Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis hit back at former President Trump after the possible 2024 rival claimed the governor’s six-week abortion ban had been ‘too harsh’ for pro-life voters.

DeSantis defended his signing of the ban during a Tuesday press conference, telling reporters that virtually all pro-life voters supported the bill. Many pro-life groups spoke out to criticize Trump this week after he suggested that such abortion bans were too strict.

‘Protecting an unborn child when there’s a detectable heartbeat is something that almost 99% of pro-lifers support,’ DeSantis told reporters. ‘It’s something that other states like Iowa, under Gov. Kim Reynolds, have enacted.’

‘As a Florida resident, you know, he didn’t give an answer about, ‘Would you have signed the heartbeat bill that Florida did, that had all the exceptions that people talk about?’’ DeSantis added.

Trump split with pro-life groups in an interview with The Messenger on Monday, telling a reporter, ‘If you look at what DeSantis did, a lot of people don’t even know if he knew what he was doing. But he signed six weeks, and many people within the pro-life movement feel that that was too harsh.’

When asked about whether he would support restrictions on abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, Trump replied, ‘I’m looking at all options.’

DeSantis’s abortion bill, signed in mid-April, bans most abortions beyond six weeks but includes exceptions for rape and incest. Existing state exceptions for the life of the mother also remain in place.

Pro-life groups were quick to correct the record earlier this week after Trump’s comments, saying the Florida bill was an example of success for the movement.

‘The pro-life movement demands a presidential candidate who will boldly advocate for the human rights of all people,’ Noah Brandt, vice president of communications at Live Action, told the Daily Signal. ‘It is sad and disappointing to see a candidate attack the people of Florida for protecting pre-born Floridians with a detectable heartbeat.’

Lila Rose, president of Live Action, tweeted a poll showing that more than 60% of Florida voters in general support protection for unborn children after a heartbeat is detected, which is at around six weeks.

‘Trump is embarrassing himself by abandoning pro-life voters and the children we are fighting for,’ Rose wrote in another tweet. ‘Florida and Gov DeSantis should be applauded for protecting life. If President Trump is done with fighting for life, pro-life voters should be done with him.’

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Laura Carlson says she ‘loved’ what Donald Trump did ‘when he was president.’ 

Carlson, the second vice president of the Iowa Federation of Republican Women, was named on a list of roughly 150 ‘elected and grassroots leaders’ in Iowa that the former president unveiled this past weekend. As the state whose caucuses lead off the GOP presidential nominating calendar, White House campaigns highly prize and show off their Iowa endorsements.

But Carlson told Fox News on Tuesday that she hasn’t endorsed anyone in the burgeoning field of Republican presidential candidates. ‘It’s way too early,’ she said.

Carlson says having her name on the former president’s Iowa endorsement list was a miscommunication with the Trump campaign, and she received a ‘lovely apology.’ 

‘Things like that happen,’ she added.

Margaret Stoldrf, a Republican activist and GOP chair in the state’s 3rd congressional district, echoed Carlson, telling Fox News ‘I think Trump was a great president.’ 

But Stoldrf, who was also named on Trump’s endorsement list, noted that she’s staying neutral for now.

Trump, who launched his third straight White House run in November, is currently the overwhelming front-runner in early Republican presidential nomination polls. In second place in those surveys is Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who currently remains on the 2024 sidelines but is expected to launch a campaign in the coming weeks. And he’s been heavily targeted the past couple of months by Trump and the former president’s political allies.

DeSantis on Saturday crisscrossed through Iowa, helping Hawkeye State Republicans last Saturday raise money at events in the northwestern and eastern parts of the state. 

After a scheduled rally in Des Moines by Trump was canceled at the last minute due to severe weather warnings, DeSantis made an unscheduled stop in Iowa’s capital city on Saturday night and spoke with supporters at a barbeque joint just a couple of blocks from where the Trump rally would have been.

Former GOP congressional candidate Gary Leffler said that he was attending a DeSantis event on Saturday when a reporter informed him that his name was on Trump’s endorsement list.

‘I lean Trump, but I 100% believe that DeSantis is the future of the party for 2028,’ Leffler told Axios, adding that he met with officials on both the Trump and DeSantis teams on Monday to discuss his support.

