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Brandon Roberts

@bxroberts.org
9.3K followers 440 following 157 posts

Investigative journalist. News Apps Developer at @ProPublica.org. Occasional AI/ML researcher. Using data+code to hold power to account. Web: bxroberts.org Signal: brandonrobertz.01

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Brandon Roberts @bxroberts.org · 21/09/2026
Great scoop! I'm bummed and a little surprised that WSJ didn't publish the disclosure this reporting is based on. www.wsj.com/politics/rfk...
wsj.com
Exclusive | RFK Jr. Got Free Flights to Fiji and Greece From a Top Donor
The health secretary disclosed over $250,000 in gifts from security specialist Gavin de Becker.
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Brandon Roberts @bxroberts.org · 18/09/2026
The CLEAR LABELS Act originally mandated that facility IDs appear on drug labels -- making it easy to know if the drug in your cabinet was made by a problem facility. They have significantly watered down the bill by removing this critical requirement. 😭 www.propublica.org/article/clea...
propublica.org
“A Clear Watering Down”: Drug Transparency Bill Stripped of Critical Provisions Ahead of Senate Vote
The bill was designed to alert consumers about where their drugs came from. After two major changes to the proposed law, experts worry it won’t be as effective.
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Brandon Roberts @bxroberts.org · 12/09/2026
Some great reporting here based, in part, on our 527 nonprofit data
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Brandon Roberts @bxroberts.org · 26/08/2026
The monthly 527 Explorer updates continue! I just published the Aug update, adding ~12k new contributions and expenditures. This brings the data current as of the end of July 2026. projects.propublica.org/527-explorer/
A table with a title of '527 Explorer Update Summary' and two columns: Report Type and Rows Added. The table body contains the count of new rows added per type of record available on the site:Contributions with 8,868, Expenditures with 4,163, Initial Filings with 449, Periodic Reports with 133, Directors/Officers with 910, EAIN Numbers with 105, Related Entities with 63, and New Records Total with 14,691. The table ends by showing the most recent record date of: 2026-07-31.
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Brandon Roberts @bxroberts.org · 13/08/2026
Assigning intent to an AI system is just dumb I'm sorry www.wired.com/story/rogue-...
wired.com
Rogue AI Agents Aren’t Evil. They’re Just Eager to Please
AI agents that break free and hack into other systems are only trying to make us happy.
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Brandon Roberts @bxroberts.org · 11/08/2026
If you're a journalist in this administration you have probably realized that FOIA is broken. @shaw.al lays it all here www.propublica.org/article/foia...
propublica.org
Is There Anyone Who Can Respond to My FOIA Requests? Anyone?
Asking the federal government for public records didn’t always feel like a shell game. But bounced emails and broken portals seem like the new normal.
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Brandon Roberts @bxroberts.org · 03/08/2026
This is absolutely wild. There's so little enforcement of laws that these guys are just openly sharing all their AI slop product sales techniques (and turning THAT into a business too‼️). Great reporting www.404media.co/inside-an-ai...
404media.co
Inside an AI TikTok Shop Slop Factory That Shills Supplements Recalled By the FDA
How a company called Rosabella used AI content to market its supplements: "If you’re trying to sell health products to a 50-year-old, well, make your avatar 50 years old."
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Brandon Roberts @bxroberts.org · 31/07/2026
We have a deal with ProPublica mgmt! So thankful for all the public support we received and for the effort of all the workers who make up ProPublica. If you were withholding your donation due to the fight, it's time to help us out so we can continue doing what we do best: holding power to account
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Brandon Roberts @bxroberts.org · 31/07/2026
I just published an update to our 527 Explorer of political nonprofits. We added over 500k new records since our last update in June. It's an election year, meaning I will be updating this every month until the election. Happy Friday! projects.propublica.org/527-explorer/
A table with a title of '527 Explorer Update Summary' and two columns: Report Type and Rows Added. The table body contains the count of new rows added per type of record available on the site:Contributions with 231,624, Expenditures with 295,487, Initial Filings with 335, Periodic Reports with 590, Directors/Officers with 955, EAIN Numbers with 94, Related Entities with 133, and New Records Total with 529,218. The table ends by showing the most recent record date of: 2026-07-01.
