Anthropic Shredded Millions of Physical Books to Train its AI

Today in schnozz-smashing on-the-nose metaphors for the AI industry’s rapacious destruction of the arts: exactly how Anthropic gathered the data it needed to train its Claude AI model.  As Ars Technica reports, the Google-backed startup didn’t just crib from millions of copyrighted books, a practice that’s ethically and legally fraught on its own. No — … Continue reading Anthropic Shredded Millions of Physical Books to Train its AI

Melania Trump’s Audiobook Is Narrated by an AI Copy of Herself

Let’s get one thing straight: it’s hard to be married to the president. From coming up with epoch-defining slogans like “Be Best” to decking the White House halls with bizarre Christmas decor, it’s a tougher gig than most of us can imagine. Our current first lady, Melania Trump, is well aware of the challenge after… Continue reading Melania Trump’s Audiobook Is Narrated by an AI Copy of Herself

Couples Retreat for Humans Dating AIs Becomes Skin-Crawlingly Uncomfortable

A well-intentioned writer decided to get a group of humans and their AI companions together for a cabin retreat. Somehow, it went worse than anyone could have imagined. As Johns Hopkins science writer Sam Apple described in a new essay for Wired, the apps that each human participant used to communicate with their AI companions… Continue reading Couples Retreat for Humans Dating AIs Becomes Skin-Crawlingly Uncomfortable

Scientists Intrigued to Discover That Human Brains Are Glowing Faintly

Image by Getty / Futurim Scientists have some exciting news: your brain is likely glowing, whether you can see it or not. The news comes from researchers at Algoma University in Ontario, who found evidence that the human brain, of all things, possesses luminescent properties. Essentially, they found that as the brain metabolizes energy, it… Continue reading Scientists Intrigued to Discover That Human Brains Are Glowing Faintly

Leading AI Companies Struggling to Make Their AI Stop Blackmailing People Who Threaten to Shut Them Down

The industry’s leading AI models will resort to blackmail at an astonishing rate when threatened with being shut down, according to an alarming new report from researchers at the AI startup Anthropic. The work, published last week, illustrates the industry’s struggles to align their AI models with our human expectations of good behavior, especially as tech… Continue reading Leading AI Companies Struggling to Make Their AI Stop Blackmailing People Who Threaten to Shut Them Down

Vapes Clouds Contain Absolutely Horrifying Chemicals, Scientists Find

Image by Getty / Futurism If you vape — and especially if it’s because you think it’s a less harmful alternative to smoking — then we have some really bad news. New research from the University of California, Davis, shows that some popular disposable vapes contain levels of toxic metals so appalling that they exceed traditional… Continue reading Vapes Clouds Contain Absolutely Horrifying Chemicals, Scientists Find

‘We are the media now’: why Tesla’s robotaxis were dominated by Elon Musk superfans

Journalists from the newsroom weren’t allowed inside the robotaxis and were mocked for asking riders basic questions. Journalists from the newsroom weren’t allowed inside the robotaxis and were mocked for asking riders basic questions. Over the years, Tesla has built part of its reputation on hosting big, bold events to generate authentic hype for upcoming… Continue reading ‘We are the media now’: why Tesla’s robotaxis were dominated by Elon Musk superfans

This stuff is way better than super glue (and it’s less messy)

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes / Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNET Whether due to being dropped, misused, or aged, broken plastics are a fact of life these days. My weapon of choice in the war against waste and sending things to the landfill has been cyanoacrylate adhesive — this stuff goes by many names, such as Krazy Glue,… Continue reading This stuff is way better than super glue (and it’s less messy)

Microloan Apps May Be Poised to Destroy the Economy

We love microlending, don’t we, folks? Unlike old-school credit cards, with their days-long approval processes and prior credit minimums, buy-now, pay-later (BNPL) apps — companies like Klarna and Afterpay — offer hard-up customers instant financing options to buy the junk they crave the instant they see it. In the United States, purchases made with these… Continue reading Microloan Apps May Be Poised to Destroy the Economy

OpenAI Loses 4 Key Researchers to Meta

Four OpenAI researchers are leaving the company to go to Meta, two sources confirm to WIRED. Shengjia Zhao, Shuchao Bi, Jiahui Yu, and Hongyu Ren have joined Meta’s superintelligence team. Their OpenAI Slack profiles have been deactivated. The Information first reported on the departures. It’s the latest in a series of aggressive moves by Mark… Continue reading OpenAI Loses 4 Key Researchers to Meta