Trump unveiled a list of roughly 50 state lawmakers in New Hampshire during a campaign event he held three weeks ago in the state that holds the first primary and the second overall contest in the Republican nominating calendar.

On Tuesday, the pro-DeSantis super PAC Never Back Down announced an endorsement list of 51 New Hampshire state representatives who pledged to support the governor’s looming presidential campaign. And as Fox News first reported on Tuesday, DeSantis will return to New Hampshire on Friday to meet with those lawmakers and spotlight how his conservative ‘Florida blueprint’ can be replicated as a model across the country..

But four of the lawmakers on the Never Back Down list also appeared among endorsements that Trump unveiled three weeks ago.

State Rep. Brian Cole of Manchester, who represents Hillsborough County District 26 in the state House of Representatives and is vice chair of the Manchester Republican Committee, told Fox News: ‘I’ve had a chance to talk to DeSantis’ team. I actually met with DeSantis. After speaking with both of them, I think he’s going line up better [than Trump] with New Hampshire voters.’

Cole explained that he spoke with the Trump campaign Tuesday morning to tell them the news.

‘They weren’t too happy but they understand,’ he shared.

Also on both lists are state Reps. Debra DiSimone of Atkinson and Belknap County’s Juliet Harvey-Bolia.

Harvey-Bolia told NBC News ‘I’m endorsing both… DeSantis has a lot of promise for the future, and Trump is great now.’

The fourth lawmaker is state Rep. Lisa Smart, who also hails from Belknap County. In a statement released Tuesday by the Trump campaign, Smart wrote: ‘I was so incredibly proud to join many of my colleagues in endorsing President Donald J. Trump last month and my support for him has not changed. I’m dismayed by the games played by Never Back Down and I will NOT be participating in any activities with Ron DeSantis.’

Asked about Smart’s comments, Never Back Down shared a signed statement by Smart saying she pledges ‘to endorse Governor Ron DeSantis for President of the United States.’

Because of their outsized importance in the Republican presidential nomination race, there’s intense jockeying between the campaigns and their allied super PACs when it comes to endorsements.

Veteran New Hampshire based conservative activists Greg Moore told Fox News that ‘it’s very important for these campaigns to be very explicit and intentional to make abundantly clear when they ask someone if their supporting you that you’re going to be releasing their name and they’re going to publicly held out there as endorsing. I think often times that step is skipped.’

Moore, the longtime state director for Americans for Prosperity, suggested that ‘when that happens you end up with situations where it appears someone’s flipped from one candidate to another, which gives the perception nationally that someone’s either losing or gaining momentum when in fact it’s often at the staff level where the staffers were not explicit in asking for endorsements.’

On the heels of former President Trump’s video-taped deposition in the E. Jean Carroll rape case, another proceeding will likely find the former president again answering questions under oath.

A discovery hearing is set in federal court in Miami Wednesday in the former president’s $500 million lawsuit against his former lawyer, Michael Cohen. Sources say that Trump is expected to be subpoenaed to testify in the case, and that as the plaintiff he cannot legally avoid giving a deposition.

Trump accuses Cohen of defaming him and breaking a confidentiality agreement by ‘spreading falsehoods’ about him in Cohen’s books, interviews and his podcast ‘Mea Culpa.’

But Cohen’s side has moved to dismiss the case, claiming that the former president’s ‘retaliatory conduct has been petty and mean spirited,’ that his lawsuit has passed the statute of limitations. In addition, Cohen attorney Danya Perry argued that Mr. Cohen’s personal statements are protected speech and do not violate any purported confidentiality agreement because they deal with Trump’s reputation and not confidential business matters of the Trump Organization, which employed Cohen.

‘It is a mystery in what way Mr. Trump’s reputation could possibly have suffered. Mr. Trump’s ignominy is globally known and had been well before Mr. Cohen published his book. It is the product of decades of Mr. Trump’s own actions, which he has thrust onto a global stage for all to see,’ said the court document.

Cohen also accuses his former Boss of using the courts as a weapon, as he has often been accused of doing by filling numerous lawsuits.

‘How many times do we have to see Donald abuse the legal system out of retaliation, witness tampering or obstruction of justice?’ Cohen told Fox News ‘If this deposition follows in the footsteps of his E. Jean Carroll videotaped deposition, I am certain that he will be equally pathetic and disingenuous in his responses.’

