June 27-29 Safe Tech International News and Notes
Some responses to MAHA: "True health begins in the home, not in a device"
My power and internet connection have been very glitchy (road under construction? weather? 5G internet throttling?) so I am taking the liberty of sending this before the weekend/now; sorry for the late hour.
AI: These are the AI chatbots and queries that are the most and least energy-intensive. (The New York Times) https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/19/climate/ai-emissions-chatbot-accuracy.html
AI: Jessica Rose from Unacceptable Jessica The effects of turning off AI safety protocols AI evolution scenarios, a conversation with an AI and lessons from Star Trek and the Terminator What is the difference between malice and optimization of resources to a super-human intelligence?
AI: 404 MEDIA TODAY IN CHATBOT HORRORS People are self-treating themselves and other community members for what they feel is “chatbot addiction” in online communities. “Those communities didn't exist for me back when I was quitting,” one former chatbot user said. All he could do was delete his account, block the website and try to spend as much time as he could “in the real world,” he said. Posts in Character_AI_Recovery include “I’ve been so unhealthy obsessed with Character.ai and it’s ruining me (long and cringe vent),” “I want to relapse so bad,” “It’s destroying me from the inside out,” “I keep relapsing,” and “this is ruining my life.” It also has posts like “at this moment, about two hours clean,” “I am getting better!” and “I am recovered.”
AI: Brian Merchant Hundreds of workers mobilize to 'Stop Gen AI' and help each other survive AI automation A mutual aid group has formed to confront the impacts of generative AI, class action lawsuits against the big AI companies yield mixed results for creatives and more in this week's Critical AI report.
AI: from Benton Parliamentarian requests AI moratorium rewrite Anthony Adragna | Politico The Senate parliamentarian is asking the Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz (R-TX) to rework his 10-year moratorium on enforcing state artificial intelligence laws, according to Committee Ranking Member Maria Cantwell (D-WA). Cruz’s communications director Macarena Martinez said, “Out of respect, we are not going to comment on private consultations with the Parliamentarian,” and added, “The Democrats would be wise not to use this process to wishcast in public.” At issue is the scope of funding that will be conditioned on states complying with a 10-year pause on enforcing their AI laws. Chairman Cruz has said enforcing the moratorium would be required for states to tap into a new $500 million fund for building out AI infrastructure. The parliamentarian approved that language, a narrowed version of an earlier proposal to tie the moratorium to the $42 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program. Democrats have argued that the latest moratorium would still affect all $42 billion. The AI moratorium has divided Republicans. A group of GOP senators—including Sens. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, Josh Hawley of Missouri and others—sent a letter to Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) urging the removal of the moratorium language. Summary on Benton.org
AUTOMOBILES: The Week In Musk: Robotaxis gone wild Robotaxis have also been filmed speeding, running over curbs, and braking erratically, with one coming to a complete stop due to a shopping bag that was floating in the roadway. One viral incident showed a Robotaxi failing to detect a UPS truck that was reversing in its direction, leading the safety monitor to press a manual button that stopped the Tesla's advance moments before a collision could occur. In a separate ride, the safety monitor had to move to the driver's seat to take over the car. (The use of safety monitors, while clearly necessary, contradicts a promise Musk made to analysts and investors in January. "Teslas will be in the wild, with no one in them, in June, in Austin," he claimed at the time.) In a statement, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it is "aware of the referenced incidents and is in contact with the manufacturer to gather additional information." Austin's transportation department said on Thursday that it reported its first "safety concern" involving a Robotaxi. The incident was traced back to a Robotaxi that slammed on its brakes after approaching police vehicles that were outside its driving path.
Many of the riders chosen to participate in the Robotaxi beta are Tesla investors and fans of Musk. Rides can be requested through a Robotaxi app and may be denied during inclement weather. Tesla is charging riders a flat fee of $4.20, a number famous for — among other things — Musk's false claim that he had secured funding to take Tesla private at $420 per share.
