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McDonald's boss on abuse claims: 'I don't want to talk about the past'

BBC News

McDonald's boss on abuse claims: 'I don't want to talk about the past' The boss of McDonald's UK and Ireland has said she doesn't want to talk about the past when asked about allegations of abuse at the fast-food chain. Lauren Schultz told the BBC what had happened in recent years was unacceptable but said we have drawn a line under it. A BBC investigation in 2023 heard from more than 100 McDonald's workers in the UK claiming they faced a toxic culture of sexual assault, harassment, racism, and bullying. Last year, staff said they still faced sexual abuse and harassment. The UK equality watchdog agreed tougher measures with the company to protect staff in November, including new sexual harassment training.


Anthropic investigating claim of unauthorised access to Mythos AI tool

BBC News

Anthropic is investigating a claim that a small group of people gained access to its Claude Mythos model - the cyber-security tool which the AI firm says is too powerful to release to the public. We're investigating a report claiming unauthorized access to Claude Mythos Preview through one of our third-party vendor environments, the company said in a statement. It was in response to a Bloomberg report that users in a private forum managed to access the model without the normal permissions. There is deep unease about Mythos' capabilities - though the UK's top cyber official has said advanced AI tools could be a net positive if the technology was secured from misuse. There is currently no suggestion that malicious actors have managed to get hold of the model, and Anthropic says it does not have evidence its systems are affected.


Join Our Livestream: Musk v. Altman and the Future of OpenAI

WIRED

Pose your questions ahead of our May 8 livestream about the trial that could determine the fate of OpenAI. Two of Big Tech's most influential billionaires, Sam Altman and Elon Musk, will go head-to-head in a highly anticipated trial beginning April 27. In Musk v. Altman a judge, advised by a jury, will ultimately determine whether OpenAI has strayed from its founding mission to ensure that artificial general intelligence (AGI) benefits humanity, and the ruling could influence how the world's leading AI developer controls and distributes its technology. For now, you can learn more about the trial here . On May 8, a panel of WIRED experts will go live to answer your questions about this consequential case.


There is no nature anymore

MIT Technology Review

No part of the globe is free of human fingerprints. Should we deploy technology to change it back? When people talk about "nature," they're generally talking about things that aren't made by human beings. But while there is plenty of God's creation to go around, it is hard to think of anything on Earth that human hands haven't affected. In the Brazilian rainforest, scientists have found microplastics in the bellies of animals ranging from red howler monkeys to manatees. In remotest Yakutia, where much of the earth remains untrodden by human feet, the carbon in the sky above melts the permafrost below.


The Pope's Warnings About AI Were AI-Generated, a Detection Tool Claims

WIRED

The Pope's Warnings About AI Were AI-Generated, a Detection Tool Claims Pangram Labs' updated Chrome extension puts warning labels on AI slop as you scroll your social feeds. On Monday, a brand-new Reddit account popped up on the widely read forum r/AmItheAsshole, where users have their personal disputes arbitrated by strangers. This particular user asked if they had crossed a line by "refusing to babysit my stepmother's kids because I have my own job and responsibilities." The post itself was succinct, straightforward, and grammatically clean, explaining a situation in which the person's stepmother and father often expected them to provide childcare on little notice, eventually leading to an argument. "Now there's tension at home, and I'm starting to wonder if I handled it the wrong way," the redditor concluded.


Meta's Big Brother move: Mark Zuckerberg's firm starts tracking employees' mouse clicks and taking screenshots of their screens - as one worker calls it 'very dystopian'