Earlier this year Trump and his lawyers were fined $1 million by a judge who accused the Trump team of using the courts to file frivolous lawsuits for political purposes. U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks of the Southern District of Florida ruled that Trump engaged in ‘abusive litigation tactics.’

‘Frivolous lawsuits should not be used as a vehicle for fundraising or fodder for rallies or social media,’ he wrote. ‘Mr. Trump is using the courts as a stage set for political theater and grievance. This behavior interferes with the ability of the judiciary to perform its constitutional duty.’

The federal judge overseeing the case against Cohen, Judge Darrin Gale, has been called ‘the first openly gay black man’ to serve on the federal bench in the Southern District of Florida. He was nominated by President Barrack Obama in 2014.

Trump accuses Cohen of causing him ‘vast reputational harm’ and says that his former counsel has ‘become emboldened and repeatedly continues to make wrongful and false statements,’ and that his critical comments have ‘reached a proverbial crescendo’ that has left him no action but to file the lawsuit.

In addition, both will face off in court in another lawsuit in July. Cohen is suing the Trump Organization to obtain $2.3 million in legal fees for dealing with the Stormy Daniels case and other matters.

Pennsylvania Democrat Sen. John Fetterman raised eyebrows with his choppy and sometimes borderline incoherent questioning at the Senate Banking Committee hearing on Tuesday.

Fetterman was the last senator to dive into questioning during a hearing on the Silicon Valley Bank collapse that occurred earlier this year, and he appeared to struggle through his opening statement in the hearing.

The Pennsylvania Democrat noted that some of the witnesses’ colleagues ‘went to go to Hawaiis (sic) after there was a crash of your bank’ and that he ‘couldn’t believe it.’

‘So, I went up on the Internet, and it’s like, it did happen. It did happen. It did happen,’ Fetterman said, holding up a cutout of a New York Post headline titled ‘Ex-Silicon Valley Bank CEO Greg Becker jets to Hawaii after collapse.’

‘And it’s in Fortune, the second-biggest bank in U.S. history collapsed and chose to go to Hawaii on that,’ he continued. ‘You know, I’ve never been to Hawaii and neither has my family. I guess I’ve never cranked, excuse me, crashed a bank.’

Fetterman asked the witnesses if they believed it’s ‘a running joke’ in the banking community that the federal government will bail them out in times of trouble, to which former Silicon Valley Bank CEO Gregory Becker said he does not ‘believe that’s the case.’

‘Really? Because every bank you seemingly that crashed, it’s like, ‘We can bail him out. This one crashed, we’ll bail them out,’’ Fetterman said. ‘So far, everything’s been true. So, doesn’t it feel that now if a bank really believed that they wouldn’t be bailed out, now after bailing them out, these couple of bailouts, they are going to.’

‘Do you believe that that is not outrageous that, no matter how deplorable your performance is, you are made as whole and all by … taxpapers (sic),’ the Pennsylvania senator continued. ‘So what do yous (sic) believe?’

Fetterman then asked what would’ve happened if Silicon Valley Bank had not been bailed out before moving on to say, ‘Is it staggering? Is it a staggering … it’s a responsibility that the head of a bank could literally, could literally crash our economy.’

‘It’s astonishing. That’s like if you have, I mean like, and they also realize is that now they have … a guaranteed way to be saved by, again, by no matter, by how?’ Fetterman said. ‘Isn’t it appropriate that this kind of control should be more stricter to prevent this kind of thing from going, or should we go on start bailing and sailing whoever bank regardless of how … their conduct is?’

After a pause with no answer, Fetterman said he would give ‘an example’ before attacking Republicans for wanting to introduce food stamp work requirements and asking if Silicon Valley Bank should have a ‘working requirement’ after the bailout.

‘Because they seem more preoccupied when then SNAP requirements for works for hungry people but not about protecting the taxpapers (sic) that will bail no matter whatever does about a bank to crash it,’ Fetterman said, before a long pause and turning control back over to the committee chairman, Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio.

Users online reacted to Fetterman’s choppy questioning during the Senate Banking Committee hearing on one of the largest bank failures in American history.

Joe Calvello, Fetterman’s spokesperson, told Fox News Digital, ‘We have been clear for literally months and months that John continues to have auditory processing issues due to the effects of his stroke.’

‘If sickos on the internet want to keep making fun of John for recovering from a health challenge, that’s between them and their consciences,’ Calvello said.

