Trump Pivots on AI Regulation, Worker Ousted by DOGE Runs for Office, and Hantavirus Explained | WIRED

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This week on Uncanny Valley, the team discusses the surprising reports of the Trump administration seemingly reversing its stance when it comes to AI safety and regulation. We also look into what exactly is going on with the Hantavirus outbreak, and whether you should be worried. Also, we get into the story of how a former federal employee who was ousted by Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency is now running for office. Plus, a Spirit Airlines laid off employee shares with us how they experienced the company’s shutdown news last weekend and what they’ll miss most about the job.

Articles mentioned in this episode:

- A Federal Worker Was Fired for Filming DOGE. Now She’s Running for Congress

- What the Spirit Airlines Implosion Means for Your Vacation

You can follow Brian Barrett on Bluesky at @brbarrett, Zoë Schiffer on Bluesky at @zoeschiffer, and Leah Feiger on Bluesky at @leahfeiger. Write to us at [email protected].

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Transcript

Note: This is an automated transcript, which may contain errors.

Zoë Schiffer: Welcome to WIRED's Uncanny Valley. I'm Zoë Schiffer, director of business and industry.

Brian Barrett: I'm Brian Barrett, executive editor.

Leah Feiger: And I'm Leah Feiger, director of politics and science.

Zoë Schiffer: Today on the show, we're diving into recent reports that the Trump administration is considering an executive order that would establish some sort of federal oversight over new AI models. And we're going to talk about whether this move actually signals a meaningful shift in future regulation of this technology.

Leah Feiger: In another surprising turn of events, we're also going to get into how a federal worker who was fired earlier this year for filming DOGE operatives entering her workplace is now running for a House seat.

Brian Barrett: We're also going to check in with a Spirit Airlines worker who was laid off after the company shut down. And last but not least, we'll also talk through just how worried you should be about hantavirus. Spoiler, probably not as concerned as Leah is.

Leah Feiger: I'm very concerned.

Brian Barrett: She's very concerned.

Leah Feiger: A good week, you guys.

Zoë Schiffer: OK. So it's been an interesting week for the AI industry. On Monday, we heard that the Trump administration announced what, on its face, seems like a pretty big about-face in its approach to AI regulation. The New York Times initially reported that there is an executive order being considered, just at that stage right now, that would create a group of tech executives and government officials who would essentially review AI models before they are released to the public. At the time that this was reported, it wasn't totally clear, at least to me, whether they would just get access to the models and be able to look at them and evaluate them or whether they would be able to say whether a model could be released or not. But it does seem like a pretty significant reversal of the very loose and pointed lack of regulation that the Trump administration has had until now toward the AI industry.

Brian Barrett: It's been really interesting to see how as AI models get more powerful, they've sort of hit their limit. I think the Anthropic showdown we've talked about a lot. We're in a new era of, "Oh wait, actually this could be useful to us or terrible for us. We actually do need to set aside some of those free market principles and get a heads-up here." Maybe going to be executive order. I feel like in the past, those have typically panned out to become the thing. I feel like this administration is pretty leaky. So I think this seems likely to happen. I don't know. Zoë, how are companies taking this?

Zoë Schiffer: It's interesting because it's happening right as a bunch of these companies, Google, Microsoft, xAI, Anthropic, OpenAI already said that they would give the government early access to their models. And so I mean, I think it's quite interesting, particularly when we think back to JD Vance not that long ago, telling a group of regulators in Europe that the administration was going to take a very different approach to the Biden administration in terms of regulating this technology and really trying to frankly not regulate it.

JD Vance, archival audio: The AI future is not going to be won by hand-wringing about safety. It will be won by building, from reliable power plants to the manufac