<h2>TerrorGPT</h2>
Las Vegas police officials have revealed that active duty Green Beret soldier Matthew Livelsberger, who <a href="https://futurism.com/cybertruck-terror-attack-musk">fatally shot himself and blew up a rented Tesla Cybertruck</a> just outside the Trump Towers hotel in Las Vegas last week, used generative AI — including OpenAI's ChatGPT — to plan his attack.
As the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/tesla-cybertruck-explosion-trump-hotel-las-vegas-248b41d87287170aa7b68d27581fdb4d?taid=677d9ea601c1d50001cfa0cf&amp;utm_campaign=TrueAnthem&amp;utm_medium=AP&amp;utm_source=Twitter">Associated Press reports</a>, a review of Livelsberger’s queries on ChatGPT suggests he was not only researching explosive targets, but was also studying the speed of bullets, how far they would travel, and even whether fireworks were legal in Arizona (they are, but only <a href="https://www.pinal.gov/1441/Fireworks-Use-and-Safety">27 days of the year</a>).
It's a weird new development — and one that shows, yet again, that every new technology is eventually subsumed into the darkest corners of society for violent and twisted purposes.
"This is the first incident that I’m aware of on US soil where ChatGPT is utilized to help an individual build a particular device," said Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department sheriff Kevin McMahill during a press conference. "It’s a concerning moment."
<h2>Wake Up</h2>
The Afghanistan veteran shot himself with a handgun before blowing up the Cybertruck using improvised explosives and fireworks. He didn't take the lives of any bystanders, but injured seven people.
As far as a motive is concerned, Livelsberger likely was "struggling with PTSD and other issues," as FBI special agent Spencer Evans <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/cybertruck-explosion-trump-las-vegas-hotel-ptsd-matthew-livelsberger-1.7422859">told reporters</a>.
Livelsberger <a href="https://futurism.com/cybertruck-bomber-drones">also made bizarre comments</a> about "Chinese" drones with "gravitic propulsion systems" in a widely circulating email that officials believe was written by him.
He also wrote in a note that the US was "terminally ill and headed toward collapse" and that he intended the attack to be a "wake up call."
He also vowed to "cleanse" his mind "of the brothers I’ve lost and relieve myself of the burden of the lives I took."
Interestingly, he wrote in his note that he had no ill will towards Tesla CEO Elon Musk and that the US needs to "rally around" the entrepreneur and president-elect Donald Trump.
Apart from plenty of evidence suggesting Livelsberger was a deeply troubled individual, his use of ChatGPT stands out. It's unclear whether he managed to get the tool to spit out information on specifically illegal activities, such as how to build an explosive. But given the sorry state of guardrails and how easily they're circumvented, it's <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/easy-hack-jailbreak-ai-chatbot">certainly not impossible</a> — so we'll be watching with interest.
More on the attack: <a href="https://futurism.com/cybertruck-bomber-drones">The Cybertruck Bomber Seems to Have Made Strange Claims About the Mysterious Drone Sightings</a>

Troubled Minds

A weird new development.

Cybertruck Bomber Used ChatGPT to Plan His Attack

<h2>Death Wish</h2>
An Arizona man who's been on death row for nearly two decades has an unusual request for the state's highest court: to, essentially, get it over with already.
Generally speaking, attorneys for death row inmates try to delay their executions as long as possible. But as the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/arizona-executions-resume-gunches-c7359f2d5a5912debc238caff7c49529">Associated Press reports</a>, 53-year-old Aaron Gunches has asked the state's Supreme Court to expedite his "long overdue" execution.
Back in 2004, Gunches pleaded guilty to the 2002 murder of Ted Price, his then-girlfriend's ex-husband who had been in a violent altercation with the woman. First sentenced to capital punishment in 2008, the man's initial <a href="https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-arizona-republic-death-penalty-tosse/121035417/">death sentence was tossed in 2010</a> over procedural errors.
He was ultimately re-sentenced to death in 2013 and first <a href="https://www.fox10phoenix.com/news/aaron-gunches-seeks-to-withdraw-his-execution-warrant-request">began seeking his own death warrant</a> in November 2022 — just after the state's now-attorney general, Kris Mayes, was elected and vowed alongside now-Gov. Katie Hobbs to suspend executions pending a review of the state's death penalty.
The political pair, both Democrats, had good reason to do so. Back in 2014, one man's <a href="https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/arizona-botches-execution-of-joseph-wood">death by lethal injection was botched so significantly</a> that it took nearly two hours to finish, and onlookers said they heard the condemned gasp and snort a horrifying 600 times during the procedure. Additionally, the state's correctional agency spent taxpayer money to <a href="https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/arizona-prepares-for-executions-with-gas-used-in-holocaust-death-camps">procure ingredients for cyanide gas</a>, which the Nazis used in their concentration camp gas chambers during the Holocaust.
<h2>Bad Reviews</h2>
As <a href="https://www.fox10phoenix.com/news/az-ag-seeking-death-warrant-aaron-gunches-amid-execution-pause">Fox 10 Phoenix reported</a> back in November, Hobbs and Mayes' death penalty review ultimately fell apart after David Dunkin, the retired judge in charge of it, offered a bunch of strange recommendations.
"You recommend that [Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation &amp; Reentry] conduct executions by firing squad (a method not currently authorized by Arizona law)," a letter from the governor to Dunkin read, "despite the Executive Order’s direction to focus on procurement, protocols, and procedures related to carrying out an execution under existing law."
With all that context in the rearview, the state AG announced back at the end of November that it would be seeking death warrants again, <a href="https://www.azag.gov/press-release/attorney-general-mayes-files-motion-arizona-supreme-court-set-briefing-schedule-death">including for Gunches</a>.
According to the AP, Hobbs' office says that the only roadblock between the man and his desired destruction now is the testing of the pentobarbital that will be used for his lethal injection.
Still, it remains unclear when he'll finally get his wish — and after waiting that long, it seems clear that Gunches is ready to go.
More on death sentences: <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/simulate-alien-civilization-climate-change">Scientists Simulate Alien Civilizations, Find They Keep Dying From Climate Change</a>