Fetterman has been raising eyebrows while performing his senatorial duties since his return from his months-long hospital stay last month after checking himself in for depression.

The Pennsylvania Democrat was in the hospital from mid-February to mid-April of this year.

Fetterman, who suffered a stroke on the campaign trail, resumed his chairmanship of the Senate Agriculture Committee’s Subcommittee on Food and Nutrition, Specialty Crops, Organics, and Research.

Calvello told Fox News Digital that it’s ‘a sad but true fact of life that some people seem to get their jollies attacking John for the auditory processing issues resulting from his stroke, but they’re just shouting into the wind.’

‘Republicans already tried emptying the arsenal attacking John’s health, and Pennsylvanians had his back in a big way,’ Calvello said. ‘As a senator, John is fighting for forgotten communities and all of the people of Pennsylvania, regardless of their social media habits.’

A House Democrat faced backlash online for dismissing the testimony of a reporter who has covered multiple Antifa riots, including the riots surrounding the Kyle Rittenhouse murder acquittal.

Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y., took shots at Townhall senior writer Julio Rosas during Tuesday’s House Homeland Security Committee hearing on left-wing violence in an attempt to discredit him and former Department of Homeland Security chief of staff Scott Erickson as witnesses.

Goldman attacked committee witnesses, accusing Erickson of trying to ‘gaslight’ Congress about left-wing violence in America ‘as if Antifa, which Mr. Rosas, apparently the expert now in organized terrorist activity, has overruled the FBI director who says… there’s a headline that says ‘Antifa is an ideology, not an organization.’’

‘No, no, no, let’s not listen to the FBI director,’ Goldman continued condescendingly. ‘Let’s listen to — sorry, what’s your title? — senior writer at Townhall, who is going to tell us that the FBI director is wrong.’

After his tirade, one of the witnesses asked if they could respond, to which Goldman shook his head and answered, ‘There’s no question.’

When pressed on it, Goldman said, ‘No you cannot, I didn’t ask a question.’

Rosas blasted Goldman later in the hearing, quipping it is ‘funny to be lectured by an heir to the Levi Strauss Corporation.’

‘And, honestly, that’s probably why he doesn’t consider property damage to be that big of a deal because, not only does he have that, but he also has what some people would describe [as] an impossibly good stock portfolio,’ Rosas said.

Goldman’s office did not respond to Fox News Digitals’ request for comment.

Rosas also posted a tweet addressing Goldman’s attack, writing, ‘As you can see in the beginning, [Goldman] was too much of a coward to be in the hearing room for my response to his baseless attack.’

‘And yes, I know more about Antifa than the discredited FBI director,’ Rosas said.

Rosas has reported on several riots in America involving the far-left militant group Antifa, including the Rittenhouse trial that saw an acquittal.

The Townhall writer also wrote an entire book on the 2020 George Floyd riots titled ‘Fiery but Mostly Peaceful: The 2020 Riots and the Gaslighting of America.’

Users online dogpiled Goldman after his attack on Rosas, with State Freedom Caucus Network communications director Greg Price writing, ‘Look at the disrespect Rep. Daniel Goldman (D-NY) shows to [Rosas] as a witness, somebody who was on the ground at violent protests from Charlottesville to Kenosha, and wouldn’t even let him respond.’

‘What an absolute punk,’ Price said, sharing a video of the attack.

Fellow conservative journalist Matthew Foldi of the Spectator wrote, ‘Dan Goldman is literally attacking a Latinx journalist.’

‘This is a racist attack against the First Amendment,’ Foldi quipped.

‘The level of liberal arrogance here is just nauseating,’ MRC NewsBusters managing editor Curtis Houck wrote. ‘Goldman, one of the richest members of Congress who made a name for himself on MSNBC (the network where Minneapolis was not ‘generally speaking unruly’), thinks he can lecture [Rosas].’

‘He messed with the wrong guy,’ Houck wrote.

Other users online blasted Goldman for the attack, with Townhall video journalist Kevin McMahon quipping if ‘there was ever a time to blindly trust the FBI Director as a credible source, it’s certainly not right now.’

Goldman appears to have an aversion to allowing committee testifiers to respond to his assertions.

