The AI Safety Debate Has Lost the Plot. The risk of nuclear catastrophe is real, as is the fallout of the China-US domination game (hi there, spies). But no need to panic about Skynet. In early fall, I felt my anxiety rising from its usual baseline. Was it September's back-to-school energy? Nope, I realized with annoyance: It was AI--again. Only this time, instead of its purveyors warning of massive job displacement, they were foretelling mass extinction. Who needs jobs when we're all dead? Curiosity soon replaced my knee-jerk irritation. The summer of 2026 was a clear turning point in the AI narrative. Less than four years after ChatGPT launched, OpenAI software broke out of a supposedly safe test environment and hacked into a major open-source platform, Hugging Face . These bits of software-- AI agents --were assigned human attributes: They had "gone rogue," displayed "bad behavior," "cheated."

Americans are electing members of Congress, which is made up of the House of Representatives and the Senate. All 435 House seats are up for election. In the Senate, only 35 of 100 seats are being contested because senators serve six-year terms. This results tracker shows both the races being decided now and the 65 seats that are not up for election this year - 34 held by Democrats and 31 by Republicans. To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.

Israel's election deadlock is a sign of the country's deep divisions Democracy is the worst form of government except for all those other forms that have been tried. So said Winston Churchill in the House of Commons in 1947. His aphorism came to mind as Israel's election results filtered through on Tuesday night - exit polls blending with ballots that were cast to dash or fulfil people's hopes and fears. This election has, in some ways, been a celebration of democracy. Many spent thousands to fly in from abroad to cast their ballot.

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Palestinians say Israel's democracy'is a joke' Palestinians say Israel's democracy'is a joke' As Israelis prepare to vote, Palestinians in the occupied West Bank say they have little hope of change, as they face movement restrictions, expanding settlements and the threat of forcible displacement, with no say in the Israeli elections shaping the reality they live under. Share Palestinians say Israel's democracy'is a joke' on social media Vatican confirms Pope Leo's surgery was successful Food shortages in Yemen's Taiz as Houthi siege hits supplies

Democracy blindsides Silicon Valley's power players looking to transform the world with AI'The push against datacenters speaks to the frustration of people who don't feel they are making the choices in their lives' The Stanford ethicist Rob Reich was once invited to a dinner organized by a Silicon Valley mogul to discuss what a state designed to maximize science and tech powered by commercial models might look like. The gathered technologists were drawn to the idea of building a small nation-state dedicated to the endeavor, Reich recalls in " System Error: Where Big Tech Went Wrong and How We Can Reboot it". When Reich asked whether this state would be a democracy, he got a cool no. "Democracy is too slow, and it holds science back," he was told. "To optimize for science, we need a beneficent technocrat in charge."

EU chief von der Leyen proposes'associate member' status for Canada Share EU chief von der Leyen proposes'associate member' status for Canada on social media European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has raised the prospect of Canada becoming the 27-nation European Union's first "associate member", a striking overture as both seek to pivot away from a hostile United States under President Donald Trump. Von der Leyen's statement on Wednesday came after Prime Minister Mark Carney said earlier this week that Canada was seeking a "unique alliance" with the EU, but not membership. "I would like to work with you on opening the door for Canada to be the first associate member of the EU," von der Leyen told Carney, who was attending her annual keynote speech. The first foreign head of government to attend the annual "State of the European Union" address, his visit comes in advance of an EU-Canada summit in Montreal next month. Carney will deliver his own address to the European Parliament on Thursday.