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| | |  | Bill Gates attended the Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference at the Sun Valley Lodge on July 9, 2026. Every year, some of the world's wealthiest and most powerful figures from the media, finance, technology, and political spheres converge at the Sun Valley Resort for the exclusive week-long conference hosted by boutique investment bank Allen & Co. (Kevin Dietsch / Getty Images) |
| Gates Foundation Commits $1 Billion for AI Initiative | The Gates Foundation says it’s planning to spend at least $1 billion over the next two years to give AI tools to educators, healthcare workers, and farmers. Forty percent of the funding will go toward AI education programs in the U.S. and abroad. Another 40% will go toward healthcare, including tools for rural doctors in developing countries. KUOW reports this includes an AI-enabled ultrasound device that attaches to a regular smartphone. Of the final 20%, ten percent will be for small farmers globally to use tools like measuring soil health and making predictions about crop outcomes, and ten percent for training and operating AI on/in more languages. [KUOW] | - WA reps call for AI regulations: Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal told KIRO 7, “60% of my constituents work for these companies, but they want regulation as well. They want their companies to not be surveilling people. They want these companies to allow for democracy in these industries.” Jayapal said she has been working on bipartisan changes to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. And Sen. Maria Cantwell demanded urgent federal guardrails and mandatory independent safety testing for frontier AI models on the Senate floor this week. [KIRO 7, GeekWire]
- AI Medicare program reveals ‘staggering’ denial rate: Medicare has been running an artificial intelligence-enabled prior authorization program for certain medical services in Washington since the start of the year. After complaints from patients and doctors and a lawsuit, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services released documents showing that in Washington the program’s denial rate was 53% in its first three months. Before this program, Medicare did not require prior authorization for most services. What’s more, the contractors paid to run this program are “paid based on the claims denied.” [Seattle Times]
- Palantir and Chipotle partnering on food safety: In news that creates sentences never-before-written, the burrito chain is working with AI-surveillance giant Palantir (which has offices in Seattle) to build a platform that monitors pest incidents, employee illnesses, and other factors. Half of Palantir’s business now comes from corporate America, though it also has a $30 million contract with ICE to build a surveillance platform with data on people self-deporting. [WIRED]
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| | | Take a listen to Weaving Our Future: Stories for a Fair Economy with City Cast Seattle host Jane C Hu and local leaders from around King County. This is a five-part series about what a fair economy looks like told through the stories of the people building it. |
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| What Seattle’s Talking About |
| 🧑🏻⚖️ WA joins lawsuits over immigrants’ access to public benefits: The State of Washington, City of Seattle, and King County joined two separate lawsuits to block a new Trump administration rule that allows immigration officers to deny green cards and visas based on applicants’ legal use of public benefits like Medicaid, SNAP, and housing assistance. The rule also could apply to citizen family members’ use of state-provided benefits. The administration's rule applies to cases submitted on or after September 18. [KING 5] | | 🏩 Seattle protects poly and multigenerational households: On Tuesday, city council unanimously passed a measure to extend civil rights protections to non-monogamous people and multigenerational households. The measure also recognizes additional sexual orientations and gender identities as protected classes under local law. The protections aim to address the housing and workplace discrimination faced by these groups. Cities like Olympia, Portland, and Oakland have all passed similar legislation this year. [The Guardian] | |  | Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck sponsored the bill. She said this is part of a “decades-long process” to recognize protected classes with “a degree of inclusivity.” (Seattle Channel) |
| 🧐 Government misconduct has a $1 billion price tag: Lawsuit payouts for government misconduct in Washington continue to exceed the liability account’s balance. Washington needs to spend another $1.3 billion over the next two years on cases like government negligence that led to childhood sexual abuse, wrongful termination, and deaths in prison. As of the end of June, the state’s outstanding liability in these cases was estimated at $4.4 billion. [Washington State Standard] |
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| | | Habitat for Humanity is making homeownership in Seattle more affordable. At Liberty Commons in Columbia City, located steps from light rail, condos range from $165,000–$285,000—about half the traditional market rate. Depending on the home and buyer, monthly costs could compare to $1,200–$3,900 per month in rent. Households earning roughly $40,000–$116,000 may qualify. If homeownership has felt out of reach, visit BuyHabitat.org to see what’s possible. |
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