Models using structured state space sequence (S4) layers have achieved state-of-the-art performance on long-range sequence modeling tasks. An S4 layer combines linear state space models (SSMs), the HiPPO framework, and deep learning to achieve high performance. We build on the design of the S4 layer and introduce a new state space layer, the S5 layer. Whereas an S4 layer uses many independent single-input, single-output SSMs, the S5 layer uses one multi-input, multi-output SSM. We establish a connection between S5 and S4, and use this to develop the initialization and parameterization used by the S5 model. The result is a state space layer that can leverage efficient and widely implemented parallel scans, allowing S5 to match the computational efficiency of S4, while also achieving state-of-the-art performance on several long-range sequence modeling tasks. S5 averages 87.4% on the long range arena benchmark, and 98.5% on the most difficult Path-X task.

History has long been a theater of war, the past serving as a proxy in conflicts over the present. Ron DeSantis is warping history by banning books on racism from Florida's schools; people remain divided about the right approach to repatriating Indigenous objects and remains; the Pentagon Papers were an attempt to twist narratives about the Vietnam War. The Nazis seized power in part by manipulating the past--they used propaganda about the burning of the Reichstag, the German parliament building, to justify persecuting political rivals and assuming dictatorial authority. That specific example weighs on Eric Horvitz, Microsoft's chief scientific officer and a leading AI researcher, who tells me that the apparent AI revolution could not only provide a new weapon to propagandists, as social media did earlier this century, but entirely reshape the historiographic terrain, perhaps laying the groundwork for a modern-day Reichstag fire. These are powerful and easy-to-use programs that produce synthetic text, images, video, and audio, all of which can be used by bad actors to fabricate events, people, speeches, and news reports to sow disinformation.

I'm about to take a bite from a slice of Key lime pie at the Toothsome Chocolate Emporium when a host named Jacques stops by. He looks at my plate and tells me it's a good thing the desserts weren't made to his specifications. If it had been up to him, my pie would be filled with mini metal keys. That's because Jacques is a robot. Or, rather, an actor playing a robot in a costume made of random clamps, clasps and metal hands, with leather overalls in various shades of cocoa and a bowler cap.

The clips are from a YouTube channel called House of News, which presents itself as an English-language media outlet. Researchers say the videos are part of the Venezuelan government's attempts to spin the narrative on social media, considered one of the last bastions of free speech in a nation where outlets are censored and journalists are often persecuted. The incorporation of AI, experts told The Washington Post, seems to be a new addition to the government's disinformation campaigns, which range from incentivizing Twitter users to post specific talking points to using bots that spit out the regime's messaging.

AI images have shocked the photography world with their hyper-realistic output. But there is seemingly one thing they keep stumbling over -- hands. AI image generators such as DALL-E, Midjourney, and Stable Diffusion are notorious for adding one too many fingers or morphing digits together, making them look nightmarish. Midjourney is getting crazy powerful--none of these are real photos, and none of the people in them exist. Earlier this year, PetaPixel reported on realistic party pictures generated by AI.

"You may not know this," the DJ coos patronizingly, "but this song turns 30 this year." The only difference is this DJ is not a real person. AI DJ is the next move in Spotify's never-ending goal to "personalize" our listening experiences. Like its Discover Weekly new music playlist, or its end-of-year Wrapped recap, the AI DJ curates a stream of songs it thinks I'll like based on my listening history. Along with the tunes, I get segues of "commentary" from a male AI voice, which bursts with the forced friendliness of an over-invested high school guidance counselor.

Microsoft's search engine Bing is powered by artificial intelligence software from OpenAI, maker of the chatbot ChatGPT, and right now, it is all over the news. Witness the disturbing article by Kevin Roose, who describes for the New York Times his interactions with the search engine's AI. After some prodding from Roose, the AI declared its love for its human interlocutor, suggesting that Roose leave his wife and family to bond with it -- even if no one is sure exactly where or how a human could bond with an AI chatbot. There is no "where" in physical space for such machine-human bonding. There are only cold lines on a flat computer screen.

One of Europe's biggest media groups has warned journalists that artificial intelligence (AI) could steal their jobs, and has provided tips for how reporters can avoid the chop. The chief executive of Axel Springer -- which owns Insider, Politico and German tabloid newspaper Bild -- told employees in a memo Tuesday that "artificial Intelligence has the potential to make independent journalism better than it ever was -- or simply replace it." In the memo, shared with CNN, Mathias Döpfner predicts that AI will soon be able to aggregate information much better than humans, and urges newsrooms to place a greater emphasis on commentary, exclusive news and investigations that can't be done by machines. Journalists would still be needed to understand people's "true motives", he said. "In short, the creation of exclusive and attractive content remains irreplaceable and is going to become even more critical to success for publishers," Döpfner wrote.

Campus Reform correspondents Wyatt Eichholz and Kale Ogunbor joined'Fox & Friends First' to discuss the impact of woke culture on college campuses. Liberal media figures and professors mocked and attacked the New York Times Wednesday for publishing a guest essay from a conservative Ivy League student criticizing his campus' progressive attitude. The essay "My Liberal Campus Is Pushing Freethinkers to the Right" came from Princeton University senior Adam S. Hoffman who described his fellow campus conservatives as growing increasingly more right-wing in backlash to their college's more leftist stances. "Today's campus conservatives embrace a less moderate, complacent and institutional approach to politics. Instead of belief in the status quo, many tend toward scorched-earth politics. But these changes aren't solely the consequence of a fractured national politics," Hoffman wrote.

Taipei, Taiwan – As the arrival of artificial intelligence-powered chatbots sends shockwaves through the global tech industry, China is racing to produce versions of its own. China's search-engine giant Baidu has announced plans to release its chatbot ERNIE sometime in March, following the pioneering launch of ChatGPT, which has prompted existential questions about the future of sectors ranging from education to journalism and healthcare. Chinese tech shares rallied in response to the news and authorities have pledged to beef up their support of the sector. Similar projects to ERNIE are under way at Chinese tech giants Huawei, Alibaba, Tencent, JD.com and top institutions including the Beijing Academy of Artificial Intelligence. China's Ministry of Science and Technology said last week it would push for the integration of AI across Chinese industry, while cities including Beijing have also announced plans to back developers.