Can you monitor a situation without monitors? The Polymarket sports bar tried

*Hello and welcome to Regulator, a newsletter for *Verge readers who are political junkies, and Washington insiders hooked on technology.

I was taking Friday off in Maine when two major pieces of tech news dropped: first, the White House released its framework for a comprehensive national AI bill. Second, Polymarket opened the Situation Room, a pop-up bar in Mount Vernon Triangle that was supposed to be a room for “monitoring the situation” on a wall of television screens.

According to reports, it did not go well. The bar had to close early because the giant wall of screens — the very point of the bar — was not working. Polymarket provided guests free Champagne as an apology for the technical glitch. One attendee described the event as “monumentally stupid.”

Red on red violence, AI edition

For months, I’ve written about the growing rift inside the MAGA coalition between the tech right and the conservative movement. On Monday, a group of Republicans announced the launch of the Alliance for a Better Future (ABF), with the goal of fighting the AI industry’s growing political influence. The members include high-powered figures from conservative circles like the Heritage Foundation and American Compass.

But within hours, it drew fire from another high-powered Republican: Nathan Leamer, executive director of Build American AI, an advocacy group connected to pro-AI industry donors like Andreessen-Horowitz and OpenAI’s Greg Brockman. This internal conflict highlights a significant ideological rift over AI regulation, child safety, and job security.

Crypto Clarity

The crypto markets were rocked this week when the White House released compromise language for the Clarity Act. The key issue: the new bill strictly curtails stablecoin yields and bans stablecoin rewards programs, a move that favors traditional banks over crypto platforms.