War Memes and AI Doctors: The Week in Review | U.S. News Decision Points

AI-generated medical advice? A “friendly takeover” of Cuba? For more on those and the rest of the week’s news, read on. I’m Sidney Slon.

To start the week, Olivier reviewed the Trump administration’s strategy for selling the Iran war to the American public, amid higher gas prices and the first U.S. casualties in the conflict.

On social media, the White House has posted videos splicing together footage of real explosions with video game and movie clips to build internet hype.

But the Trump administration has taken a less meme-able approach to media coverage of the war. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr recently threatened some news outlets with cancelling their broadcast licenses due to war coverage President Donald Trump deemed unsavory, which would likely lead to First Amendment legal battles. Trump himself effectively halfheartedly declared victory in the war, telling news outlets it is “very complete, pretty much.”

After that, Olivier discussed recent artificial intelligence news, and some of the emerging challenges with the technology.

As AI-generated content has found its way into movies, advertisements and even books, labels like “Proudly Human” and “AI-free” are popping up on content created without the help of AI, BBC reports.

In other news, AI is getting hired, and fired. Social media company Meta may be planning major layoffs, according to a recent Reuters report, and CEO Mark Zuckerberg is eyeing AI to replace those jobs. Google, however, is dropping an AI search feature that provided crowdsourced, amateur medical advice to users, some of which was false and misleading, The Guardian reports.

Another peril of chatbot-assisted medicine: It means handing over health records to tech companies, where that data is vulnerable to a cyberattack, a New York Times report warns. Tech companies are also not bound by medical confidentiality laws, meaning they could use those health records for any purpose.

Midweek, Olivier asked four questions after Trump said recently he believes he will have “the honor of taking Cuba.”

How is the U.S. attempting a “friendly takeover” of Cuba? Well, after decades of unsuccessful attempts to force regime change on the island – from exploding cigars to a failed invasion – Washington is now reportedly in talks with Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, the grandson of former Cuban president Raúl Castro, to take over from the current Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel. Those talks – plus widespread economic hardship, blackouts and protests – could put pressure on the Cuban regime.

Trump has also not taken military action off the table. But if the Trump administration’s playbook in Venezuela is any guide, democracy seems unlikely to be in Cuba’s near future.

After Arizona’s attorney general levied 20 criminal charges against the prediction market platform Kalshi this week, Olivier considered recent political backlash to prediction markets, which have drawn a lot of attention for bets their users placed on current events like election outcomes and political assassinations.

Arizona’s charges add to a growing list of legal battles between Kalshi and state governments, which argue the platform is violating their gambling laws. Kalshi has argued, in some cases successfully, that it offers federally regulated futures contracts, not gambling wagers, and therefore only has to answer to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, not state governments.

Yet even on the federal side, some lawmakers are pushing legislation to ban certain types of wagers, citing anonymous insider betting from government officials in the know. Those efforts may have popular support: Just 4% of Americans say prediction markets like Kalshi are “good for society,” according to a recent poll.