Nonrival

Expert analysis from think tanks and academia, on public policy, economics, and technology.
Human experts. AI summaries.

AI Is Starting to Inspire Terrorism, but It's Too Early to Call It a Trend

csis

• Two attacks motivated by opposition to AI occurred in April 2026 — a shooting at an Indianapolis official's home over a data center project, and a Molotov cocktail attack on OpenAI's CEO — but neither killed anyone and neither has been tied to an organized movement.
• Anti-AI sentiment is widespread (over 80% of Americans think development is moving too fast), and while the vast majority of opposition remains peaceful, the conditions that historically produce sustained terrorism — radicalized peer groups, a sense that politics has failed, and copycat dynamics — could push a small fringe toward violence.
• The clearest near-term risk may not be attacks on heavily secured data centers but on the executives, employees, and local officials publicly associated with AI projects, who are far easier to reach.

AI Is Creating a New Gender Gap at Work, and It's Hitting Women Without College Degrees Hardest

pew

• Since generative AI became widely available, men's employment has grown significantly faster than women's in occupations most exposed to AI — a gap that didn't exist before.
• The divide is sharpest among workers without a college degree: men in AI-exposed roles saw strong job growth while women in similar roles actually lost ground, partly because women without degrees are more concentrated in clerical and customer service jobs that AI is already disrupting.
• Workers with a bachelor's degree saw no significant gender gap, suggesting education is the key buffer against AI-driven labor market inequality.

Noncompete agreements don't just hurt workers — they hurt innovation too

aea

• A new study using 26 state-level policy changes found that stronger noncompete enforcement reduced patenting by about 14% over five years, with the sharpest declines among the most novel technologies and venture-backed firms.
• The culprit appears to be reduced labor mobility: when workers can't move between firms, knowledge stops spreading, and companies become more technologically isolated — citing their own patents 17% more often.
• The findings undercut the standard argument for noncompetes — that they may harm workers but boost innovation — suggesting policymakers can weaken these agreements without sacrificing innovative output.

In the News

India's 'Cockroach' Generation Is Taking On Modi — and Winning Small Victories

the_conversation

• A Gen Z protest movement in India, born from outrage over exam cancellations and a Supreme Court justice calling unemployed youth 'cockroaches,' has grown into a broader democratic challenge to Modi's government — forcing a minister's resignation and pressuring the Election Commission over a purge of 130 million voters from the rolls.
• The movement exposes a core tension in Indian politics: Modi's BJP defines democracy through Hindu civilizational identity, while the protesters invoke the constitution's equality guarantees and draw support across caste, religion, and gender lines.
• The Cockroach Janta Party is unlikely to topple the BJP before 2029 elections, but its combination of street protests, legal documentation of police abuses, and sharp internet humor has done something opposition parties haven't managed in years — cracking the ruling party's aura of invulnerability.

Analysis

AI Can Now Fake Survey Responses So Well It May Be Killing the Entire Industry

hoover

• Large language models can generate survey responses that are nearly indistinguishable from real human answers, threatening the validity of online survey research as a tool for understanding public opinion.
• As bots become cheaper and more convincing, survey panels are increasingly polluted with AI-generated responses, making it hard to know whether results reflect actual human views.
• This isn't just an academic problem — political polling, market research, and social science all depend on surveys, and if the data can't be trusted, neither can the conclusions drawn from it.

Also Worth a Look

• America Trains the World's Best STEM Talent. Why Make Them Leave? (itif)
• Europe Could Solve Its Defense Spending Problem by Financing Ukraine to Build the Weapons (voxeu)
• Misinformation Is Eroding Public Confidence in COVID Vaccines During Pregnancy — and Health Systems Are Too Slow to Fight Back (kff)
• The Supreme Court Has Historically Rubber-Stamped Presidential Control Over Federal Agencies — and That Has Big Implications Now (hoover)
• South Africa Is Racing to End HIV With a Twice-Yearly Shot — Without American Help (csis)
• The U.S. Manufacturing Boom Is Really Just a Data Center and Semiconductor Boom (itif)
• The Supreme Court May Soon Decide Whether Immigrants Can Challenge Politically Motivated Deportations in Federal Court (scotusblog)