The Ford Motor Company has been hiring humans again after finding that artificial intelligence (AI) could not match the expertise of experienced technicians.  
Over the past three years, the second-largest U.S.-based automaker <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgrkd41n2v9o">reportedly</a> said it rehired more than 300 &#8220;veteran&#8221; quality inspectors, including former Ford employees and engineers from other automotive suppliers, after automated systems fell short. 
“Over prior years, we didn’t pay as much attention as we should have to the experience of our most knowledgeable engineers that have been with us through many product cycles,” Ford Vice President of Vehicle Hardware Engineering Charles Poon said to reporters.
Ford&#8217;s renewed emphasis on experienced engineers coincided with improved vehicle quality. It <a href="https://www.fromtheroad.ford.com/us/en/articles/2026/ford-tops-jd-power-initial-quality-study">ranked</a> first among mainstream brands in the 2026 JD Power U.S. Initial Quality Study after placing 15th in 2023, a turnaround Ford has attributed to its renewed focus on experienced engineers.
The human employees were tasked with conducting mandatory weekly design reviews, identifying potential failure points in blueprints, and serving as internal auditors.
Ford had previously embraced AI across its operations. CEO Jim Farley predicted the technology would “leave a lot of white collar people behind,” while Chief Operating Officer Kumar Galhorta said AI would be used “across the entire industrial system.”
Ford&#8217;s plans included installing 900 AI-powered cameras in manufacturing plants and expanding AI-assisted engineering tools meant to tackle &#8220;quality issues&#8221; in the production process. But Poon said those systems fell short. 
“Mistakenly, we thought that by just introducing artificial intelligence and ingesting the design requirements that we had, that would produce a high-quality product,” Poon said.
Poon said AI remains &#8220;a fantastic tool,&#8221; but emphasized the technology is &#8220;only as good as the information you use to train it.&#8221;

In this photo illustration, the American multinational

Iconic American Company Re-Hires Humans After AI Wasn’t Up To Their Jobs

Artificial Intelligence

Business

Ford Motor Co.

Technology

As artificial intelligence transforms the global economy, America faces a choice that will shape our economic and national security future for decades to come. Will we build the infrastructure needed to lead the AI age here in the United States, or will we allow regulatory barriers, political opposition, and short-sighted policymaking to push investment elsewhere?
The resistance we’re seeing to data center development in some states is concerning from both national security and economic perspectives. Data centers are the physical infrastructure that powers everything from cloud computing and financial transactions to military operations and artificial intelligence.
This fact makes data centers critical national security infrastructure. Furthermore, states that embrace data center investment will be rewarded with jobs, tax revenue, and long-term economic growth, while states that reject it risk being left behind. The bottom line is that we must keep data centers on U.S. soil.
Data centers house and process some of the most valuable information in the world. They support government operations, financial institutions, healthcare systems, defense contractors, communications networks, and the growing AI ecosystem that is becoming increasingly important to America&#8217;s economic and military strength. Allowing critical computing infrastructure to be hosted overseas would create strategic vulnerabilities precisely at the moment when technological competition with China is accelerating.
If America fails to expand domestic data center capacity, we risk becoming dependent on infrastructure located beyond our borders and potentially subject to foreign influence, disruption, or control. Every breakthrough in artificial intelligence depends on massive computing power. Every AI model requires enormous amounts of data storage and processing capacity. That capacity comes from data centers.
National security in the 21st century requires military strength, energy security, and digital infrastructure. Data centers are now part of that equation.
States that welcome data centers will win in the next economic boom. Yet, we’re seeing a tale of two states when it comes to data center policy: those that are putting out the welcome mat — and those pushing bans. In fact, <a href="https://columbusunderground.com/ohios-data-center-committee-will-hold-first-meeting-this-month-ocj1/">11 states</a> are considering bills to pause the construction of data centers. Such resistance is foolish. Data centers represent one of the greatest economic development opportunities available to states today. The evidence is already visible. 
Virginia, which hosts the largest concentration of data centers in the world, has become a model for how states can benefit from embracing digital infrastructure. According to a 2024 <a href="https://jlarc.virginia.gov/pdfs/reports/Rpt598-2.pdf">report</a> by Virginia&#8217;s Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission, the state&#8217;s data center industry supports approximately 74,000 jobs annually, generates $5.5 billion in labor income, and contributes $9.1 billion to Virginia&#8217;s economy each year. Last year alone, data center investment accounted for roughly 84% of all announced capital investment projects in the Commonwealth.
Those numbers are not an accident. Virginia built a policy environment that welcomed investment. State leaders recognized early that data centers would become essential infrastructure for the digital economy and worked to create a competitive environment for development.
Other states face a similar choice. Some are pursuing policies that encourage investment by streamlining permitting, supporting workforce development, modernizing infrastructure, and maintaining competitive tax policies. Others are considering moratoriums, burdensome regulations, and restrictions, erroneously blaming data centers for rising energy costs and other community concerns.
Companies building AI infrastructure have options. They can invest in Virginia, Texas, Ohio, Georgia, and other states that welcome growth — or they can move projects to competing states or even competing countries. States that make it easier to build data centers will attract billions of dollars in private investment, create thousands of high-paying jobs, expand their tax base, and position themselves at the center of the AI economy. States that choose obstruction instead of opportunity will watch those benefits flow elsewhere.
China recognizes that America&#8217;s ability to build large-scale data centers is essential to maintaining leadership in AI, cloud computing, and advanced technologies, which is why it has been <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/openai-china-data-centers-influence-campaign-2026-6?utm_source=chatgpt.com">aggressively pushing misinformation</a> on social media about environmental impacts, power consumption, and water usage of data centers. The most effective lies fueling the <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/709772/americans-oppose-data-centers-area.aspx">Not In My Backyard (NIMBY) movement</a> are that data centers drive up energy prices and are transferring their costs onto Americans. Both are <a href="https://netchoice.org/policies-poles-and-wires-how-renewables-mandates-and-an-aging-grid-have-increased-electricity-prices/">false</a> but are, nevertheless, taking hold among the American public.
The reality is that data centers are already regulated at the local, state, and federal levels. There is no data center exemption to environmental and nuisance laws.
Beijing has spent years investing heavily in artificial intelligence, advanced computing, semiconductors, and related technologies, and views technological leadership as a core national objective. America cannot maintain leadership in AI without the infrastructure to support it. The states that choose to lead will help secure America&#8217;s technological future, with the added benefit of attracting jobs, investment, and economic growth.
***
<a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/netchoice.org/team/patrick-hedger/__;!!NUnUjx3wvH5xgA!ZwS_fZTkE9OSAeKqpW8wm6ij8Ppb19Inn0BQLcRvICESUMn6mhfnG8aXNXTf4kju5mUCS7mcUQkkFmGIAOia8v6WO9Yts90$"> Patrick Hedger is Director of Policy at NetChoice</a>

