If you only have two minutes today, watch these:
This Week on the President’s Tech Brief
Iran: The Strait Goes Quiet: Chip Usher recaps a week of escalation — Iranian strikes on vessels, more than 150 U.S. strikes in response, and a Saudi-Houthi ceasefire that just eroded after four years. Then Court Smith, Head of Partnerships at Kpler, brings the real-time shipping data: exactly how much oil is still moving through the Strait of Hormuz, how Iran is now hitting ships that have gone completely dark, and why oil prices haven’t spiked the way you’d expect.
On Capitol Hill: The Defense Bill Stalls: The Iran conflict has spilled into Washington, where the Senate's NDAA hit a wall this week. Jenilee Keefe Singer and Brandon McKee explain what actually held it up (hint: it wasn't the technology provisions), which AI and quantum priorities are caught in the balance, and why this fight may drag into the fall. Then: New York becomes the first state to freeze new large AI data centers, and why other states may see an opening in it.
AI & the Future of Work: "We Must Act Now": More than 200 economists and AI researchers just signed a letter warning that AI could reshape the economy faster than our institutions can adapt. Ryan Carpenter and Nyah Stewart break down what the letter is really calling for, why the U.S. may not be organized to compete, and the one thing their task force reached full consensus on. ]
China Watch: Xi's AI World Stage: David Lin and Channing Lee unpack a carefully orchestrated week for Beijing: Xi Jinping's debut at the World AI Conference in Shanghai, the launch of the largest open-weight model China has ever deployed, and a new "World AI Conference Organization" that 29 countries signed onto. Plus, a viewer question opens up the race David argues China is already winning by default.
Coming Up: The AI+Discovery Summit: Discovery used to move at the speed of a single human mind. Not anymore. AI is designing new materials, running fusion experiments, and finding tomorrow's medicine — and in some labs, machines are now designing their own experiments. The real question is who leads this next age of discovery. Join the national labs, the Department of Energy, fusion pioneers, and quantum builders in DC. July 21st — space is limited.
That’s a wrap on the season.
We’re taking August off to recharge — but we’ll be back in September, bigger than ever and going live twice a week. Same mission: cutting through the noise on the tech competition shaping American power, and bringing you the conversations that actually matter.
Thanks for watching this season. Have a great August — and we’ll see you in September. Consider yourself briefed.
