Wednesday, June 17, 2026

Trust not yet earned… Loyalty uber alles...

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2026/06/ai-use-by-the-us-government.html

AI Use by the US Government

On 14 April, the Trump administration quietly acknowledged the widespread use of AI to automate government processes. The office of management and budget (OMB) disclosed a staggering 3,611 active or planned use cases for AI across the federal government. The list has ballooned by 70% from the one published in the final year of the Biden administration, and includes many disturbing-seeming plans to hand over sensitive governmental functions to AI.

Scanning this list, many readers may find many causes for alarm. It represents a transfer of decision processes from human to machine on a massive scale over matters of individual freedom, public health and well-being, nuclear reactor safety and more.

Consider these examples. The Health and Human Services’ (HHS) office of administration for children and families hired the world’s “scariest AI company, ” Palantir—notorious for its work on behalf of the military, the CIA and ICE—to scan  all grant applications to flag those not ideologically aligned with the administration’s dictates. The Federal Bureau of Prisons is developing an AI system to assess  the “potential for misconduct for newly admitted inmates,” routing people into high-security confinement before they have actually done anything wrong in their custody. These read like programs fit for a Philip K Dick or George Orwell novel.





Cheap consulting?

https://thenextweb.com/news/detachment-201-big-tech-army-reserve

More Big Tech executives just became Army officers. The conflict-of-interest question is getting louder.

Detachment 201, officially branded the Executive Innovation Corps, is designed to “bridge the gap between private-sector innovation and military modernisation,” according to the Army. Members serve as part-time reservists, completing a minimum of 112 hours of service annually, and can work remotely.





Interesting…

https://www.cnn.com/2026/06/17/middleeast/us-iran-war-mou-text-intl

Read the 14-point draft agreement between the US and Iran

Below is the text in full:





Did we spend that much in Iran? (Or are we planning another ‘adventure?’)

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/trump-forcing-us-companies-manufacture-weaponry-rcna350419

Trump is forcing U.S. companies to manufacture more weaponry

The president invoked the Defense Production Act to accelerate munitions production as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth pitched lawmakers on $350 billion in defense to help replenish U.S. stockpiles.



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