Decoded by POLITICO

This week marks one year since the Hamas attack that left about 1,200 Israelis dead. Since then, tens of thousands of people have been killed -- the majority of them Palestinians living in Gaza. And many, many more have had their lives profoundly disrupted. But an online war has also raged over the past year. Social media has been flooded with disinformation and propaganda, part of an all-out effort to distort the conflict and how it's viewed around the world. Host Steven Overly called up Atlantic Council senior fellow Mark Scott to talk about the watershed moment for warfare in the digital age.

Steven Overly is the host of POLITICO Tech.

Mark Scott is a Senior Fellow for the Atlantic Council.

Annie Rees is the managing producer for audio at POLITICO.

Afra Abdullah is a POLITICO audio producer.

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Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Ressa wants to scare some sense into us. The U.S. election is just a month away,and she says the outcome is  a tipping point in the fight for democracy over autocracy. Maria founded the news site Rappler in the Philippines back in 2012 and faced relentless persecution for her journalism under former President Rodrigo Duterte. Host Steven Overly sat down with Ressa to talk about the state of journalism, big tech, and disinformation as she sees it today.

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A recent poll conducted by a policy research firm called the Rainey Center asked people about the tech issues that matter most to them. Today, host Steven Overly digs into voters top-of-mind tech issues with Katie Harbath, the chief global affairs officer at Duco Experts.

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There’s a Republican attack ad in Indiana that in recent days has gotten a lot of attention — a digitally altered image that Sen. Mike Braun’s campaign put out, before slapping a required disclosure label on it, and highlighting it as a prime example of complying with a new Indiana law about deepfakes. Host Steven Overly talks with national political reporter Adam Wren about the unfolding ad drama, and the potential legal battle it could trigger.

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Ever since it became clear that Kamala Harris would be the Democratic nominee, there’s been speculation about whether she will continue the Biden administration’s crackdown on big tech companies. In particular, questions about how she will handle ongoing antitrust investigations and lawsuits. On POLITICO Tech, reporter Josh Sisco joins host Steven Overly to discuss the Harris antitrust agenda and why it has both the tech industry’s friends and critics on edge.

Steven Overly is the host of POLITICO Tech.

Joshua Sisco is an antitrust reporter for POLITICO.

Annie Rees is the managing producer for audio at POLITICO.

Afra Abdullah is the producer for POLITICO Tech.

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Today, we’re talking California. Specifically, Governor Gavin Newsom’s veto of California’s sweeping AI bill that was meant to impose safety vetting requirements for powerful AI models.

California reporters Lara Korte and Jeremy White chat with Annie Rees about what happened and what’s ahead.

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What does the future of war look like? That’s a big question — and one that POLITICO reporter Mohar Chatterjee asked Pentagon’s AI chief Radha Plumb. She spoke to Mohar about the Pentagon's massive backend AI overhaul, how the agency’s innovation approach stacks up against China’s, and the ethics of using AI in battle.

Mohar Chatterjee is an technology reporter for POLITICO.

Annie Rees is the managing producer for audio at POLITICO.

Afra Abdullah is a POLITICO audio producer.

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Electric vehicles are transforming Georgia’s economy with billions of dollars in clean tech investments and jobs, but local voters aren’t interested in buying the new vehicles. That presents a unique political problem for Democrats and Republicans this election season and prompts questions about Americans’ attitudes toward new climate technologies. On POLITICO Tech, David Ferris from POLITICO’s E&E News breaks down Georgia’s EV identity crisis and what that means for the 2024 presidential race.

David Ferris covers the intersection of transportation and the electric grid for POLITICO’s E&E News.

Josh Siegel is an energy reporter for POLITICO.

Nirmal Mulaikal is a POLITICO audio host-producer.

Annie Rees is the managing producer for audio at POLITICO.

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How does the Biden administration break up with certain Chinese tech supply chains without severing trade ties with China? That's a question we're watching play out right now. Jon Bateman, the co-director of the Technology and International Affairs Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, wrote a report in 2022 that remains a key document in unpacking the challenges of technological decoupling with China — and in today's episode of POLITICO Tech, he talks with POLITICO's D.C.-based China correspondent —and author of the twice-weekly China Watcher newsletter — Phelim Kine.

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When Donald Trump was first elected to the White House, he tapped a young and relatively unknown guy named Michael Kratsios to be the nation’s chief technology officer. Today, Kratsios is back outside politics, working as the managing director at the company Scale AI. At Politico’s AI and Tech Summit last week, he spoke with POLITCO’s global tech editor Steve Heuser. They talked about what Trump’s tech policy might look like in a second term, and why he thinks Vance will be a champion for “little tech.”

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