Rise of Dig Data

The Battle Over AI Dominance Starts With The States

China

Data Centers

DW Opinion

Information Technology

NIMBY

<div>
Wikipedia has <a href="https://nypost.com/2026/06/22/tech/left-leaning-wikipedia-blocked-founder-from-editing-site-after-he-campaigned-to-make-it-more-balanced/">permanently blocked</a> one of its founders from editing the site after he launched a campaign to make it more ideologically balanced — a move that critics say exposes a deeper problem: the platform&#8217;s well-documented liberal tilt is now being baked directly into the AI engines that hundreds of millions of people rely on for information.
</div>
<div>
Larry Sanger, who coined the name &#8220;Wikipedia,&#8221; drafted its original rules, and co-launched it with Jimmy Wales in 2001, was banned indefinitely after creating WikiProject Intellectual Diversity, an effort to restore what he called the site&#8217;s original commitment to neutrality. Sanger had urged groups historically underrepresented among Wikipedia&#8217;s editors — including Hindus and American conservatives — to become more involved. He was blocked within days.
</div>
<div>
Sanger <a href="https://gizmodo.com/one-of-wikipedias-cofounders-banned-from-the-site-over-influence-campaigns-2000776345">described</a> the process as a &#8220;kangaroo court&#8221; run by a &#8220;mob or a blob,&#8221; with no formal charges, no designated prosecutor, and no real opportunity to defend himself. He noted the bitter irony that one of his nine proposed reforms had specifically called for ending the practice of indefinite blocking, which he considered &#8220;draconian.&#8221;
The ban was pushed primarily by an anonymous editor known as TarnishedPath — the same editor who engineered a year-long freeze on Wikipedia&#8217;s &#8220;Zionism&#8221; article locking in language critics say equates Jewish self-determination with ethnic cleansing, and who had campaigned to label J.K. Rowling as anti-trans on her Wikipedia page. Wikipedia&#8217;s own administrators had just banned TarnishedPath from the entire Israel-Palestine subject area — yet the editor remained influential enough to drive Sanger&#8217;s ouster.
</div>
<div>
The episode illustrates what Sanger has called the site&#8217;s real power structure: not its 262,000 claimed contributors, but a small circle he identifies as just 62 administrator accounts belonging to leadership groups, 85% of whom operate anonymously. Wikipedia&#8217;s source reliability ratings <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perennial_sources_list">tell</a> a similar story — CNN, The New York Times, the BBC, and the Southern Poverty Law Center are rated green for &#8220;generally reliable,&#8221; while Fox News, Newsmax, and the Federalist are rated red for &#8220;generally unreliable.”
</div>
<div>
The consequences of that institutional lean now extend far beyond Wikipedia itself. A June 2025 <a href="https://cybernews.com/news/chatgpt-wikipedia-google-reddit/?utm_source=chatgpt.com">analysis</a> by Profound, which tracks citations across major AI platforms, found that Wikipedia accounts for nearly 48% of ChatGPT&#8217;s top citations. Google AI Overviews and Perplexity draw heavily from the same source.
</div>
<div>
Academic research confirms the concern. A <a href="https://arxiv.org/pdf/2507.15328">University of Stuttgart study</a> published in 2025 found that major large language models — including various versions of GPT — consistently display mild to strong Left-leaning bias across politically sensitive topics, even when questions are framed to elicit conservative responses. Crucially, the researchers argue this isn&#8217;t accidental: the very process of &#8220;aligning&#8221; AI to be safe and helpful encodes liberal assumptions about harm, fairness, and truth, tilting outputs toward progressive conclusions by design.
</div>
<div>
The result is a feedback loop. A Left-leaning Wikipedia shapes AI training data. AI systems absorb and amplify that tilt. Users who trust those systems to deliver neutral information receive something far less balanced than advertised — with no visible warning label in sight.
</div>

FRA-ILLUSTRATION-APP

Wikipedia Silences Own Founder’s Attempt To Moderate — Now Leftist Bias Is Training AI

