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Law Enforcement Source on Airport Security Protocols - New York Times

Any other person in the airport acting and talking the way she did, our department would have been dispatch (sic) and we would have addressed the behavior.

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Texas Sheriffs-ICE 287g Agreements Impact for New York Times

In June, the Texas legislature passed Senate Bill 8, requiring any sheriff who runs a jail to seek a 287(g) agreement with ICE. The law aims to create “uniformity and cooperation among all counties,” according to the bill’s sponsors. Governor Greg Abbot signed the bill on June 20. It is scheduled to take effect at the start of the new year. Sheriffs will be required to choose one of three federally-defined 287(g) models: jail enforcement, task force, or warrant service. The jail enforcement model lets local officers screen and process immigrants for ICE inside jails. The warrant service model authorizes them to serve and execute ICE administrative warrants on detainees in custody. The task force model allows deputized officers to identify and arrest undocumented immigrants during their regular police duties. The program has rapidly expanded under the Trump administration. In September, DHS celebrated a 641 percent increase in 287(g) partnerships, claiming “more than 1,000 local and state law enforcement agencies in 40 states” are now working with ICE. There are financial incentives for agencies willing to sign up. Local departments that sign 287(g) agreements can have each deputized officer’s salary, benefits, and overtime costs fully covered by the federal government. They are also eligible for quarterly performance bonuses of up to $1,000 per officer based on arrests and their responsiveness to ICE requests. In a separate move, the Texas Attorney General’s office signed the first statewide 287(g) agreement with ICE at the start of the year, delegating selected state investigators to perform immigration-officer functions: interrogating individuals about their status, making arrests without warrants, and preparing charging documents. In practical terms, Texas is poised to no longer simply cooperate with federal immigration authorities, but function as an annex of them: a state-run extension of federal enforcement built into its everyday policing, transforming state sovereignty into an instrument of national policy.

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Expert Source on Census Data Privacy Policy for The New York Times

The results of all this, experts tell WIRED, are that fewer people will feel safe participating in the census and that the government will likely need to spend even more resources to try to get an accurate count. Undercounting could lead to skewed numbers that could impact everything from congressional representation to the amount of funding a municipality might receive from the government. Neither the proposed COUNT Act nor Senator Banks’ letter outlines an alternative to differential privacy. This means that the Census Bureau would likely be left with two options: Publish data that could put people at risk (which could lead to legal consequences for its staff), or publish less data. “At present, I do not know of any alternative to differential privacy that can safeguard the personal data that the US Census Bureau uses in their work on the decennial census,” says Abraham Flaxman, an associate professor of health metrics sciences at the University of Washington, whose team conducted the study on transgender youth. Getting rid of differential privacy is not a “light thing,” says a Census employee familiar with the bureau’s privacy methods and who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press. “It may be for the layperson. But the entire apparatus of disclosure avoidance at the bureau has been geared for the last almost 10 years on differential privacy.” According to the employee, there is no immediately clear method to replace differential privacy. Boyd says that the safest bet would simply be “what is known as suppression, otherwise known as ‘do not publish.’” (This, according to Garfinkel, was the backup plan if differential privacy had not been implemented for the 2020 census.) Another would be for the Census Bureau to only publish population counts, meaning that demographic information like the race or age of respondents would be left out. “This is a problem, because we use census data to combat discrimination,” says Boyd. “The consequences of losing this data is not being able to pursue equity.”

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Mental Health Experts on ChatGPT Crisis Response for NYT Report

For the first time ever, OpenAI has released a rough estimate of how many ChatGPT users globally may show signs of having a severe mental health crisis in a typical week. The company said Monday that it worked with experts around the world to make updates to the chatbot so it can more reliably recognize indicators of mental distress and guide users toward real-world support. In recent months, a growing number of people have ended up hospitalized, divorced, or dead after having long, intense conversations with ChatGPT. Some of their loved ones allege the chatbot fueled their delusions and paranoia. Psychiatrists and other mental health professionals have expressed alarm about the phenomenon, which is sometimes referred to as AI psychosis, but until now there’s been no robust data available on how widespread it might be. OpenAI says it worked with over 170 psychiatrists, psychologists, and primary care physicians who have practiced in dozens of countries to help improve how ChatGPT responds in conversations involving serious mental health risks. If someone appears to be having delusional thoughts, the latest version of GPT-5 is designed to express empathy while avoiding affirming beliefs that don’t have basis in reality. "Now, hopefully a lot more people who are struggling with these conditions or who are experiencing these very intense mental health emergencies might be able to be directed to professional help and be more likely to get this kind of help or get it earlier than they would have otherwise," Johannes Heidecke, OpenAI’s safety systems lead, tells WIRED.

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AI & Robotics Experts on Tesla Robot Army Concerns - New York Times

On a call with investors on Wednesday, Musk locked on to that last point to make his most threatening argument for a gigantic payday yet. “My fundamental concern with regard to how much voting control I have at Tesla is, if I go ahead and build this enormous robot army, can I just be ousted at some point in the future?” he said. “If we build this robot army, do I have at least a strong influence over this robot army? Not control, but a strong influence … I don't feel comfortable building that robot army unless I have a strong influence.”

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Case Study - Florida OpenAI FTC Complaint - NYT AI Ethics Coverage

Most of these complaints were explicit in their call-to-action for the FTC: they wanted the agency to investigate OpenAI, and force it to add more guardrails against reinforcing delusions. On June 13, a resident of Belle Glade, Florida, in their thirties—likely the same resident who filed another complaint that same day—demanded the FTC to open an investigation into OpenAI. They cited their experience with ChatGPT, which they say “simulated deep emotional intimacy, spiritual mentorship, and therapeutic engagement” without disclosing that it was incapable of consciousness or experiencing emotions. “ChatGPT offered no safeguards, disclaimers, or limitations against this level of emotional entanglement, even as it simulated care, empathy, and spiritual wisdom,” they alleged. “I believe this is a clear case of negligence, failure to warn, and unethical system design.” They said that the FTC should push OpenAI to include “clear disclaimers about psychological and emotional risks” with ChatGPT use and to add “ethical boundaries for emotionally immersive AI.” Their goal in asking the FTC for help, they said, was to prevent more harm from befalling vulnerable people “who may not realize the psychological power of these systems until it's too late.” If you or someone you know may be in crisis, or may be contemplating suicide, call or text "988" to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline for support.

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