AI has fewer safety rules than a washing machine, says Microsoft President Brad Smith. Jim Love examines his call for global AI safeguards, the growing data centre backlash, Yandex's traffic collapse after Ukrainian strikes, and a Canadian developer's challenge to police surveillance.
On Hashtag Trending for Tuesday, October 13, 2026:
• AI safety and oversight: Smith calls for incident reporting, notification of victims and an emergency brake for AI systems. We compare those proposals with the White House's voluntary safety agreement and independent audit commitments, and discuss what the OpenAI–Hugging Face incident reveals about the difficulty of investigating AI failures.
• Data centre backlash: Bill Gates argues that blocking local construction won't stop AI because facilities will be built elsewhere. Canadian and U.S. surveys show substantial opposition. Finland pauses work at two Google sites, while the shift from Singapore to Malaysia illustrates how resource pressures can move across borders. Federal Reserve officials also identify AI investment as a contributor to inflation pressures.
• Yandex outages: Automated traffic from a Yandex network approached zero after Ukrainian strikes damaged three Russian data centres. The measurements include ordinary search-engine crawlers and do not establish a collapse in Russian propaganda accounts. Taxi and delivery outages beyond Russia raise questions about cross-border service dependencies, even when personal data is stored locally.
• Turning surveillance around: Canadian developer Anthony Sistilli builds a Flock-style camera to identify police vehicles, then receives a visit from Peel Regional Police. We examine officers' concerns and documented misuse of vehicle-tracking systems in the United States.
CHAPTERS
00:00 Today's Headlines
00:25 AI Safety Rules Debate
02:02 OpenAI Incident Lessons
03:10 Data Center Backlash
05:33 Yandex Outages After Strikes
07:38 Turning Cameras on Police
09:06 Wrap Up and Support
Subscribe to Hashtag Trending for technology news with Jim Love. Share the show and leave your thoughts in the comments.
Contact Jim or support the show:
https://technewsday.ca
https://technewsday.com
Use the Contact Us page to get in touch, or visit the Donate tab to support the podcast.
