Shortly after federal agents killed Alex Pretti Saturday morning, the Department of Homeland Security began to run with the story that the dead man had been armed and dangerous. He had a gun, DHS said. (A Bellingcat analysis of the video concludes that Pretti was unarmed when he was shot.) He had approached the agents holding the gun, DHS said. (He was holding a phone, The New York Times reports.) Pretti died on his knees, surrounded by armed Border Patrol agents, with shot after shot unloaded in his direction.
Technology
It doesn’t matter if Alex Pretti had a gun
America’s Second Amendment is beloved by conservatives. Minnesota allows open carry with a permit. Pretti lived in a city where people are regularly being assaulted and even killed by the masked and armed men he was busy observing. So why has so much ink been spilled over the minutiae of his behavior? Why is it so normal for law enforcement — those who are supposed to be keepers of law and order — to kill Americans? And why is the only question at the end of the day how much their victims deserved to die?
In July 2020, DHS sent in over a hundred federal officers from various agencies to my city of Portland, Oregon. They flooded downtown with a thick fog of brownish tear gas. This didn’t neutralize the crowds — it merely hurt and enraged them. The city understood it was being intentionally tormented by sadists and chose to walk into the tear gas out of spite.
Throughout the protests, politicians and media figures fixated on whether Portland and other cities were the site of “protests” or “riots.” The distinction was drawn solely based on the behavior of the protesters, whose actions were treated as if they occurred in a vacuum. But on the ground in Portland, that felt as if it was missing the point.
The protesters’ actions blurred the definition of nonviolence. They came wearing gas masks and carrying shields. People brought leaf blowers and intentionally blew the tear gas straight back at the agents who threw the canisters. They chucked plastic water bottles at the feds because they hated them and thought it might be funny to bonk them on their militarized helmets. No one was trying to murder the feds, but nevertheless, it was not the same as linking arms and walking down the streets of Selma while singing.
But if a riot was occurring in Portland, the feds had instigated it — preemptively escalating the situation with rubber bullets and pepper balls and gas canisters, weapons that don’t simply blur the definition of “nonlethal” but literally contradict it.
These unequal expectations were unfair to civilians. And they are being applied again, with greater weight and brutality, to the people of Minneapolis.
It is obvious that ICE’s presence in Minnesota is a source of conflict and anxiety. As feds leave disorder and fear in their wake, Minnesotans without training or state-issued protective gear are being asked to behave with greater restraint than the armed agents who are supposed to be upholding the law.
Early reporting would suggest that Pretti was violently killed while engaging nonviolently with federal law enforcement. Videos show that he was holding a phone and moving to help a protester when agents grabbed him by the legs and wrestled him to the ground. The agents shout that he has a gun only after they’ve pinned him to the ground.
Why must the victims of state violence be entrusted with the task of not escalating a situation?
But whatever happened, the physical coordinates of Pretti’s purported gun in the few seconds leading up to his killing are far less relevant than the ongoing siege of the Twin Cities. What, in the face of this aggression, is so relevant about his demeanor or his attitude or how he approached the agents right before his death? Why must the victims of state violence be entrusted with the task of not escalating a situation, when they’re not drawing a salary or health insurance or pension on the taxpayer’s dime?
The people are being charged with keeping the peace, asked to stand firm against the federal agents who are disrupting it. This is a sick form of double taxation — your paycheck gets docked so that a guy in a mask can beat you up while you try to calm him down. “That’s fine, dude, I’m not mad at you,” Renee Good told ICE agents moments before they shot her through the side window of her car. Did she deserve to die because she did an inadequate job of tempering their feelings?
What is the point of pinning someone to the ground before pouring pepper spray in his face? What is the point of all of this, except to anger the public, and then to respond to that anger with even more force? ICE, CBP, and Border Patrol have proven themselves incapable of obeying the law, let alone enforcing it for others; unable to self-soothe, let alone keep the peace. ICE and its ilk are not an answer to a problem, but a problem with only one solution. They are malignant, they are worthless, and they should not exist.
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When Oregon resident Isabelle Reksopuro heard Google was gobbling up public land to fuel its data centers in her home state, she didn’t initially know what to believe. “There’s a lot of misinformation about data centers,” she said. “Google has denied taking that land.”
Technically, she explains, The Dalles, a city near the Washington state border, sought to reclaim that land, “and Google is just a big, unnamed power user.” The city had in fact asked for ownership of a 150-acre portion of Mount Hood National Forest, claiming it needs access to Mount Hood’s watershed to meet municipal needs as its population — 16,010 as of the 2020 census — grows. But critics, including environmentalists, say the city is trying to secure more water for Google, which has a sprawling data center campus in The Dalles that already consumes about one-third of the city’s water supply.
This controversy made Reksopuro curious about the backlash to data centers being built in other communities. So Reksopuro, a student at the University of Washington who studies the connections between tech and public policy, decided to map it out. Using information collected by Epoch AI and data scraped from legislation on data centers, she built an interactive map tracking AI policy around the world. She designed it to be simple enough for anyone to use. “I wanted it to be something that my younger sisters could play through and explore to understand what are the data centers in the area and what’s actually being done about it,” Reksopuro said. She hoped to shift their opinions that way, “instead of like, through TikTok.”
