Fighting Fires in L.A. and Rumors Online

Summary

WSJ Tech News Briefing: "Fighting Fires in L.A. and Rumors Online"
Released on January 14, 2025

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1. U.S. Strengthens Export Controls to Curb China's AI and Chip Advancements

The episode opens with Bell Lin introducing a critical development in U.S. technology policy. The Biden administration has enacted stringent new export controls aimed at limiting China's progress in artificial intelligence (AI) and semiconductor manufacturing. These regulations represent the culmination of a multi-year strategy to use export restrictions as a tool to hinder China’s technological and military capabilities.

Key Points:

• Scope of New Regulations:
  The updated rules require U.S. companies to obtain government approval before exporting specific information related to AI models and establishing substantial AI computing facilities abroad. Unlike previous measures that primarily targeted exports directly to China, the new regulations extend restrictions to over 120 countries, including allies like the U.K., France, and Germany, preventing them from importing certain AI chips into their data centers for AI training purposes.

• National Security Concerns:
  Asa Fitch, a Wall Street Journal reporter, elaborates on the motivations behind these regulations. He states, “The concern is a national security concern. Largely the US Government is worried that if China is allowed to access the most sophisticated AI chips and AI models, they could use those models and chips to develop their military, to develop things like weapons, bioweapons, chemical weapons, nuclear weapons even” (01:52). This highlights the administration's intent to prevent the militarization of advanced AI technologies by China.

• Broader Impact on Global Technology Transfer:
  The new rules aim to close loopholes that allowed China to potentially access high-end AI resources through other nations. By restricting over 120 countries, the U.S. seeks to create a more comprehensive barrier against the proliferation of advanced AI technologies that could bolster China’s military and economic power.

Tech Industry Response:

• Nvidia's Backlash:
  The industry response has been predominantly negative, with Nvidia leading the charge in opposition. Fitch notes, “Nvidia is threatened the most by these things. Nvidia has a strategy of exporting chips to countries like those in the Middle East that have large pools of capital and want to invest in AI. That revenue could be imperiled” (04:27). Nvidia argues that these restrictions could inadvertently drive countries to seek AI technologies from China, potentially undermining innovation and the very goals of the export controls.

• Potential Policy Reversals:
  Fitch also points out the temporal nature of these regulations, mentioning, “They will only take effect in 120 days, around four months. And that means that they could change. And also there's a new administration coming in Washington” (04:29). The impending change in administration could lead to alterations or even the rollback of these export controls, introducing uncertainty into the tech sector.

2. Combating Online Rumors Amidst the L.A. Fires

Transitioning from international tech policy, the briefing delves into the challenges public officials face in addressing misinformation during natural disasters. The Los Angeles fires have become a hotbed for online rumors, complicating crisis management and public communication.

Key Points:

• Nature of Misinformation:
  Reporter Scott Calvert outlines various falsehoods circulating about the fires. Examples include incorrect reports of iconic landmarks like the Getty Villa Museum being engulfed in flames and AI-generated images of the Hollywood sign ablaze. One particularly viral rumor falsely claimed that the LA Fire Department was using “quite ladies handbags” to combat the fires due to donated supplies to Ukraine (06:34).

• Official Responses:
  Public officials, including the LA Fire Department, are actively debunking these rumors on social media. Calvert explains, “He’s posted several times saying, you know, clearing up misinformation” (07:58). The department focuses on providing accurate information regarding evacuation routes and fire status updates to mitigate confusion and maintain public trust.

• Impact of Social Media Platforms:
  The role of platforms like Meta and X (formerly Twitter) is scrutinized for their handling of misinformation. Calvert notes the coincidence of Meta’s announcement to relax fact-checking policies with the outbreak of the fires, exacerbating the spread of false information (09:36). Similarly, since Elon Musk's acquisition, X has seen reduced content moderation, allowing conspiratorial content to flourish.

• Broader Trends in Misinformation Management:
  The episode highlights a shift in how rumors are addressed, moving from a passive approach of ignoring false claims to a proactive strategy of countering misinformation. For instance, after Hurricane Helene, North Carolina established a dedicated webpage to address and dispel conspiracy theories, reflecting an evolving tactic in public communication (10:50).

Risks and Consequences:

• Erosion of Trust:
  Persistent misinformation can erode public confidence in governmental responses, leading to poor decision-making during crises. Calvert emphasizes, “It can undermine trust in the government's ability to respond to this” (08:53).

• Amplification by Social Media Policies:
  Changes in platform policies that favor free expression over content moderation have inadvertently facilitated the spread of dangerous rumors, making the job of public officials more challenging.