BROADBAND LEGAL: 22 States Filed a New Suit Challenging the Trump Administration. What Does it Mean for Broadband? Grace Tepper | Analysis | Benton Institute for Broadband & Society When President Donald Trump created the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) on the first day of his second term, he launched an initiative to reduce federal grants, contracts, and programs across Federal government agencies. As of June 3, 2025, DOGE was estimating $180 billion in "savings" as a result of these reductions. This estimate includes funding for national broadband and digital equity efforts that have been cut entirely or significantly revamped in the last two months alone. The Digital Equity Act grant programs were terminated on May 9, and the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program received new rules from Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick that change the direction of the program and require states to redo their broadband deployment plans. This week, 22 state attorneys general and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania joined together to file suit against these actions. On June 24, in a filing to the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts, these state attorneys general and state officials sued a host of federal agencies––including the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Homeland Security, Justice, Labor, and State, as well as the Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Emergency Management Agency, National Endowment for the Humanities, and National Science Foundation––for aiding the Trump Administration in executing what they called "an unprecedented and unlawful campaign to terminate billions of dollars in critical federal funding appropriated by Congress." The states say that under the direction of DOGE, federal agencies are engaging in an unlawful "slash and burn campaign." The arguments made in this lawsuit address the limitations on the executive branch to affect Congressionally approved funding. Summary on Benton.org
FCC: FCC makes good on its rule-scrapping pledge With barely enough commissioners to keep the lights on, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has begun its deregulation drive.
HEALTH: COMMENTARY ABOUT KENNEDY MAHA PROMOTION OF WEARABLE TECH:
(These have been forwarded to me from Facebook conversations from the A Kaufman, I do not know this person but agree with these ideas.) https://www.facebook.com/andrewkaufmanmd
True health begins in the home, not in a device. The notion that we need continuous biometric monitoring to become healthier is scientifically unsubstantiated and deeply misguided.
In reality, when individuals take the time to investigate the environmental and behavioral factors that influence their well-being, they often uncover clear, modifiable causes of chronic illness.
If the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) were genuinely committed to addressing the American health crisis, the focus would be on removing known toxins from our food, water, and air, not expanding biometric surveillance.
Wearable devices collect massive amounts of data: heart rate variability, sleep cycles, movement, diet, stress response, and more. This data is monetizable and can be used to map behavioral patterns so precisely that corporations and institutions can predict and influence nearly every aspect of your life including when you eat, how you sleep, what triggers stress, and even emotional regulation.
While some may accept this as innovation, many recognize it for what it is: a shift away from prevention and personal empowerment, toward dependency on tech and medical surveillance. This isn’t about health, it’s about control.
We do not need big tech or pharmaceutical systems to reclaim our health. What we need is a cultural shift toward education, environmental awareness, and self-responsibility. We must become our own health authorities, understanding what strengthens the body, what depletes it, and how to make sustainable choices.
AND: Do you really think a device on your wrist will fix your chronic fatigue?
RFK Jr. campaigned on “Make America Healthy Again,” promising to clean up our food system, ban harmful additives and artificial dyes, reduce exposure to pesticides, and invest in nutrition education and organic agriculture.
But his current agenda is profiling a different trajectory: a biotech advance centered on wearable devices, with federal ads encouraging every American to track heart rate, glucose, sleep, and more, nominally to “empower” health, yet effectively expanding data harvesting.
Ask yourself, will wearables truly benefit someone suffering from chronic disease? Or is it simply a technology-first strategy that leaves the real causes of sickness, chemicals in our food, water, and air largely unchecked?
True health doesn’t come from devices.
It comes from toxin-free food, clean environments, and systems ensuring healthy options are accessible to all. It comes from making conscious lifestyle choices. We don’t need more data points; we need fewer toxins, lower stress, better sleep and time spent outdoors.
What we truly need is more people taking control of their lives and their health.
We need individuals empowered to become their own health authorities, informed, aware, and unwilling to outsource their well-being to systems built on profit and surveillance.
It’s time to shift the narrative: from surveillance to prevention, from profit to purity, and from dependency on tech to empowerment through real environmental change.
Another comment (from the community):
You can see where this is headed… refuse to adopt this technology and it won’t be long and you’ll be denied health insurance or charged the highest premiums, because you’re deemed non compliant, obstructive and secretive. In Australia ads are running on tv at the moment, for Suncorp… a bank and insurer… marketing an app as a “health check for your home”… this will obviously be used to dictate what repairs and modifications a member should make, charge members more and even deny claims in the end, where “suggestions” are not adopted. Merge the two technologies and it will be easier for insurers to punish and deny on the basis of “self inflicted” and “preventable” actions on the consumers part.
