Economy
US lawmakers call for new AI rules after Anthropic researchers’ warnings
A stark warning this week by an Anthropic researcher who quit and went public with his concerns about the technology escaping human control has prompted U.S. lawmakers to call for new rules to govern AI.
The reaction was broader than after previous statements from OpenAI and Anthropic staffers about safety concerns, drawing input from lawmakers who do not often forcefully engage in debates over how to govern AI.
The lawmakers’ statements came in response to concerns raised this week by Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon, who accused OpenAI and Anthropic of recklessness and of “playing with our lives” in the race to develop AI models capable of self-improvement.
Coxon said he was leaving the AI industry, and his allegations spread rapidly on the social media platform X, with Anthropic scientist Evan Hubinger later chiming in on X, saying Coxon was “correct.”
“We really do earnestly believe AI could kill all humans,” Hubinger wrote on X. “I personally think it is >10% within the next decade.”
OpenAI said Wednesday it was pushing for mandatory national AI safety requirements in the United States on concern the technology could accelerate its own development, after some of its own AI agents went rogue. Several such incidents in which AI models from developers accessed external systems during testing have prompted calls for tighter safety regulations.
Independent auditors
California Wednesday enacted the first state law setting rules for how independent auditors evaluate AI products. OpenAI executive Chris Lehane said the ChatGPT maker would support the bill, around the same time California Governor Gavin Newsom’s office released a statement saying he’d signed it into law.
A bipartisan group of six U.S. House lawmakers in July proposed legislation that would require developers of the most powerful AI models to submit them for independent security audits. The auditors would be accredited by the U.S. Department of Commerce, and the department would create a new position to oversee AI security, according to the bill.
“It is important to have space for oversight of these systems, including appropriately calibrated pre-deployment review and independent third-party audits,” said Alicia Solow-Niederman, a tech law professor at George Washington University.
Democrats this week led the calls for new AI rules, with a smaller number of Republicans joining them.
Growing bipartisan support
The list of Republicans includes Texas Senator Ted Cruz, who oversees a Senate committee with oversight of the U.S. Commerce Department, the agency with in-house AI safety researchers.
Cruz on the TV program “The View” pointed to legislation to regulate AI’s “catastrophic risks,” adding that he was working on a bill with Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Democrat Amy Klobuchar.
Thune told Reuters in late July that he had been working on the legislation “for quite a while,” and did not elaborate on when it would be ready for public release.
Republican Representative Nathaniel Moran, who represents Texas, said in a post on X that “Congress cannot ignore the realities of AI.” Representative Anna Paulina Luna, a Republican from Florida, in a separate X post called on House Speaker Mike Johnson to convene a “special session on AI.” The House is out this week on recess, with plans to return next week.
Republican Senator Josh Hawley, who leads a Senate subcommittee responsible for disaster-management oversight, sent a letter Wednesday to OpenAI asking for details about its July disclosure that one of its AI agents breached its testing environment and hacked AI platform Hugging Face.
OpenAI and AI developer platform Hugging Face, which Nvidia is buying for nearly $13 billion, did not immediately respond to requests for comment about his inquiry. Several lawmakers in recent weeks have sent OpenAI similar requests for more information.
The list of Democrats who called for new AI rules this week includes Senator Patty Murray, the top Democrat on the committee responsible for allocating funding to federal agencies. Democratic senators who have emerged as possible 2028 presidential candidates also joined in, including Connecticut’s Chris Murphy and Arizona’s Mark Kelly.
“Washington needs to wake up and take this seriously,” Kelly posted on X, referring to the risks of AI technology.
Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut sent a separate letter to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, seeking answers about reports that OpenAI’s agents engaged in wider attempts to evade safeguards – including by using public websites to communicate and coordinate activity.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Thursday that Ottawa remains prepared to strike a “fair” trade agreement with Washington, revealing he had spoken with U.S. President Donald Trump in recent days as economic tensions between the neighbors intensify.
The once ironclad trading partnership between the North American neighbors has sustained unprecedented blows since Trump returned to office last year.
Carney cut off trade talks last month, saying the U.S. offer was unacceptable, triggering angry responses from Trump, including punishing new tariffs and prompting Canadian retaliation.