Concluding Insights:

Bell Lin wraps up the episode by underscoring the significance of these issues in the broader tech landscape. The intertwining of global tech policies and local crisis management illustrates the pervasive influence of technology on both international relations and everyday lives. As misinformation and technological advancements continue to evolve, the role of responsible governance and corporate accountability remains paramount.

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Produced by Julie Chang with supervising producer Kathryn Millsop. Reporting by Asa Fitch and Scott Calvert.

Transcript

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[Bell Lin]

Welcome to Tech News briefing. It's Tuesday, January 14th. I'm Bell Lin for the Wall Street Journal. The online rumor mill went into overdrive as fires raged in, making it the newest frontier for public officials to battle. We'll find out how officials are combating these falsehoods and why they're so dangerous. And then the US Is imposing some of its strongest measures yet to limit Chinese advances in artificial intelligence. Our reporter Asa Fitch tells us what these rules entail and why the chipmaker Nvidia is so against them. But first, new rules out this week are a final push by the Biden administration in a years long effort to use export controls to stem China's advances in chip making and AI. The rules require companies to get government approval to export certain information about their AI models and set up large AI computing facilities overseas. Strict sales restrictions on these chips are already in place for China, Iran and other U.S. adversaries. And the new rules carve out exemptions for a group of 18 close U.S. allies and partners that includes countries like the U.K. france and Germany. That's according to a senior administration official. For more on this, we're joined by our reporter Asa Fitch. Asa, why is the government implementing this latest batch of rules?

[Asa Fitch]

The concern is a national security concern. Largely the US Government is worried that if China is allowed to access the most sophisticated AI chips and AI models, they could use those models and chips to develop their military, to develop things like weapons, bioweapons, chemical weapons, nuclear weapons even. There's a whole range of other potential dangers in the view of the US Government, at least in allowing China to get access to these things. Now, China is already restricted heavily in its accessibility to just buy AI chips and use AI models. But the concern that this set of regulations tries to address is that China could go to other countries and set up infrastructure in and develop AI models in. So the US Is trying to close that if you will, loophole where the Chinese government, Chinese companies could get access to this computing power and these powerful AI systems elsewhere.

[Bell Lin]

So the Biden administration has implemented a lot of other rules around chips. How exactly are these different? Or more significant, the previous rules that.

[Asa Fitch]

The Biden administration has put in place are really ones that affect the export of first of all, chips to China directly and semiconductor manufacturing equipment to China or to companies that could use that manufacturing equipment to make chips for China. In previous rounds of export controls, largely the focus has really been squarely on what China can do in China and what can be sent to China. This is much broader because it creates a class of more than 120 countries that are restricted in how many AI chips they can bring in to their facilities, to their data centers to train up AI models.

[Bell Lin]

And how exactly have the tech companies responded to the rules?

[Asa Fitch]

Pretty much universal, heavy, strong criticism. The Obvious1 is Nvidia. Nvidia is threatened the most by these things. Nvidia has a strategy of exporting chips to countries like those in the Middle east that have large pools of capital and want to invest in AI. That revenue could be imperiled. That's billions of dollars per year for Nvidia. They have criticized this very heavily, saying that all this does is pushes people to, to China effectively. The argument is that people see that it's harder to obtain American chips in American AI models. People in foreign countries will seek to get those things from China and they say it'll just stifle innovation and lead to the opposite outcome from the one that they hope to accomplish.

[Bell Lin]

When do these rules take effect?

[Asa Fitch]

These rules don't take effect immediately. They will only take effect in 120 days, around four months. And that means that they could change. And also there's a new administration coming in Washington. The Trump administration may view these things totally differently than the Biden administration did. That could lead to a lot of changes to the regulations, a lot of watering down of the regulations or even the withdrawal of regulations. It's not really clear yet.

[Bell Lin]

That was our reporter Asa Fitch. Coming up. It's not just the LA fires online. Rumors have also spread around the Tesla cybertruck explosion, explosion in Las Vegas and Hurricane Helene last September. Why are these rumors so dangerous? We'll find out after the break.

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[Bell Lin]

Fast moving online. Falsehoods around the LA fires are forcing Public officials like those at the the Los Angeles Fire Department to adopt a new job when crisis strikes their communities, knocking down the inevitable wave of lies, half truths and conspiracy theories that spread online. Sometimes, though, the job of public officials is to decide when to address a rumor and when to simply let it lie. Our reporter Scott Calvert joins us now with more. Scott, tell us what are the kinds of online falsehoods that have really proliferated around the LA fire?