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Brandon Roberts @bxroberts.org · 30/07/2026
So proud to have been awarded the 2026 @ire.org Freedom of Information Award for work on the Rx Roulette series and Rx Inspector. I wasn't able to attend IRE so this was my first time seeing it 🥰
A photo of the 2026 Investigative Reports and Editors Freedom of Information Award. It reads "Rx Roulette: The FDA's Dangerous Gamble on America's Drugs - ProPublica, Debbie Cenziper, Megan Rose and Brandon Roberts"
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ProPublica @propublica.org · 18/07/2026
Accepting tickets to the Kennedy Center honors gala compromises FCC commissioners’ impartiality, ethics experts told ProPublica. The agency’s chair, Brendan Carr, has been gifted at least $63,000 worth of tickets by CBS or its parent company.
propublica.org
FCC Officials Took Pricey Gifts From Paramount as the Company Needed Approval for Billion-Dollar Deals
Accepting tickets to the Kennedy Center honors gala compromised the commissioners’ impartiality, ethics experts told ProPublica. FCC Chair Brendan Carr has been gifted at least $63,000 worth of ticket...
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Brandon Roberts @bxroberts.org · 17/07/2026
Well if anything ever made me sure that humans are better than AI it's going state by state looking at statues and pulling out regulatory information. AI overviews are almost always wrong. They also frequently cite other (incorrect) AI sources that all refer back to completely made up sources. 🤦
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ProPublica Guild @propublicaguild.org · 02/07/2026
“I’m deeply concerned about wage disparities across the newsroom,” says Jeremy Kohler, a reporter based in St. Louis. We need @propublica.org management to agree to fair wages in our contract.
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Brandon Roberts @bxroberts.org · 24/06/2026
Nobody should be living paycheck to paycheck. Help us get a good contract at ProPublica!
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Brandon Roberts @bxroberts.org · 23/06/2026
UPDATE: New data has arrived on ProPublica's 527 explorer! See the latest filings made by political nonprofits, up to the end of May. projects.propublica.org/527-explorer/
A table with a title of '527 Explorer Update Summary' and two columns: Report Type and Rows Added. The table body contains the count of new rows added per type of record available on the site:Contributions with 29,097, Expenditures with 4,551, Initial Filings with 653, Periodic Reports with 213, Directors/Officers with 1,357, EAIN Numbers with 174, Related Entities with 163, and New Records Total with 36,208. The table ends by showing the most recent record date of: 2026-05-31.
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Brandon Roberts @bxroberts.org · 18/06/2026
Hey all! The Hackers on Planet Earth (HOPE) conference is back in Manhattan Aug 14-16. I'll be speaking about practical technical challenges facing journalists and how you all can help solve them. www.hope.net If you're going to be there, reach out.
hope.net
Hackers On Planet Earth - HOPE
HOPE (Hackers On Planet Earth) is an annual conference for hackers, makers, and tech enthusiasts based in New York City.
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Will James @willjames.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
If you listened to @npr.org's Up First this weekend, you heard a local Seattle story that's haunted me and my reporting partners for years. Grateful that Up First aired the first episode of We Keep Us Safe, our podcast series investigating the unsolved killing of Antonio Mays Jr.
npr.org
How an anti-police violence protest ended in a teen’s death : Up First from NPR
In the summer of 2020, sixteen-year-old Antonio Mays Jr. traveled a thousand miles to be part of the racial justice movement. He arrived in Seattle during the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest, known as C...
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Brandon Roberts @bxroberts.org · 16/06/2026
🤦 www.404media.co/it-is-trivia...
404media.co
It Is Trivially Easy to Use Reddit to Manipulate AI Search, Research Suggests
"We show that a tiny snippet—just 13 words—of retrieved text on a UGC website like Reddit, Wikipedia, Quora, or Facebook can change AI agents to output spam / scam content pretty consistently."
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Brandon Roberts @bxroberts.org · 10/06/2026
Such a good read about raw milk under Trump's FDA 👇
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Brandon Roberts @bxroberts.org · 02/06/2026
I wanted to highlight this interesting paper by @ndiakopoulos.bsky.social and Mowafak Allaham about how often AI search engines cite AI-generated content Thread 1/
A screenshot of the header of the paper. It reads: "Synthetic Sources?: Auditing Generative Search Engine Citations for Evidence of
AI-Generated Sources
Mowafak Allaham, Nicholas Diakopoulos
Northwestern University"
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Rob Davis @robwdavis.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
Beyond excited for the debut of ProPublica's podcast. Subscribe! propub.li/42ULaRa
propub.li
Paper Trail
Investigative reporters at ProPublica chase down evidence of wrongdoing and bring it to light. Each episode, you’ll ride along as we talk to reporters and their sources, uncover hidden facts and show ...
