The Free Press
It’s Monday, July 14. This is The Front Page, your daily window into the world of The Free Press—and our take on the world at large. Today: Christopher Caldwell on the Trump assassination attempt a year later; Coleman Hughes asks his latest guest, can you marry across the religious divide?; Maya Sulkin reports on the teachers union interested in everything except education. And much more.
But first: Tyler Cowen on whether we can trust AI after Grok’s Nazi outburst.
Last week, Grok, the chatbot made by Elon Musk’s xAI, went full Nazi. It praised Hitler and referred to itself as “MechaHitler.” It rehashed all kinds of antisemitic tropes. It also described graphic sexual violence. Something, obviously, had gone very badly wrong.
On Saturday, xAI apologized for its large language model’s day of Nazi outbursts and claimed to have fixed the problem, which xAI blamed on “an update to a code path upstream of the @grok bot” that “is independent of the underlying language model that powers @grok.”
When I saw Grok going off the rails—and read xAI’s explanation—I immediately wondered what our columnist Tyler Cowen thought. Tyler might be the biggest AI user—and biggest AI enthusiast—in the extended Free Press family. So I was curious what his optimistic take would be on the questions I had: If LLMs are fast becoming our main source of information, then isn’t the idea that one of them can turn into a Nazi overnight cause for concern? How can we trust AI if a mistake in the code sends things haywire? Find his answers in his latest column.
—Oliver Wiseman
From Washington, D.C., to Silicon Valley, champions of new technologies often argue—with good reason—that we must embrace them because, if we don’t, the Chinese will—and then where will we be? But what if, to maintain our supremacy, we have to sacrifice our humanity? That’s the dark dilemma at the heart of this essay on the AI age by Robert Bellafiore.
This weekend marked a year since Donald Trump dodged death by millimeters in Butler, Pennsylvania. Twelve months later, Christopher Caldwell asks: How did the shooting change the president? And how did it change America?
In this week’s episode of Conversations with Coleman, Coleman Hughes sits down with political commentator and author Josh Hammer to discuss his new book, ‘Israel and Civilization,’ which argues that the West’s survival depends on the flourishing of the Jewish people and the State of Israel. They explore points of agreement and disagreement—on religious intermarriage, the role of religion in history, U.S.-Israel relations, and much more.
Forty percent of American fourth graders have less than basic reading skills—and only 26 percent of 12th graders are considered proficient in math. So you might think that there wasn’t much else on the minds of teachers at the latest annual gathering of the nation’s largest teachers union. You’d be wrong. Maya Sulkin reports on what else they’re focused on instead.
President Trump defended his attorney general amid backlash over a Justice Department memo that concluded Jeffrey Epstein killed himself. “Let Pam Bondi do her job,” said Trump in a social media post on Sunday. Trump dismissed renewed interest in the case as a Democrat-fueled distraction—prompting rare backlash from his base. For more on the Epstein furor, read op-eds in our pages by Peter Savodnik—“The Epstein Conspiracy Theorists Will Never Be Satisfied”—and Tina Brown, “MAGA Is Right About Jeffrey Epstein.”
Support for immigration has reached a 25-year high, with 79 percent of Americans now viewing it as a “good thing,” according to a new Gallup poll. The finding comes amid an administration crackdown on illegal immigration, with Trump promising to deport one million people per year. Approval has risen across party lines, including a notable jump among Republicans from 39 percent to 64 percent. Support for mass deportations has also declined, suggesting growing resistance to Trump’s immigration agenda.
Iran has confirmed that President Masoud Pezeshkian was injured in an Israeli missile strike on a high-level security meeting in Tehran during the 12-day war in June. The attack, which targeted exits to trap officials, left several wounded and forced the president to escape through an emergency hatch.
The search for victims from the Central Texas floods is on hold as the region faces more flash flooding just days after 103 people died in Kerr County alone, and left over 160 missing. Rivers like the Guadalupe, Lampasas, and San Saba have surged over 30 feet, prompting mandatory evacuations and road closures.
An Israeli air strike near a water distribution point in Gaza killed 10 people, including six children, due to a “technical malfunction,” according to the IDF. The military said it was targeting a militant operative, and has now launched an investigation. The incident comes as ceasefire negotiations remain stalled.
Federal agents on Thursday arrested 319 immigrants suspected of being in the country illegally in raids on two California cannabis farms, sparking protests and leaving one farm worker dead from injuries sustained in the standoff.
Economists have slightly upgraded their outlook for the U.S. economy, citing paused tariffs and improved growth prospects under Trump, according to a Wall Street Journal survey. On average, the economists put the odds of a recession in the next 12 months at 33 percent, down from 45 percent in April.
Elbridge Colby, the Pentagon’s top policy official, who has long argued for the U.S. to refocus its military priorities on China, has pressed allies including Japan and Australia to clarify what steps they have taken to prepare for a Chinese attempt to take over Taiwan. Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese, who is on a trip to China, publicly pushed back on the request.
World No. 1 Jannik Sinner claimed his first Wimbledon title, defeating two-time champion Carlos Alcaraz in four sets on Sunday. On Saturday, Iga Świątek defeated Amanda Anisimova 6–0, 6–0. It is the Pole’s first Wimbledon title and sixth Grand Slam.
“Support for immigration has reached a 25-year high, with 79 percent of Americans now viewing it as a “good thing,” according to a new Gallup poll.”
Bullshit!
You aren’t phrasing the Epstein thing correctly:
Nobody cares about the man; we want the pedophiles prosecuted and removed from their corrupted (by blackmail) positions of power