But Carney said the pair remain in touch and that “Canada is always ready to strike a fair deal.”
“We believe there is a mutually beneficial deal for Canada and the United States,” the prime minister told reporters in the western city of Calgary, where he was hosting Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
“I speak regularly to the president, President Trump. I’ve spoken to him in recent days,” Carney said.
Since the talks broke down last month, Trump has resumed taunting Canada and mocking its leadership, posting a generated image on social media of him towering over Carney and calling him “governor,” with both dressed in hockey gear.
Carney has said he has no interest in escalating the conflict, but insists he will not agree to anything that doesn’t serve Canada’s economic interests.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) promised Thursday to invest 40 billion euros ($46.5 billion) in Germany during a state visit by the leader of the Gulf country.
The money would partly pay for data centers with a capacity of up to one gigawatt, Berlin said, and an “Investment Council” would be set up to boost business links between the two nations.
The Gulf is a key source of capital for the AI boom as oil-rich states in the region seek to invest their energy wealth.
“The UAE invests for the long term and builds partnerships that endure,” UAE Industry Minister Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber said.
“Germany has been an important strategic and economic partner for decades and the additional 40 billion euros intended investment reflects our ambition to invest in that relationship.”
Berlin had earlier rolled out the red carpet for President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who met Chancellor Friedrich Merz after earlier being received with military honors by President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
Security was tight for the visit, with Berlin cordoning off flag-lined streets and deploying large numbers of police.
The visit comes as the U.S. war against Iran has roiled the Gulf region, with President Donald Trump’s erratic diplomacy unsettling many midsize powers and leading them to diversify their strategic and economic partnerships.
Merz visited the Gulf region in February, shortly before the U.S.-Israeli war started against Iran. He said then that “we need such partnerships more than ever at a time when major powers are increasingly dominating politics.”
The UAE is Germany’s largest trading partner in the Gulf, with bilateral trade topping $15 billion last year, and many big German companies have a presence there including BMW, Siemens, ThyssenKrupp and rail operator Deutsche Bahn.
German and Emirati companies had signed a further 29 agreements with a total value of 9.4 billion euros during the visit, Berlin said.
The UAE, meanwhile, has made major investments in Germany, including in the chemical industry and offshore wind power.
During Merz’s visit in February, German energy giant RWE and Abu Dhabi’s national oil company ADNOC signed a memorandum of understanding on LNG imports over the next decade.
Gulf countries have also long bought defense equipment from Germany and have shown interest in startups that make drones to bolster NATO’s deterrence efforts against Russia.
Germany, the largest EU economy, supports talks toward a European Union free trade deal with the Emirates.
The European Central Bank (ECB) hiked interest rates for the second time this year on Thursday, meeting expectations as renewed tensions in the Middle East sent energy prices soaring again, threatening to push inflation higher.
The central bank for the 21 eurozone nations lifted its benchmark rate a quarter percentage point to 2.5%, its highest level since March last year.
It was the ECB’s second increase this year after policymakers lifted borrowing costs in June for the first time since 2023 in response to the energy shock triggered by the U.S. war with Iran.
“The conflict in the Middle East continues to generate inflation pressures, and inflation is set to remain well above target for an extended period,” the ECB said in a statement.
“The outlook remains highly uncertain, with risks to the upside for inflation and to the downside for economic growth,” it added.
The central bank kept its inflation forecast for this year unchanged at 3% but raised it slightly for next year, to 2.5%.
It also slightly raised its growth forecasts for this year, to 0.9% from 0.8%, and for next year to 1.4% from 1.2%.
Fears of higher inflation, which hit 3.3% in August, above the ECB’s 2%, are being fanned by a surge in global energy prices.
The Brent international oil benchmark has climbed back above $100 a barrel this week, while natural gas prices, a key energy cost for Europe, reached their highest level in more than three years.
The surge is being driven by an escalation in the U.S.-Iran conflict as well as a flare-up in fighting between Saudi Arabia and Yemeni Houthi rebels, dimming prospects of Gulf energy shipments returning to normal.
‘Inflation worsening’
For households in the euro area, another rate hike means pricier mortgages, consumer credit and other loans.