Last month, Goldman was shouted down by the mother of a New York City murder victim during a House Judiciary Committee field hearing, who warned the lawmaker not to ‘insult’ her ‘intelligence.’

The mother, Madeline Brame, was one of many witnesses to testify before the committee during Monday’s hearing highlighting the crime problem in Manhattan. Goldman attempted to use the time granted to him to question Brame to instead criticize the hearing itself, arguing it was a ‘coverup’ for Republicans attempting to defend former President Donald Trump.

Goldman, who served as impeachment counsel during Trump’s first impeachment, sought to explain his view of the situation to Brame after other Democrats had stated that Republicans were using the witnesses as ‘props’ to defend Trump.

‘We’re not insulting you. Your experiences are devastating, but the problem is, is that this is a charade to cover up for an abuse of power. [Republicans] are going around incessantly, outside of this hearing, about Donald Trump, and the purpose of this hearing is to cover up for what they know to be an inappropriate investigation [into District Attorney Alvin Bragg],’ Goldman said.

‘Can I respond to you, please?’ Brame asked as Goldman attempted to move on.

‘Not right now, because I only have 20 seconds, I’m sorry. But I, I do–’ Goldman said.

‘Don’t insult my intelligence,’ Brame interjected as Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, attempted to maintain order. ‘You’re trying to insult me like I’m not aware of what’s going on here. I’m fully aware of what’s going on here, OK? That’s why I walked away from the plantation of the Democratic Party.’

Brame had testified earlier about Bragg’s mishandling of her son’s murder case. Her son, Army Sgt. Hason Correa, was beaten and stabbed nine times by multiple people in 2018. The prosecution for the cases dragged on for more than four years, and Bragg ultimately removed the indictments against two of the suspects in favor of lesser charges. Two others ended up receiving life sentences.

Brame argued that Bragg’s office has only served to escalate the city’s crime problem, showing no ‘measurable results’ in lowering the city’s violent crime rate.

Fox News Digital’s Anders Hagstrom contributed reporting.

Party nominees for four statewide judicial posts, including one on the Supreme Court, will be settled in Tuesday’s primary election in Pennsylvania.

Democrats currently hold a 4-2 majority on the state’s highest court, which is playing a prominent role in settling disputes over voting rights, abortion rights and gun rights in the presidential battleground state.

Competing on the Republican ticket are Carolyn Carluccio, a Montgomery County judge; and Patricia McCullough, a judge on the Commonwealth Court, a statewide appellate court that handles cases involving government agencies or challenges to state laws.

On the campaign trail, McCullough has repeatedly boasted of being the ‘only judge in 2020 in the presidential election in the entire country’ to order a halt to her state’s election certification.

McCullough was ruling in a Republican-backed post-election legal challenge that sought to throw out 2.5 million mail-in ballots — most cast by Democrats — and tilt victory to Trump in the presidential battleground state. The state’s high court quickly overturned McCullough’s order.

McCullough, of Allegheny County, also ran for state Supreme Court in 2021 and lost in the primary. The state party is endorsing Carluccio and party allies have reported spending nearly $1 million to help her beat McCullough.

Running on the Democratic ticket are Dan McCaffery of Philadelphia and Deborah Kunselman of Beaver County. Both of them currently sit on the state Superior Court, a statewide appellate body that handles appeals from county courts in criminal and civil cases.

The high court seat is open following the death last year of Max Baer, who was chief justice.

The court has handled a number of hot-button issues over the past few years. It is currently examining a challenge to a state law that restricts the use of public funds to help women get an abortion, as well as Philadelphia’s challenge to a state law that bars it and other municipalities from restricting the sale and possession of guns.

In recent years, justices rejected a request to invalidate the state’s death penalty law and upheld the constitutionality of the state’s expansive mail-in voting law.

The court also turned away challenges to the 2020 presidential election from Republicans who wanted to keep Donald Trump in power, and ruled on a variety of lawsuits filed over gray areas in the mail-in voting law.

In one 2020 election case, the court ordered counties to count mail-in ballots that arrived up to three days after polls closed, citing delays in mail service caused by disruptions during the COVID-19 pandemic. The ruling spurred an outcry among Republicans, who challenged the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The nation’s highest court ultimately declined to take the case. Still, the ballots — nearly 10,000 of them — were never tabulated or added to vote counts in federal elections because the election was certified while their fate remained in legal limbo. State elections officials said the votes weren’t enough to change the results of a federal election.

