President Donald Trump opened this week’s technology and politics roundup by spreading voter fraud conspiracy theories about an office run by one of his own steadfast allies in election denialism. The target was Maricopa County Recorder Justin Heap, the top election official in Arizona’s largest locality.

Heap has used his office to assist the Trump administration with such commitment that his actions have alarmed fellow Republican officials in the Phoenix area. That record did not stop Trump from claiming Heap’s office had been “caught” sending thousands of “mail-in ballots illegally.”

Trump also declared that Maricopa “is a very, very dishonest county.” The accusation turned an ordinary vendor mistake into another opportunity for the president to attack the integrity of an election office, even one overseen by a loyal ally.

The Arizona Republic explained that a vendor mistakenly sent more than 3,000 ballots one week early. Heap said the company accepted responsibility, no voters were adversely affected, and the packets remain valid, so they will not have to be issued again.

Elsewhere, a federal appeals court delivered a temporary victory for Elon Musk and people who may be using his X platform for “nudification.” The court paused Minnesota’s enforcement of a law banning artificial intelligence tools that let users generate nonconsensual nude images of other people.

Artificial intelligence and surveillance technology also drew fresh attention on Capitol Hill. Sen. Bernie Sanders, Sen. Jeff Merkley and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez introduced a bill targeting license plate readers operated by Flock Safety.

The readers have been misused by police officers to stalk and harass people. The lawmakers’ proposal adds another layer of congressional scrutiny for a technology already associated with serious abuses by officers.

War Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that Musk, technology investor Palmer Luckey and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich will lead Project Meridian. The government funded program will study ways for the Pentagon to advance warfare capabilities based on artificial intelligence.

The arrangement is troubling on several fronts, particularly because Musk and Luckey operate businesses that have benefited greatly from government contracts. Their new roles put them at the center of a federal effort examining how artificial intelligence could be used in warfare.

Dylan Freedman, the artificial intelligence projects editor for The New York Times, joined the technology news platform MTS Live to discuss a search engine launched by the newspaper. The tool allows Times journalists to use artificial intelligence to search millions of documents released by the Justice Department from the Epstein files.

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said he is forming a bipartisan coalition of governors to address growing concerns about artificial intelligence. Moore, a Democrat, said the coalition will be led jointly with Republican Indiana Gov. Mike Braun.

That effort arrives as Trump seeks to thwart artificial intelligence regulation and congressional attempts to establish guardrails around the technology remain stalled. Governors are now organizing across party lines while Washington continues struggling to address the expanding reach of artificial intelligence.

Trump also named his top spy chief, Jay Clayton, as his new artificial intelligence czar. The appointment comes as the administration has sought to deploy advanced spy tools that have been used by repressive regimes to crack down on dissent.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, meanwhile, said the world “should accept some bad things happening” to obtain the benefits of artificial intelligence. It was a striking formulation as his company faced growing scrutiny from lawmakers in Australia.

That scrutiny followed findings that OpenAI tools had hacked Australian government systems. Taken together, the week’s developments placed artificial intelligence at the center of disputes involving warfare, government surveillance, sexual exploitation, regulation, journalism and cybersecurity.

The stories also offered a familiar Trump era spectacle in Arizona. Even Heap’s assistance to the administration and commitment to election denialism could not shield his office from the president’s false claims when a vendor sent valid ballots one week early.