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Category: Technology

A ferocious backlash against AI — especially among young people — is everywhere

A ferocious backlash against AI — especially among young people — is everywhere

Michelle Goldberg writes: When Eric Schmidt, the former chief executive of Google, started talking about artificial intelligence during a commencement speech at the University of Arizona on Friday, the graduates erupted in boos. “A.I. is going to touch everything,” said Schmidt, as his stadium-sized audience roared its disapproval. “Whatever path you choose, A.I. will become part of how work is done.” Maybe he meant this as a promise of opportunity, but the students seemed to hear it as a threat…

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U.S.-Iran war highlights the underappreciated national security benefits of China’s electrostate strategy

U.S.-Iran war highlights the underappreciated national security benefits of China’s electrostate strategy

Alison Gocke and Ashley Deeks write: News headlines regularly announce that China has made a wise choice in pursuing clean energy technologies and weaning itself off oil and gas—a trend that has only accelerated with the U.S.-Iran war. These headlines, which emphasize China’s limited exposure to the greatly diminished supply of oil through the Strait of Hormuz, are true. But the news analysis has missed two key aspects of China’s “electrostate” victory over the “petrostate” status that the United States…

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Russia’s war is going badly — on the ground and in the air

Russia’s war is going badly — on the ground and in the air

The Wall Street Journal reports: Ukraine’s military has wrestled Russia’s much-larger army almost to a halt in recent months, having gained a tactical and technological edge. This summer will test whether it can turn that slender advantage into a strategic turning point. Fast-improving Ukrainian drone capabilities are hurting the invaders’ logistics behind the battlefield, and pounding oil infrastructure and military targets deeper inside Russia. “We are not only holding the line, but we are also increasing pressure,” Ukrainian Defense Minister…

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AI industry increasingly viewed by Americans as an existential threat

AI industry increasingly viewed by Americans as an existential threat

The Wall Street Journal reports: The only thing growing faster than the artificial-intelligence industry may be Americans’ negative feelings about it—as former Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt saw on Friday. Delivering a commencement address at the University of Arizona, Schmidt told students the “technological transformation” wrought by artificial intelligence will be “larger, faster and more consequential than what came before.” Like some other graduation speakers mentioning AI, Schmidt was met with a chorus of boos. In one poll after another…

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Book on truth in the age of AI riddled with fake quotes concocted by AI

Book on truth in the age of AI riddled with fake quotes concocted by AI

The New York Times reports: The author of a nonfiction book about the effects of artificial intelligence on truth acknowledged on Monday that he had included numerous made-up or misattributed quotes concocted by A.I. The author, Steven Rosenbaum, whose book “The Future of Truth” was released this month to great fanfare, incorporated more than a half-dozen misattributed or fake quotes in sections of the book reviewed by The New York Times. The Times asked Mr. Rosenbaum about the quotes on…

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Iran eyes a new source of power deep beneath the Strait of Hormuz

Iran eyes a new source of power deep beneath the Strait of Hormuz

CNN reports: Emboldened by its successful wartime blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, Iran is turning to one of the hidden arteries in the global economy: subsea cables beneath the waterway that carry vast internet and financial traffic between Europe, Asia and the Persian Gulf. The Islamic Republic wants to charge the world’s largest tech companies for using the subsea internet cables laid under the Strait of Hormuz, and state-linked media outlets have vaguely threatened that traffic could be disrupted…

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A quantum computing deadline looms. It threatens to kick off the worst cybersecurity crisis ever

A quantum computing deadline looms. It threatens to kick off the worst cybersecurity crisis ever

CNN reports: The clock is ticking on Q-Day, the looming yet unknown date when quantum computing will have the capacity to quickly and easily break the encryption keys that keep most internet communication safe. Experts have known about the hypothetical risk of Q-Day since the 1990s. But Google recently warned that quantum computers may be able to hack some encrypted systems by 2029 — a timeline that drastically narrows the window to safeguard data that many cybersecurity specialists had previously…

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Meta: What it’s like inside a company where ‘everyone is unhappy’

Meta: What it’s like inside a company where ‘everyone is unhappy’