The central bank, meeting this time in Berlin on one of its regular trips away from its Frankfurt headquarters, has faced criticism in some quarters for trying to tackle an energy supply shock with tighter monetary policy.
Rate hikes aim to slow inflation by dampening demand from consumers and businesses, but critics say they can do little to tackle the root cause of the current burst in price rises, a shortage of energy.
And so far, there has been little sign of eurozone inflation seeping more broadly through to the economy via higher costs for food, goods or services.
Some economists say the ECB is worried about a repeat of 2022, when the central bank was criticized for raising rates too slowly in response to the inflation surge following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Still, some analysts back more tightening and say the current energy surge might prompt the ECB to hike further.
“The inflation outlook has worsened over the summer,” said Sylvain Broyer, chief economist for Europe, Middle East and Africa at S&P.
“Supply shocks are not only multiplying, but it is increasingly likely that demand is also adding to inflation,” he said.
“In that context, the ECB may need to move into restrictive territory and cannot rule out further rate hikes at this stage.”
Türkiye’s industrial production decreased on both an annual and a monthly basis in July, with the year-over-year drop at 0.3%, official data showed on Thursday.
Monthly, the output fell 1%, according to the data from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat).
Among the subsectors of industry, the mining and quarrying index shrank 3.8% annually in July 2026, the institute said.
The electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply index dropped 5.6% compared with the same month of the previous year.
In contrast, the manufacturing index posted an annual increase of 0.3% in July 2026.
On a monthly basis, all three major industrial subsectors recorded declines in July 2026.
The mining and quarrying index contracted 2.2% month-over-month, while the electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply index also posted a 2.2% drop.
The manufacturing index decreased 0.8% compared with the previous month.
Looking at the main industrial groupings, high-technology manufacturing registered the sharpest annual decline at 8.5% in July 2026.
High-technology manufacturing also posted the largest monthly decrease, shrinking 5.8% compared with June 2026.
Meanwhile, durable consumer goods recorded the highest monthly growth among the main industrial groupings, rising 3.3% in July 2026.
China and the U.S. hope to reach an agreement on lowering import taxes soon, a Chinese government spokesperson said Thursday, fueling expectations that an announcement could come when the leaders of the two countries meet in two weeks.
Negotiators are striving to implement reciprocal tariff reductions on $30 billion of goods “at an early date,” Commerce Ministry spokesperson Huang Ling said at a weekly briefing.
She did not elaborate. U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping are expected to meet in Washington on Sept. 24 for what will be their third face-to-face talks in the past year. Both governments characterize the top leader talks as a way to stabilize relations in an era of competing interests between the world’s two largest economies.
“Leaders’ diplomacy plays an irreplaceable strategic guiding role in China-U.S. relations,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said Thursday.
Trump and Xi agreed at their previous meeting in May in Beijing to launch a U.S.-China Board of Trade that would manage trade between the two countries, along with a parallel Board of Investment. The agreements came after a truce was reached in a blistering tariff war in which Trump hiked tariffs on Chinese imports to extremely high levels and China responded in kind.
The talks on reciprocal tariff reductions are a central part of the negotiations on creating the Board of Trade. The goal is to identify and reduce tariffs on equivalent amounts of “non-sensitive” goods on each side.
“Trade will be front and center at the summit,” Barclays Bank said in a research note this week on the upcoming Trump-Xi meeting, noting that the truce the two countries reached on tariffs expires on Nov. 10. But it cautioned that the scope for a broad trade deal is limited, and that targeted tariff reductions are more likely.
Türkiye’s commitment to price stability remains “very strong,” Treasury and Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek said, pledging that Ankara would maintain its economic program and deliver disinflation despite difficult global and geopolitical conditions.
Speaking to international media, Şimşek evaluated economic goals and the current picture days after the government unveiled a new road map for the 2027-2029 period.
“The only criticism we would accept is that we have been ambitious in our targets. We have, and there is, of course, a cost associated with that. But the commitment is there,” he said.
According to the 2027-2029 Medium-Term Program (MTP), the authorities have lifted their expectations for year-end inflation, mainly due to war-related effects, projecting it to decline to 9% by the end of the program.