Five candidates are running for two open seats on the Superior Court, from which one judge retired and where another will reach the mandatory retirement age of 75 later this year.

On the Democratic ticket are Jill Beck, Pat Dugan and Timika Lane. Dugan is president judge of the Philadelphia Municipal Court, Lane is a Philadelphia Common Pleas Court judge and Beck, of Pittsburgh, is a lawyer in private practice who has clerked on the state Superior and Supreme courts.

Both Beck and Lane ran for an open seat on the Superior Court in 2021 but lost — Beck in the primary and Lane in the general election.

On Republican ballots will be Harry Smail, a Westmoreland County judge, and Marie Battista, a Clarion County lawyer.

Battista is a former county prosecutor who ran unsuccessfully for Clarion County district attorney in 2019.

For Commonwealth Court, one seat is open after Republican judge Kevin Brobson was elected to the state Supreme Court in 2021.

On Democratic ballots is Matt Wolf, a Philadelphia Municipal Court judge, and Bryan Neft, a trial lawyer from Pittsburgh.

On Republican ballots are Megan Martin, who spent more than a decade as parliamentarian of the state Senate, and Joshua Prince, a Berks County lawyer best known for taking on gun rights cases.

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OpenAI CEO Sam Altman outlined examples of ‘scary AI’ to Fox News Digital after he served as a witness for a Senate subcommittee hearing on potential regulations on artificial intelligence.

‘Sure,’ Altman said when asked by Fox News Digital to provide an example of ‘scary AI.’ ‘An AI that could design novel biological pathogens. An AI that could hack into computer systems. I think these are all scary.’

‘These systems can become quite powerful, which is why I was happy to be here today and why I think this is so important.’

Altman appeared before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law on Tuesday morning to speak with lawmakers about how to best regulate the technology. Altman’s OpenAI is the artificial intelligence lab behind ChatGPT, which was released last year.

ChatGPT is a chatbot that is able to mimic human conversation when given prompts by human users. People around the globe soon rushed to use the chatbot after its November release, launching ChatGPT as the fastest-growing user base with 100 million monthly active users in January. The release of the tech was quickly followed by other companies in Silicon Valley launching a race to build comparable or more powerful systems. 

With the proliferation of the tech and other artificial intelligence platforms, critics, as well as some fellow tech leaders and experts, have sounded the alarm on potential threats posed by artificial intelligence, including bias, misinformation and even the destruction of society. 

Altman said during the Senate hearing that his greatest fear as OpenAI develops artificial intelligence is that it causes major harmful disruptions for people. 

‘My worst fears are that we cause significant — we, the field, the technology industry — cause significant harm to the world,’ Altman said. ‘I think that could happen in a lot of different ways. It’s why we started the company.’

‘It think if this technology goes wrong, it can go quite wrong, and we want to be vocal about that,’ he added. ‘We want to work with the government to prevent that from happening.’

Altman said during the hearing that he welcomes government regulations and working with U.S. leaders on how to craft such rules.

‘As this technology advances, we understand that people are anxious about how it could change the way we live. We are too,’ he said. ‘But we believe that we can and must work together to identify and manage the potential downsides so that we can all enjoy the tremendous upsides. It is essential that powerful AI is developed with democratic values in mind. And this means that U.S. leadership is critical.’

‘We think that regulatory intervention by governments will be critical to mitigate the risks of increasingly powerful models,’ Altman added. 

Fox News Digital’s Pete Kasperowicz contributed to this article. 

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OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said people should not try to ‘anthropomorphize’ artificial intelligence and should discuss the powerful tech systems in the context of it being a ‘tool’ and not a ‘creature.’

‘I think there’s a huge amount of speculation on that question,’ Altman told reporters Tuesday on Capitol Hill when asked how quickly AI could become ‘self-aware’ if Congress does not regulate the technology. 

The line of questioning had echoes of the ‘Terminator’ film series, in which AI brings about the apocalypse on the day it becomes ‘self-aware.’

‘I think it’s very important that we keep talking about this as a tool, not a creature, because it’s so tempting to anthropomorphize it,’ he added. ‘I totally understand where the anxiety comes from. I think it’s the wrong frame … the wrong way to think about it.’