Four times a day, the map searches for new sources and checks them against the existing database Reksopuro built out. “Once it does that, it will write a new summary, add it to the news feed, and populate it on the sidebar,” she said. “I wanted it to be self-updating, since I’m also a student.”
Reksopuro isn’t against data centers, but she thinks tech giants benefit from a lack of transparency around data center policies. “Right now, it’s this really opaque thing — and all of a sudden, there’s a facility,” she said. “I think that if people knew about data centers beforehand, it would give them leverage. They would be able to negotiate: ask for job training programs, tax revenue, environmental monitoring, things to improve their community.”
UCF commencement speaker Gloria Caulfield (University of Central Florida via Storyful)
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Welcome to Fox News’ Artificial Intelligence newsletter with the latest AI technology advancements.
IN TODAY’S NEWSLETTER:
– UCF graduates clobber commencement speaker with boos after she says AI is the ‘next Industrial Revolution’
– OPINION: DIRECTOR KASH PATEL: We brought the FBI out of the past and into the AI age
– OpenAI backs creation of global AI governance body led by the U.S. that would include China as a member
TOUGH CROWD: During a recent commencement ceremony at the University of Central Florida, a speaker was met with loud boos from the graduating class after declaring that artificial intelligence represents the next industrial revolution. Fox News Digital reporting captures this tense cultural moment, illustrating the mixed public sentiment and skepticism surrounding AI’s growing footprint in daily life.
A statue on the campus of the University of Central Florida in Orlando, Florida. (iStock)
BADGE MEETS BYTE: Reflecting on the modernization of national security in a Fox News op-ed, FBI Director Kash Patel explores how the bureau must adapt its strategies to address modern threats and advance beyond the artificial intelligence age.
TECH DIPLOMACY: OpenAI is throwing its support behind the establishment of a new global artificial intelligence governance organization that would be led by the United States while notably including China as a member. Fox News Digital reporting examines the geopolitical dynamics and regulatory implications of this proposed framework as global powers race to set the standards for AI development.
EQUITY ELEVATION: The massive wave of wealth generated by the explosive growth of ChatGPT and the broader AI industry is driving a sudden surge in the San Francisco Bay Area’s luxury real estate market. Fox News Digital reporting breaks down how the influx of new tech capital is reshaping local housing dynamics and fueling a high-end property frenzy.
FBI Director Kash Patel listened as Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche spoke during a press conference at the Department of Justice on April 28, 2026, in Washington, D.C. (Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)
STRATEGY RESET: Tech giant Cisco is planning to eliminate thousands of jobs as the company shifts its primary focus to accelerate its artificial intelligence initiatives, a move that comes despite the company beating earnings expectations. Fox News Digital reporting details the corporate restructuring and broader economic trends pushing legacy tech firms to aggressively pivot toward AI.
ROAD HAZARD: Waymo is issuing a sweeping recall of its autonomous vehicle fleet following a concerning incident that highlighted significant safety issues with the self-driving technology. Fox News Digital reporting outlines the specifics of the recall, the nature of the safety flaw, and what this setback means for the future of fully autonomous transportation on public roads.
BOTS IN THE BAY: A newly developed, artificial intelligence-powered robot has been engineered to seamlessly change and balance vehicle tires without human intervention. Fox News Digital reporting showcases this latest innovation, exploring how automation and AI mechanics could soon revolutionize the automotive service and repair industry.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman speaks during the 2026 Infrastructure Summit in Washington, D.C., on March 11, 2026. (Kylie Cooper/Reuters)
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Microsoft Edge is adding a new feature that will allow its Copilot AI chatbot to gather information from all of your open tabs. When you start a conversation with Copilot, you can ask the chatbot questions about what’s in your tabs, compare the products you’re looking at, summarize your open articles, and more.
In its announcement, Microsoft says you can “select which experiences you want or leave off the ones you don’t.” The company is retiring Copilot Mode as well, which could similarly draw information from your tabs but offered some agentic features, like the ability to book a reservation on your behalf. Microsoft has since folded these agentic capabilities into its “Browse with Copilot” tool.
Several other AI features are coming to Edge, including an AI-powered “Study and Learn” mode that can turn the article you’re looking at into a study session or interactive quiz. There’s a new tool that turns your tabs into AI-powered podcasts as well, similar to what you’d find on NotebookLM, and an AI writing assistant that will pop up when you start entering text on a webpage.
You can also give Copilot permission to access your browsing history to provide more “relevant, high-quality answers,” according to Microsoft. Copilot in Edge on desktop and mobile will come with “long-term memory” as well, which can tailor its responses based on your previous conversations. And, when you open up a new tab, you’ll see a redesigned page that combines chat, search, and web navigation, along with the Journeys feature, which uses AI to organize your browsing history into categories that you can revisit.
Meanwhile, an update to Edge’s mobile app will allow you to share your screen with Copilot and talk through the questions about what you’re seeing. Microsoft says you’ll see “clear visual cues” when Copilot is active, “so you know when it’s taking an action, helping, listening, or viewing.”
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