Wednesday morning news: July 12, 2023

AI briefing » The Senate yesterday held its first classified briefing on the national security risks of artificial intelligence.

The director of national intelligence and other top officials briefed the entire Senate behind closed doors.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer:

Schumer: AI could also become one of our greatest tools for keeping Americans safe. We have a responsibility, a real responsibility, to educate ourselves on these matters.

Schumer says the briefing is only part of a push to educate lawmakers before drafting legislation to regulate AI.

Schumer: There’s still a lot we don’t know about AI. We need outside help if we want to ensure Congressional action is effective, responsible, and promotes innovation in a safe way.

A Senate subcommittee is set to meet today to discuss artificial intelligence as it relates to intellectual property.

COVID origins hearing » Meanwhile, the House Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic held a hearing yesterday, investigating the origins of the COVID-19 virus.

Committee Chairman Brad Wenstrup:

Wenstrup: We're examining whether government officials, regardless of who they are, unfairly and perhaps biasly tipped the scales toward a preferred origin theory.

Wenstrup said he believes health officials are intentionally pushing a false narrative to avoid blaming China.

Ranking committee member Raul Ruiz disagreed with Wenstrup, saying lawmakers are trying to use the investigation to deepen the partisan divide.

Ruiz: This isn't about building trust in public health and science. No, it's about tearing it down, about manufacturing a problem and manufacturing distrust to justify an extreme partisan agenda.

Medical experts and researchers gave expert testimony while not favoring any specific theory.

NATO » Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy saying his country would find security in NATO, make NATO stronger in return.

Zelenskyy spoke on the sidelines of the NATO summit yesterday in Lithuania. He criticized the alliance for not giving his country a specific timetable for joining.

Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg promises that Ukraine will eventually join NATO at the end of its war with Russia.

STOLTENBERG: We reaffirmed that Ukraine will become a member of NATO and agreed to remove the requirement for a membership action plan. This would change Ukraine's membership path from a two-step process to a one-step process.

President Biden has said that Ukraine was not ready to join the bloc.

Sweden/NATO » Meanwhile Sweden could soon become a member of NATO. After Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan agreed to bring the issue of Sweden’s membership before his country’s parliament.

Biden spoke with Erdogan at the NATO summit:

BIDEN: You know, we're in this historic summit meeting. Resolving a lot of things, I hope. Made all the more historic by the agreement you reached yesterday and the admission of Sweden, how you're going to proceed. Thank you for your diplomacy and your courage to take that on.

In exchange for Turkey’s support of Sweden, European Union members who are also members of NATO will back Turkey’s bid to join the E.U.

Tylenol » The lone suspect in the 1982 Tylenol poisoning scare has died.

Police found 76-year old James Lewis dead in his Cambridge, Massachusetts, home. They do not suspect foul play.

Lewis never formally faced charges for the deaths of seven people who took over-the-counter painkillers laced with cyanide.

After the poisonings, the U.S. government began requiring tamper-proof packaging of most consumer goods.

Lewis at the time lived in the Chicago area, where the killings took place.

LEWIS: I was in New York, for over almost a month prior to the homicides in Chicago I never left New York.

He did serve more than 12 years in prison for an extortion note he sent to manufacturer Johnson & Johnson, demanding $1 million to “stop the killings.”

Flooding » Vermont is still dealing with massive floods after two months’ worth of rain fell on the state in just two days.

The rain has mostly stopped, but Gov. Phil Scott says there’s still work to do.

SCOTT: We're not out of the woods this is nowhere near over and at this phase our primary focus continues to be on life and safety before we can shift into the recovery phase.

No injuries or deaths have yet been reported.

Vermont business owner Troy Caruso described the damage in the town of Ludlow:

CARUSO: It’s a disaster. On Main Street, lotta lot of businesses wrecked on Main Street. Flooding is pretty much resigned at almost at this point, the main culvert in town let go. It's probably worse than you see on the news.

Vermont is expected to get more rain on Thursday and Friday of this week.

I'm Kristen Flavin.

Straight ahead: Washington Wednesday with Erick Erickson. Plus, finding a common language to disciple Muslims.

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