Let Him Cook

An unusual request.

Death Row Prisoner Requests to Be Executed as Soon as Possible

<h2>Page Burner</h2>
The popular book app Fable has come under fire for its AI-generated annual roundups, which some users say gave them offensive messages about race and gender, <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/fable-controversy-ai-summaries/">Wired reports</a>.
These days, every app imaginable is deploying its own take on the wildly popular Spotify Wrapped feature by providing personalized end-of-year recaps for users' consumption habits. Hopping on the trend, Fable tried to stand out by using AI to "playfully roast" its readers.
In some cases, however, the AI veered into overly edgy territory — in what appears to be an all-too-common case of a large language model defying its guardrails.
The summary for Fable user Tiana Trammell, for example, praised her for being a "soulful explorer" of "Black narratives," before about-facing completely: "Don't forget to surface for the occasional white author, okay?"
"I typically enjoy my reader summaries from [Fable], but this particular one is not sitting well with me at all," Trammell <a href="https://www.threads.net/@fable/post/DEQ-_H6vPrr">wrote on Threads</a>.
<h2>Become the Woker</h2>
Other users reported <a href="https://www.threads.net/@naomihess17/post/DEVgZ3pyPjl?xmt=AQGz8v29gj5f2dI0FGi9ktdKvJuPPeJU05sH0011vMS_Fg">similar cases</a> of the AI striking an almost comically reactionary tone.
One writer's Fable <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/dbgroves.bsky.social/post/3lemvy4ktms2w">summary</a> called him a "diversity devotee" and asked if he's "ever in the mood for a straight, cis white man's perspective." Trammell says she's also seen other people whose summaries snidely commented on "disability and sexual orientation."
It's unclear how widespread these cases were. But Fable has responded to the complaints by issuing a formal apology. "To our community: we are deeply sorry for the hurt caused by some of our Reader Summaries this week," the company posted on Threads. "We promise to do better."
What "doing better" looks like, if you're wondering, is tinkering with its AI model. "For the time being, we have removed the part of the model that playfully roasts the reader, and instead, the model simply summarizes the user's taste in books," Kimberly Marsh Allee, Fable's head of community, told Wired.
<h2>Closed Book</h2>
Some users, though, would prefer to see the AI's proverbial head roll.
"They need to say they are doing away with the AI completely," fantasy romance author A.R. Kaufer told Wired. "This 'apology' on Threads comes across as insincere, mentioning the app is 'playful' as though it somehow excuses the racist/sexist/ableist quotes."
Fable's decision to muzzle its AI raises serious questions about the tech's usefulness for major brands. Surely AI's novelty is that it can whip up pithy remarks that sound like human speech. If it's not trustworthy enough to perform that function without making a serious faux pas at every turn, then why should brands trust it with their customers? And doesn't limiting these bots to become dry summarizers defeat the point of what makes them appealing in the first place?
More on AI: <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/meta-kills-ai-people">Meta Kills AI-Generated "People" Like "Proud Black Queer Momma"</a>

Fable Foibles

Yikes.

Book App Alarmed as Its AI Starts Mocking Users for Reading Books by Women and Minorities

