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California's Draft AI Law Would Protect More than Just People

TIME - Tech

Few places in the world have more to gain from a flourishing AI industry than California. Few also have more to lose if the public's trust in the industry were suddenly shattered. In May, the California Senate passed SB 1047, a piece of AI safety legislation, in a vote of 32 to one, helping ensure the safe development of large-scale AI systems through clear, predictable, common-sense safety standards. The bill is now slated for a state assembly vote this week and, if signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom, would represent a significant step in protecting California citizens and the state's burgeoning AI industry from malicious use. Late Monday, Elon Musk shocked many by announcing his support for the bill in a post on X. "This is a tough call and will make some people upset, but, all things considered, I think California should probably pass the SB 1047 AI safety bill," he wrote.


How 'Friendshoring' Made Southeast Asia Pivotal to the AI Revolution

TIME - Tech

Employees entering Intel's advanced PG8 foundry on the Malaysian island of Penang must take elaborate safety precautions. First, staff don blue shoe coverings, followed by a hairnet, plastic hood, facemask, bunny suit, latex gloves, and eye goggles. Finally, plastic boots are placed over those already-covered shoes with a special strap tucked into the wearer's socks to "ground" them. For it's not just a stray hair or skin flake that can be deadly to Intel's latest artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductor chips--even the static shock from an unsuspecting pinky can measure 10,000 volts and fry their delicate circuitry. "Static is a unit killer," says Phynthamilkumaran Siea Dass, Intel's director of assembly test manufacturing in Penang, as he leads TIME through interlocked doors into PG8's cleanroom.


Russia hits Ukraine for 2nd day with 'outrageous,' 'cowardly' missile attacks on civilian areas

FOX News

Ukraine continues to reel from Russia's missile strike on Monday, which ranks as the largest attack since the start of the war, as Moscow is beginning to suggest that Ukraine could make desperate moves. "Russia's large-scale strikes on Ukraine's critical infrastructure on Monday are almost certainly in response to Ukraine's incursion into Kursk Oblast, breaching Russia's border," Rebekah Koffler, told Fox News Digital. "Zelenskyy likely anticipated Russia's retaliation and accepted the risk anyway," Koffler explained. "Zelenskyy wants to stay in the fight - there's no other path for him personally or professionally." "To stay in the fight, he needs more weapons and financing from the West," she added.


Aftermath of Russian missile and drone attacks on Ukraine

Al Jazeera

Russia has launched a second straight day of missile and drone attacks, targeting several Ukrainian regions and killing at least five people. Two people were killed when a hotel was "wiped out" by a missile in the central city of Kryvyi Rih, regional officials said on Tuesday. Three died in drone attacks on the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Tuesday said Kyiv would retaliate and asked allies to consider joint air defence operations and provide long-range weapons capabilities. Ukraine's air force said it downed five of 10 incoming Russian missiles and 60 of 81 drones in Tuesday's attacks.


'Putin is vindictive': Russia pounds Ukraine as Kyiv pursues Kursk assault

Al Jazeera

Kyiv, Ukraine โ€“ Russia's aerial attack on Ukraine was colossal. Moving in waves from several directions and at different speeds and heights, 127 missiles and 109 drones attacked 15 of Ukraine's 24 regions. The attack is being seen in Ukraine as Russian President Vladimir Putin's revenge for Kyiv's daring incursion into the western Russian region of Kursk that began in early August and has resulted in the apparent takeover of more than 1,000sq kilometres (386sq miles). "He is a vindictive person, he got offended," General Lieutenant Ihor Romanenko, ex-deputy head of the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces, told Al Jazeera. The attack began in predawn darkness on Monday as buzzing swarms of explosives-laden heavy drones took off from the Azov Sea town of Yeisk in southwestern Russia.


AI Doomers Had Their Big Moment

The Atlantic - Technology

Helen Toner remembers when every person who worked in AI safety could fit onto a school bus. Toner hadn't yet joined OpenAI's board and hadn't yet played a crucial role in the (short-lived) firing of its CEO, Sam Altman. She was working at Open Philanthropy, a nonprofit associated with the effective-altruism movement, when she first connected with the small community of intellectuals who care about AI risk. "It was, like, 50 people," she told me recently by phone. They were more of a sci-fi-adjacent subculture than a proper discipline. The deep-learning revolution was drawing new converts to the cause.


What will AI mean for economic inequality?

MIT Technology Review

What does this have to do with AI? AI development is concentrated in the aging countries, and thus it will follow the path set by the realities, needs, and incentives in those places. Aging countries are seeing the ratio of working-age people to retirees collapse, making it more difficult to sustain pension schemes and contain health-care costs. Countries looking to maintain their retirees' living standards and their overall economic dynamism will seek ways to expand their effective labor force, be that with humans or with artificial agents. Limited (and likely highly unpopular) gains could come from increasing the retirement age. More sizable gains could come from immigration.


The Election-Interference Merry-Go-Round

The New Yorker

In October, 2020, Bob Ferguson, the attorney general of Washington State, launched an initiative to combat "election interference." A press release noted Donald Trump's repeated claims that the coming election would be "rigged" against him, leading many of Ferguson's constituents to fear that the result was being delegitimized in advance. In response, Ferguson pledged to defend "the longstanding American tradition of a peaceful transition of power." This year, Ferguson ran for governor of Washington, as a Democrat. So, too, did Bob Ferguson, and Bob Ferguson.


Russia launches another wave of missiles and drones at Ukraine

Al Jazeera

Russia has launched waves of missile and drone attacks targeting several Ukrainian regions killing at least four people, according to Ukraine's military, a day after it carried out a "massive" attack on Ukraine's power grid. Two people were killed when a hotel was "wiped out" in the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih, regional officials said on Tuesday. Two more people died in drone attacks on the city of Zaporizhzhia, east of Kryvyi Rih. The Kyiv region's air defence systems were deployed several times overnight to repel missiles and drones targeting Kyiv, the regional military administration said on the Telegram messaging app. Ukrainian air defences shot down about 15 drones and several missiles near the Ukrainian capital during Russia's overnight attack, Serhiy Popko, head of Kyiv's military administration, said on Tuesday morning.


Elon Musk's X tweaks chatbot after warning over US election misinformation

Al Jazeera

The social media platform X has made a change to its AI chatbot after five secretaries of state in the United States warned it was spreading election misinformation. Top election officials from Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Washington sent a letter this month to Elon Musk complaining that the platform's AI chatbot, Grok, produced false information about state ballot deadlines shortly after President Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential race. The secretaries of state requested that the chatbot instead direct users who ask election-related questions to CanIvote.org, a voting information website run by the National Association of Secretaries of State. Before listing responses to election-related questions, the chatbot now says, "For accurate and up-to-date information about the 2024 U.S. Elections, please visit Vote.gov." Both websites are "trustworthy resources that can connect voters with their local election officials", the five state secretaries said in a shared statement.