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Category: Technology

‘Pure arrogance’: Anger in Finland as Google illegally fells 250,000 trees for data center

‘Pure arrogance’: Anger in Finland as Google illegally fells 250,000 trees for data center

The Guardian reports: Behind a wire fence lies a vast gaping wound of earth. Before Google’s arrival a few months ago, an estimated quarter of a million trees occupied the 330 hectares (815 acres) of forest near the town of Muhos in rural northern Finland. Now they are all gone. After the tech company illegally stripped the entire area to build a datacentre – taking even the top soil with it – all that remains is a vast expanse of…

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Three reasons why AI is not conscious and perhaps never will be

Three reasons why AI is not conscious and perhaps never will be

Anil K. Seth, Ned Block, and Giulio Tononi, write: Artificial-intelligence systems such as large language models (LLMs) can exhibit behaviour that seems strikingly intelligent. This has led many people, including some experts, to wonder whether these systems could have some form of consciousness — the capacity for subjective experience. However, we think that existing AI systems are not conscious, and that, along current trajectories of development, they are not likely to become conscious. Greater clarity about whether AI could become…

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Why a world without friction is a world without progress

Why a world without friction is a world without progress

Jennifer R Vail writes: In conversations, few words catch my attention faster than ‘friction’ – and especially talk of making things frictionless. From the workplace to grocery shopping, our societies seem to be striving to remove friction from everything. The motivation appears to be that decreasing resistance makes life easier and smoother. Having spent a career as a tribologist, studying friction, wear and lubrication scientifically, I have some opinions on this. I’ll confess that, in most of my career, I…

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Kyiv denies reports that Trump, Musk have restored Starlink speeds in Ukraine

Kyiv denies reports that Trump, Musk have restored Starlink speeds in Ukraine

Kyiv Independent reports: Ukraine’s military Starlink service is still operating at a speed cap of 161 kilometers per hour, a Ukrainian official told the Kyiv Independent on Oct. 22. The official’s statement contradicts claims quoted by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), which reported on Oct. 22 that Starlink functionality was back to normal in Ukraine following a phone call between SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and U.S. President Donald Trump. Trump called Musk on Oct. 21 to request he lift restrictions…

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Unvetted AI agents are accessing U.S. bank accounts, apparently taking actions without user consent

Unvetted AI agents are accessing U.S. bank accounts, apparently taking actions without user consent

Axios reports: Major U.S. banks are detecting unauthorized third-party AI agents operating inside customer accounts, with some agents attempting to take actions that appear to be independent of user instructions, sources tell Axios. Why it matters: AI agents are becoming a nightmare for America’s banks, making their way into banking systems faster than financial institutions can respond. The difficulty in distinguishing between a human and an unauthorized bot is forcing banks to block the technology and rapidly rewrite their terms…

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Hackers used Claude and Grok to automate cyberattacks on over 400 banks and financial firms

Hackers used Claude and Grok to automate cyberattacks on over 400 banks and financial firms

Cyber Security News reports: A cybercrime group used artificial intelligence (AI) agents to coordinate attacks against more than 400 banks, payment providers and other financial organizations across Latin America, according to a report by cybersecurity company Straiker. The group, known as CyberCartel, reportedly used AI models from Anthropic, xAI and Moonshot AI to help plan and carry out parts of its operations. The reported targets span several countries, but Straiker did not name the institutions. Researchers said the system, called…

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Corporate ‘orbital data centre’ proposals are dangerous for humanity

Corporate ‘orbital data centre’ proposals are dangerous for humanity

A computer-generated image of objects in Earth orbit that are already being tracked, before any massive new satellite megaconstellations. Approximately 95 per cent of the objects are space debris in the form of non-functional satellites. (NASA) By Samantha Lawler, University of Regina SpaceX has started a trend. More American companies are betting that they can beat the laws of physics by launching thousands of enormous satellites to create orbital “AI data centres” with names like Cowboy Space’s Stampede. Space commercialization…

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Military heat ray weapon considered for use at border and also against citizens protesting

Military heat ray weapon considered for use at border and also against citizens protesting