Bias

Leftist

Wikipedia

The Trump administration is doubling down on AI development and deployment, <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2026/06/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-signs-historic-directive-on-ai-in-the-national-security-enterprise/">issuing an executive order</a> to “put the most advanced, secure, and reliable AI systems into the hands of America’s warfighters and intelligence professionals while ensuring their responsible use.”
Emphasis on “responsible use.” This caveat is significant yet often ignored by Silicon Valley’s industry allies in government.
As a lifelong Republican and a firm believer in Ronald Reagan’s vision of peace through strength, there is absolutely nothing wrong with building AI systems that strengthen our national security and protect us from foreign adversaries — from China to Russia and Iran. I would much rather America lead the world in AI development than a communist regime in Beijing, an autocratic government in Moscow, or a radical Islamist one in Tehran.
On that front, failure is not an option. The world is a safer and better place with America in charge than the alternative.
But promoting AI innovation and building effective guardrails for “responsible use” (quoting Trump) are not mutually exclusive. Nor is criticizing Silicon Valley somehow ensuring American defeat in our decades-long geopolitical struggle against Chinese communism.
This is the same Silicon Valley that likens AI to a deity in hopes of rendering humanity obsolete. For years now, AI engineers have<a href="https://thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/silicon-valleys-obsession-with-ai-looks-a-lot-like-religion/"> predicted</a> a world with an AI that is “a billion times smarter than the smartest human.” Machine learning researchers are<a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/silicon-valley-using-religious-language-talk-ai-rcna227987"> likening AI CEOs</a> to “modern-day prophets” (OpenAI CEO Sam Altman <a href="https://futurism.com/sam-altman-imply-openai-building-god">doesn’t seem to mind</a>). Meanwhile, venture capitalists in the technology space are <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bill-gurley-anthropic-ai-god-humanity-theory-2026-6">praising Anthropic</a> for “midwifing a deity” by “building a species that’s superior to humans.”
For religious Americans and other traditional conservatives, we should be on high alert. There is a reason Pope Leo’s<a href="https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2026-05/pope-leo-xiv-encyclical-magnifica-humanitas-ai.html"> first encyclical focused on AI</a>: he warned people to stop building a “new Tower of Babel” and to <a href="https://ascensionpress.com/blogs/articles/a-complete-guide-to-pope-leo-s-encyclical-magnificent-humanitas?srsltid=AfmBOor0shI_G9zc9HRtBNp9t5GSb9eBD3VPVQ1ObI2KpCV1xX_H4SAs">prioritize safeguarding humanity</a>.
Let’s be clear: There is a distinction between AI for civilian and military use. Reforming AI chatbots to <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2025/09/19/nx-s1-5545749/ai-chatbots-safety-openai-meta-characterai-teens-suicide">stop recommending suicide</a> to young Americans doesn’t make us vulnerable against China. Making AI companies answer for<a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11059964/"> model hallucinations</a> that spit out false, damaging information doesn’t make us “weak on Russia.” Supporting legislation that<a href="https://www.politico.com/newsletters/digital-future-daily/2026/05/27/the-case-against-ai-personhood-00938508"> rejects AI personhood</a> — the novel concept of technology somehow being entitled to human rights — isn’t going to lose military engagements. Nor is worrying about<a href="https://jobloss.ai/"> AI job loss</a>.
U.S.-China competition is heating up, and artificial intelligence is a key front line. At stake is global technological leadership for years to come.
The Chinese government<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-06-09/china-prepares-295-billion-plan-to-fund-nationwide-ai-buildout"> recently announced</a> a $295 billion plan to fund a nationwide AI build-out of data centers, strengthening its domestic sector and perhaps even surpassing American innovation. The plan is to rely on local suppliers like Huawei for at least 80% of the technology, making Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices irrelevant as foreign exporters. If AI can make drone strikes more accurate and more adept at avoiding civilian casualties, I am all for it. If AI can protect our brave military service members from harm, I am obviously for that too.
But what does that have to do with preventing AI chatbots from <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/mar/27/number-of-ai-chatbots-ignoring-human-instructions-increasing-study-says">ignoring human instructions</a>? That is currently happening.
What about OpenAI trying to <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/openai-chatgpt-accused-using-subpoenas-silence-nonprofits-rcna237348">stifle nonprofit organizations</a> that are critical of the company? That is happening too, and it certainly has nothing to do with national defense.
For America’s sake, it is encouraging that the world’s best AI researchers and engineers live and work in the United States. If these brilliant minds are cognizant of advanced AI’s risks and diligent in avoiding them, I trust our best and brightest to figure out how to mitigate the technology’s threats to our society.
Americans are demanding it. According to Fox News,<a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/fox-news-poll-voters-see-ai-regulation-urgent-rank-safeguards-ahead-innovation"> nearly 80% of U.S. voters</a> want the Trump administration to focus on AI safeguards. Meanwhile,<a href="https://www.reaganfoundation.org/reagan-institute/press-releases/reagan-national-defense-survey-shows-record-public-support-for-taiwan-ukraine-nat"> almost 90% of Americans</a> believe it is important for the U.S. to have the most powerful military in the world — supported by AI.
Why? Because we can walk and chew gum at the same time. When national security and AI safety are both winners, all Americans are winners too.
***
Brendan Steinhauser is CEO of<a href="https://secureainow.org/"> The Alliance for Secure AI</a>, a nonprofit organization that educates the public about the implications of advanced AI.

Will Investing In AI Cost Us Our Humanity?

