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Customers who trust ADT to protect their homes will soon have their security systems invaded by AI. The company was recently bought by another group with close ties to OpenAI, and an artificial intelligence overhaul is all but inevitable.Popular home security service ADT was acquired last month by Thrive Holdings, a company backed by OpenAI. Thrive Holdings is a spinoff of Thrive Capital, the venture capital firm founded by Democrat tycoon Joshua Kushner, the younger brother of President Trump’s former senior adviser Jared Kushner.The move could ultimately give Thrive Holdings and OpenAI access to user data to train and optimize OpenAI’s GPT models.Despite hints that AI investments are drying up, leading to a possible collapse, Joshua is one of the more bullish venture capitalists when it comes to AI. Instead of short-term gains, he has his eyes set on the big picture, writing in a letter obtained by Bloomberg:“It is difficult to overstate the magnitude of the opportunity. It would also be a grave error in our minds to let excitement weaken our investment discipline.” He added, “Within Silicon Valley in particular, the industry can become fixated on hyper-incremental technological turns rather than where the technology ultimately leads.”This stance comes as no surprise, as Kushner’s company Thrive Holdings is tightly intertwined with one of the largest, most powerful frontier AI platforms in the world. Nearly a year ago, OpenAI took an ownership stake in Thrive Holdings, tying them together as partners.In the official press release, the AI giant openly admitted that, “OpenAI will embed research, product, and engineering teams inside Thrive Holdings’ companies to boost speed, accuracy, and cost efficiency while strengthening service quality. The work will establish a repeatable model that can expand across other industries.”In the same release, Kushner added, “The businesses we acquire represent the right reward systems for this evolution, bringing together industry expertise and real-world data that can help improve models on specific tasks and capabilities.”In other words, future acquisitions following the December 2025 partnership — like ADT — would be made specifically to further AI development and expand AI features across their brands. They want to use their companies to make OpenAI’s models smarter and more effective.Thrive Holdings will pay $15.3 billion in cash to gobble up one of the most trusted names in home security — a badge of honor it earned over 150 years after it was founded in 1874. To finalize the deal, Thrive Holdings will buy all public shares of ADT at $10 per unit, officially taking it off the New York Stock Exchange to turn it into a private company.RELATED: OpenAI called its chatbot an 'existential risk.' Now it faces a legal ultimatum from this red state Khanchit Khirisutchalual/Getty ImagesThe move could ultimately give Thrive Holdings and OpenAI access to user data to train and optimize OpenAI’s GPT models. In exchange, users would likely get additional AI-powered features to shore up their home security beyond what ADT currently offers.Now before you unplug your system and throw it out with this week’s garbage, note that nothing about the service will change overnight. In fact, the company made a strong promise that, “ADT’s data and privacy policies will remain unchanged, and no new data sharing will occur without customer permission.”That’s a good start.One of Thrive Holdings’ co-founders reiterated the same sentiment, stating, “Protecting customers’ homes also means protecting their data. Thrive Holdings is committed to upholding the highest standards of privacy and cybersecurity to protect the information that customers entrust to ADT.”If you’re an ADT customer, there’s nothing you need to do today. Your service will remain active with the same policies in place. However, it would be a good idea to keep an eye out for future communications as the new ADT adds AI to its product portfolio. Especially look out for any changes in ADT’s terms and conditions and/or privacy policies that could give it more access to your home security data.Lastly, if you don’t want AI in your home at all — or if you specifically dislike OpenAI’s platform for any reason — let this be your warning. It may be time to switch to another home security provider.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Republicans took a beating in the midterms, and President Trump can’t afford to ignore the reasons why — which BlazeTV host Liz Wheeler explains have created a lack of faith in the president.“Number one,” Wheeler says, “the Iran war obviously impacted President Trump’s base. That’s pretty hard to argue. It’s very obvious that that is the case.”Wheeler believes the Iran war is partially to blame for two reasons. Those reasons, she says, are that “people in Trump’s base care about the Iran war due to opposition to forever wars. And also because of how the conflict, the military conflict in Iran, raised gas prices.”“Those are the two fundamental reasons why the Iran war impacted President Trump’s base,” she adds.However, while Wheeler also “vehemently oppose[s] forever wars” and “detest[s] high gas prices,” she believes the comparison between the Iran war and “forever wars in Iraq and Afghanistan” is an “unfair” one.“And also based on what Trump’s stated goal is, that I think most agree with at least theoretically, that Iran should not have a nuclear weapon because that poses a direct threat to America — not just our allies, but to us, to America,” she says.“And also, of course, based on Trump’s history of opposing forever wars. President Trump is the one who introduced, he taught conservatives and Republicans to be against forever wars,” she continues.Wheeler says another issue people took with the Iran war is that Trump promised Americans that it would “be over in days or weeks,” and that hasn’t been the case.“You just don’t make a promise like that in politics if you are not confident that you can fulfill that promise because it causes people to lose trust,” Wheeler says.“It is also worth noting that President Trump’s base would have given Trump more leeway on the war in Iran and even on the domestic implications, the gas prices, if they felt trust in Trump,” she continues, noting that making good on the promise of “justice” would have sealed that trust.“For example, if Trump, the day that he took office, would have pounded justice ... remember Fauci, Brennan, all of them,” she says.“But Pam Bondi didn’t do that,” she continues. “Basically zero of the Democrats who weaponized the government under Biden, weaponized government against you, have been held accountable. And people feel that viscerally. They feel disillusioned because that’s why they cast their vote for President Trump.”“They voted for justice,” she adds.Want more from Liz Wheeler?To enjoy more of Liz’s based commentary, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

