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Category: Technology

Sam Altman has ‘faith’ some nerds will figure out how to protect humanity from AI

Sam Altman has ‘faith’ some nerds will figure out how to protect humanity from AI

Allison Morrow writes: Sam Altman, the PT Barnum of the AI industry, has a message for the folks concerned about the technology he’s dedicated his life to advancing: Don’t worry, the nerds are on it. Let’s back up a bit. Altman, the 39-year-old venture capitalist and CEO of OpenAI, was speaking with journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin at the New York Times’ Dealbook Summit on Wednesday. Altman was his usual mellow but disarmingly kind self, almost making you forget he’s a…

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New powder that captures carbon could be ‘quantum leap’ for industry

New powder that captures carbon could be ‘quantum leap’ for industry

The Guardian reports: An innocuous yellow powder, created in a lab, could be a new way to combat the climate crisis by absorbing carbon from the air. Just half a pound of the stuff may remove as much carbon dioxide as a tree can, according to early tests. Once the carbon is absorbed by the powder, it can be released into safe storage or be used in industrial processes, like carbonizing drinks. “This really addresses a major problem in the…

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When will Democrats finally realize that big tech is not an ally?

When will Democrats finally realize that big tech is not an ally?

Zephyr Teachout writes: As Democrats think about how to counter the Trump administration, they need to accept a very simple lesson from the last eight years. Big tech and big business are part of the political opposition working on behalf of Donald Trump, not the Democrats’ allies working against Trump and Trumpism. It shouldn’t seem necessary to point out what seems to be an obvious fact. Nonetheless, there are some Democrats trying to stay close to big tech, or downplaying…

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Reality check on technologies to remove carbon dioxide from the air

Reality check on technologies to remove carbon dioxide from the air

MIT News reports: In 2015, 195 nations plus the European Union signed the Paris Agreement and pledged to undertake plans designed to limit the global temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Yet in 2023, the world exceeded that target for most, if not all of, the year — calling into question the long-term feasibility of achieving that target. To do so, the world must reduce the levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, and strategies for achieving levels that will…

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The growing enthusiasm among tech elites for genetically engineering their children

The growing enthusiasm among tech elites for genetically engineering their children

Emily R. Klancher Merchant writes: In the Operation Varsity Blues scandal of 2019, 50 wealthy parents were charged with trying to get their children into elite universities through fraudulent means. The story dramatically demonstrated the lengths to which some parents will go to ensure their children’s acceptance into places like Stanford, Yale, Georgetown, and USC. Actress Lori Loughlin and her husband, fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli, bribed athletic coaches to recruit their children for sports they did not play. Actress Felicity Huffman…

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What the broligarchs want from Trump

What the broligarchs want from Trump

Brooke Harrington writes: After Donald Trump won this month’s election, one of the first things he did was to name two unelected male plutocrats, Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, to run a new Department of Government Efficiency. The yet-to-be-created entity’s acronym, DOGE, is something of a joke—a reference to a cryptocurrency named for an internet meme involving a Shiba Inu. But its appointed task of reorganizing the federal bureaucracy and slashing its spending heralds a new political arrangement in Washington:…

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Transhumanism: The AI death cult ruling Silicon Valley

Transhumanism: The AI death cult ruling Silicon Valley

Àlex Gómez-Marín writes: In 1963 there was an exhibition at the Bronx Zoo in New York City. It was entitled “The Most Dangerous Animal in the World”. In it, next to a window with bars, the following text could be read: “You are looking at the most dangerous animal in the world. It alone of all the animals that ever lived can exterminate (and has) entire species of animals. Now it has the power to wipe out all life on…

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Here’s why turning to AI to train future AIs may be a bad idea

Here’s why turning to AI to train future AIs may be a bad idea

Science News reports: ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot and other AI tools whip up impressive sentences and paragraphs from as little as a simple line of text prompt. To generate those words, the underlying large language models were trained on reams of text written by humans and scraped from the internet. But now, as generative AI tools flood the internet with a large amount of synthetic content, that content is being used to train future generations of those AIs. If this continues…

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The technology the Trump administration might use to hack your phone