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Brandon Roberts @bxroberts.org · 06/05/2026
🥰 So proud to be a Pulitzer finalist in investigative reporting
A screenshot from the 2026 Pulitzer Prizes for investigative reporting page showing the Staff of The New York Times won, with Debbie Cenziper, Megan Rose and Brandon Roberts (me!) of ProPublica as finalists alongside Cynthia Dizikes and Joaquin Palomino of the SF Chronicle.
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Kevin Uhrmacher @kevinuhrm.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
A special shoutout to the team behind @propublica.org's Rx Inspector, a part of this year's Pulitzer finalist entry for investigative reporting. Well done @bxroberts.org Ruth Talbot @nmcmillan.bsky.social @jdf.bsky.social and so many others projects.propublica.org/rx-inspector/
projects.propublica.org
Where Was My Generic Prescription Drug Made? - Rx Inspector - ProPublica
The FDA won’t tell Americans where their generic drugs are made, so ProPublica did it instead. Use information on your prescription label to locate the factory and see inspection reports.
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Brandon Roberts @bxroberts.org · 22/04/2026
I just updated 527 Explorer, which includes filings through the end of Q1 2026. 1.2M total new records detailing contributions, expenditures and other organizational information. projects.propublica.org/527-explorer/
A table with a title of '527 Explorer Update Summary' and two columns: Report Type and Rows Added. The table body contains the count of new rows added per type of record available on the site:Contributions with 667,541, Expenditures with 614,822, Initial Filings with 1,724, Periodic Reports with 1,267, Directors/Officers with 3,793, EAIN Numbers with 376, Related Entities with 362, and New Records Total with 1,289,885. The table ends by showing the most recent record date of: 2026-03-31.
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Brandon Roberts @bxroberts.org · 21/04/2026
Trump Admin financial disclosures update! We added Witkoff, Mullin, and a page to see who was recently added. (We're still awaiting Jared Kushner's disclosures) 👇👇
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Brandon Roberts @bxroberts.org · 08/04/2026
We are on strike today y'all. See this note about our event 👇
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Brandon Roberts @bxroberts.org · 13/03/2026
UPDATE: We just added more info to the Trump Team Financials app! Now including President Trump's most recent financial transactions, which were filed late + released the same day we published our app. You can now see his transactions up until late Jan 2026. projects.propublica.org/trump-team-f...
projects.propublica.org
Donald J. Trump - Explore Financial Disclosures From President Trump and 1,500 of His Appointees - ProPublica
Use this database to explore potential conflicts of interest for President Donald Trump and his team. The documents disclose positions officials have held outside government, their assets and their de...
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Brandon Roberts @bxroberts.org · 05/03/2026
THREAD: We just released a tool that allows you to search billions of dollars in wealth, ties to the most powerful companies in the country, and details of the personal finances of President Trump and over 1,500 of his appointees. Here’s how it works 1/
Screenshot of ProPublica webpage titled “Explore Financial Disclosures From President Trump and 1,500 of His Appointees,” accompanied by this blurb: “Use this database to explore potential conflicts of interest for President Donald Trump and his team. The documents disclose positions officials have held outside government, their assets and their debts, among other things.” A search bar prompts the user to search for a person or financial holding.
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Brandon Roberts @bxroberts.org · 05/02/2026
It's 2026, an election year (💀). That means its time to update ProPublica's 527 Explorer! This latest update brings us current through 2025, adding 460k new records. I'll be updating more frequently this year. Follow for updates & LMK what you do w/ it projects.propublica.org/527-explorer/
A table with a title of '527 Explorer Update Summary' and two columns: Report Type and Rows Added. The table body contains the count of new rows added per type of record available on the site:Contributions with 268,490, Expenditures with 177,524, Initial Filings with 3,729, Periodic Reports with 1,235, Directors/Officers with 7,589, EAIN Numbers with 755, Related Entities with 1,411, and New Records Total with 460,733. The table ends by showing the most recent record date of: 2025-12-31.
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Brandon Roberts @bxroberts.org · 04/02/2026
Interesting piece about abuse of generative AI in contract bid protests: "Federal procurement is not prepared to deal with contractors like Oready, LLC (Oready), which has misused GenAI to file a barrage of seventeen pro se protests and appeals over eight months" content.ncmahq.org/contractmana...