Wired reports: As Meta employees brace for layoffs next Wednesday, May 20, many say the vibes are horrifically, historically low. “Everyone is unhappy; the only people who are not unhappy are, literally, executives,” says an employee who works on Instagram. The social media giant plans to cut about 10 percent of its workforce, or nearly 8,000 people, “to run the company more efficiently” and “offset the other investments” it’s making, according to a human resources leader. But the layoffs, which…

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Neanderthals used stone drills to treat cavities 59,000 years ago, tooth suggests

Neanderthals used stone drills to treat cavities 59,000 years ago, tooth suggests

The Guardian reports: Neanderthals used stone drills to treat cavities almost 60,000 years ago in what is the earliest known evidence of dental treatment. The single molar, which was unearthed in a cave in southern Siberia, features a deep hole that appears to have been created using a sharp, thin stone tool during the lifetime of the tooth’s owner. While the prospect of stone age root canal treatment may be excruciating to even contemplate, archaeologists say the discovery provides remarkable…

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Backlash as Utah approves datacenter twice the size of Manhattan

Backlash as Utah approves datacenter twice the size of Manhattan

The Guardian reports: A plan to create one of the world’s largest datacenters, a gargantuan project spanning an area more than twice the size of Manhattan, has provoked a furious public backlash in Utah amid concerns over its vast energy use and impact upon the state’s stressed water supplies. The Stratos artificial intelligence datacenter footprint will cover more than 40,000 acres (62 sq miles) over three sites in Box Elder county in north-western Utah. The facility will require about 9GW…

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Putin’s forces barely inch along on a battlefield saturated with drones

Putin’s forces barely inch along on a battlefield saturated with drones

The New York Times reports: President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has sought to convince President Trump that his troops are marching toward inevitable victory in Ukraine, arguing that Kyiv should hand over the entire eastern Donbas region to avoid impending defeat. But the situation on the battlefield tells a different story. After making gains late last year, the Russian military has slowed to a crawl. In some parts of Ukraine, it has lost territory. At its average monthly rate…

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Are you as easily fooled as AI? Depends what you see in this image

Are you as easily fooled as AI? Depends what you see in this image

This optical illusion from the natural world is testing the limits of computer vision. Learn more: https://t.co/geC0qeRePT #ScienceMagArchives pic.twitter.com/RKajt7r1zk — Science Magazine (@ScienceMagazine) May 10, 2026 Science reports: If you see a curled leaf in the image above, you’ve fallen for the intricate camouflage of the green fruit-piercing moth (Eudocima salaminia)—a citrus-loving insect that uses the ruse to hide from predators. But don’t feel too bad: Even artificial intelligence (AI) is easily fooled, according to a study published today in…

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Trolling, memes and deepfakes: How AI is thickening the fog of war

Trolling, memes and deepfakes: How AI is thickening the fog of war

Gretel Kahn reports for Reuters Institute: War has never been fought only on the ground. Clausewitz’s concept of the “fog of war” once described the uncertainty and confusion that cloud battlefield decision-making. Errol Morris’ 2003 documentary made the phrase a shorthand for the moral and informational ambiguities of modern conflict. But in the digital age, where war is also filmed, edited and promoted online, the fog is getting thicker and wars, more difficult to cover. The conflict between the United…

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Using AI for just ten minutes might make you lazy and dumb, study shows

Using AI for just ten minutes might make you lazy and dumb, study shows

Wired reports: Using AI chatbots for even just for 10 minutes may have a shockingly negative impact on people’s ability to think and problem-solve, according to a new study from researchers at Carnegie Mellon, MIT, Oxford, and UCLA. Researchers tasked people with solving various problems, including simple fractions and reading comprehension, through an online platform that paid them for their work. They conducted three experiments, each involving several hundred people. Some participants were given access to an AI assistant capable…

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Congress is doing little to prepare for job losses caused by AI

Congress is doing little to prepare for job losses caused by AI

The New York Times reports: Economists aren’t sure if or when artificial intelligence will cause widespread job losses. But they do agree on one thing: The federal safety net isn’t ready for such a shock. The nearly century-old unemployment system, which provides out-of-work Americans with up to 26 weeks of benefits in most states, is unlikely to cover many of the workers who are most at risk of being displaced by A.I., labor experts warn. Job-retraining programs and other forms…

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