Altman appeared before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law Tuesday morning to discuss potential avenues on how to regulate artificial intelligence and acknowledging threats the powerful technology could pose to the world. 

‘As this technology advances, we understand that people are anxious about how it could change the way we live, Altman told the lawmakers. ‘We are too. But we believe that we can and must work together to identify and manage the potential downsides so that we can all enjoy the tremendous upsides.

‘We think that regulatory intervention by governments will be critical to mitigate the risks of increasingly powerful models.’ 

OpenAI is the artificial intelligence lab that released the wildly popular chatbot, ChatGPT, last year. The chatbot is able to mimic human conversation after it is given prompts by human users. Following the release of the technology, other companies in Silicon Valley and across the world launched a race to build more powerful artificial intelligence systems.

Altman added Tuesday that his greatest fear amid his company’s work is that the technology could cause major harmful disruptions for people.

‘My worst fears are that we cause significant — we, the field, the technology industry — cause significant harm to the world,’ Altman said. ‘I think that could happen in a lot of different ways. It’s why we started the company.’

‘It think if this technology goes wrong, it can go quite wrong, and we want to be vocal about that,’ he added. ‘We want to work with the government to prevent that from happening.’

Following the hearing, Altman provided two examples to Fox News Digital of ‘scary AI,’ noting that the technology ‘can become quite powerful.’

‘An AI that could design novel biological pathogens,’ he said of ‘scary AI’ examples. ‘An AI that could hack into computer systems. I think these are all scary.’

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A federal judge has imposed a preliminary injunction on the Biden administration’s ‘parole with conditions’ policy – dealing yet another blow to the policy which saw illegal migrants being released into the U.S. interior without a court date in an attempt to reduce overcrowding at Border Patrol facilities.

Judge T. Kent Wetherell had imposed a two-week temporary restraining order on the ‘parole with conditions’ policy on Thursday, after he accepted arguments from the state of Florida that the policy – outlined in a May 10 memo – was materially identical to a ‘Parole + ATD’ policy that he had blocked in March.

The two-week restraining order, which the White House decried as ‘sabotage,’ came hours before the end of the Title 42 public health order, and gave the court time to weigh arguments about whether a longer-term preliminary injunction could be imposed.

Wetherell found, in an order on Tuesday, that ‘Florida is entitled to a preliminary injunction prohibiting DHS from ‘paroling’ aliens into the country under the Parole with Conditions policy.’

He said that the order is in the public interest as it would ‘promote respect for the rule of law by not allowing DHS to achieve what amounts to an end-run around this Court’s decision in Florida through the adoption of a functionally identical policy to the Parole + ATD invalidated in that case.’ He also found that the injunction is necessary to prevent harm to Florida, which had argued it would be negatively affected by a mass release of migrants – some of whom would travel to Florida.

He granted the injunction and ordered both parties to file a status report in two weeks explaining how they intend to proceed with the case, pending resolution of an expected appeal by DHS.

The Department of Homeland Security had argued that the court does not have the authority to enjoin the policy, and had warned about chaotic scenes and overcrowding at the border if the administration was not allowed to use the policy to reduce overcrowding.

The policy, outlined in a Border Patrol memo, outlined how migrants can be allowed into the country on parole – a process typically reserved for ‘urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit’ – if Customs and Border Protection (CBP) faces overcrowding. Migrants released under the policy are required to make an appointment with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or request a Notice to Appear by mail. The use of parole had been authorized if a sector capacity goes above 125%, if agents apprehend 7,000 a day over 72 hours or if average time in custody goes above 60 hours.

It had been adopted in a May 10 memo just as authorities were seeing over 10,000 migrants a day ahead of the ending of the Title 42 public health order. Numbers have dropped since the ending of the order, which allowed for the rapid expulsion of migrants due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody, who brought the suit, said in a statement on Tuesday that the case ‘continues to prove what Florida has been arguing all along, that Biden willfully and intentionally destroyed our public safety immigration structures ahead of the expiration of Title 42, and now the federal government is allowing the crush of immigrants attempting to enter the country unlawfully to flood across our border.’

‘I am grateful that this judge is taking swift action to prevent the federal government from violating immigration law and mass-releasing illegal immigrants into the interior of the country,’ she said.