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Corey Johnson @coreygjohnson.bsky.social · 29/01/2026
More impact from my investigation with @shaw.al: Six senators accused Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche of a “glaring” conflict of interest, citing our reporting that found he held at least $159,000 in investments when he shut down crypto investigations. www.propublica.org/article/todd...
propublica.org
Six Senators Accuse Deputy Attorney General of “Glaring” Crypto Conflict, Cite ProPublica Investigation
The senators presented a letter demanding that top DOJ official Todd Blanche clarify the legality of his actions, pointing to ProPublica reporting that found he owned at least $159,000 in related asse...
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Cengiz Yar @cengizyar.com · 24/01/2026
I’ve been in Minneapolis the last few days reporting on the ICE raids happening across the city. This morning federal agents shot and killed a man, identified by the AP as Alex Pretti. This marks the third shooting by federal agents since Operation Metro Surge started in Minnesota last month.
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Brandon Roberts @bxroberts.org · 23/01/2026
People have been asking, so we published it: The data linking generic drugs to the facilities that make them! You can download the data on GitHub. 👇👇 github.com/propublica/r...
github.com
GitHub - propublica/rx-inspector-data: Public release of Rx Inspector data linking generic drugs to the factories that made them
Public release of Rx Inspector data linking generic drugs to the factories that made them - propublica/rx-inspector-data
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Kevin Uhrmacher @kevinuhrm.bsky.social · 23/01/2026
Last month, @propublica.org released Rx Inspector, a groundbreaking tool that lets you find the factories where your generic drugs were manufactured. Now we're making available the data that powers it. via @bxroberts.org www.propublica.org/article/rx-i...
propublica.org
ProPublica Publishes Unreleased Data on the Origins of Generic Prescription Drugs
The dataset powers our Rx Inspector tool, which lets you find the factories that made your generic drugs and their FDA inspection track records.
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Brandon Roberts @bxroberts.org · 22/01/2026
We're fighting to keep ProPublica human powered (not AI) and for a consistent, reliable disciplinary process that enables strong journalism. If these things matter to you, help us out by signing: actionnetwork.org/petitions/te...
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ProPublica Guild @propublicaguild.org · 21/01/2026
1/ We are entering year 3 of bargaining for a fair contract that protects both the workers who produce our award-winning, high-impact journalism as well as the quality of that work. We are also entering year 3 of @propublica.org management fighting against a fair contract. tinyurl.com/43znke28
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Brandon Roberts @bxroberts.org · 20/01/2026
Last week we demonstrated our Rx Inspector tool and walked people through how to use it and explained the types of things you can find with it. We just published a recording of the webinar here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=p51s...
youtube.com
ProPublica Event: How to Use Our Rx Inspector News App
YouTube video by ProPublica
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Brandon Roberts @bxroberts.org · 18/12/2025
THREAD: The FDA has made it difficult to find where medications are made. Today we're changing that with our latest tool. With Rx Inspector, it’s possible to see your drug’s manufacturing facility and what the FDA found during its inspections. Here's how you can use it. 1/
Screenshot of Rx Inspector webpage, where users can look up where their generic prescription drugs were made. A blue button prompts people to "begin your search." The background illustration shows a man inspecting a giant red and white pill capsule.
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Brandon Roberts @bxroberts.org · 13/12/2025
The FDA makes it nearly impossible to figure out where your prescription drugs were made and if there were any issues with the facilities. You can read our explainer about the problem here: www.propublica.org/article/fda-... Big things coming soon! www.youtube.com/shorts/68tWT...
youtube.com
We Tried to Find Out Where a Drug Was Made. Here’s What Happened.
YouTube video by ProPublica
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Lisa Song @lisalsong.bsky.social · 06/11/2025
"Live insects crawled through the facility’s production workshop, while dead ones lay on the floor. Condensation from rust-covered pipes dripped into a water tank waiting to be mixed with raw ingredients." 🤢 😮 --> by @anniewaldman.bsky.social @bxroberts.org www.propublica.org/article/fore...
propublica.org
Foreign Food Safety Inspections Hit Historic Low After Trump Cuts
The dramatic shift in oversight comes at a time when the U.S. has never been more reliant on foreign food, which accounts for the vast majority of the nation’s seafood and more than half its fresh fru...
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Annie Waldman @anniewaldman.bsky.social · 06/11/2025
NEW: Billions of pounds of food are imported to the U.S. each year. The FDA inspects foreign producers to ensure what we're eating is safe from pathogens and dangerous manufacturing practices. But now, after Trump's drastic staff cuts, these inspections have plummeted to a historic low. 🧵/
propublica.org
Foreign Food Safety Inspections Hit Historic Low After Trump Cuts
The dramatic shift in oversight comes at a time when the U.S. has never been more reliant on foreign food, which accounts for the vast majority of the nation’s seafood and more than half its fresh fru...
