Risks Be Damned–Delaware Pursues AI Companies:
Delaware lawmakers could consider first-in-the-nation legislation next year that would create companies run by an Artificial Intelligence agent instead of a person. The agent would be able to own assets, file lawsuits and act as a liability shield for its owner or parent company.
State lawmakers are expected to consider the draft legislation when they return in January. But some legal scholars have raised concerns about whether the state has sufficiently addressed who would be accountable if an AI-run company causes harm.
“There’s really no overarching regulatory plan here for dealing with the fallout that AI-governed companies could bring,” said Christopher Bruner, Stembler family distinguished professor in business law at the University of Georgia School of Law. “I think this raises reasonable questions about whether it makes sense to push ahead with something like this.”
Ya think? BTW, nobody’s talkin’:
The Delaware Department of State declined to answer WHYY News’ questions on the proposal or whether Norm AI was being paid by the state and what kind of written agreements exist between the state and company.
Delaware currently has an AI Commission, which was created in 2024 through legislation sponsored by state Rep. Krista Griffith, D-Fairfax.
None of the three lawmakers who serve on the state’s AI sandbox subcommittee — Griffith, state Sen. Brian Pettyjohn, R-Georgetown, and Rep. Cyndie Romer, D-Newark, responded to interview requests.
Well, Gov. Meyer is:
Meyer was asked about Delaware’s proposal on AI-run companies on WHYY News’ and Delaware Public Media’s Ask Gov. Meyer call-in show earlier this month. Questioned about rogue AI agents and whether Delaware should proceed with caution, Meyer appeared to dismiss any suggestion the state should slow down.
“It is coming, and the solution is not ignoring it,” he said. “It’s not putting brakes on our attempts to regulate it and control it. It’s saying, ‘Okay, here’s within this confined space, we’re going to put some regulation around it,’ some loose regulation because we’re not really sure where this thing is going, and make sure we have some human control over the technology.”
Hey, man, the destruction of humanity is a small price to pay if it expands Delaware’s corporate franchise. And, just look!: Krista Griffith now has a whole new set of corporate lackeys to fund her next campaign.
How Billionaire’s Bill Beneficiary Mark Zuckerberg Uses Data Centers To Avoid Paying Taxes:
Mark Zuckerberg says Meta’s A.I. push is a tremendous success. “Our investments in A.I. are accelerating every major part of our core business,” he has told investors. “Every sign that we’re seeing in our own work and across the industry gives us confidence in this investment.”
But when Meta files its taxes, it tells the Internal Revenue Service a different story. It claims that its A.I. data centers are a giant experiment that could fail, according to four people with knowledge of the company’s operations.
It does this so it can tap into a tax credit intended for research and experimentation. It’s an aggressive interpretation of the tax break, which Meta embraced to claim billions of dollars in tax credits for data center expansion.
Characterizing its A.I. data centers as experimental is “kind of wild and out there,” said Andre Shevchuck, a partner at the advisory firm BPM who specializes in the research and experimentation tax credit.
Indeed, Meta’s own accountants recognize that the strategy is on shaky legal ground. In disclosures buried in securities filings, the tech giant warns that billions in tax savings are vulnerable to being overturned by the I.R.S., in large part because of “uncertainties with our research tax credits.”
Here’s what Meta is doing: For tax purposes, the company classifies its enormous, multibillion-dollar data centers as “pilot models.” Under a tax credit created in the 1980s to spur innovation, companies can get a rebate for supplies, but only if they are being tested in an experimental effort, not standard business operations. Meta is claiming that the costly A.I. computer chips it buys from companies, including Nvidia, are entitled to a taxpayer-provided discount as part of the experiment.
The company started claiming the credit for the data centers two years ago. Since then, Meta’s savings from the credit have soared, trimming almost $4 billion off its tax bill last year, filings show. Meta is now the biggest beneficiary of the tax credit among publicly traded companies, a Times review of securities filings found.
Aggressive bets like these often pan out for big companies: Even if the I.R.S. balks, companies can settle disputes and still wind up ahead.
If all else fails, Zuckerberg can always call Bryan Townsend. Oh, wait, Zuckerberg has moved his corporations out of Delaware. Because ‘protecting the corporate franchise’ means nothing to Zuckerberg and Musk. That bill was bullshit then, is bullshit now. Hey, at least some true political hacks paid the electoral price for selling-out. Should’ve been more, though.
At Least Meyer’s Approach Is Probably Better Than Trump’s:
President Donald Trump stressed self-regulation over government rules at a major gathering of artificial intelligence (AI) executives and government officials at the White House on Tuesday, September 29, as Congress intensifies calls for stronger industry oversight. After the meeting, Trump said they signed a “morally binding” commitment to build adequate safeguards on the fast-moving technology. “They’re going to police themselves.”
Trump, advised by Huang and his former AI czar David Sacks, has urged unfettered AI development to outpace China and fuel a US economy increasingly dependent on AI-driven growth. The issue of data centers, the vast computing facilities the technology requires, has emerged as a flashpoint in midterm election races in both parties, with more and more communities worried about rising electricity bills and the strain on water and land.
Trump has dismissed opponents of these data centers, saying communities against them “want to end up being backwards and poor” and that China “could not be happier” with the backlash. The AI debate has created unusual political bedfellows: Senator Bernie Sanders appeared this month on the same Washington stage as former Trump strategist Steve Bannon to call for a rethink of the AI race.
Gotta protect the AI ‘corporate franchise’. Somewhere, Rich Geisenberger nods his head in agreement.
‘Dog Bites Man’–Supreme Court Again Does Trump’s Bidding:
The Supreme Court has decided that the Trump administration can resume deporting immigrants to countries other than their place of origin.
The nation’s highest judiciary on Tuesday paused a lower court ruling that blocked the government from deporting people to locations they had no relation to without due process. The decision came by way of an emergency ruling that did not include a vote count, though it did note that Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson would have denied the request to resume the deportations.
The outcome is a major win for the administration, which has spent more than a year and a half shipping people to countries around the world as part of its mass deportation program.
But it isn’t the first time that the court has weighed in on the matter. In June 2025, the court overruled a lower court decision regarding a class action lawsuit, granting the executive branch the ability to deport individuals without objection, even if the deportees are likely to face the risk of death or grave harm in the new locale.
What do you want to talk about?
Meyer must go. Is there a Democrat out there who could mount a credible challenge to this corporate bootlicker?