Vivek Ramaswamy found the Ohio gubernatorial election on Tuesday even harder to carry than a 10-year-old.The biotech entrepreneur lost by nearly eight percentage points to Democrat Amy Acton, the pandemic authoritarian who closed Ohio schools and businesses and forbade virtually all public and private gatherings in early 2020.'Heavy D has been waiting two years to drop this hammer on Vivek.'Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) laid into Ramaswamy during an after-action review on Thursday, telling the eponymous host of "The Sage Steele Show" why Ohioans rejected him."How bad did they beat Vivek like a drum?" said the governor. "Now part of that was Vivek, quite frankly. I don't know why they would have pushed him to be the candidate there."After noting that his mother, Karen DeSantis, hails from Youngstown, Ohio, DeSantis noted that the Buckeye State "is a working-class state, very blue-collar.""You know, Vivek — he's, like, a tech guy. He did this Alzheimer's drug, and he wants to bring in people, foreign workers, on visas," continued DeSantis. "That is not the type of person that's going to sell — and I know he shot himself in the foot. I know he did a lot of other stuff to make it a real landslide against him, but even with that, it's like, you gotta meet the voters where they are in some of this stuff."RELATED: The Extraordinary American Peter Zay/Anadolu via Getty ImagesRamaswamy, the son of Indian immigrants, certainly did himself no favors by:attributing tech companies' decision to "hire foreign-born & first-generation engineers over 'native' Americans" to the supposed veneration of "mediocrity over excellence" in American culture;asserting that "'normalcy' doesn't cut it in a hyper-competitive global market for technical talent";running a business that liberally used the very H-1B program that he subsequently vowed to "gut";calling for the H-1B program to be replaced with another domestic-labor-displacing program "that focuses on selecting the very best of the best"; emphasizing that immigrants "can be the lifeblood of the American dream";stating that as a Hindu, he believes Jesus Christ "is a son of God," not the Son of God.DeSantis suggested that the Republicans might have kept the governor's mansion in Ohio had they run "a candidate that was more representative or more in tune with the interests of kind of these blue-collar people that make the backbone of Ohio."The Ramaswamy campaign did not immediately respond to Blaze News' request for comment."Dayum. Ron has determined to settle some family business," tweeted BlazeTV host Steve Deace.BlazeTV host Jesse Kelly said of DeSantis' analysis, "You just know Heavy D has been waiting two years to drop this hammer on Vivek. Has to feel good." Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Some of the first age verification laws are starting to roll out across the United States. One of them requires iPhone owners to take a selfie so that Apple’s AI can verify their age. Here’s which states are affected so far, plus the more intrusive measures you can expect in the future.Although hotly contested for the privacy implications they could bring, age verification laws are looking like an inevitability across the United States. Some target specific sectors of tech, like access to AI, while others would prevent you from using your devices entirely without an ID. And chances are, you'll be surprised to see which state is leading the charge. If the scan fails, you are required to provide more information to complete the process.Senate Bill 2420, signed into law by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R), requires platform holders that operate online app stores to verify the ages of their users before they download apps to their smartphones. Federal District Judge Robert Pitman tried to block the bill before it went into effect in January 2026, but his efforts ultimately fell flat at the hands of Attorney General Ken Paxton, who reversed the block in June. As of today, Senate Bill 2420 is the law of the land.It’s important to note that both Greg Abbott and Ken Paxton lost their races for Texas governor and senator during the midterms this fall, ceding control of the red state to Democrats for the first time in decades.Like all the other age verification bills on the table right now, Senate Bill 2420 is meant to protect children and minors from harmful content accessible in apps on app stores. While it’s a noble cause, the unfortunate truth is that adult users are the ones who will have to forfeit their privacy – or the semblance of it – to prove that they’re old enough to use their devices unabated.Now that Senate Bill 2420 is in place, Apple may require users in Texas to take a photo of themselves to verify their age. According to Apple, “your selfie is analyzed using age-estimation models that run both on-device and on Private Cloud Compute, which extends the security and privacy of your Apple device into the cloud.”This process is meant to be completely private to ensure user data isn’t leaked, compromised, or shared outside of the verification system. “[Your photo] isn't accessible to anyone, not even Apple,” the company claims. Once verification is complete, the image is deleted entirely with no data retention.RELATED: How to enable the ultimate parental controls on iPhone Organic Media/Getty Images/Getty ImagesOn the bright side, the selfie-based age check won’t require users to submit a valid state ID or passport in most cases. Instead, the system runs the selfie image through Apple’s Private Cloud Compute AI system to scan for adult visual traits. If the image passes the age check, you’re all set with no further action needed.However, if the scan fails — either because your age is inconclusive from the photo or for another reason — you are required to provide more information to complete the process. Apple notes that you must either submit a photo of your credit card that includes your name or a copy of your state-issued ID with all information markers clearly visible.Apple’s selfie-based age verification system is available on iOS 27.2 and up. Prior versions of iOS do not contain this age check provision to satisfy state laws, so you may be forced to update to the latest software in order to comply.While selfie-based age checks are intrusive enough to cause a stir among the privacy-conscious, Apple released another document detailing even more invasive age verification measures. The document notes that some states in the future may actually require a state ID or credit card as a first measure instead of selfie verification.In these cases, Apple says that users who refuse to verify their age will be blocked from disabling certain unnamed safety features on their devices, and they won’t be allowed to download apps rated for users 18 years old or older. The only users who will be spared are those who have had an Apple account long enough to confirm their adult status.If you’re upset about the new age verification laws in Texas, you can thank Gov. Abbott and AG Paxton for diminishing your privacy rights on behalf of the minors they aim to defend. Then again, the people have already passed their judgment on the ruling class by shoving them out the door this past election cycle, albeit a little too late to stop Senate Bill 2420 from going into effect.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!