CNN reports: The Pentagon has given the Department of Homeland Security permission to test a military-grade heat ray and develop tactics to potentially use it in operations at the southern US border, according to a memo signed by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth last month and obtained by CNN. The heat ray, officially known as the Active Denial System, is a nonlethal weapon that shoots an invisible beam of electromagnetic waves that can reach a little more than half a mile…

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How ex-cops gained access to a massive surveillance network

How ex-cops gained access to a massive surveillance network

The Washington Post reports: When Andrae Wright left his job as an investigator at the Effingham County Sheriff’s Office in 2021, he handed in his gun and badge. But he kept something powerful: his log-in credentials for Flock, a police tool he used to search a vast network of roadside cameras tracking the locations of passing cars. In the five years after leaving the force, Wright searched the system more than 60 times without being stopped by anyone at the…

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Artificial intelligence is capitalism’s final destination

Artificial intelligence is capitalism’s final destination

Arundhati Roy writes: The auguries are raining down hard. Think or Sink. Comply or Die. Look Up or be Left Out. And so, with these not-so-gentle threats, it has come to pass that the Age of AI – Actual Idiocy, Actual Super Idiocy, Recursive Snowballing-Idiocy – is upon us. Heck, I’ve already used two dashes in this opening paragraph. That, as they say, is a tell. So, perhaps I haven’t written this essay at all. You’d have to use an…

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Start-up claims to use AI-created phage viruses to treat a patient

Start-up claims to use AI-created phage viruses to treat a patient

The New York Times reports: For the first time, scientists say they have used viruses designed by artificial intelligence to treat a human patient. Researchers announced on Tuesday that they had administered the virus, known as a phage, to a patient suffering from a deadly bacterial infection. Phages attack bacteria, and the hope is that this one will kill the microbes causing the infection. Radical Numerics, the start-up that created the viruses, posted a technical report about them on its…

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Plants can speak using electricity. This startup built an AI model to decipher their language

Plants can speak using electricity. This startup built an AI model to decipher their language

TechCrunch reports: Justin Mast’s life was changed by a cyborg plant. A few years ago, Mast was reading through some scientific literature when he stumbled upon research about a houseplant wired to a motorized stand. When the plant wanted more light, electrical signals flowed through the living tissues. A control board sensed the current and wheeled the plant closer to the light source. “I’m like, what the heck?” Mast told TechCrunch. “That was the entry to the rabbit hole for…

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The dangerous fatalism of AGI in Silicon Valley

The dangerous fatalism of AGI in Silicon Valley

Aki Ito writes: Last week, Palantir CTO Shyam Sankar mentioned something bizarre in an interview on CBS News. “So many AI researchers have started smoking as a way of signaling to other researchers how much they believe in AI,” he said. Their thinking, he said, goes like this: “I believe so much in AI that it’s going to cure cancer. So I’m showing you my chips are all in.” I laughed as I read the quote. It read like a…

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The fossil fuel comeback is here

The fossil fuel comeback is here

The Verge reports: The US is building more fossil fuel infrastructure than it has in a decade while renewable energy growth slows down, a new report shows. Electricity demand is also climbing faster than it has in more than a decade with more data centers, factories, and electric vehicles plugging into the grid. Despite those growing demands, the Trump administration has sought to hobble the wind and solar industries in favor of fossil fuels. America’s energy landscape is already shifting…

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The Wayback Machine is one of journalism’s most important investigative instruments

The Wayback Machine is one of journalism’s most important investigative instruments

Brewster Kahle writes: In 1996, during the early years of the web, I could see that those of us who were participating online were creating an extraordinary new record of human activity—and allowing it to disappear almost as quickly as we made it. The web was becoming the place where government officials made promises, journalists published information in the public interest, and ordinary people shared ideas and documented their lives. Yet it was fragile—equal parts consequential and ephemeral. Many people…

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What are self-replicating ‘AI worms’, and why is Anthropic worried about them?

What are self-replicating ‘AI worms’, and why is Anthropic worried about them?

The Guardian reports: Warnings about what artificial intelligence might do in the future – together with alarming reports of what it has gotten up to already – are being issued so quickly that even security experts have difficulty triaging what to worry about. Yet a report this week from Anthropic’s offensive research team grabbed attention by describing a new, practical threat, one devoid of human characteristics or apocalyptic musings. The red team, as such internal testers are called, said it…

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