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Words Without Consequence

The Atlantic - Technology

What does it mean to have speech without a speaker? For the first time, speech has been decoupled from consequence. We now live alongside AI systems that converse knowledgeably and persuasively--deploying claims about the world, explanations, advice, encouragement, apologies, and promises--while bearing no vulnerability for what they say. Millions of people already rely on chatbots powered by large language models, and have integrated these synthetic interlocutors into their personal and professional lives. An LLM's words shape our beliefs, decisions, and actions, yet no speaker stands behind them. This dynamic is already familiar in everyday use. A chatbot gets something wrong. When corrected, it apologizes and changes its answer.


After Minneapolis shootings, California moves forward bill allowing lawsuits against federal agents

Los Angeles Times

Things to Do in L.A. Tap to enable a layout that focuses on the article. Residents confront ICE agents on Atlantic Blvd. in the city of Bell in June. This is read by an automated voice. Please report any issues or inconsistencies here . SACRAMENTO -- Amid a national uproar over the recent killing of a Minnesota man by immigration agents, the California Senate on Tuesday approved proposed legislation that would make it easier to sue law enforcement officials suspected of violating an individual's constitutional rights.


Challenges to Pelosi part of broader movement to replace the Democratic Party's old guard

Los Angeles Times

Things to Do in L.A. Tap to enable a layout that focuses on the article. Challenges to Pelosi part of broader movement to replace the Democratic Party's old guard Rep. Nancy Pelosi, shown talking to reporters in the U.S. Capitol on Oct. 1, has not said whether she will seek another term in 2026. This is read by an automated voice. Please report any issues or inconsistencies here . Younger Democratic candidates are challenging older incumbents amid increasing frustration over the party's ineffective resistance to President Trump.


Chabria: Is Pelosi getting 'Bidened'? High drama in the scramble for her congressional seat

Los Angeles Times

Things to Do in L.A. Tap to enable a layout that focuses on the article. State Sen. Scott Wiener stands in front of a mural at Oasis, a drag show he helped the owners launch in San Francisco. He intends to run for Nancy Pelosi's long-held congressional seat. The former House speaker has not said whether she will seek another term. This is read by an automated voice.


Newsom signs AI transparency bill prioritizing safety

Los Angeles Times

Things to Do in L.A. Tap to enable a layout that focuses on the article. Gov. Gavin Newsom holds a news conference at the Google office in San Francisco in August to announce new AI partnerships. This is read by an automated voice. Please report any issues or inconsistencies here . Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation Monday requiring AI companies to publicly disclose security protocols and report critical safety incidents.


Composite Reward Design in PPO-Driven Adaptive Filtering

Bereketoglu, Abdullah Burkan

arXiv.org Artificial Intelligence

--Model-free and reinforcement learning-based adaptive filtering methods are gaining traction for denoising in dynamic, non-stationary environments such as wireless signal channels. Traditional filters like LMS, RLS, Wiener, and Kalman are limited by assumptions of stationary or requiring complex fine-tuning or exact noise statistics or fixed models. This letter proposes an adaptive filtering framework using Proximal Policy Optimization (PPO), guided by a composite reward that balances SNR improvement, MSE reduction, and residual smoothness. Experiments on synthetic signals with various noise types show that our PPO agent generalizes beyond its training distribution, achieving real-time performance and outperforming classical filters. This work demonstrates the viability of policy-gradient reinforcement learning for robust, low-latency adaptive signal filtering. Wireless communication systems and sensor networks often operate in noisy, time-varying environments where effective denoising is critical.


How Large Language Models (LLMs) Extrapolate: From Guided Missiles to Guided Prompts

Cao, Xuenan

arXiv.org Artificial Intelligence

This paper argues that we should perceive LLMs as machines of extrapolation. Extrapolation is a statistical function for predicting the next value in a series. Extrapolation contributes to both GPT successes and controversies surrounding its hallucination. The term hallucination implies a malfunction, yet this paper contends that it in fact indicates the chatbot efficiency in extrapolation, albeit an excess of it. This article bears a historical dimension: it traces extrapolation to the nascent years of cybernetics. In 1941, when Norbert Wiener transitioned from missile science to communication engineering, the pivotal concept he adopted was none other than extrapolation. Soviet mathematician Andrey Kolmogorov, renowned for his compression logic that inspired OpenAI, had developed in 1939 another extrapolation project that Wiener later found rather like his own. This paper uncovers the connections between hot war science, Cold War cybernetics, and the contemporary debates on LLM performances.


Gavin Newsom Blocks Contentious AI Safety Bill in California

TIME - Tech

California Governor Gavin Newsom has vetoed what would have become one of the most comprehensive policies governing the safety of artificial intelligence in the U.S. The bill would've been among the first to hold AI developers accountable for any severe harm caused by their technologies. It drew fierce criticism from some prominent Democrats and major tech firms, including ChatGPT creator OpenAI and venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, who warned it could stall innovation in the state. Newsom described the legislation as "well-intentioned" but said in a statement that it would've applied "stringent standards to even the most basic functions." Regulation should be based on "empirical evidence and science," he said, pointing to his own executive order on AI and other bills he's signed that regulate the technology around known risks such as deepfakes. The debate around California's SB 1047 bill highlights the challenge that lawmakers around the world are facing in controlling the risks of AI while also supporting the emerging technology.


Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoes AI safety bill opposed by Silicon Valley

Los Angeles Times

Gov. Gavin Newsom on Sunday vetoed SB 1047, an artificial intelligence safety bill that would have established requirements for developers of advanced AI models to create protocols aimed at preventing catastrophes. The bill, introduced by Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), would have required developers to submit their safety plans to the state attorney general, who could hold them liable if AI models they directly control were to cause harm or imminent threats to public safety. Additionally, the legislation would have required tech firms to be able to turn off the AI models they directly control if things went awry. In his veto message, Newsom said the legislation could give the public a "false sense of security about controlling this fast-moving technology" because it targeted only large-scale and expensive AI models and not smaller, specialized systems. "While well-intentioned, SB 1047 does not take into account whether an AI system is deployed in high-risk environments, involves critical decision-making or the use of sensitive data," Newsom's veto message stated.


California advances landmark legislation to regulate large AI models

The Guardian

A California bill that would establish first-in-the-nation safety measures for the largest artificial intelligence systems cleared an important vote Wednesday. The proposal, aiming to reduce potential risks created by AI, would require companies to test their models and publicly disclose their safety protocols to prevent the models from being manipulated to, for example, wipe out the state's electric grid or help build chemical weapons – scenarios experts say could be possible in the future with such rapid advancements in the industry. The measure squeaked by in the state assembly Wednesday and now faces a final vote in the state senate, where it has passed once already, before it heads to the governor's desk for his signature, though he has not indicated his position on it. Governor Gavin Newsom then has until the end of September to decide whether to sign it into law, veto it or allow it to become law without his signature. He declined to weigh in on the measure earlier this summer but had warned against AI overregulation.