Partnership for Economic Innovation Adds Catherine Côté to its Board of Directors

semiconductor-digest.com Aug 5, 2026

Partnership for Economic Innovation Adds Catherine Côté to its Board of Directors

Curated by Shubham · TechCapsules · Aug 5, 2026

AI-summarised brief · reviewed before publication

The Partnership for Economic Innovation (PEI) has added Catherine Côté, onsemi’s Vice President, Chief of Staff and Head of the Office of the CEO, to its board of directors. Côté replaces retiring board member Steven Gray and brings experience in federal and global technology policy, workforce development, and infrastructure for the semiconductor sector. Her appointment aligns with PEI’s 2026 priorities, including the Advanced Manufacturing Investment Tax Credit, K‑12 STEM pipelines, and regulatory advocacy, amid significant CHIPS Act investment in Arizona.

💡 Why It Matters

· Côté’s expertise will sharpen PEI’s influence on state policies that directly shape Arizona’s semiconductor growth, ensuring the region remains competitive in a rapidly expanding global market.

Read full article on semiconductor-digest.com

PlayStation is getting “most” of Sony’s estimated $508 million tariff refund, but…

Sony received a ¥80 billion ($508 million) tariff refund after the U.S. Supreme Court declared President Trump’s tariffs illegal. PlayStation, which raised PS5 prices in response to those tariffs, will receive most of the refund, with about $356 million collected between April and June 2026 and an estimated $152 million pending. Despite ongoing lawsuits, Sony has not announced any plan to refund consumers who paid higher prices. The company also plans to address a consolidated class‑action suit next month.

💡 The refund underscores how corporate tax policy can directly affect consumer pricing, yet the lack of consumer reimbursement highlights a growing tension between corporate interests and consumer protection.

gamesradar.com · Aug 5

PlayStation users are treated like renters but charged like owners, say Mexican…

Mexican lawmakers Iraís Reyes and Luis Donaldo Colosio filed a complaint with the National Antitrust Commission against Sony, citing the company’s plan to discontinue support for physical PlayStation games by January 2028. They argue that Sony charges customers as owners while only granting rental‑style access, potentially creating a monopoly that would eliminate resale markets and lock users into the PlayStation Store. The complaint also references Sony’s removal of digital movies and the impending shutdown of PS3 and Vita digital storefronts. Sony faces ongoing legal scrutiny over these moves.

💡 The shift threatens consumer rights by erasing ownership of digital content, a trend that could set a precedent for other platforms. It underscores the growing tension between corporate control and user autonomy in the gaming industry.

ommcomnews.com · Aug 5

Meta And Other Social Media Platforms Must Comply With Law Of The…

The Indian IT Ministry warned Meta and other social media firms that they must obey domestic law after a parliamentary panel demanded an “unqualified apology” from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg for the brief removal of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Facebook video. The clip, in which Modi addressed students on exam‑related issues, was offline for five to six hours, prompting the Standing Committee to threaten revocation of Meta’s safe‑harbour protection if the apology is not issued within three days. A senior Meta delegation met IT Secretary S. Krishnan in New Delhi and is slated to meet Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, while officials stressed the need for clear compliance and cited concerns over alleged platform misuse. The meeting marks the first of two rounds of talks aimed at averting regulatory action.

💡 A loss of safe‑harbour status would strip Meta of liability shields, forcing it to confront India’s stringent content‑regulation regime head‑on.

theverge.com · Aug 5

Trump’s AI testing plan is limited and vague

The Trump administration’s voluntary framework for assessing cybersecurity risks in advanced artificial intelligence explicitly excludes open-source models from its testing protocols. According to reports from Axios, the guidelines prohibit the government from using this framework to restrict open models once they have been released to the public. This policy stems from an executive order signed by President Trump in June, which requested that AI companies share their frontier models with federal authorities before public launch to mitigate potential security threats. However, the current framework leaves significant gaps in regulatory oversight. It fails to define what constitutes a “national security risk,” creating ambiguity for compliance and enforcement. By omitting open models, which allow users to inspect core components, the administration limits the scope of its safety evaluations. Critics argue that this exclusion undermines the goal of comprehensive cybersecurity assessment. The lack of clear definitions and the narrow focus on proprietary systems raise questions about the effectiveness of the proposed measures in protecting against emerging AI-related threats in the broader technological landscape.

💡 Excluding open-source AI from safety tests creates a regulatory blind spot for the most widely accessible and potentially dangerous models. Without a clear definition of national security risks, the framework offers little practical guidance for developers or enforcement agencies.

windowsreport.com · Aug 5

US Reportedly Excludes Open-Weight AI Models From Cyber Tests

The Trump administration has reportedly decided to exclude open-weight AI models from a new voluntary US government program designed to test advanced systems for sophisticated cyber operations. This decision was communicated to representatives from Meta, Google, Nvidia, OpenAI, and Anthropic during an August 4 White House meeting. The federal framework, established following a June 2 executive order, aims to create classified benchmarks to determine if frontier models can perform complex cyber operations threatening government systems or critical infrastructure. Testing will focus on proprietary models like Anthropic’s Mythos and Fable, and OpenAI’s GPT-5.6 Sol. Open-weight models, which allow developers to download, inspect, and modify underlying weights, are exempt. Critics argue this creates a security gap, as these models can spread rapidly and have safeguards removed. The White House has not clarified if the exclusion applies to all open-weight releases or only those below a specific capability threshold. Additionally, officials have not identified the operating federal agency, disclosed evaluation result publication plans, or defined consequences for models demonstrating dangerous capabilities. The voluntary nature of the program raises questions about developer compliance and future testing frameworks for open-weight systems.

💡 By exempting open-weight models, the government ignores the very systems most easily modified by malicious actors to bypass safety controls. This oversight leaves a critical blind spot in national cybersecurity defenses against rapidly proliferating, unregulated AI tools.

forbes.com · Aug 5

Silicon Valley’s Other China Problem: It’s Training Their AI

Silicon Valley data-labeling startups, valued at tens of billions of dollars, are simultaneously supplying AI training datasets to major American firms like OpenAI and Anthropic, as well as to Chinese laboratories. These Chinese entities are utilizing the purchased data to develop cost-effective AI models that increasingly rival their U.S. counterparts. Despite strict U.S. export controls on advanced semiconductor chips, no comparable restrictions exist for the high-quality training data essential for model development. Companies such as Tencent have actively solicited specialized datasets covering finance, cybersecurity, and self-improving AI systems. This dual-market strategy allows Chinese developers to access the same packaged human expertise that powers leading Western models. The data infrastructure, worth hundreds of millions annually, is critical for teaching complex professional tasks. Consequently, the unrestricted flow of training data is enabling Chinese AI models to rapidly close the technological gap with American rivals, creating a significant strategic vulnerability for U.S. tech dominance in the global artificial intelligence landscape.

💡 While Washington restricts hardware exports, the unregulated trade of training data effectively bypasses these controls, allowing adversaries to replicate American technological advantages. This loophole undermines the strategic intent of chip bans by providing the essential fuel needed to build competitive AI systems.