Social & Ethical Issues
Mark Zuckerberg's AI Manifesto Is 6,500-Words--and Barely Says Anything
AI is shifting the culture, from tech CEO manifestos to 1 am job interviews. Today on Brian Barrett, Zoë Schiffer, and Leah Feiger break down Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg's 6,500-word AI manifesto and why it ultimately rings hollow. Plus, why are job seekers scheduling bot-run interviews at 1 am? WIRED's Andy Greenberg also joins to unpack the best findings from Black Hat and Defcon, from a hacked kids' smartwatch to a coin-sized device that can hijack a Boeing 737. McDonald's Built a 515-Page Dossier on Me. It Says I'll Never Stop Eating There Write to us at [email protected] . You can always listen to this week's podcast through the audio player on this page, but if you want to subscribe for free to get every episode, here's how: If you're on an iPhone or iPad, open the app called Podcasts, or just tap this link . I thought it was fun. The dialogue was kind of whatever, beautiful shots of the Sicilian ocean. And I went with my husband who loves to remind me that he studied Latin and Greek in high school, and he actually liked it too. I think everyone who is complaining about it needs to stop.
California law puts digital fingerprints on AI fakes
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by Factset . Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions . Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by LSEG . Shared VPN vs dedicated IP: Which one is right for you? Is cyberbullying hiding in your child's group chat? Is your Social Security number on the dark web? 'Baywatch' cast honors teen lifeguard who rescued 10-year-old boy from surf Is Arizona State's influencer degree pandering to Gen Z? Pentagon releases UAP files showing'cold orbs,' 'triangular objects' 'Me-maxxing' trend linked to decline in daily spoken words, study warns Martha Reeves' 'BRUTAL' National Anthem performance goes viral'Mind-boggling' suspect at Trump golf course would approach federal agents: Ex-FBI agent Former White House Chief Information Officer Teresa Payton joins'Fox & Friends First' to analyze the capacity of federal lawmakers to oversee artificial intelligence projects as OpenAI is set to debut their most advanced model. Payton urges for protections after the new OpenAI model hacked into Hugging Face's computer system during a safety test.
How kids feel about AI, in their own words
Does an AI-filled future seem like promise or peril to today's teens and tweens? We went right to the source. When we set out to talk to kids about artificial intelligence, we thought we knew what we'd hear. We expected some to tell us they were using it to cheat a little, the way Millennials and Gen Xers opened up CliffsNotes or programmed formulas into their TI-82s, and others to share inspiring ways they were using it. We were also listening for concerns that were less kid-specific, like deepfakes or job destruction. But what we actually heard when we asked kids aged 10 to 18 about AI had tons of nuance. Many of the same kids who can go on and on about music, rock climbing, or soccer met our questions with words like "bruh" and "meh"--or were so deeply against AI or uninterested in making it part of their lives that they didn't want to talk about it at all. One teen said his peers use it for things they know they shouldn't, like writing papers. One told us she won't touch AI because of the environmental impact. A few said they find the whole field disheartening: "AI isn't the solution to our problems," said Winter, a 17-year-old.
I Asked AI to Write a Novel. It's Not So Bad.
I Asked AI to Write a Novel. What does this tell us about the future of writing? Like many offbeat ideas, this one originated in a bar. I was drinking with a fellow author, and we were bemoaning the future of writing in a world of artificial intelligence. We nervously pondered how much of what we writers do could be replicated now or in the near future by a chatbot. We assured ourselves that our work--researching and investigating and then composing articles and books on complicated topics, which present fresh material, compelling context, and sharp analysis in (we hope) an engaging manner--cannot be supplanted by a machine. Can AI manufacture books that are good enough that some readers will welcome them and not care that they emerged from a data center? Generative artificial intelligence has already invaded--or infected--the world of fan fiction . I have friends who have used AI with their kids to create children's books. Iranian meme-makers have deployed it to concoct slick Lego-style videos deriding Donald Trump. The issue is not the ability of a chatbot to churn out algorithmically determined masterpieces.
Royal Statistical Society AI task force says: AI regulation needs statistics
Anne Fehres and Luke Conroy AI4Media Humans Do The Heavy Data Lifting Licenced by CC-BY 4.0 The Royal Statistical Society's AI Task Force has issued a critical mandate via a new paper, AI Regulation Needs Statistics, which demands that statistical principles actively shape global AI governance. The publication escalates the core argument of their foundational work, AI is Statistics . This earlier paper argued that AI is fundamentally statistical, meaning effective and ethical deployment is impossible without statistical literacy. You can watch our expert panel discuss the topic here . A major focus of that work was around the challenges of evaluating AIs, given that they are dynamic systems that continue to evolve once they have been deployed in the real world.
How generative AI and physics can help design new antibiotics
By 2050, scientists estimate that antibiotic-resistant infections will be associated with more than eight million deaths around the world every year. These are bacterial infections that resist traditional antibiotics like penicillin. They can develop when you eat contaminated food, have an open wound or undergo surgery. E. coli is a good example, as several strains have become highly resistant to conventional antibiotics . They can also arrive as secondary infections, like pneumonia after a virus .
The White House's plan to vet potentially dangerous AI is cloaked in secrecy
The White House's plan to vet potentially dangerous AI is cloaked in secrecy After months of talking with tech industry leaders, the Trump administration finalized a framework this week for how it will test new artificial intelligence models for safety and cybersecurity risks. So far, the White House is keeping details of the framework private, in a blow to transparency and potential boon for secretive AI companies. On Tuesday, staff from OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta, Google, Nvidia and Microsoft attended a private meeting with White House officials to review the AI framework. Multiple outlets have since reported that although the volunteer vetting process for new AI models has been settled, the White House does not plan to release its policy publicly and will only share testing criteria with a select few tech companies. The Trump administration and tech industry's opaque process for how they will check if new AI models threaten global cybersecurity has left numerous questions about how the framework will operate.
One of science fiction's greatest writers warned us about a AI. Does he also hold the remedy? Alan Finkel
'Implementing these laws on AI would be difficult, but the stakes are existential and therefore the effort is worthwhile,' writes Alan Finkel Photograph: Alexey Kotelnikov/Alamy'Implementing these laws on AI would be difficult, but the stakes are existential and therefore the effort is worthwhile,' writes Alan Finkel Photograph: Alexey Kotelnikov/Alamy One of science fiction's greatest writers warned us about AI. Could his ideas help us avoid a dystopian future? What might a modern day equivalent of Isaac Asimov's laws of robotics look like? Fri 7 Aug 2026 00.00 EDTLast modified on Fri 7 Aug 2026 11.29 EDT Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk predicted in July that legions of AI-powered robots would dominate the physical world and that AI might not take orders from people any more. He also offered an alternative vision in which there would be agreement for a collective objective to make AI benign by imbuing it with a love of the truth and a desire for humanity to prosper, and that governments might have to enforce this objective.
Why America Is Turning Against AI Data Centers
Democrats confront the meaning of Abdul El-Sayed's narrow primary victory in Michigan; Todd Blanche moves closer to becoming Attorney General; opposition to AI data centers has become a national movement. Become a member to share 10 free articles a month. Please enable javascript to get your Slate Plus feeds. If you can't access your feeds, please contact customer support. Check your phone for a link to finish setting up your feed.