The Biden administration had said in a filing on Monday that it had released over 6,000 migrants into the interior on Thursday before the order went into effect, and an additional 2,500+ on Friday who had completed the parole process before the order went into effect. However, it has firmly denied claims that it is engaged in the ‘mass release’ of migrants.

DHS had said it would comply with the ruling but, called it harmful and warned that it would ‘result in unsafe overcrowding at CBP facilities and undercut our ability to efficiently process and remove migrants, and risks creating dangerous conditions for Border Patrol agents and migrants.’

‘The fact remains that when overcrowding has occurred in Border Patrol facilities, Republican and Democratic Administrations alike have used this parole authority to protect the safety and security of migrants and the workforce,’ a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) statement said on Friday. ‘Individuals apprehended by CBP are thoroughly vetted against all national security and public safety systems, regardless of how they are processed.’

Fox News’ Bill Melugin contributed to this report.
 

Democrats’ narrow majority in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives is on the line Tuesday with two special elections that will determine which party controls the chamber.

One of those contests is expected to swing Republicans’ way, but the other in Delaware County, in the Philadelphia suburbs, will be more competitive. It’s the second time this year that Democrats have sweated the outcome of House special elections, and they hope to be just as lucky as before.

The stakes are high: A Democratic victory in Delaware County would give first-term Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro at least one chamber to aid his agenda going into the final month of budget negotiations. The results could also affect a proposed constitutional amendment on abortion rights that legislative Republicans are one House vote away from putting before voters as a referendum.

In that race, Democrat Heather Boyd, a former congressional and state legislative aide, is competing against Republican Katie Ford, a military veteran, school volunteer and behavioral therapist. The seat opened up in March after the resignation of Democratic Rep. Mike Zabel, who was accused by a labor lobbyist of sexual harassment.

Zabel flipped what had been a reliably Republican district when he was elected in 2018, thanks in part to a voting pattern shift in recent years toward Democrats in Delaware County and the other Philadelphia ring counties of Bucks, Chester and Montgomery. The district gave its vote by comfortable margins last year to Zabel as well as Shapiro and Democratic U.S. Senate candidate John Fetterman.

Boyd reported raising more than $1.3 million, including more than $1 million in in-kind advertising from the House Democrats’ campaign arm and the Democratic Party. Ford reported raising about $146,000, more than half of which came from the House Republicans’ campaign arm. Shapiro cut an ad for Boyd that focused on the abortion issue and this week President Joe Biden endorsed her, which is unusual in a state legislative contest.

In the second House special election Tuesday in central Pennsylvania, candidates will be competing to succeed Republican Lynda Schlegel Culver, who resigned after winning a special election in January to fill a state Senate vacancy. The district consists of Montour County and parts of Northumberland County.

Democrats took control of the chamber in November for the first time in 12 years and then had to sweep three special elections earlier this year to hold on to their edge. With the two vacancies, the House’s breakdown currently sits at 101 Democrats and 100 Republicans.

Control of Pennsylvania’s House remains a key prize ahead of the 2024 presidential election, which could hinge on the Keystone State. Although the state will remain under divided partisan control, with a Democratic governor and a Republican-majority Senate, a GOP-led House could give Republicans more leverage in battles over voting procedures and even decide who the electors are in the presidential contest.

Underscoring those stakes, Biden on Monday called Boyd ‘an experienced public servant who will protect a woman’s right to make her own health care decisions, stand up for common sense gun safety laws and expand access to voting rights.’

In the Delaware County race, Boyd has emphasized protection of abortion rights, drawing a contrast with Ford, who is personally against abortion but says she does not want to change existing state law. Ford has also said she will vote against her fellow Republicans if they continue to advance the constitutional amendment that says the Pennsylvania Constitution does not guarantee any rights relating to abortion or public funding of abortions.

Ford has criticized Boyd, who has been a leading Democratic Party official in Delaware County, for not responding more forcefully when she learned about the allegations against Zabel. Boyd said she respected the lobbyist’s request for confidentiality about her claim that Zabel caressed her leg while they discussed legislation outside the Capitol in 2018 and did not stop when she moved away from him.

‘Common sense says that if someone comes to you and says that they’re being sexually harassed, you do something about it,’ Ford said during a televised debate. ‘You don’t just let it go.’ Boyd responded that she did not endorse or support Zabel after hearing of the lobbyist’s account, and says she tried unsuccessfully to find someone to run against Zabel.

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