I am by no means a skilled coder, but thanks to a free program called SWE-agent, I was just able to debug and fix a gnarly problem involving a misnamed file within different code repositories on the software-hosting site GitHub. I pointed SWE-agent at an issue on GitHub and watched as it went through the code and reasoned about what might be wrong. It correctly determined that the root cause of the bug was a line that pointed to the wrong location for a file, then navigated through the project, located the file, and amended the code so that everything ran properly. It's the kind of thing that an inexperienced developer (such as myself) might spend hours trying to debug. Many coders already use artificial intelligence to write software more quickly.

For years, AMD and especially Intel have dominated the PC industry, even after Qualcomm introduced its first Snapdragon processors for laptops. Now, Microsoft may be giving pride of place to Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite processor with an upcoming Windows feature -- and leaving AMD and Intel out in the cold. In May, Microsoft will host its annual Build conference in Seattle. Microsoft will open that conference with a presentation from chief executive Satya Nadella to "share our AI vision across hardware and software," according to Microsoft. That presentation is expected to introduce the Surface Pro 10 and Surface Laptop 5 for consumers, both featuring Qualcomm's surprisingly powerful Snapdragon X Elite processor, based on the Arm architecture.

Microsoft is announcing a new AI-powered Copilot for its Microsoft 365 apps and services today, designed to assist people with generating documents, emails, presentations, and much more. The Copilot, powered by GPT-4 from OpenAI, will sit alongside Microsoft 365 apps much like an assistant (remember Clippy?), appearing in the sidebar as a chatbot that allows Office users to summon it to generate text in documents, create PowerPoint presentations based on Word documents, or even help use features like PivotTables in Excel. Microsoft's Copilot leaked earlier today.

Last November, at the Stockholm University of the Arts, a human and an AI made music together. The performance began with musician David Dolan playing a grand piano into a microphone. As he played, a computer system, designed and overseen by composer and Kingston University researcher Oded Ben-Tal, "listened" to the piece, extracting data on pitch, rhythm, and timbre. Then, it added its own accompaniment, improvising just like a person would. Some sounds were transformations of Dolan's piano; some were new sounds synthesized on the fly.

Spotify has bigger plans for the technology behind its new AI DJ feature after seeing positive consumer reaction to the new feature. Launched just ahead of the company's Stream On event in L.A. last week, the AI DJ curates a personalized selection of music combined with spoken commentary delivered in a realistic-sounding, AI-generated voice. But under the hood, the feature leverages the latest in AI technologies and large language models, as well as generative voice -- all of which are layered on top of Spotify's existing investments in personalization and machine learning. These new tools don't necessarily have to be limited to a single feature, Spotify believes, which is why it's now experimenting with other applications of the technology. Though the highlight from Spotify's Stream On event was the mobile app's revamp, which now focuses on TikTok-like discovery feeds for music, podcasts, and audiobooks, the AI DJ is now a prominent part of the streaming service's new experience.

Can you trust what AI is telling you? It's a new AI model from OpenAI that's designed to chat in a conversational manner. Stuck for ideas on what to talk to a machine about, I decided to interview ChatGPT about the ethics of AI. Would it have the level of self-awareness to be honest about its own dangers? Would it even be willing to answer questions on how it behaves? And while ChatGPT started off by being commendably upfront about the ethics of what it does, it eventually descended into telling outright lies.

The above scenario may not be the stuff of sci-fi blockbusters, but in its own waypoints to an exciting shift in the relationship between citizens and governments. To some degree, we are already seeing this transformation taking shape--government agencies using machines to crunch data, say, or to improve citizen outreach programs. In our daily lives, meanwhile, AI makes countless decisions on our behalf-- though these are rarely more urgent than what to watch on Netflix tonight. The idea that a smart network might, without prompting, take decisive action in order to save human lives, however, is potentially a very big deal. This might be a way off, but the prospect of AI-enhanced government has led to what one observer describes as "a global race among nations," with several Gulf countries--particularly Saudi Arabia and the UAE-- very much in the running.

Once the shining city on a hill that the rest of the world looked to for leadership and guidance, America's moral high ground has steadily eroded in recent decades -- and rapidly accelerated since Trump's corrupt, self-dealing tenure in the White House began. Our corporations, and the technologies they develop, are certainly no better. Amazon treats its workers like indentured servants at best, Facebook algorithms actively promotes genocide overseas and fascism here in the States, and Google doesn't even try to live up to its own maxim of "don't be evil" anymore. In her upcoming book, The Power of Ethics: How to Make Good Choices in a Complicated World, Susan Liautaud, Chair of Council of the London School of Economics and Political Science, lays out an ambitious four-step plan to recalibrate our skewed moral compass illustrating how effective ethical decision making can be used to counter damage done by those in power and create a better, fairer and more equitable world for everyone. In the excerpt below, Liautaud explores the "blurring boundaries" of human-AI relations and how we can ensure that this emerging technology is used for humanity's benefit rather than just becoming another Microsoft Tay.

The drone attack claimed by Yemeni rebels on key Saudi Arabian oil refineries that took place on September 14, 2019 has brought the powerful technology back into the news. Unfortunately, the strikes that disrupted roughly 5% of the world's oil supply has also contributed more ammunition to the overarching negative connotations the word "drone" conjures. "Drone" is a very broad term. Colloquially, drones are usually thought of as remote-piloted flying devices used by militaries for surveillance and offensive tactics or by civilians for recreational or business purposes. Merriam-Webster defines it as "an unmanned aircraft or ship guided by remote control or onboard computers."

The way we talk about AI is a mess. It starts with the most obvious, the imagery. Just like stock photos of happy people pointing at whiteboards were a symbol of the modern workplace, wired brains and robots have now come to represent "the AI". But the visual messaging is only a small part of a much larger problem. Illustration is symbolic -- it relies on familiarity and evokes associations and expectations.