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Category: Technology

Elon Musk and the right’s war on Wikipedia

Elon Musk and the right’s war on Wikipedia

Molly White writes: When Elon Musk launched his latest crusade against Wikipedia this Christmas Eve, it wasn’t just another of the billionaire’s frequent Twitter tantrums. His gripes about the community-written encyclopedia expose something far more significant: the growing efforts by America’s most powerful right-wing figures to rewrite and control the flow of information. While Musk’s involvement began with grievances about his own coverage on the website, his recent attacks reveal his growing role in this broader campaign to delegitimize Wikipedia,…

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With Gaza war and Trump’s return, Silicon Valley embraces a military renaissance

With Gaza war and Trump’s return, Silicon Valley embraces a military renaissance

Sophia Goodfriend reports: On Dec. 10, Israeli military officials, weapons manufacturers, and American venture capitalists gathered at Tel Aviv University for the first ever DefenseTech Summit. The two day affair featured panels on “The Future of Global Conflict,” “Challenges of Iron Swords” (the IDF’s name for the war in Gaza) and “Exploring Innovation in Drone Technology.” Representatives from Palantir, Sequoia Capital, and Elbit shared the stage with the Director General of the IDF and the head of LOTEM, the army…

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Facebook and Instagram to unleash AI-generated ‘users’ no one asked for

Facebook and Instagram to unleash AI-generated ‘users’ no one asked for

Rolling Stone reports: Since burning through tens of billions of dollars on its flop “metaverse” concept and laying off thousands in the aftermath of that gamble, tech giant Meta has strained to reinvent itself as a company poised to capitalize on the overhyped AI revolution. Last year, for example, founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg unveiled animated AI chatbots modeled as alter egos of celebrities including Snoop Dogg, MrBeast, Paris Hilton, and Kendall Jenner. But licensing the voices and likenesses of famous people did little to endear Meta to the younger demographics it wants to turn…

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Large Language Models don’t actually model human language

Large Language Models don’t actually model human language

The Register reports: In May, Sam Altman, CEO of $80-billion-or-so OpenAI, seemed unconcerned about how much it would cost to achieve the company’s stated goal. “Whether we burn $500 million a year or $5 billion – or $50 billion a year – I don’t care,” he told students at Stanford University. “As long as we can figure out a way to pay the bills, we’re making artificial general intelligence. It’s going to be expensive.” Statements like this have become commonplace…

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Musk calls for MAGA’s ‘contemptible fools’ to be expelled from the Republican Party

Musk calls for MAGA’s ‘contemptible fools’ to be expelled from the Republican Party

Salon reports: Tesla CEO Elon Musk may have financed an anti-immigrant, ‘America First’ presidential campaign to the tune of $250 million, but his call for more skilled foreign-born workers sparked massive backlash from President-elect Donald Trump’s far-right supporters. Musk on Wednesday asserted that there was a “dire shortage of extremely talented and motivated engineers in America” and called for increased visa availability, drawing scorn from many of Trump’s followers and close allies. Former Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., a momentary pick…

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Elon Musk calls Jeff Bezos’ ex-wife MacKenzie Scott’s $19 billion charitable donations ‘concerning’

Elon Musk calls Jeff Bezos’ ex-wife MacKenzie Scott’s $19 billion charitable donations ‘concerning’

Benzinga reports: Tesla Inc. CEO Elon Musk has raised fresh concerns about MacKenzie Scott‘s charitable donations, highlighting growing tensions over billionaire philanthropy and its societal impact. What Happened: Responding to a social media post about Scott’s donations to liberal nonprofits, Musk offered a one-word critique: “Concerning.” The comment came after author John LeFevre highlighted Scott’s contributions to organizations focused on racial equity, social justice, and LGBTQ+ rights. Scott, who received Amazon.com Inc. shares worth billions in her 2019 divorce from…

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The race to translate animal communication into human language

The race to translate animal communication into human language

Arik Kershenbaum writes: In 2025 we will see AI and machine learning leveraged to make real progress in understanding animal communication, answering a question that has puzzled humans as long as we have existed: “What are animals saying to each other?” The recent Coller-Dolittle Prize, offering cash prizes up to half-a-million dollars for scientists who “crack the code” is an indication of a bullish confidence that recent technological developments in machine learning and large language models (LLMs) are placing this…

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The alchemy that powers the modern world

The alchemy that powers the modern world

December 13, 2024 by Sarah Scoles The astronomer Carl Sagan once said, “If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.” That universe must then invent the first atoms, which will make up the first stars, which will fuse those initial elements into larger ones. Stars will explode and die and crash into each other, those cataclysms building heavier elements. Eventually, billions of years later, the universe will produce an Earth whose insides…

