Why you shouldn’t trust AI search enginesPlus: The original startup behind Stable Diffusion has launched a generative AI for video.
Author: Melissa Heikkilä
Covid-19 has blown apart the myth of Silicon Valley innovation
The pandemic shows that the US is no longer much good at coming up with technologies relevant to our most basic needs.Author: David Rotman
How to know if artificial intelligence is about to destroy civilization
These canaries in the coal mines of AI would be signs that super-intelligent robot overlords are approaching
Author: Oren Etzioni
The biggest technology failures of 2020
The covid pandemic made this the year we counted on technology more than ever. Here's how it failed us.
Author: Antonio Regalado
How CRISPR could help save crops from devastation caused by pests
Gene editing insects could help reduce reliance on pesticides—and help protect billion-dollar industries.
Author: Emma Foehringer Merchant
Why Meta’s latest large language model survived only three days online
Galactica was supposed to help scientists. Instead, it mindlessly spat out biased and incorrect nonsense.
Author: Will Douglas Heaven
How Meta and AI companies recruited striking actors to train AIHollywood actors are on strike over concerns about the use of AI, but for as little as $300, Meta and a company called Realeyes hired them to make avatars appear more human.
Author: Eileen Guo
Bans on deepfakes take us only so far—here’s what we really needThere is a big elephant in the room: outright bans might not even be technically feasible.
Author: Melissa Heikkilä
This new data poisoning tool lets artists fight back against generative AIThe tool, called Nightshade, messes up training data in ways that could cause serious damage to image-generating AI models.
Author: Melissa
Heikkilä
VR is as good as psychedelics at helping people reach transcendence
On key metrics, a VR experience elicited a response indistinguishable from subjects who took medium doses of LSD or magic mushrooms.
Author: Hana Kiros
The field of natural language processing is chasing the wrong goal
Researchers are too focused on whether AI systems can ace tests of dubious value. They should be testing whether systems grasp how the world works.
Author: Jesse Dunietz
The porcelain challenge didn’t need to be real to get viewsSebastian Durfee created a fake teen challenge—and got banned from TikTok. It kind of proved his point about online moral panics.
Author: A.W. Ohlheiser
The YouTube baker fighting back against deadly “craft hacks”Ann Reardon spends her time debunking dangerous activities that go viral on the platform—but the craze shows no signs of abating.
Author: Amelia Tait
You need to talk to your kid about AI. Here are 6 things you should say.As children start back at school this week, it’s not just ChatGPT you need to be thinking about.
Authors: Rhiannon Williams & Melissa Heikkila
Here are some actual facts about George Church’s DNA dating companyIt’s called Digid8 and will try to use your genes to make sure you never meet the wrong person.
Author: Antonio Regalado
The pandemic has changed how criminals hide their cash—and AI tools are trying to sniff it outLockdown has forced criminals to launder money in new ways, but older tech has been slower to adapt than AI techniques.
Author: Will Douglas Heaven
A Disney director tried—and failed—to use an AI Hans Zimmer to create a soundtrackAI generated a “7 out of 10” track. “But the reason you go into Hans Zimmer is for 10 out of 10,” says Gareth Edwards.
Author: Melissa Heikkilä
We’re on track to set a new record for global meat consumptionThat’s a problem for the climate. But the solution can’t be to tell people to stop eating meat.
Authors: Dan Blaustein-Rejto & Alex Smith
Bias isn’t the only problem with credit scores—and no, AI can’t helpThe biggest-ever study of real people’s mortgage data shows that predictive tools used to approve or reject loans are less accurate for minorities.
Author: Will Douglas Heaven