Communist China

Encyclical

human intelligence

National Defense

Silicon Valley

Hany Farid has declared that artificial intelligence image generation has reached a point where it can fool even the world’s greatest experts, including himself.
Farid is a professor at the UC Berkeley School of Information and the senior faculty adviser for the Center for Long-Term Cybersecurity. He is widely considered to be the world’s leader in digital forensics and image analysis. But according to a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/14/us/ai-deepfake-hany-farid.html">report</a> from The New York Times, Farid is struggling to pick up on some AI-generated content.  
Farid has noticed that AI has improved dramatically at mimicking real shadows, projectile trajectories, plant life, human faces, and sound, removing many of the clues that digital forensics experts relied on to detect deepfakes.
“I don’t trust anything. Every image I see, I’m drawing lines for shadows and doing geometry in my head, trying to figure out what I’m looking at. It’s over,” Farid said. “Within a year or two, our whole visual system will be utterly useless.”
Farid has collaborated with Microsoft to <a href="https://www.ischool.berkeley.edu/news/2020/hany-farid-leads-microsoft-project-detect-child-sex-predators">create</a> PhotoDNA, software used by many major tech firms to detect child sexual abuse material. Additionally, Farid worked with the U.S. military to create scanning software to detect deepfake videos before the 2020 election, according to an article originally published in The Los Angeles Times.
Farid told The New York Times that he is frustrated with how Big Tech is rapidly developing AI with no concern for the repercussions and hopes to retire from the scene and move to a farm in Vermont. 

“I can’t stand this place anymore,” Farid said. “These major tech giants will burn everything to the ground as long as they’re making a profit. They’re not interested in anything that’s going to slow them down.”
According to cybersecurity firm DeepStrike, deepfake files have <a href="https://deepstrike.io/blog/deepfake-statistics-2025">increased</a> dramatically from 500,000 in 2023 to 8 million in 2025, coinciding with a 3,000% increase in fraud attempts worldwide. 

Now that human detection systems are failing, experts are fighting fire with fire by using AI to combat AI deepfakes, such as the AI-powered <a href="https://zinc.cse.buffalo.edu/ubmdfl/deep-o-meter/">Deepfake-O-Meter</a> and Farid’s own company, <a href="https://www.getrealsecurity.com/teams/labs/pr-hany-farid">GetReal Security</a>.
Additionally, experts are advocating for new standards for digital photography to make it easier to determine a photo’s authenticity. 
For example, the Content Credentials movement is <a href="https://contentcredentials.org/">advocating</a> for a pin to accompany digital photos that will allow viewers to “determine the method of creation” for a photo “and see a record of editing history.”
Copyleaks, an AI content-detection platform, has <a href="https://copyleaks.com/blog/5-most-common-types-of-video-deepfake-scams">detailed</a> five major emerging deepfake scams potentially jeopardizing Americans&#8217; well-being.
Celebrity scams utilize deepfakes of famous people to promote products, while catfishing scams involve deepfaking a beautiful person to manipulate lovers into giving money or personal information. 
Fake security footage is being used to prosecute innocent people, and scammers are using AI voice changers to make people believe a loved one has an emergency and is asking for help. 
In the political realm, scammers are making fake videos of political candidates making controversial claims they never actually made.

