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Microsoft president warns AI is less regulated than milk and washing machines
Look Up Say More Mashable's Best: E-readers, robovacs, laptops, earbuds, smart home and more Mashable @Home Trending Now Mashable Selects Top creators, ranked Gift Ideas For Everyone On Your List Creator Playbook In My Bag AI at School Safety Net All Series It can't be entirely up to these companies to dictate the terms of their transparency, says Brad Smith. Olivia Tauber is the deputy editor of digital culture, covering creators, media, movies, beauty, and more. Based in New York, her work has appeared in The New York Times, Vanity Fair, The Cut, Teen Vogue, Complex, and Interview Magazine. She holds a Master's degree in Journalism from NYU and a Bachelor's from the University of Michigan. She also runs Fan Mail, a weekly pop-culture newsletter.
'Wicker' is getting a 4DX screening. The internet's imagination is running wild.
Mashable's Best: E-readers, robovacs, laptops, earbuds, smart home and more Mashable @Home Look Up Trending Now Mashable Selects Say More Top creators, ranked Gift Ideas For Everyone On Your List Creator Playbook In My Bag AI at School Safety Net All Series'Wicker' is getting a 4DX screening. The internet's imagination is running wild. We thought this was a joke. Olivia Tauber is the deputy editor of digital culture, covering creators, media, movies, beauty, and more. Based in New York, her work has appeared in The New York Times, Vanity Fair, The Cut, Teen Vogue, Complex, and Interview Magazine.
Kevin Roose Didn't Use AI to Write His Book About AI
The author of says his book "was written by a very tired, overworked, under-slept human being." For most people, the AI Era we're now living in started sometime around the end of 2022, when OpenAI released the first consumer version of ChatGPT to much fanfare--and, ultimately, over 100 million downloads within a few short months. In reality, as WIRED readers know, the story of artificial intelligence stretches back decades. And the work informing today's generative AI products, from chatbots to agents and beyond, has been more than a decade--of blood, sweat, tears, and furious rivalries--in the making. It's that recent history, told through the interweaving stories of three generative AI leaders-- OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google --that's chronicled in Kevin Roose's compelling new book, . Roose, a longtime tech journalist who most recently served as a columnist and podcast host for The New York Times, conducted more than 150 interviews with AI insiders to compile what he hopes becomes something of a historical document, an accurate, in-depth retelling of the people and the institutions, the bloodbath and the drama, that brought Silicon Valley to where it is to today. I spoke to Roose in late September, a few days after he and Casey Newton--with whom Roose previously cohosted the New York Times' podcast--announced the creation of their new media company Machine Gods Media, alongside a podcast distribution deal with NPR. We talked about what Roose and Newton hope to accomplish with the new show, why traditional media companies have a talent problem, and, of course, all things artificial intelligence. KATIE DRUMMOND: You and Casey Newton recently announced that you were launching a new media company, called Machine Gods Media. And your podcast is also called, correct? Yeah, a name so nice we used it twice. When you first announced that you'd be leaving The New York Times, you described your vision for what you wanted to do as one that, quote, "takes AI progress seriously, is clear-eyed about the capabilities and risks of powerful AI systems, and tries to empower and entertain people in the face of radical uncertainty." As you look at the landscape of tech coverage and AI coverage, what's missing from the reporting and commentary that you and Casey want to address with the new show?
Spotify down: What we know so far
Mashable Selects Mashable's Best: E-readers, robovacs, laptops, earbuds, smart home and more In My Bag Look Up Creator Playbook Say More AI at School Safety Net Versus Trending Now Back to School Good Connection: Uplifting stories for a digital age All Series Olivia Tauber is the deputy editor of digital culture, covering creators, media, movies, beauty, and more. Based in New York, her work has appeared in The New York Times, Vanity Fair, The Cut, Teen Vogue, Complex, and Interview Magazine. She holds a Master's degree in Journalism from NYU and a Bachelor's from the University of Michigan. She also runs Fan Mail, a weekly pop-culture newsletter. This Tweet is currently unavailable.
Robotics roadmaps from around the world spotlight of the month: China
Chinese robots have quickly entered global public consciousness in recent years, appearing as background robo-dancers in pop concerts and as humanoid marathon and sprint runners outpacing elite athletes ( 1). Domestically, robots are deployed as traffic guides and restaurant service staff, while swarms of drones entertain audiences in urban light shows or deliver takeout to high-rises ( 2, 3). These public debuts serve to both normalize automation in everyday civilian life ( 4) while projecting international soft power. Behind the public spectacle lies a bold agenda for global economic dominance. In its geopolitical contest with the United States, Beijing sees robotics as the core engine to project power and dictate the future of global supply chains ( 5).
It's Donald Trump Versus MAGA on Data Centers
The president has doubled down on data centers and AI. His base is running in the opposite direction. Welcome back to Power Play! Each week, senior writer Molly Taft tackles a topic around this midterm season's biggest issue: data centers. If you've got a question or thought for the column, feel free to shoot Molly an email at [email protected] or reach them securely on Signal at mollytaft.76.
Microsoft executive called OpenAI's web scraping the 'largest theft of labor in human history'
Executives from OpenAI and Microsoft were reportedly worried about ChatGPT training that scraped millions of news articles, The New York Times reported. Microsoft's director of Applied Science, Dr. Brent Hecht, said OpenAI's work was akin to the "largest theft of labor in human history" that could create a "doom loop," while OpenAI exec Nick Turley said it represented an "existential threat to publishers." Those comments came out of newly unsealed court documents as part of a lawsuit launched by The New York Times against OpenAI and Microsoft in 2023. Only snippets from the documents were made public without any context around them. Several such lawsuits have already swung in favor of AI companies, but judges have pointedly stated that their rulings were made because the law around AI use has yet to be settled.
Anthropic warns of bids to use AI to build biological weapons
Anthropic has disrupted several attempts to use its artificial intelligence models for research that could help develop biological weapons, the United States technology company has reported. The firm listed the cases in a report issued on Thursday outlining misuse of its models, including the chatbot Claude, over the past eight months. Concern continues to rise over the potential dangers posed by AI development. The company said it erred on the side of caution. In one case in May, a scientist sought help with a grant application to engineer mutations to chikungunya - a mosquito-borne virus similar to malaria - to make it more harmful in live animals.
Trump Administration Sides With OpenAI in New York Times Copyright Lawsuit
The US government wrote a letter in support of OpenAI's argument that training AI on others' intellectual property is fair use. The Trump Administration just took OpenAI's side in the artificial intelligence company's legal battle with the New York Times. Now, the government has stepped in, arguing that OpenAI's actions were within bounds. "Constraining LLM development under a misunderstanding of fair use doctrine would thwart such creative and scientific progress while hindering American prosperity and economic mobility," lawyers for the government wrote. While the letter focuses on the New York Times and OpenAI, the government noted that its arguments apply to all of the parties in this case and related cases, including other publishers and authors.