Daily Mail - Science & tech

What Gilgo Beach killer's wife REALLY knew: Prosecutor reveals chilling truth about life with monster husband... and the'interests' she couldn't ignore Texas bride airlifted back to US on emergency flight after suffering'life-threatening' illness on honeymoon in Japan I thought I'd quit my addiction to'tweakments' and Botox forever. Then, feeling particularly confident at a Dubai lunch, I asked a stranger to guess my age... The lie my husband told to stop me divorcing him is beyond unforgivable. Every woman must beware... otherwise you might never realize: DEAR JANE Elizabeth Smart stuns fans with new incredible bodybuilding photos: 'I refuse to be ashamed' Dark secrets Days of Our Lives star Patrick Muldoon took to his grave: He'tried to hide' truth for decades... now friends are all whispering the same thing after his shock death New'Hollywood dose' pill: A-listers hooked on'youth elixir' that dermatologists say is anti-aging, shrinks pores, smooths wrinkles... and even banishes rosacea Katie Holmes likes telling comment about ex Joshua Jackson who shot to fame with her on Dawson's Creek Trump threatens to'blow up the rest of' Iran and'its leaders' with new Strait of Hormuz ultimatum'Paranoid' Tiger Woods and Vanessa Trump make major shakeup in the wake of golf legend's DUI scandal Death row inmate Chadwick Willacy who burned Florida mom alive during burglary is executed in front of victim's son What has Adam Levine done to his face? Meta's Big Brother move: Mark Zuckerberg's firm starts tracking employees' mouse clicks and taking screenshots of their screens - as one worker calls it'very dystopian' Meta has revealed plans to start tracking its employees' keystrokes and mouse clicks.


Russia strikes Ukraine's Odesa port, kills railway worker in Zaporizhia

Al Jazeera

What are Russia's gains from the Iran war? 'We are not losers; we are winners' Russia strikes Ukraine's Odesa port, kills railway worker in Zaporizhia Russian drones have attacked Ukraine's main Black Sea port in the southern city of Odesa and a railway in the region of Zaporizhia, killing a train driver, according to Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister Oleksii Kuleba. The overnight attacks damaged the infrastructure of the Odesa port, including berths, warehouses, railway infrastructure and port operators' facilities, Kuleba said in a statement on X on Wednesday. Kuleba said this is "another proof of terrorism, Russia is at war against peaceful people, against those who were simply doing their job and keeping the country moving". Russia also launched several drones and missiles on a flight path near the disused Chornobyl nuclear plant, elevating the risk of a significant accident, according to Ukraine's top state prosecutor. This comes as Ukraine prepares to mark the 40th anniversary of the 1986 Chornobyl disaster on Sunday.


Can you spot the fake? Take the test to see if you can distinguish between real and AI-generated VOICES

Daily Mail - Science & tech

In the past, voice assistants like Siri or the one in your satnav used so-called'synthetic voices'. These require voice actors to spend hours in the recording studio, meticulously sampling all the different words and phrases that the assistant might need. Voice clones, on the other hand, have revolutionised how synthetic voices are created, by using AI to digitally recreate someone's speech patterns. These clones can be created with as little as a few seconds of recorded audio, even using clips from social media or snippets of conversation as the raw material. This has sparked concerns that criminals using AI could easily impersonate friends, family, or co-workers to manipulate their targets . According to the National Trading Standards, criminals are already using AI to clone people's voices and set up unauthorised direct debits over the phone. In the study, the researchers created voice clones of human participants using just 120 pre-recorded sentences. Participants listened to 80 unique sentences - 40 spoken by a real person and 40 spoken by an AI voice clone. The researchers compared human (top) AI-generated (bottom) voice recordings to see why this might be the case, but couldn't find any clear explanation Can you tell which voices are AI?


AI hallucinations found in high-profile Wall Street law firm filing

The Guardian

The elite Wall Street law firm Sullivan & Cromwell has told a court that a major filing it made in a high-profile case contained errors resulting from hallucinations generated by artificial intelligence. Andrew Dietderich, the co-head of the firm's global restructuring group, apologised in a letter to the New York federal judge Martin Glenn on Saturday for the string of mistakes, which included inaccurate citations. The errors, uncovered by the law firm Boies Schiller Flexner (BSF), which was also working on the case, included misquoting the US bankruptcy code and citing cases incorrectly in a filing made on 9 April. In multiple instances, S&C, which employs more than 900 lawyers and has one of the top reputations for corporate work in the US, filed inaccurately summarised conclusions made in other cases using AI. "We deeply regret that this has occurred," said Dietderich in the letter.