Six Months Ago Elon Musk Called for a Pause on AI. Instead Development Sped Up
Six months ago this week, many prominent AI researchers, engineers, and entrepreneurs signed an open letter calling for a six-month pause on development of AI systems...
The Trial of Sam Bankman-Fried, Explained
Spooked by the revelation and perhaps sensing an opportunity to deal a blow to his rival, Zhao announced that Binance would sell off its own sizable...
Can FTX Be Revived—Without Sam Bankman-Fried?
In 2017, Bankman-Fried started his own trading outfit, Alameda Research, taking seed funding from effective-altruist donors. Early employees were mostly EAs too; it was all about...
FedEx’s New Robot Loads Delivery Trucks Like It’s Playing 3D Tetris
“In the last year or two, people have taken advances in AI and machine learning and said ‘we can make a real business case here, whether...
The Meta AI Chatbot Is Mark Zuckerberg’s Answer to ChatGPT
The AI mimics are available today in beta on Facebook Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp. They include a chatbot based on Paris Hilton playing a mystery-solving detective,...
SoundThinking, Maker of ShotSpotter, Is Buying Parts of PredPol Creator Geolitica
SoundThinking, the company behind the gunshot-detection system ShotSpotter, is quietly acquiring staff, patents, and customers of the firm that created the notorious predictive policing software PredPol,...
AI Hurricane Predictions Are Storming the World of Weather Forecasting
This did not look guaranteed to work, says Matthew Chantry, machine-learning coordinator at the ECWMF, who is spending this storm season evaluating their performance. The algorithms...
Idris Elba Is Ready to Talk About Crypto
Idris Elba learned about crypto at the same time as almost everyone else: when prices went through the roof. The British actor and filmmaker, best known...
Amazon’s All-Powerful ‘Buy Box’ Is at the Heart of Its New Antitrust Troubles
The FTC alleges that Amazon rigs the Buy Box contest in its favor, to the detriment of both sellers and consumers. If a seller offers their...
Risk of a US Government Shutdown Is Fueled by Very Online Republicans
What “reality” means on the right largely depends on which social and media ecosystems one inhabits, even as the party is more unified than ever in...