Changing face using AI generated deepfake technology concept

World’s Best Deepfake Expert Can’t Detect AI Videos

Deepfake

Fake News

Misinformation

scams

In less than a year, a massive community has gathered on social media giant Facebook of people opposed to the growth of data centers, which have surged in prevalence across the country along with the explosion of artificial intelligence.
The group &#8220;Say NO to Data Centers,&#8221; was <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/saynotodatacenters/">created</a> in September 2025 and now has more than 170,000 members. It is filled with average Americans asking reasonable questions about water tables, property values, and utility rates.
A Daily Wire investigation finds that the group&#8217;s grassroots energy is being channeled by Democratic operatives linked to Soros-funded organizations — and is part of an openly stated effort to turn local frustration over data centers into votes and candidates for the Left.
At the heart of the group is the work of a man named George Duarte. He is <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/saynotodatacenters/members/experts">designated</a> in the massive group as one of five “Group Experts” and presents himself as an expert in &#8220;Maps &amp; Navigation Apps&#8221; from Beverly Hills, California.
He is the creator of &#8220;PoweredByWho,&#8221; the movement&#8217;s most sophisticated tool: a national <a href="https://poweredbywho.com/">database</a> tracking 2,299 data center projects across 46 states, mapping their corporate and political money, and packaging it all with a &#8220;Community Toolkit&#8221; on how to stop a project.
Duarte shares map info with the Facebook group almost daily and claims the project is <a href="https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1CW18o1MTB/">funded</a> solely by its readers.
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<div id="attachment_1112485" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1112485" class="size-large wp-image-1112485" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/page_2_image_1_2048x989-1024x495.png" alt="" width="1024" height="495" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/page_2_image_1_2048x989-1024x495.png 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/page_2_image_1_2048x989-300x145.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/page_2_image_1_2048x989-768x371.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/page_2_image_1_2048x989-1536x742.png 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/page_2_image_1_2048x989.png 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />Screenshot of the PoweredByWho platform</div>
PoweredByWho is an extremely technically sound, research-intensive project — all carried out due to his self-professed commitment to the fight against data centers. But what Duarte fails to mention to the group is his day job.
Duarte is the <a href="https://www.upswingresearch.com/team">director</a> of digital research and AI strategy at Upswing Research &amp; Strategy, a political consulting firm in Washington, D.C., with a <a href="https://www.upswingresearch.com/our-work">client list</a> that includes nearly every single Democratic campaign committee: The Democratic National Committee, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, and the Democratic Governors Association.
Upswing&#8217;s client list also includes a wide range of progressive organizations that are directly involved in the opposition to AI data centers: the Center for American Progress, the Working Families Party, and leftist activist group Indivisible.
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<div id="attachment_1112489" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1112489" class="wp-image-1112489 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/page_3_image_1_2048x987-1024x494.png" alt="" width="1024" height="494" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/page_3_image_1_2048x987-1024x494.png 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/page_3_image_1_2048x987-300x145.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/page_3_image_1_2048x987-768x370.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/page_3_image_1_2048x987-1536x740.png 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/page_3_image_1_2048x987.png 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />Via Upswing</div>
Another political operator serving as a &#8220;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/saynotodatacenters/members/experts">Group Expert</a>&#8221; in the Facebook group is Mark Schlosberg, a senior adviser at Food &amp; Water Watch (FWW) — a Washington group demanding that Congress halt all new data center construction. Schlosberg claimed in a statement to the Daily Wire that neither FWW nor its affiliated PAC &#8220;has a role with this Facebook page.&#8221;
According to Power the Future, FWW is the anti-data center campaign’s “chief political quarterback” and <a href="https://www.powerthefuture.com/wp-content/uploads/PTF_ManufacturedOutrage_Rev3.pdf">receives</a> its funding “almost entirely through anonymizing donor-advised funds.”
FWW’s affiliated PAC, Food &amp; Water Action, has backed Democratic candidates almost exclusively. In 2024, it <a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/food-and-water-action-fwa/">supported</a> Kamala Harris, three Democratic congressional candidates, and one Working Families Party candidate. That same year, the group ran get-out-the-vote operations in Pennsylvania — a swing state where Food &amp; Water Watch has also organized opposition to data center development.
That is the machinery of a national political party, and its fingerprints sit on the anti-data-center movement&#8217;s central nervous system. Duarte himself bragged on LinkedIn that his project has become a voter-registration machine in swing states like Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin — a departure from his role as a Facebook group&#8217;s &#8220;Maps &amp; Navigation&#8221; expert.
&#8220;They don&#8217;t just get mad. They register to vote,&#8221; Duarte <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/posts/george-duarte-2b2111110_poweredbywho-whos-building-data-centers-share-7445481364407099392-lAw3/?utm_source=share&amp;utm_medium=member_desktop&amp;rcm=ACoAAFJIH6sBi3y_S6JsatzcBpCrQ2cbmUadb3c">posted</a>.
Duarte told The Daily Wire that PoweredByWho is an &#8220;independent personal project&#8221; he built himself, and that Upswing &#8220;plays no role in it at all.&#8221; Upswing did not respond to a request for comment.
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<div id="attachment_1114305" style="width: 560px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1114305" class="wp-image-1114305 size-full" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/DuarteLinkedIn.png" alt="" width="550" height="443" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/DuarteLinkedIn.png 550w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/DuarteLinkedIn-300x242.png 300w" sizes=" (max-width: 550px) 100vw, 550px" />Via George Duarte on LinkedIn</div>
Indivisible, another client of Upswing, is a leftist activist network best known for <a href="https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-15202777/dark-web-power-no-kings-protests.html">bankrolling</a> the anti-Trump &#8220;No Kings&#8221; protests. It is now among the most active funded organizers in the anti-data-center fight.
Indivisible has driven data-center fights nationwide — an April &#8220;week of action&#8221; in Temple, Texas, complete with a City Hall protest and a council recall; scripted phone banks in central Indiana; and anti-data center rallies from Massachusetts to California. The American Energy Institute has also tracked the group funding similar activity across Ohio, Virginia, Indiana, Georgia, and California.
The grants database of the Open Society Foundations, George Soros&#8217;s $32 billion philanthropic juggernaut, <a href="https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/grants/past?filter_keyword=Indivisible">shows</a> more than $7.6 million flowing from George Soros to Indivisible, $3 million of which was earmarked for &#8220;social welfare activities.&#8221;
The American Energy Institute <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/left-wing-foreign-billionaires-fund-groups-trying-to-cripple-ai-infrastructure">tracked</a> another $1 million in 2025 going to Indivisible from the Berger Action Fund, the advocacy vehicle of Swiss billionaire Hansjörg Wyss, according to the fund&#8217;s tax filings. Wyss is notorious for donating to left-wing advocacy groups such as the Sixteen Thirty Fund, which, in turn, is well <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2022/03/18/liberal-billionaire-nonprofit-dark-money-00018513">known</a> as a major fiscal sponsor and “dark money” hub for leftist causes.
Wyss has been investigated by the Federal Election Commission (FEC) for allegedly illegally funneling millions in foreign money into U.S. elections through a network of left-leaning nonprofits, although the FEC complaint was later dismissed. Foreign nationals are barred from funding U.S. elections, but money routed through nonprofit advocacy groups remains legal, a loophole congressional Republicans have spent years trying to close. The American Energy Institute <a href="https://americanenergyinstitute.com/docs/aei_data-center_report_v2.pdf">tallied</a> more than $39 million in foreign money flowing to 12 organizations active in opposing data center development.
The Working Families Party (WFP), a left-wing party that helped elect Zohran Mamdani to office in New York with $23.7 million in <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/07/12/us-news/soros-funneled-37-million-to-lefty-groups-backing-mamdanis-mayoral-run/">funding</a> from George Soros, is also one of Upswing&#8217;s clients. FEC <a href="https://www.fec.gov/data/disbursements/?+Strategy%22&amp;data_type=processed&amp;committee_id=C00606962&amp;recipient_name=Upswing+Research+">records</a> show the WFP&#8217;s federal PAC paid Upswing nearly $80,000 over two years.
The WFP has publicly <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/opposed-to-data-centers-the-working-families-party-wants-you-to-run-for-office/">urged</a> critics of data centers to run for office in another attempt to convert local frustration into votes for the far Left.
The party is recruiting data center opponents as candidates in northern Virginia, the upper Midwest, and the Southwest. WFP national press secretary Ravi Mangla told Wired, &#8220;You can&#8217;t fill a community center or a town hall just organically.&#8221;
The same small world of Democratic firms, donors, and organizers surfaces at every layer of an anti-data-center movement that otherwise presents itself as grassroots.
The 170,000 members of &#8220;Say NO to Data Centers&#8221; were never told that their &#8220;Group Expert&#8221; draws a paycheck from a key Democratic firm — and some have not welcomed the Facebook group&#8217;s increasingly partisan tone.
One woman posted in the group earlier this year that it seemed to be getting away from its core focus on the data center issue.
&#8220;Are we supposed to be making political posts in here,&#8221; the woman wrote amid a string of purely political posts in the group, &#8220;or stay on topic about AI data centers?&#8221;
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<div id="attachment_1112483" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1112483" class="size-large wp-image-1112483" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/page_1_image_1_1368x278-1024x208.png" alt="" width="1024" height="208" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/page_1_image_1_1368x278-1024x208.png 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/page_1_image_1_1368x278-300x61.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/page_1_image_1_1368x278-768x156.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/page_1_image_1_1368x278-1360x278.png 1360w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/page_1_image_1_1368x278.png 1368w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />Screenshot via Facebook</div>

