The largest tech companies are aligning themselves with nation states for the next stage of the AI race, where they’ll need to build their compute capabilities via massive data center build outs

Starting something new - a handful of quick updates about what I’m reading or thinking about in online trust, identity, privacy & safety!

Cultural blind spots, poor execution, and missed opportunities across major tech companies

Will passkeys finally deliver on the decades-old promise of eliminating password frustrations? How might this security struggle shape up for consumers in 2025 and beyond?

Per Gallup, public confidence in U.S. institutions has declined significantly from 48% in 1979 to 26% in 2023. Trust is becoming more important and technology-centric for businesses.

“Rob Leathern, former Google VP of product for privacy and data protection, joins ‘Squawk on the Street’ to discuss the overall concerns with the development of artificial intelligence, the growing amount of people who are unsure if Alphabet can ‘disrupt itself’, and more.”

I had the chance to speak with the BBC World Service’s World Business Report about the recent challenges Google has had with images generated by Gemini. Hear the audio here.

Rob Leathern’s latest post discusses how Meta and Google are spending billions on new AI compute infrastructure, but questions whether they will use these powerful technologies to better protect users from scams and deceptive ads.