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Hyundai is becoming the new Tesla

Hyundai is becoming the new Tesla

Patrick George writes: Hyundai has a lot riding on a patch of rural Georgia. In October, the South Korean auto giant opened a new electric-vehicle factory west of Savannah at the eye-watering cost of $7.6 billion. It’s the largest economic-development project in the state’s history (one that prompted the Georgia statehouse to pass a resolution recognizing “Hyundai Day”). For now, workers at the so-called Metaplant are building the company’s popular electric SUV, the Hyundai Ioniq 5, and soon more EVs will be built there, too….

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AI chatbots show dementia-like cognitive decline in tests, raising questions about their future in medicine

AI chatbots show dementia-like cognitive decline in tests, raising questions about their future in medicine

The British Medical Journal reports: Almost all leading large language models or “chatbots” show signs of mild cognitive impairment in tests widely used to spot early signs of dementia, finds a study in the Christmas issue of the BMJ. The results also show that “older” versions of chatbots, like older patients, tend to perform worse on the tests. The authors say these findings “challenge the assumption that artificial intelligence will soon replace human doctors.” Huge advances in the field of…

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Elon Musk’s failure to follow federal security rules prompts questions about what he is trying to hide

Elon Musk’s failure to follow federal security rules prompts questions about what he is trying to hide

The New York Times reports: Elon Musk and his rocket company, SpaceX, have repeatedly failed to comply with federal reporting protocols aimed at protecting state secrets, including by not providing some details of his meetings with foreign leaders, according to people with knowledge of the company and internal documents. Concerns about the reporting practices — and particularly about Mr. Musk, who is SpaceX’s chief executive — have triggered at least three federal reviews, eight people with knowledge of the efforts…

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Elon Musk spent $277 million on the election. His net worth has since increased more than $170 billion

Elon Musk spent $277 million on the election. His net worth has since increased more than $170 billion

The Washington Post reports: Elon Musk’s net worth has climbed by more than $200 billion in 2024, a massive increase in the same year that the world’s richest person spent at least $277 million backing Donald Trump and other Republican candidates. The bulk of the increase, more than $170 billion, has come since Election Day. Trump’s election sent stock in electric automaker Tesla, a company central to Musk’s wealth and where he is CEO, soaring. Shares were trading at prices…

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The AI world is undermining our confidence in human thinking and judgment

The AI world is undermining our confidence in human thinking and judgment

Philip Ball writes: Reading The AI Mirror I was struck by [Shannon] Vallor’s determination to probe more deeply than the usual litany of concerns about AI: privacy, misinformation, and so forth. Her book is really a discourse on the relation of human and machine, raising the alarm on how the tech industry propagates a debased version of what we are, one that reimagines the human in the guise of a soft, wet computer. If that sounds dour, Vallor most certainly…

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The U.S. military is now talking openly about offensive space warfare

The U.S. military is now talking openly about offensive space warfare

Ars Technica reports: Earlier this year, officials at US Space Command released a list of priorities and needs, and among the routine recitation of things like cyber defense, communications, and surveillance was a relatively new term: “integrated space fires.” This is a new phrase in the esoteric terminology the military uses to describe its activities. Essentially, “fires” are offensive or defensive actions against an adversary. The Army defines fires as “the use of weapon systems to create specific lethal and…

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With donations and praise, tech titans ingratiate themselves with Trump

With donations and praise, tech titans ingratiate themselves with Trump

The New York Times reports: The $1 million donations came gradually — and then all at once. Meta. Amazon. OpenAI’s Sam Altman. Each of these Silicon Valley companies or their leaders promised to support President-elect Donald J. Trump’s inaugural committee with seven-figure checks over the past week, often accompanied by a pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago to bend the knee. The procession of tech leaders who traveled to hobnob with Mr. Trump face-to-face included Sundar Pichai, Google’s chief executive, and Sergey Brin,…

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Even the Koch brothers weren’t as brazen as the tech billionaires

Even the Koch brothers weren’t as brazen as the tech billionaires

Ali Breland writes: Marc Andreessen has been feeling pretty good since Election Day, and at the end of November, he went on The Joe Rogan Experience to say as much. Sitting in the podcast studio, grinning, Andreessen told Rogan that he was “very happy” about the election and that it is now “Morning in America”—directly invoking the famous Ronald Reagan campaign ad. Andreessen, a billionaire co-founder of the storied venture-capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (also known as a16z), had put all…

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