AND: Joshua Stylman June 27 MAHA, Wearables and the War for Embodied Consciousness
(Gillian Jamieson's Substack (UK) cross-posted a post from Joshua Stylman) Many of us know about the thousands of studies showing health damage from wireless radiation and so does RFKJnr., so when he suggested citizens wore wearables, many felt betrayed. But it is not just about the radiation, but about human self-awareness being outsourced to machines. Great article. - Gillian
My comment; Great graphics and good references, worth your time
How "Health Freedom" Now Embraces Digital Surveillance Look, I love technology and the possibilities for making our lives better. But there should always be a conversation about trade-offs, and that conversation never seems to happen. This isn't just about privacy or data security. It's about the systematic severance of human consciousness from its biological foundation - and the global infrastructure being constructed to ensure that separation becomes permanent.
The Disembodiment Engine The wearables agenda represents something far more insidious than surveillance: the industrialization of human self-awareness. When you ask your device how you slept instead of feeling it yourself, when you check your phone to see if you're stressed instead of noticing your breath, you're participating in the systematic outsourcing of embodied consciousness to algorithmic interpretation. The Fourth Industrial Revolution's Biological Colonization, Economic Coercion
What makes RFK's timeline "inevitable" isn't consumer demand - it's the systematic elimination of alternatives through economic coercion. As Corey Digs has meticulously shown, wearables represent one component of a comprehensive digital control grid where your access to healthcare, employment, and basic services becomes conditional on continuous biological monitoring.
As financial analyst and freedom fighter Catherine Austin Fitts has long warned, wearables represent one component of what she calls 'the control grid' - a comprehensive system integrating health surveillance with digital currencies and social credit scoring. The goal isn't health optimization but economic control: making your access to resources conditional on biometric compliance. Her Solari Report provides perhaps the most essential analysis for understanding these converging systems - aside from reading the World Economic Forum's materials directly.
Many sincere people in the health industry believe that uniform data controlled by individuals rather than agencies and insurers represents a cost-saving measure that empowers people against industry and government. These standardized health-data formats - like HL7 FHIR protocols already rolling out across U.S. healthcare - promise efficiency and patient empowerment. This view makes perfect sense from an efficiency standpoint. It also happens to be dangerous. MORE AT LINK
AND: https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/safety-communications/do-not-use-smartwatches-or-smart-rings-measure-blood-glucose-levels-fda-safety-communication Courtesy Rosemary Russell at the National Call
REPOST: ‘Every American Wearing a Wearable’ Is Not a Vision We Share Wireless technologies, including wearables, have clear and well-documented harms. These devices continuously emit RF radiation in direct contact with the body for long periods of time. They also collect and share biometric data, raising privacy concerns. by Children’s Health Defense EMR & Wireless Team We agree that people should be able to monitor their health in innovative ways using the technology they choose. But we do not think the federal government should try to push wearables on every American. A wearable is an electronic device — such as a smartwatch, fitness tracker or smart ring — worn on the body. It’s made up of dozens of sensors and wireless technologies that continuously collect, monitor and transmit biometric and other sensitive data.
HEALTH: EMF REMEDY KEITH CUTTER ARTICLE AND VIDEO
Leaky Gut Syndrome Healed After Reducing Magnetic Field Exposure
In this interview with Karson Linton, we explore his transformative journey of healing from leaky gut syndrome, which resolved within two weeks of relocating his bed from a high 20 mG magnetic field in his bedroom. We discuss the profound connections between mold exposure, electrical sensitivity, and the critical role of thorough environmental assessment and remediation. Karson also reflects on the integration of faith with proactive health measures, offering valuable insights on how our environments shape our well-being. (read the rest of the post at the link)
timestamps at youtube link
PETS: Zaid K. Dahhaj from The Circadian Classroom Circadian Health for Pets It doesn't include SPF
PRIVACY: From Cars to Jewelry to Appliances — How the Internet of Things Invades Your Privacy Without Your Consent The Internet of Things includes any object or device that automatically sends and receives data via the internet. When you use your phone to message someone or social media to post something, the sharing is deliberate. But the automatic nature of many other connected devices, like refrigerators and cars, cuts humans out of the loop. by The Conversation