in the field warn the administration is sidestepping safety precautions that sustain public trust, and is ignoring the impacts of research funding cuts and visa restrictions for scientists that could hold America back.

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‘Dangerous incentives to cut corners’

President Trump at a meeting Tuesday in the Oval Office. (Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images)

Trump introduced the new policy with an address in Washington, a new government website and a slew of executive actions, easing restrictions on the export of AI technology overseas and greasing the wheels for infrastructural expansion that would accommodate the computing power required for an AI future — both top requests of American AI companies.

The plan also calls for AI to be integrated more thoroughly across the federal government, including at the Pentagon, and includes a directive targeting “woke” bias in large language models.

The new website, ai.gov, says the United States “is in a race to achieve global dominance in artificial intelligence,” and lays out three pillars of its plan for success: “Accelerating Innovation, Building AI Infrastructure, and Leading International Diplomacy and Security.”

Scholars of machine learning and AI believe that whichever country loses the race — toward general artificial intelligence, where AI has capabilities similar to the human mind, and ultimately toward superintelligence, where its abilities exceed human thought — will be unable to catch up with the exponential growth of the winner.

Today, China and the United States are the only powers with competitive AI capabilities.

“Whether we like it or not, we’re suddenly engaged in a fast-paced competition to build and define this groundbreaking technology that will determine so much about the future of civilization itself, because of the genius and creativity of Silicon Valley — and it is incredible, incredible genius, without question, the most brilliant place on Earth,” Trump said on Wednesday in his policy speech on AI.

“America is the country that started the AI race. And as president of the United States, I’m here today to declare that America is going to win it,” he added. “We’re going to work hard — we’re going to win it. Because we will not allow any foreign nation to beat us. Our children will not live in a planet controlled by the algorithms of the adversary’s advancing values.”

Yoshua Bengio, founder of Mila-Quebec AI Institute and a winner of the Turing Award for his work on deep learning, told The Times that the urgency of the race is fueling concerning behavior from both sides.

“These technologies hold enormous economic potential,” Bengio said, “but intense competition between countries or companies can create dangerous incentives to cut corners on safety in order to stay ahead.”

‘Self-inflicted ignorance’

Silicon Valley may be getting much of what it wants from Trump — but the administration’s continued assault on the student visa program remains a significant concern for the very same tech firms Trump aims to empower.

Yolanda Gil, senior director of AI and data science initiatives at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, said that the Trump administration’s reductions in funding and visas “will reduce U.S. competitiveness in AI and all technology areas, not just in the near future but for many years to come,” noting that almost 500,000 international students in science and engineering are currently enrolled in U.S. universities.

The majority of America’s top AI companies have been founded by first- or second-generation immigrants, and 70% of full-time graduate students at U.S. institutions working in AI-related fields have come from abroad. Yet the administration’s revocation and crackdown on F-1 visas risks crippling the talent pipeline the industry views as essential to success against China.

Funding cuts to research institutions, too, threaten the stability of programs and their attractiveness to the best foreign minds, said Sheila Jasanoff, a professor of science and technology studies at the Harvard Kennedy School.

“Our openness to ideas and people, combined with steadiness of funding, drew bright talents from around the globe and science prospered,” Jasanoff said. “That achievement is in a precarious state through the Trump administration’s unpredictable and exclusionary policies that have created an atmosphere in which young scientists are much less comfortable coming to do their science in America.”

“Why would a talented young person wish to invest in a U.S. graduate program if there is a risk their visa could be canceled overnight on poorly articulated and unprecedented grounds? It’s clear that other countries, including China, are already trying to benefit from our suddenly uncertain and chaotic research environment,” she added. “We seem to be heading into an era of self-inflicted ignorance.”

Teddy Svoronos, also at Harvard as a senior lecturer in public policy, said that the president is deregulating the AI industry “while limiting its ability to recruit the highest-quality talent from around the world and de-incentivizing research that lacks immediate commercial use.”

“His policies thus far convince me that the future of the U.S. will certainly have more AI,” Svoronos said, “but I don’t see a coherent strategy around creating more effective or more aligned AI.”

Safety fears

Aligned AI, in simple terms, refers to artificial intelligence that is trained to do good and avoid harm. Trump’s action plan doesn’t include the phrase, but repeatedly emphasizes the need to align AI development with U.S. interests.

The deregulatory spirit of Trump’s plan could help expedite AI development. But it could also backfire in unexpected ways, Jasanoff said.

“It’s not clear that technology development prospers without guardrails that protect scientists and engineers against accidents, overreach and public backlash,” she added. “The U.S. biotech industry, for example, has actively sought out ethical and policy clarification because missteps could endanger entire lines of research.”

The plan also has the United States encouraging the development of open-source and open-weight AI models, allowing public access to code and training data. It is a decision that will allow AI to be more readily adopted throughout the U.S. economy — but also grants malicious actors, such as terrorist organizations, access to AI tools they could use to threaten national security and global peace.

It is the sort of compromise that Bengio feared would emerge from the U.S.-China race.

“This dynamic poses serious public safety and national security risks, including AI-enabled cyberattacks, biological threats and the possibility of losing human control over advanced AI — outcomes with no winners,” Bengio said.

“To realize the full benefits of these technologies,” he added, “safety and innovation must go hand in hand, supported by strong technical and societal safeguards.”

What else you should be reading

The must-read: National Guard came to L.A. to fight unrest. Troops ended up fighting boredom

The deep dive: Hollywood’s being reshaped by generative AI. What does that mean for screenwriters?

The L.A. Times Special: As west Altadena burned, L.A. County fire trucks stayed elsewhere

More to come,

Michael Wilner

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Israelis rebuff Trump, insisting images of starvation in Gaza are ‘fake’

ByStoryAI

Israelis rebuff Trump, insisting images of starvation in Gaza are ‘fake’

Diverging Reports Breakdown

Two SoCal bishops respond to ICE raids, but in different ways

Why everybody refuses to believe crime is falling, even though it is

Raising a family, doing business in California not easy, In-N-Out boss says

Putting dirty air on notice in the Palisades

Trump is undermining his own ‘action plan’ for AI, experts say

By StoryAI

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