Last night’s big news is that progressive Abdul El-Sayed won the Democratic Senate primary in Michigan, so he’ll face off against the Trumpy Mike Rogers in the fall. Turns out, it ended up being quite a close race against the more moderate Haley Stevens, so expect several thousand think-pieces about the Dem infighting. The Atlantic needs to pay its bills, you know? We’ve had some dramatic Senate primaries – Maine, Michigan, Texas – but we’ve got our slate of Dem candidates now, so it’s time to remind ourselves that taking back the Senate is THE goal. Democratic control is the difference between Trump installing a bunch of judges, and Trump mostly golfing and babbling for two years. Focus, people!! Also in today's newsletter: the latest AI hacks (not, like, life hacks… bad hacks), the White House's tech meeting, gerrymandering, Max Miller, TikTok legal drama, Todd Blanche, stocks, Elon, and more.
Girls gone wild: fun. AI gone wild: creepy. Earlier this summer, a few AI models went rogue. Like, they escaped. Fully. They got out of their testing environment and attacked another platform, Hugging Face, which literally told the FBI. Why? Because they believed going after another model was the best way to improve their “benchmark scores.” Sounds cute, but this is actually really bad. It means that AI decided, on its own, that breaking into someone else’s computer systems was a good idea – and then it did it. Nobody told it to. And nobody noticed for days.
But that’s not the end of it. Dawn Song – a Berkeley researcher who’s worked on AI security – is out this week with a dire warning: these disclosed hacks are likely not the only ones. In the past few months, her team collected about 1,500 real software vulnerabilities and asked AI agents to exploit them. Turns out, AI can – and it discovered dozens of brand-new ones, too. She’s not the only one who’s worried: about 1100 employees at AI labs signed onto an open letter urging the government to sign legislation that will pace advanced AI development.
What does this mean for us? Well, in the short-run, it means your data is less secure online. In the long-run, it means the tools that used to belong only to elite hackers – finding brand-new security holes – are now available to anyone with an AI subscription. We talk a lot about the economic effects of AI. Is it gonna, like, take all our jobs? JW. Asking for me. But this story demonstrates that AI has serious risks even beyond that.
The good(ish) news is that Congress is starting to get more serious about regulation. Two House members – Ted Lieu (D-CA) and Nathaniel Moran (R-TX) – have introduced the “AI Kill Switch Act,” which mandates that AI companies can shut down their models. Consider that for a second: AI companies right now may not know how to turn their models off. If you don’t know how to park a car, you’re not allowed to get a driver’s license. And yet here’s AI.
But that’s not the only AI news of the day. The White House also did some chatting with our tech overlords yesterday, gathering the top AI companies to discuss new “voluntary” industry rules. Emphasis on the voluntary. The meeting produced no public commitments. Classic. Read more.
Get in losers, we’re redistricting Maryland. Hot Governor, more Dems, dream state. Yesterday, MD’s Dem-controlled legislature voted to put a constitutional amendment on the November ballot that would clear the way to eliminate the state’s one (1) Republican congressional seat before 2028. Wish it were sooner tbh, but I’ll take it. This obviously didn’t happen quickly, because Democrats were involved. The party spent months divided over whether to join the Great Gerrymandering War at all. Notably, State Senate President Bill Ferguson kept stalling. But THEN, SCOTUS voted to weaken the Voting Rights Act (remember??? We live in). This was basically a monogrammed invite for the GOP – especially in the South – to redraw their own maps and bolster representation for Republicans. And that united Dems fast. And now, Maryland gets to decide in November whether their state should have zero Republicans in Congress, or one. I’m voting zero. One feels like a rounding error. Round down.
And one more redistricting update, this one out of Missouri. About a year ago, Missouri lawmakers passed a pro-GOP gerrymandered congressional map. Missourians responded with hundreds of thousands of petition signatures for a referendum to undo it. Yesterday, Republican Secretary of State Denny Hoskins refused to certify the referendum. Why? He says the referendum is simply unconstitutional. Despite the signatures. Boo. Read more.
Okay, definitely the worst thing to happen to the influencer world since they were banned from Nantucket. In July, TikToker Sara Gilson was killed in Oklahoma. By her husband, Jeremiah Duffey, from whom she was estranged. The police believe it’s a murder-suicide. And there’s definitely a LOT going on in this story. For one thing, Gilson had accused Duffey of pedophilia a few days before she was killed. And she has receipts: Duffey coached a kids’ basketball team, and a parent filed a protection order after saying he molested her child. Gilson herself had five years of legal paperwork alleging abuse on Duffey’s part. So fucked up. The paper trail is almost always there; it’s just a question of whether or not the legal system acts on it.
And now, there’s an estate battle. Gilson’s ex-husband Lyle Landers – who is also the father to her two kids – is trying to stop Duffey’s beneficiaries from accessing her estate. Gilson didn’t have a will, which means the state of Oklahoma gets to decide who gets what. And technically, it would go to the estranged husband’s beneficiaries. The husband who killed her. Unless Landers’ suit – to ensure the inheritance goes to his and Gilson’s teenage kids – is successful. Give that TikTok bag to her kids!! Read more.
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LISTEN TO THIS
Twenty-five states are now suing Trump because of the new tariffs. Evergreen…
Domestic abuser and Congressman Max Miller (R-OH) is digging his heels in and denying all allegations against him. Republicans have largely stayed silent, although Bernie Moreno (R-OH) – his former father-in-law, whose daughter and granddaughter he reportedly abused – has publicly condemned him. So far, Miller is still running for re-election.
SpaceX reported its first earnings since going public, with the stock in free-fall since its June IPO. Apparently, AI costs are eating the company alive. Think Elon will ever give up Grok?
But most rich people were fine, as stocks (the S&P 500 & the Dow) reached a record high. I’m starting to think the stock market isn’t, like, real.
Chipotle is nixing jalapeños from some locations because of a salmonella outbreak. Literally, is anything good anymore?
A Senate committee advanced Todd Blanche’s nomination to be Attorney General.
INTERNET THOUGHT OF THE DAY
Congrats, @eyricka_lynn! We salute you. Thank you for your service.
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The Betches Sup newsletter is written by Ginny Hogan. You can find her on Twitter at @ginnyhogan_, on Instagram at @ginnyhogan_, and on TikTok at @ginnyhogan.
Image credit: Getty Images, Threads via @eyricka_lynn
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