Compiled by Athena Smith.
Articles
Renée DiResta described how actors linked to Iran, Russia, China, and other countries use artificial intelligence (AI) to produce propaganda content and automate their workflows, but there is little evidence that AI-generated influence operations are swaying public opinion. DiResta argued that although AI is increasing the capacity of these campaigns, it cannot manufacture trusted distributors, and she called for transparency reports spanning the chain from creation to distribution.
As production gets cheaper, the relative value of what AI can’t manufacture rises: established accounts, credible intermediaries, and names people already trust. As AI creates abundance in content production, the resulting scarcity is in attention, distribution, trust, and authentic identity. Fabricated bios and backstories are now trivial to generate. The harder problem is convincing an increasingly skeptical audience to trust them. Expect operators to increasingly buy, rent, and impersonate real identities rather than build fake ones.
The President Doesn’t Have Unlimited Power to Impose Import Bans
Ilya Somin argued that President Trump’s recent use of Section 338 of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act to impose 50 percent tariffs on some Canadian goods—and ban others outright—does not signal that the president has unlimited power to restrict imports. Somin added that Congress, not the president, has authority over import restrictions and tariffs, and statutes that may delegate this power to the president are limited in scope.
Courts cannot prevent all dubious import bans and restrictions. Elsewhere, I have outlined how and why we need stronger congressional constraints on various emergency powers, including IEEPA. Among other things, Congress would do well to limit “national emergencies” and other similar invocations of extraordinary powers by setting strict time limits. But even existing legislation sets extensive constraints on executive-imposed import restrictions. And if it did not, it would violate the nondelegation doctrine.
Podcasts
Lawfare Daily** : The Trials of the Trump Administration, Oct. 2:** During Friday’s
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