Google has shifted its artificial intelligence ethics policy by dropping a section that had prevented the company from using AI for weapons development. Google Senior Vice President James Manyika and Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis indicated this week that the company is now interested in AI that benefits national security and it wants democratic governments to oversee AI production. 

“We believe democracies should lead in AI development, guided by core values like freedom, equality and respect for human rights,” the duo wrote in Google blog posting. “We believe that companies, governments and organizations sharing these values should work together to create AI that protects people, promotes global growth and supports national security.”

Supporting national security was not always top of mind for Google, whose workforce has long expressed reservations about the company’s involvement with military programs. Google’s AI principles had included a section saying the company would not pursue AI applications that could be used for “weapons or other technologies whose principal purpose or implementation is to cause or directly facilitate injury to people.” The pledge’s deletion was first spotted by Bloomberg.

A study of 52 senior Chinese scientists and officials engaged in artificial intelligence work has revealed that at least 16 are former Microsoft and other U.S. tech company computer experts and about half studied at American universities. The study by The Wire China newsletter underscores the downside of a 40-year U.S. policy of expanded engagement with China, a policy that since 2016 has downgraded China from non-threatening power to strategic competitor and adversary.

Eight of 22 of the Chinese AI companies where the experts work for are under sanctions from the U.S. government for their work with the Chinese military or their role in the repression of minority Uyghurs in western China. The state-subsidized Chinese AI industry overall is growing rapidly and is working to overtake American AI models, despite Washington’s efforts to block exports of advanced microchips used in its supercomputers.

Fresh unease is swirling in American intelligence and tech circles over the China-based AI company DeepSeek, amid revelations that the company’s chatbot, which became the most downloaded app in the United States last month, uses coding that could send user data to a Chinese government-owned telecommunications company sanctioned by Washington over national security concerns.

Research by the Canadian cybersecurity firm Feroot has uncovered how the web login page of DeepSeek’s chatbot contains heavily obfuscated computer script that when deciphered shows connections to computer infrastructure owned by China Mobile, a state-owned telecommunications company.

In its privacy policy, DeepSeek acknowledges storing data on servers inside the People’s Republic of China. But an Associated Press report on Feroot’s findings asserts that the company’s chatbot appears more directly tied to the Chinese state than previously known. U.S. officials have claimed there are close ties between China Mobile and the Chinese military as justification for placing limited sanctions on the company. 

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says nothing is off the table and the U.S. military is ready to consider all possible solutions relating to the plan floated this week by Mr. Trump to take over and redevelop the war-torn Gaza strip, and relocate the millions of Palestinians now living in the territory.

During a visit Wednesday by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the Pentagon, Mr. Hegseth said Mr. Trump was “willing to think outside the box and look for new and unique and dynamic ways to solve problems that have felt like they were intractable.”

The comments came a day after Mr. Trump shocked the world by speaking openly about the plan. The White House stood firm on the proposal Wednesday, but said the relocation of Palestinian residents would be only temporary. Mr. Hegseth, meanwhile, said the administration will provide weapons to Israel that “were previously not supplied.” The White House has dropped a temporary hold that had been imposed by former President Biden on the supply of high-powered 2,000-pound bombs to Israel.

Crypto used to be a niche, boutique interest among a certain subset of tech-minded investors and political dissidents, but as Mr. Trump’s recent actions have shown, that’s no longer the case, according to Paul Mullen, who writes that “crypto is becoming mainstream.”

It’s been a “whirlwind media time for crypto of late,” writes Mr. Mullen, who emphasizes how “anticipation over the country’s first pro-crypto president pushed bitcoin over the $100,000 mark. Then, just before Mr. Trump took office, he and first lady Melania Trump each launched their own official cryptocurrency token, or ‘meme coin.’”

“In the end, only the best crypto(s) will stand the test of time,” writes Mr. Mullen, the RISE Campaign coordinator and a senior associate for marketing at The Heritage Foundation. “But as belief in the crypto meme grows, it will shape not only markets, but the very way we think about value and money.”

• Feb. 6 — Zero Trust Workshop, GovExec

• Feb. 6 — Biopower: Securing American Leadership in Biotechnology, Center for a New American Security

• Feb. 7 — China and Russia: Strategic Dynamics, MITRE

• Feb. 10-11 — Artificial Intelligence Action Summit, the French government

• Feb. 11 — China’s Power: Up for Debate 2025, Center for Strategic & International Studies

• Feb. 11 —  Congressional hearing examining China’s strategic port investments in the Western Hemisphere and the implications for U.S. homeland security, House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Transportation and Maritime Security

• Feb. 17-21 — International Defense Exhibition and Conference (IDEX) 2025, United Arab Emirates

• Feb. 26 — 2025 Defense Software & Data Summit, Govini