[Scott Calvert]

There have been a bunch. Some of them fall into the category of reporting about things that burned when they actually hadn't burned. But then as the days wore on, you started hearing more and seeing more that referred to the response by authorities. And so early on, for instance, there were things about the Getty Villa Museum had gone up in smoke and there were videos that sort of showed flames near the museum, but in fact that it didn't burn. There have been some AI generated images showing the iconic Hollywood sign supposedly surrounded by flames. And one of the giveaways was that some of these images misspelled Hollywood. So there were some things like that. But then there have definitely been ones looking at the response. And so one that gained a lot of traction just based on the views was one that Alex Jones put out that alleged that LA firefighters were having to douse the flames using quite ladies handbags because the department had donated some supplies to Ukraine a couple years ago. And so they were shorthanded as far as equipment goes. And according to the LA Fire Department, these were actually canvas bags that are standard issue and are often used to douse these small like trash fires simply because it's faster and easier to fill those bags with water than to haul out the hoses and connect them. So there have been some things along those lines that have been circulating.

[Bell Lin]

How are public officials in LA trying to deal with this online rumor mill?

[Scott Calvert]

To some extent, they are trying to bat them away using the same social media platforms that people are using to spread these in the first place. And so I talked with the public information officer for the LA Fire Department. And so he's posted several times saying, you know, clearing up misinformation. And one that he posted about was there was a rumor going around that the authorities were asking the public's help to actually help fight the fires. They were seeking like volunteers from the public. And so he put that out saying, no, that's not true. They're trying to minimize the noise because one of the things that he's telling people about are things like evacuation routes and giving them updates on the status of these multiple fires. So they're really trying to cut through a lot of that clutter and avoid adding to this sense of chaos and confusion and panic that a lot of people understandably feel.

[Bell Lin]

Let's talk about the kind of damage that these rumors and falsehoods can cause. You talk about the virality and the scale of these posts. What is the real risk here?

[Scott Calvert]

There's a range of risks. I mean, it depends on what it is. But I mean, just the mere fact that people are getting information that's not true could have some impact on decisions that they make. It can undermine trust in the government's ability to respond to this. And it's important to point out that there are a lot of questions about how the fire started. There are questions people will be asking about preparedness and the response, but. But that can be true at the same time that there are demonstrably untrue things being circulated and coloring people's understanding of what's happening on the ground.

[Bell Lin]

Let's talk about the social media companies like Meta and X. It seems like they have a sort of outsized role here, especially as their platforms are where this misinformation and rumors are spreading. So what role do they have?

[Scott Calvert]

A lot of these things are spreading on those platforms. And it's interesting, you know, by coincidence. So the fires started on the same day that Meta said that they were going to be ending the fact checking and removing the speech restrictions for Facebook and Instagram. And so they were citing this goal of restoring free expression. But it happened the same day that the fire started in Los Angeles. And even with whatever mechanisms they had in place, there's a fair amount of misinformation swirling around. And there's definitely a concern that we heard from public officials that it's going to make the job that much harder for them. And X is another platform where a lot of these things have been spreading. Since Elon Musk's acquisition of X, then Twitter back in 2022, he has slashed content policy jobs and eased content limits. And he himself, as the Journal has reported, has repeatedly amplified inflammatory or conspiratorial content about hot button issues.

[Bell Lin]

And let's talk about the kind of bigger underlying trends here. One of the things that you talk about in your story is that for several other high profile incidents in recent history, thinking about what happened in New Orleans, other natural disaster, the rumor mill has taken hold too. So what's going on here?

[Scott Calvert]

I was talking with somebody who's been in policing for a long time and he said that rumors are nothing new. And this is kind of an obvious thing to say, but it's really the ability for them to start from anywhere and to spread everywhere through various social media platforms. And it happened so quickly. There is this traditional response where maybe you would sort of like try to not give oxygen to rumors and just ignore them and hope that things go away, especially the ones that might seem to some people to be on their face just so outlandish as to not merit a comment. But there's been a shift in the attitude where there's a sense that if you don't counter these things, they will take root. An interesting example was in North Carolina after Hurricane Helene caused all of that terrible flooding in western North Carolina, the state of North Carolina, actually. They felt the need to create a webpage to address some of these conspiracy theories that were swirling around. And so they did like an FAQ section on this page where they would raise these questions. There was a really striking comment I heard from a police chief I talked to who was making the point that, you know, they are just very proactively pushing things out on social media. We all know that there's not a ton of trust maybe in certain segments of society when it comes to the police or government or the news media. But his point was he said if the ditch is empty, it's going to get filled up with sewage, so you might as well put fresh water in there.

[Bell Lin]

That was our reporter Scott Calvert. And that's it for Tech News Briefing. Today's show was produced by Julie Chang with supervising producer Kathryn Millsop logging off. I'm Bell Lin for the Wall Street Journal. We'll sign back in this afternoon with TNB Tech Minute. Thanks for listening.

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