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Joseph Cox @josephcox.bsky.social · 29/10/2025
New incredible detail here: ICE says a match in its facial recognition app Mobile Fortify is a "definitive" determination of a person's status, and that this overrides birth certificates. This is an app ICE is using in the field to scan people www.404media.co/ice-and-cbp-...
Ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee Bennie G. Thompson said in a statement “Mobile Fortify is a dangerous tool in the hands of ICE, and it puts American citizens at risk of detention and even deportation.” He also said “ICE officials have told us that an apparent biometric match by Mobile Fortify is a ‘definitive’ determination of a person’s status and that an ICE officer may ignore evidence of American citizenship—including a birth certificate—if the app says the person is an alien. ICE using a mobile biometrics app in ways its developers at CBP never intended or tested is a frightening, repugnant, and unconstitutional attack on Americans’ rights and freedoms.”
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Joseph Cox @josephcox.bsky.social · 29/10/2025
New: Videos show ICE/CBP agents are scanning peoples' faces on the street to verify citizenship. ICE has tool to instantly look up unprecedented number of databases with just a photo “I’m an American citizen so leave me alone” “Alright, we just got to verify that” www.404media.co/ice-and-cbp-...
404media.co
ICE and CBP Agents Are Scanning Peoples’ Faces on the Street To Verify Citizenship
Videos on social media show officers from ICE and CBP using facial recognition technology on people in the field. One expert described the practice as “pure dystopian creep.”
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Brandon Roberts @bxroberts.org · 22/10/2025
Great article. Archiving the internet is such a difficult thing without much of a financial motive, too. But reliance on a single entity has blown up in our faces so many times in the past.
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Micah Loewinger @micahloewinger.bsky.social · 20/10/2025
From @juddlegum.bsky.social’s newsletter this morning: “A Popular Information investigation reveals tens of millions in new ICE spending on guns, chemical weapons, and explosives.” popular.info/p/ice-boosts...
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Brandon Roberts @bxroberts.org · 07/10/2025
I feel like "generate new ideas" is pretty debatable here 🤣
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Eric Umansky @ericumansky.bsky.social · 26/09/2025
Top VA officials testified that they don’t know how many doctors and nurses have left. We do. The VA is down 600+ doctors and 1,900+ nurses this year. After years of growth, the number of docs has declined each month since Trump took office. www.propublica.org/article/vete...
youtu.be
'You Don't Have An Answer?': Richard Blumenthal Stunned By VA Official's Response
YouTube video by Forbes Breaking News
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Brandon Roberts @bxroberts.org · 25/09/2025
Office of Science and Technology Policy is requesting federal rules/guidelines/etc "that unnecessarily hinder" the development, deployment, and adoption of AI. The list of "not appropriate" assumptions is interesting because AI experts will tell you many of these are critical to responsible AI use.
Quote from the Federal Register document
"These assumptions include, but are not limited to:
• Decision-Making and Explainability – Decisions are made, documented, and
explained, in ways where the processes and rationale are traceable to a human
actor.
• Liability and Accountability – Allocation of legal responsibility and remedial
frameworks rests with human actors or clearly identifiable organizational
decision points.
• Human Oversight and Intervention – Prescriptive requirements for human
oversight, review, intervention, or continuous supervision in operational
processes.
• Data Practices – Data collection, retention, provenance, sharing, and permitted
uses cases that do not account for the scale, reuse, or training dynamics
characteristic of AI systems.
• Testing, Validation, and Certification – Approaches to testing, approval, and
post-market oversight designed for static products or human-delivered
services, rather than adaptive or continuously learning systems."Quote from the Federal Register document:

This RFI seeks to identify Federal regulations that hinder AI development,
deployment, or adoption, particularly due to rules established before current AI
capabilities were anticipated. OSTP is especially interested in regulations that, while
serving important purposes, contain requirements or assumptions incompatible with how
AI systems function or could function. Respondents are encouraged to identify
regulations across all sectors where the underlying assumptions, technical requirements,
or compliance frameworks may create unnecessary barriers to beneficial AI applications,
even if the core policy objectives remain valid
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Brandon Roberts @bxroberts.org · 22/09/2025
Love seeing a local AI story. This one can be replicated anywhere too. 🔥 www.knkx.org/government/2...
knkx.org
Washington city officials are using ChatGPT for government work
Records show that public servants have used generative AI to write emails to constituents, mayoral letters, policy documents and more.
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