DataCenterIllustration

The Hidden Soros Connection In America’s Data Center Wars

An AI-powered U.S. Navy drone boat played a key role in rescuing the crew of a downed American Apache helicopter near the Strait of Hormuz on Monday, marking what military officials say is the first real-world rescue operation involving an unmanned surface vessel.
After the helicopter went down, the two American crew members remained stranded in the waters off Oman for nearly two hours as the U.S. military rushed to reach them before Iranian forces could.
On Tuesday, President Trump revealed that Iranian forces had shot down the aircraft and vowed that the United States would respond.
“I have just been informed by our Great Military that last night the Iranians shot down one of our highly sophisticated Apache Helicopters while patrolling over the Strait of Hormuz,” Trump <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/116721129088347687">said</a> on Truth Social. “There were two pilots involved, both are safe and uninjured. Nevertheless, the United States must, of necessity, respond to this attack.”
The unmanned vessel responsible for rescuing the crew is a Saronic Corsair, Capt. Tim Hawkins, spokesman for U.S. Central Command, told the <a href="https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/apache-helicopter-crash-coast-oman-4de26c6d?st=wZabGz&amp;reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink">Wall Street Journal</a>.
“When it comes to search and rescue, you utilize the best asset that is the closest and the quickest, and that was the case in this instance,” Hawkins <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/news/world/articles/corsair-drone-boat-plucked-downed-194043671.html">said</a>.
The drone boat transported the soldiers to a safer location at sea, where they were later hoisted aboard a helicopter and evacuated to receive medical care. Both are in stable condition, according to Hawkins.
While such sea drones have been used in exercises, they have not been used in real-life, he added.
The vessel, which was deployed to CENTCOM in March shortly after the conflict with Iran began, is operated by the Navy&#8217;s Task Force 59, which has evolved rapidly since its <a href="https://www.navy.mil/Press-Office/News-Stories/Article/3645647/task-force-59-launches-new-unmanned-task-group-591/">creation</a> in 2021.  
The unit specializes in integrating artificial intelligence and autonomous systems into real-world maritime operations and has already tested more than 23 different unmanned platforms across the Middle East.
According to the Journal, Ukraine has used these types of vessels to target Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.
The incident comes just days after Iran struck Israel with at least 24 missiles for the first time since the ceasefire went into place about two months ago. In response, Israel fired back before both sides agreed to halt attacks at Trump’s request.

Saronic

The Robot That Beat Iran To Two American Pilots

Donald Trump

Iran

U.S. Navy

On Monday, hard-left Vermont senator Bernie Sanders offered a suggestion that would cripple America, declaring he would introduce the American AI Sovereign Wealth Fund Act, which would “give the public a direct ownership stake in the largest AI companies in America through a one-time 50% tax, not on profits, but on stock.”
“The creative work of millions and hundreds of millions of people has been stolen by the wealthiest people in the world,” Sanders ranted. “The time has come to reclaim what was stolen from us.”
He launched into his typical class-warfare argument: “No longer would the future of AI be dictated by a handful of big tech oligarchs while the rest of the world sits back and watches them do what they want. Secondly, it would guarantee that the trillions potentially created by AI are used to improve the lives of all of us, not simply to make the richest people on Earth even richer.”
WATCH FROM TODAY&#8217;S EPISODE OF MORNING WIRE:
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“The future of AI must not be decided behind closed doors in Silicon Valley,” he raged. “It must not be dictated by billionaires seeking to maximize their power and profits. It must be decided by workers, parents, teachers, artists, scientists, communities, and the American people.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
I will soon be introducing a bill to give the public a 50% ownership stake in the largest AI companies in America.
This would guarantee that the trillions created by AI are used to improve the lives of all of us — and block oligarch decisions that harm the American people. <a href="https://t.co/y3ERWOsRfs">pic.twitter.com/y3ERWOsRfs</a>
&mdash; Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) <a href="https://x.com/BernieSanders/status/2061631422188626083?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 2, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.x.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&nbsp;
Here are the reasons Sanders is completely wrong, and even dangerous:
First, a one-time 50% tax on stock — not profits — would hit these companies just as they reach the public markets. Anthropic has already filed for an IPO, with OpenAI expected to follow this fall. Faced with the government claiming half their equity, investors would walk away from those offerings, collapsing the very valuations that would generate Sanders&#8217;s &#8220;trillions.&#8221;
Second, companies would reincorporate outside the U.S. to avoid classification as a &#8220;large AI company.”
Third, Investors who might fund the next AI company would redirect to other markets.
Sanders claims AI was built on &#8220;stolen&#8221; collective intelligence. This kind of argument could be used to nationalize any information-based industry.
Here is where Sanders’ position is dangerous:
China&#8217;s government spends funds to support its AI companies, such as Alibaba, Baidu, and Huawei. But because American AI companies are supported by private capital, this enables the AI companies to move much faster than their foreign competition.
And the military and intelligence applications of AI — drone autonomy, signals intelligence, logistics, cybersecurity — depend on the speed of the private sector to support them.
The core of capitalism is people taking risks. Punishing the innovators and risk-takers is essentially anti-American.
The AI giants in America are racing against China. If Sanders gets his way, his government fund would own a smaller stake in AI companies that either left for greener pastures or were outraced by competitors who didn’t have such shackles placed upon them.

