The Download: Pelosi's Successor Targets AI Regulation, and Data Centers Face Power Woes
Plus: The FBI is investigating Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's affair.
By Thomas Macaulay | November 10, 2026
This is today's edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what's going on in the world of technology.
Nancy Pelosi's Replacement Is Ready to Regulate AI
—Grace Huckins
As a California state senator, Scott Wiener authored legislation aimed at curbing the risks of advanced AI. Now, after winning a tight congressional race for Nancy Pelosi's open San Francisco seat, he could play a key role in setting federal AI policy.
I spoke with Wiener only a few hours after he had been declared the victor. But he was already thinking about AI risk: during our 20-minute conversation, he used the phrase "recursive self-improvement" half a dozen times.
"We need to slow this down," he told me. "Because it's moving very quickly, and we could sleepwalk into a disaster." Still, he describes himself as only "cautiously optimistic" about Congress's ability to rein in AI. [Here's what he plans to do about it.]
The Backlash About Data Centers Might Really Just Be a...
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