News-July-02-2026

July 2, 2026 — OpenAI reportedly discussed giving the U.S. government a 5% equity stake as part of broader talks about public benefit-sharing from advanced AI, privacy advocates urged the FTC to keep Twitter/X under monitoring amid Grok-related data-use concerns, and Midjourney asked a federal judge to expand discovery into Hollywood studios' own AI use in copyright litigation.

Contents

1. OpenAI reportedly discusses 5% U.S. government stake
2. X privacy-monitoring comments warn FTC about AI data risks
3. Midjourney seeks discovery on studios' AI use

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OpenAI reportedly discusses 5% U.S. government stake

The Guardian reported that OpenAI was in early talks about giving the U.S. government a 5% stake, with CEO Sam Altman arguing that the arrangement would share AI's benefits and that other AI firms would make similar contributions. RTÉ reported, citing the Financial Times, that the discussions came as AI companies faced growing Washington scrutiny over misuse risks and whether Americans would share in the sector's profits. The development is legally significant because it would make federal equity ownership part of U.S. AI governance debates alongside export controls, model-security reviews, and federal AI industrial policy.

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X privacy-monitoring comments warn FTC about AI data risks

Ars Technica reported that privacy advocates asked the Federal Trade Commission to reject X's request to end ongoing privacy monitoring, with the July 2 public-comment deadline arriving amid concerns over how X data can be used for Grok and other AI systems. The Electronic Frontier Foundation said it and allied organizations opposed waiving X's consent-order obligations because the platform had allegedly given users insufficient notice about AI training uses and because outside monitoring remained important after the xAI acquisition. The issue is legally significant because it ties AI-training data practices to FTC consent-order enforcement and platform privacy oversight rather than to a new AI-specific statute.

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Midjourney seeks discovery on studios' AI use

Variety reported that Midjourney filed a motion asking Judge John Kronstadt to overturn a magistrate judge's discovery limit and require Disney, Universal, and Warner Bros. to disclose more information about their internal and consumer-facing AI uses in the studios' copyright case against Midjourney. The report said Magistrate Judge Joel Richlin had limited discovery to consumer-facing AI applications, while Midjourney argued that evidence of studio AI practices would support its fair-use and unclean-hands defenses. The discovery dispute is legally significant because it connects AI copyright defendants' fair-use arguments to whether major rightsholders themselves train or deploy generative AI systems on copyrighted material.