Senators Sanders And Menendez Discuss SALT Deductions At Press Conference

Bernie Sanders Wants To Cripple America’s AI Advantage

Bernie Sanders Wants AI Wealth Fund That Would Cripple America's AI Advantage

Bernie Sanders

An AI startup is offering free home cleaning services for New York City residents in an effort to train their future robot workforce.
Social media skeptics were quick to point out the privacy concerns that would inevitably arise from allowing cameras to capture every inch of a client’s living space. But for many commenters, the deal was too good to pass up. 
Shift announced the offer on social media Thursday, explaining that the insights it will gain from offering free cleanings will more than pay for how much they spend to get it.
“Here&#8217;s how it works. Book a shift cleaning. A vetted shift operator comes to your home wearing one of our devices. They clean. They leave. You pay nothing,” the post says.
“In exchange, we record the cleaning. Robotics is being built on data about how people do daily tasks, and the value of that recording is what funds the service. Anything personal in it is anonymized before the recording is processed.”
The X post went on to mention that this service is just the beginning. “By now, you have heard about the shift to AI more times than you can count. About the shift toward you, the part where you actually feel it, you have heard almost nothing. Shift is what starts to make it concrete, in specific cities, with specific services.” 
“Today, cleaning in New York. Soon, handymen, repairs, and errands,” the post concluded.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
Today, we&#8217;re launching shift. We&#8217;re starting by cleaning your apartment in New York City, for free.
Here&#8217;s how it works. Book a shift cleaning. A vetted shift operator comes to your home wearing one of our devices. They clean. They leave. You pay nothing.
In exchange, we record… <a href="https://t.co/oBrCXcEz5G">pic.twitter.com/oBrCXcEz5G</a>
— shift (@joinshiftX) <a href="https://x.com/joinshiftX/status/2060044783519735987?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 28, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.x.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
“Every home cleaned today lays the groundwork for a home that cleans itself tomorrow,” the company says in the video. 
A promotional video shows a cleaner washing windows, mopping and vacuuming floors, scrubbing dishes, and wiping down counters. He&#8217;s clad in a white uniform and a baseball cap with an obvious camera mounted on the front of it. 
According to Shift’s co-CEO and co-founder Bercan Kilic, this “magic hat” records the work with a hidden camera that documents their every move.
On its <a href="https://www.shiftapp.nyc/">website</a>, Shift promises that “privacy is fully protected,” with information such as names, faces, or personal information from screens and ID cards blurred before being used for AI training. The company also claims the data “is never shared publicly and is never used for advertising.” 
The video has more than 3 million views as of Friday. While many commenters said they want to sign up for the free cleans, others were more cautious.
“Nothing is free. People are being taken advantage of,” one person <a href="https://x.com/Francis_Watts/status/2060324058424864966">wrote</a>. “You should be paying them. Their data is more valuable than that, and you know it. Unscrupulous corrupt AI corporations like yours are evil.”
“This is so freakin’ creepy. Don’t people understand that nothing is free?” another person agreed.
“If you’re not paying for the product, you are the product,” a third person <a href="https://x.com/database_dealer/status/2060332712653627832">observed</a>.

Robot’s hand cleaning the kitchen cabinet.

