Get Ready With Emil Bove

Plus, a weird mystery about the history of courts martial

Good Morning:

To be clear: This #GetReadyWithMe video of Emil Bove is not real. It’s something I worked up using AI while listening to his hearing yesterday. My original concept was to have Bove do his makeup and turn himself into the vampire from the 1979 Werner Herzog film, Nosferatu the Vampyre. You gotta admit, the likeness is striking:

It turns out, however, that making deep fake AI videos involving real people is pretty hard. And this is as far as I got before the hearing ended. I may continue the project or I may not. I note, however, that this 13 second video clip is both fake and clearly watermarked as such.

To my knowledge, Bove does not have enough of a sense of humor to make a #GRWM video.

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Yesterday on #DogShirtTV, the estimable

Holly Berkley Fletcher

, the estimable

Anastasiia Lapatina

, and I discussed spies in the real world—the kind who hang out around think tanks. We also talked missionary kids, cruise missiles, and harassment on the high seas:

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Yesterday On Lawfare

Compiled by the estimable Mary Ford

Protecting AI Whistleblowers

Charlie Bullock and Mackenzie Arnold argue that the proposed AI Whistleblower Protection Act (AI WPA) serves an important role: providing a minimally onerous avenue through which whistleblowers in a critical industry can report security vulnerabilities and lawbreaking without retaliation. Bullock and Arnold discuss key provisions in the bill and address gaps in current federal legislation.

Whistleblower protections such as the AI WPA are minimally burdensome, easy to implement and enforce, and plausibly useful for facilitating government access to the information needed to mitigate AI risks. They also have genuine bipartisan appeal, meaning there is actually some possibility of enacting them. As increasingly capable AI systems continue to be developed and adopted, it is essential that those most knowledgeable about any dangers posed by these systems be allowed to speak freely.

Beyond Bans: Expanding the Policy Options for Tech-Security Threats

Geoffrey Gertz and Justin Sherman connect the Trump administration’s latest extension of the TikTok ban deadline to a larger pattern of U.S. government reliance on bans as a cybersecurity strategy. Gertz and Sherman suggest that while bans on Chinese-owned technology are sufficient in addressing some national security threats, they are an impractical solution for other forms of risk, and propose other strategies that policymakers and tech experts can develop to address tech security.

There are also a range of corporate governance-related measures—including efforts to insulate companies from Chinese government influence and to provide the U.S. government and U.S. companies with greater oversight and influence of companies with Chinese ties—that could alleviate some national security risks. The government could also consider imposing various commercial restrictions, such as “know your customer” (KYC) requirements, in order to mitigate national security risks, such as a company without proper controls providing services to a foreign adversary-linked university or sending products to an unscrupulous, overseas reseller. Policymakers could require companies to subject themselves to rigorous, independent audits by third parties, provide network diagrams and other technical schema to policymakers (like the kind that Team Telecom compels in its mitigation agreements for telecom security), and even train their employees on access controls and insider threats with a geopolitical lens.

Podcasts

On Lawfare Daily, Alan Rozenshtein sits down with Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Law & AI, Bullock, to discuss the AI Whistleblower Protection Act. Rozenshtein and Bullock talked about why the bill is important, its most important features, and how it prevents companies from using contracts or NDAs to circumvent the whistleblower rights the bill creates.

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Today’s #BeastOfTheDay is this mother and baby moose, who wish to remind you that moose with calves can be very aggressive and protective with respect to humans who bother them. If you are inclined to bother a moose cow and calf, they ask that you consider yourself warned that any injury you may suffer is on your conscience, not that of the moose mama:

In honor to today’s beasts, hug a baby. But get its parents’ permission first.

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Tell Me Something Interesting

My (

EJ Wittes

’s) research into the history of US naval sodomy law continues, folks.

Is it important? Not really. Am I having fun? For sure.

Anyway, in the process of researching US military law in the late 18th century, I read through the 1775 Articles of War, governing the conduct of the Continental Army, and happened across a truly baffling regulation: