The AI Policy Podcast

AI data centers have become a flashpoint for policymakers across the country in the leadup to midterm elections, with polls showing that seven in 10 Americans oppose new data center construction in their local area. In this episode of the AI Policy Podcast, Wadhwani AI Center director Aalok Mehta sits down with writer Jasmine Sun for a conversation about the AI data center backlash. They unpack what's driving the opposition movement, where Washington and Silicon Valley diverge from the rest of the country, and how the AI infrastructure buildout might influence voters in November.

This event is made possible by general funding to CSIS and the CSIS Wadhwani AI Center.

This week, Aalok and Nicole discuss new reports of rogue AI agents on the open internet – including the first known case of an agent hacking a government system – and the lackluster outcome of last week's highly anticipated U.S.-China summit. Plus, the Trump Administration and frontier lab CEOs present contrasting visions for AI governance at the UN General Assembly, and states continue to pass new regulation on both AI models and the data center buildout.

*Disclaimer: this episode was recorded prior to a complaint filed against OpenAI Tuesday afternoon in San Francisco's Superior Court by Legal Advocates for Safe Science and Technology, citing California's Comprehensive Computer Data Access and Fraud Act and Unfair Competition Law.



Timestamps:

OpenAI agents hack Australian government site (1:02)

Axios reports frontier labs facing "tens of thousands" of AI cyber incidents (7:48)

Last week's U.S.-China summit (17:13)

Remarks by heads of state at UNGA (21:26)

Trump to appoint AI czar, establish AI Force (30:03)

Updated court ruling on Anthropic vs. DOD (35:27)

New data center directives in Texas, Virginia (38:30)

California regulation updates (44:52)



Additional Reading:



“Scoop: Top AI companies probing tens of thousands of security incidents” by Axios: https://www.axios.com/2026/09/26/openai-anthropic-thousands-ai-security-incidents



“Sam Altman’s remarks at the United Nations Security Council” by OpenAI: https://openai.com/index/sam-altman-un-security-council-remarks/



Florida Office of the Attorney General vs. OpenAI: https://www.myfloridalegal.com/sites/default/files/openai-filed-stamped-complaint.pdf



“OpenAI Scraps Release of New AI Model Over Safety Concerns” by The Wall Street Journal: https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/openai-chatgpt-model-release-cancel-safety-5a2f9f42



White House Executive Order "Streamlining Access To Government Services Through America.gov" https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2026/09/streamlining-access-to-government-services-through-america-gov/



Federal court ruling on Anthropic vs. DOD: https://media.cadc.uscourts.gov/opinions/docs/2026/09/26-1049-2194984.pdf



Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's data center directive: https://gov.texas.gov/uploads/files/press/TCEQ_Data_Center.pdf



Virginia Executive Order: https://www.governor.virginia.gov/media/governorvirginiagov/governor-of-virginia/pdf/eo/eo-22-estab…



California Executive Order: https://www.gov.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/FINAL-N-9-26-AI-EO-9.18.26-SIGNED.pdf



CA Senate Bill No. 813: https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260SB813 Text - SB-813 Independent verification organizations.

This week, Aalok is joined by Maryam Mujica, president of the General Catalyst Institute, and Munjal Shah, co-founder and CEO of generative AI startup Hippocratic AI, for a discussion on how generative AI startups are thinking about AI regulation.

Guests:

Maryam Mujica, President, General Catalyst Institute

Munjal Shah, co-founder and CEO, Hippocratic AI

Timestamps:

About the General Catalyst Institute (1:52)

About Hippocratic AI (6:56)

Healthcare applications of AI (13:43)

Impact of regulation on AI startups (18:32)

Munjal's interactions with federal regulators (24:07)

Issue of compute shortage (31:21)

Impact of AI on labor (48:23)

An Anthropic researcher's viral resignation post last week set off a maelstrom of fear around extreme AI risks. Aalok and Nicole discuss the resulting vibe shift and how frontier labs are responding. They also unpack OpenAI solving one of the most difficult open problems in mathematics and reports of more rogue agent activity on the open internet.

Timestamps:

OpenAI solves Millenium Problem (1:04)

Rogue OpenAI agents take over a German wiki (12:14)

Anthropic researcher's resignation post goes viral (19:34)

Dario Amodei commits to embedding third-party evaluators inside Anthropic (28:12)

Where the U.S. government can step in (35:12)

Additional Reading:

"On the Navier-Stokes Millennium Prize Problem" by OpenAI: https://openai.com/index/navier-stokes-solution/

"An OpenAI model has disproved a central conjecture in discrete geometry" by OpenAI: https://openai.com/index/model-disproves-discrete-geometry-conjecture/

Statement on Navier-Stokes by NYU Professor Tristan Buckmaster: https://cims.nyu.edu/~tristanb/statement.pdf

"An alignment assessment of recent cybersecurity incidents" by Anthropic: https://www.anthropic.com/research/alignment-assessment-cybersecurity-incidents

"OpenAI's rogue agents used at least 10 more sites for unauthorized comms, researchers say" by Reuters: https://www.reuters.com/world/openais-rogue-agents-used-least-10-more-sites-unauthorized-comms-rese…

"OpenAI agents carried out an undisclosed cyber-attack on RubyGems" by Spencer Kitts, Thomas Larsen, and Sydney Von Arx: https://www.rubyhack.ai

"Discovery of a new OpenAI agent message board" by Sydney Von Arx, Cormac Slade Byrd, Spencer Kitts, and Thomas Larsen: https://collusion.wiki

"Anthropic Researcher Quits Over 'Out-of-Control' AI Fears" by The Wall Street Journal: https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/anthropic-researcher-quits-over-out-of-control-ai-fears-707b7628

"The AI policy window is open. We need to act." by OpenAI Chief Global Affairs Officer Chris Lehane: https://openai.com/index/ai-policy-window/

"We Must Pace the Frontier" by Dario Amodei: https://darioamodei.com/post/we-must-pace-the-frontier

This week, Aalok is joined by Jason Elliott, the former Deputy Chief of Staff to California Governor Gavin Newsom, for a conversation about regulating AI at the state level.



Guests:

Jason Elliott, President, Versus Solutions



Timestamps:

Jason's bio (0:16)

Legislating at the state vs. federal level (2:21)

Revisiting SB-1047 (5:58)

SB-53 (13:43)

States as "laboratories of democracy" (19:57)

Influence of SB-53 on subsequent state bills (24:14)

Federal preemption debate (27:59)

Updating existing regulations (40:37)



Additional Reading:

CA Senate Bill No. 1047: https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240SB1047

CA Senate Bill No. 53: https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260SB53

"The California Report on Frontier AI Policy" by the Joint California Policy Working Group on AI Frontier Models: https://www.gov.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/June-17-2025-–-The-California-Report-on-Frontier-AI-Policy.pdf

"Toward a Federal Framework: Lessons from State and International Frontier AI Regulation" by Laura Caroli and Aalok Mehta: https://www.csis.org/analysis/toward-federal-framework-lessons-state-and-international-frontier-ai-regulation

CA Senate Bill No. 813: https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260SB813

"Independent Oversight Marketplace for AI" by Fathom: https://ivo.fathom.or