The technology the Trump administration might use to hack your phone

Ronan Farrow writes: In September, the Department of Homeland Security (D.H.S.) signed a two-million-dollar contract with Paragon, an Israeli firm whose spyware product Graphite focusses on breaching encrypted-messaging applications such as Telegram and Signal. Wired first reported that the technology was acquired by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)—an agency within D.H.S. that will soon be involved in executing the Trump Administration’s promises of mass deportations and crackdowns on border crossings. A source at Paragon told me that the deal followed…

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How Elon Musk muzzled government employees from talking about xAI’s new supercomputer

How Elon Musk muzzled government employees from talking about xAI’s new supercomputer

Forbes reports: Nearly six months ago in Memphis, before residents or even city councilors knew that Elon Musk was building “the world’s largest supercomputer” in their backyard, the billionaire’s team met secretly with a host of local and national law enforcement agencies including the sheriff’s office, Memphis Police Department, U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Federal Bureau of Investigations. The covert meeting, which has not been previously reported, concerned Musk’s growing AI startup xAI, according to the Greater Memphis Chamber,…

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Musk and Trump: ‘great friends and brilliant leaders working together to Make America Great Again’

Musk and Trump: ‘great friends and brilliant leaders working together to Make America Great Again’

The New York Times reports: In nearly every meeting that President-elect Donald J. Trump holds at Mar-a-Lago, alongside him is someone who has been elected to nothing, nominated to nothing and, only a few months ago, had no meaningful relationship with him. Elon Musk. The world’s richest person has ascended to a position of extraordinary, unofficial influence in Mr. Trump’s transition process, playing a role that makes him indisputably America’s most powerful private citizen. He has sat in on nearly…

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The WIRED guide to protecting yourself from government surveillance

The WIRED guide to protecting yourself from government surveillance

Wired reports: President-elect Donald Trump has promised to deport millions of undocumented immigrants. He’s vowed to jail his political foes and journalists. A Republican-controlled government could further restrict abortion and transgender rights. Influential conservatives have called for a crackdown on left-leaning activist groups, a replay of Trump’s hardline attitude against protesters in his first administration. To carry out all of those spoken and unspoken threats, the incoming Trump administration and Republicans in Congress will tap into—and may very well expand—the…

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Human creativity: key to unlocking AI’s potential

Human creativity: key to unlocking AI’s potential

John Nosta writes: Every day, it seems that artificial intelligence (AI) and large language models (LLMs) are winning the battle for both cognition and creativity, dazzling us with their problem-solving prowess and even artistic flair. But a new paper casts a fascinating and unexpected light on this issue: The secret to AI’s most transformative power may lie not in its algorithms but in the creative minds that guide it. This study examined more than a thousand scientists working in a…

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Musk believes in climate change. Trump doesn’t. Will that change?

Musk believes in climate change. Trump doesn’t. Will that change?

The New York Times reports: Elon Musk has described himself as “pro-environment” and “super pro climate.” But he also threw himself wholeheartedly into electing as president someone who has dismissed global warming as a hoax. Now, as President-elect Donald J. Trump prepares to enter the White House, one big question is how much sway — if any — Mr. Musk’s views on climate change and clean energy might have in the new administration. During the campaign, Mr. Trump noticeably softened…

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Trump’s victory adds record $64bn to wealth of richest top ten

Trump’s victory adds record $64bn to wealth of richest top ten

The Guardian reports: The wealth of the 10 richest people in the world – a list dominated by US tech billionaires – increased by a record amount after Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential election, according to a widely cited index. The Bloomberg Billionaires Index estimated that the world’s 10 wealthiest people gained nearly $64bn (about £49.5bn) on Wednesday, the largest daily increase since the index began in 2012. Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, registered the largest increase with…

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Elon Musk’s SpaceX, already a leader in satellites, gets into the spy game

Elon Musk’s SpaceX, already a leader in satellites, gets into the spy game

The New York Times reports: The breakthrough came last month, about 600 miles above Earth. For the first time, the Pentagon’s Space Development Agency used lasers to more securely transmit data at light speed between military satellites, making it easier to track enemy missiles and if necessary shoot them down. It was a milestone not only for the Pentagon. This was a defining moment for a certain up-and-coming military contractor that had built key parts of this new system: Elon…

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