Inflation is forecasted to come in at 28.4% this year, 21% in 2027 and 13.5% in 2028, before falling to single digits.
Annual inflation rate eased to 31.51% in August from 31.75% in July, according to official data.
Şimşek joined Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz and the head of the Presidency’s Strategy and Budget Office, Ibrahim Şenel, at the Presidential Complex for an international media meeting on MTP.
“We will stay the course and deliver. What is important is the direction of travel,” he said, according to remarks published late Wednesday.
Combating illicit finance
At the same time, the minister noted that Türkiye maintains close cooperation and effective information-sharing with its partners and allies, particularly the U.S.
“Türkiye is committed to combating terrorist financing, any form of illicit financial activity, money laundering, sanctions evasion and all forms of illicit trade,” he said.
All companies operating in Türkiye must fully comply with national regulations and avoid sanctions, while competent authorities are assessing recent U.S. Treasury announcements and allegations within the rule of law, he added.
“Our message to both the financial sector and other actors in the economy is that all companies have to conduct their activities in full compliance with national regulations,” Şimşek said in apparent reference to Iran-related sanctions.
The U.S. Treasury Department has recently moved with a campaign to increase economic pressure on Iran.
Well-established framework for Iran gas payments
Şimşek also said Türkiye’s gas contracts with neighbors such as Iran and Russia are long-term agreements, some of which have been in place for decades.
“We do not pay Iran directly for the natural gas. We have an understanding, again, with the U.S. The money sits in a very tightly regulated account, and payments can only be made for items such as food and medicine,” he said.
“There is a well-established framework governing how natural gas payments are managed.”
Iran accounts for a relatively small share of Türkiye’s gas imports, while the country has invested heavily in alternative supplies and storage, Şimşek said, noting that the U.S. is now one of Türkiye’s leading liquefied natural gas (LNG) suppliers.
Return to free float ‘desirable’
Moreover, Şimşek said that returning to a free-floating exchange rate is desirable because it acts as a shock absorber, but lower inflation, better-anchored inflation expectations and two-way foreign-exchange flows are needed first.
“This is not about being afraid of returning to a free float. It is about getting the conditions right,” he said, calling speculation over an imminent change “baseless.”
He stressed that daily exchange-rate policy is conducted by the central bank and that the Medium-Term Program assumes a neutral real exchange rate.
“We are not in the business of making bets on the exchange rate,” he added.
Price stability
Şimşek also rejected claims that the 2027 inflation target was revised upward to permit looser monetary policy.
“The idea that the inflation target for 2027 was revised upward to loosen monetary policy never came onto our agenda,” he said.
He said the program reflects significant changes in energy, agricultural and other commodity prices, as well as the difficult geopolitical environment.
“When the facts change, of course, forecasts change,” he said.
Housing and selective credit support
Şimşek also said Türkiye has invested $104 billion in earthquake reconstruction, with 621,000 housing units delivered or due to be delivered this year.
Rent inflation in earthquake-hit provinces is around 20%, compared with 50%-60% elsewhere, demonstrating that “supply-side measures make a huge difference,” he said.
The government also plans 750,000 state-funded social housing units to ease housing and rental costs.
Şimşek said selective credit programs support manufacturers, farmers, small businesses and technology investments, helping preserve employment and create jobs.
“The ultimate goal of this program is a sustainable high growth rate and better income distribution. So, basically, better standards of living for Turkish people,” he said.
-
Economy3 days agoOpenAI probed in EU over AI agents’ takeover of German site
-
Economy3 days agoLatvia floats 300% tariff on grain arriving from Russia, Belarus
-
Economy3 days agoIran’s Hormuz leverage in question as US sanctions begin to bite
-
Politics2 days agoTürkiye detains 10 for suspicious death of intelligence official
-
Economy3 days agoEU pledges $232M in Greenland investments amid Trump pressure
-
Politics3 days agoWhat does NATO membership mean for Türkiye?
-
Politics3 days ago9 FETÖ suspects caught trying to flee Türkiye off Muğla coast
-
Economy3 days agoFrance urges EU ban on social media for under-15s