AI Company Will Clean Your Home For Free, But There’s A Catch

New York City

Privacy

Robots

An AI company announced this week that it is digitally resurrecting famed Marvel creator Stan Lee and charging users for access to his recreated voice and likeness. 
ElevenLabs revealed Wednesday that the late comic book writer’s AI-generated voice and image will be added to its growing collection of celebrity recreations that can be licensed for commercial use. 
“You know what they never tell you about legends?” the AI-generated version of Lee says in a promotional video released by the company. “They outlive the page. A good story doesn&#8217;t belong to one moment. It grows. It changes. It gets passed down from generation to generation, constantly evolving.”
“Every great story starts with a hero. And just because a person has a superpower doesn&#8217;t mean they don&#8217;t have the same problems that you have,” the promo continues. “So for the creators, the ones dreaming, building, chasing that one great idea, as long as there are people who believe in it, who carry it forward, it lives on.”
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Introducing Stan Lee on ElevenLabs" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/W3kbm3s9p-I?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Notably, comments were disabled on the YouTube upload, though critics found their way to social media to express their objections.
“Stop, let the man rest in peace. Lunatics always create problems,” one X user <a href="https://x.com/JosephRodr34982/status/2059977498901774492">wrote</a>.
“I don&#8217;t even dislike AI like most people but using it to revive a dead person is disgusting,” another <a href="https://x.com/NFL_City/status/2059966158174871619">agreed</a>.
“Think about it. You can now rent a dead man&#8217;s voice and likeness for a corporate presentation. We are officially living in the science fiction stories we grew up reading,” echoed a third.
Mixed among the negative comments were a few supporters. 
“Stan Lee&#8217;s voice living on through AI is actually kind of beautiful,” one person <a href="https://x.com/AlphaWireHQ/status/2059935147047166325">wrote</a>. “The man spent his whole life making stories feel alive, and now that energy gets to keep reaching people. Excelsior never really had an expiration date!”
According to ElevenLabs, users will be able to generate comic-book-style images featuring Lee’s likeness, recreate his voice for non-commercial use, and use the AI-generated voice to narrate books through the company&#8217;s app. 
“Stan always believed in meeting his fans where they were: in the pages of a comic, at a convention, or in a quick on-screen cameo,” lawyer and board member for Stan Lee Universe Chaz Rainey said in a statement, per <a href="https://variety.com/2026/biz/news/stan-lee-elevenlabs-licensed-voice-likeness-1236759225/">Variety</a>. “This partnership is a way of continuing that. Fans have always told us that when they read his comics, they hear the words in Stan’s voice, and now, thanks to ElevenLabs, we can make that a reality.”
Lee, who died in 2018, is the latest celebrity to receive an AI-generated digital replica after death.
 An AI-generated version of actor Val Kilmer is set to appear in the upcoming film “As Deep as the Grave” following his death from throat cancer last year. Other deceased celebrities, including <a href="https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20230718-how-ai-is-bringing-film-stars-back-from-the-dead">James Dean</a> and <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/22/entertainment/suzanne-somers-ai-clone-husband">Suzanne Somers,</a> have also been recreated using AI technology. 
Living actors are getting into the game, too. Matthew McConaughey and Michael Caine are among the celebrities who have partnered with ElevenLabs to create and license AI versions of their voices.

Stan Lee

Stan Lee’s AI Clone Is Now Available For Hire

Comic Books

Entertainment

Marvel

The co-CEOs building what could become the next major tech disruptor say Americans have already surrendered their privacy, and it’s time to stop pretending otherwise. 
On Tuesday, Warby Parker co-CEOs Neil Blumenthal and Dave Gilboa discussed their company&#8217;s entry into the rapidly escalating race for artificial intelligence-powered smart glasses, positioning Warby Parker against Meta in what many in Silicon Valley believe could become the post-smartphone era.
Asked by CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin if the smart glasses would &#8220;persistently listen&#8221; to or watch users, Blumenthal <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/video/2026/05/26/future-of-a-eye-warby-parker-co-ceos-on-the-companys-new-ai-glasses.html">replied</a>, “Our phones are already listening to us, so we’ve already given that up. Now, for us, you&#8217;re going to need a prompt. But I think we probably have to have honest discussions about what we’ve already decided in society.”
Unlike Warby Parker, which openly acknowledged that consumers have already surrendered privacy to always-on technology, Meta has stopped short of saying its devices are constantly listening. The company has instead compared its smart glasses to voice assistants like Siri, maintaining that they only activate and begin listening after a user prompt. 
Warby Parker’s upcoming smart glasses are powered by Google’s Gemini AI platform and developed in partnership with Samsung. The company says the devices are being built with visible privacy safeguards, including cameras that are turned off by default, and an LED indicator light that becomes “incredibly visible” whenever recording is activated.
Executives argue the tradeoff is worth it because of the productivity gains AI-powered eyewear could bring to everyday life.
Gilboa believes the glasses will allow people to “keep their heads up” by allowing them to take calls, send emails and texts, and browse the internet all without taking out a phone or logging onto a computer. 
Blumenthal drew a distinction between Google’s business model and Meta’s, arguing that Google is designed to help users quickly find information, while competitors aim to keep consumers trapped inside their platforms for as long as possible.
“One of the primary reasons we are so excited to partner with Google is if you think about Google’s business model, it is designed to help you find information and then get you off Google properties,” Blumenthal said. “Others in the market are designed to keep you in their ecosystem. For us, it’s about making the world more useful.”
“You can also imagine super vision as well,” he added. “That’s how we think about these products, how we give ourselves superpowers.”
Warby Parker’s AI-powered smart glasses are expected to launch in the fall of 2026. 
Warby Parker first jumped into the industry <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2024/09/28/how-warby-parker-became-sustainable-business-dtc-profitability.html">in 2010</a> when it was founded by four Wharton MBA students, each of whom invested $30,000 of their own savings to launch the company. Since then, the eyewear startup has expanded into contact lenses, opened in-store eye care services, and generated nearly $872 million in revenue last year.
Later this year, Apple <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidphelan/2026/04/12/apple-smart-glasses-new-leak-reveals-a-major-design-twist-to-beat-meta/">is also expected</a> to unveil its first AI-powered smart glasses, which are expected to launch in 2027.

Inside The Google I/O Developers Conference

Big Tech Isn’t Even Pretending That It’s Not Listening Anymore

Google Gemini

Concept of AI technology scam or cyber security warning concept, Man hand showing warning about using AI technology to access personal data or internet threats with virtual infographic

What Happens When Your Therapist, Friend, And Ego Booster Become The Same Thing

Science

study

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