In a cringe-inducing attempt to curry favor with president-elect Donald Trump, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has announced sweeping changes on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads that will almost certainly allow hate speech, misinformation, and other deleterious drek to proliferate on the platform even more than it already does.
"It's time to get back to our roots around free expression," the 40-year-old tech founder said in a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/zuck/videos/1525382954801931/">new video posted to Facebook.</a> Apparently, that means replacing <a href="https://www.science.org/content/article/facebook-fact-checker-has-ties-news-outlet-promotes-climate-doubt">Meta's controversial third-party fact-checkers</a> with user-submitted "community notes," lifting restrictions on "controversial topics," and moving its content review team from liberal California to deep-red Texas.
Amid it all, a sidelong reference the millennial technocrat made to Trump suggests he's gearing up for the president-elect's second inauguration in just a few weeks.
"After Trump first got elected in 2016, the legacy media wrote nonstop about how misinformation was a threat to democracy," the CEO said. "We tried in good faith to address those concerns without becoming the arbiters of truth."
During his five-minute-long video address, Zuckerberg admitted that the new community note scheme was "similar to X," formerly Twitter. He failed to mention, however, that its newish owner Elon Musk also announced plans to <a href="https://theconversation.com/elon-musk-is-moving-x-and-spacex-to-texas-the-impact-on-staff-culture-and-performance-is-likely-to-be-big-235923#:~:text=Elon%20Musk%20recently%20announced%20that,emerging%20as%20a%20main%20hub.">relocate X and SpaceX from the Golden State to Texas</a> last year amid that billionaire's attempt to escape regulations and what he framed as excessive political correctness.
Along with those moves, the <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/mark-zuckerberg-employees-metamates">chief meta-mate</a> also announced that the tech conglomerate plans to "get rid of a bunch of restrictions" on topics such as immigration and gender because, as he put it, such regulations are "just out of touch with mainstream discourse."
"What started as a movement to be more inclusive has increasingly been used to shut down opinions and shut out people with different ideas, and it's gone too far," Zuckerberg said. "So I want to make sure that people can share their beliefs and experiences on our platforms."
Exactly what allowing users to "share their beliefs" means about topics like gender identity and immigration means seems painfully clear: in an environment where some groups are fighting for <a href="https://www.context.news/socioeconomic-inclusion/what-are-trans-self-id-laws-and-what-impact-do-they-have">self-determination</a> and safety and others are often literally <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/05/republicans-new-orleans-attack-trump">braying for blood</a>, the company is loosening its existing standards on what sorts of hateful things you can say on its platform.
To round the entire thing off, the Harvard dropout also announced that Meta will be "bringing back civic content," which is his robotic way of saying that the company will soon start promoting political posts.
"For a while the community asked to see less politics because it was making people stressed, so we stopped recommending these posts," Zuckerberg said. "But it feels like we're in a new era now, and we're starting to get feedback that people want to see this content again. So we're going to start phasing this back into Facebook, Instagram, and Threads, while working to keep the communities friendly and positive."
That last bit, if you didn't catch it, is almost laughably similar to recent comments from <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/elon-musk-twitter-be-nice">Musk begging people to be nicer</a> and more positive on X — even while the <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/twitter-suspending-more-people">free speech absolutist</a> himself <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/elon-musk-disability-slur">tweets ableist slurs</a> against people who criticize him.
Taken together, the shifts seem almost certain to open the floodgates for hate speech in the name of free speech.
"We're going to dramatically reduce the amount of censorship on our platforms," Zuckerberg threatened. Given that he just <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/06/tech/ufc-dana-white-joins-meta-board/index.html">appointed Dana White</a>, UFC head and longtime Trump friend, to Meta's board, it seems best to take him at his word.
More on Meta: <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/meta-kills-ai-people">Meta Kills AI-Generated "People" Like "Proud Black Queer Momma"</a>

Zucking Hell

"I want to make sure that people can share their beliefs and experiences on our platforms."

Zuckerberg Announces New Measures to Increase Hate Speech on Facebook

<h2>FPV Terrorism</h2>
The FBI <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/05/us/new-orleans-attack/index.html">has released</a> extensive first-person footage recorded by Shamsud-Din Jabbar, the man who drove a rented pickup truck into a crowd in New Orleans on New Year's Day, killing 14 people.
Some of the footage was recorded on a pair of Meta's Ray-Bans smart glasses, catapulting the gadget into the center of that grisly scene, which ended in a police shootout resulting in Jabbar's death.
The <a href="https://youtu.be/YR5dDmqlTho">recordings</a> show Jabbar walking through the streets of New Orleans ahead of the attack, even giving us a close glimpse of his face as he peers into a mirror while wearing the glasses. Security footage shows him wearing the glasses while preparing for the unconscionable act, likely allowing him to record the scene without drawing much attention.
It's a bone-chilling and intimate perspective into the mind of a killer, facilitated by a pair of <a href="https://www.zdnet.com/article/i-tested-metas-transparent-ray-ban-smart-glasses-and-theyre-a-near-perfect-accessory-for-me/">critically acclaimed</a> smart glasses that turned into a sleeper hit for Meta last year.
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Video Footage Related to Bourbon Street Attack in New Orleans" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/YR5dDmqlTho?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<h2>Attack Planning</h2>
Though he seems to have used them during planning, Jabbar didn't turn on the glasses during the attack.
"Meta glasses appear to look like regular glasses but they allow a user to record video and photos hands-free," FBI New Orleans Special Agent Lyonel Myrthil told reporters, as <a href="https://gizmodo.com/meta-smart-glasses-first-big-cultural-moment-is-a-terror-attack-2000546395">quoted by Gizmodo</a>. "They also allow the user to potentially livestream through their video. Jabbar was wearing a pair of Meta glasses when he conducted the attack on Bourbon Street. But he did not activate the glasses to livestream his actions that day."
Meta was caught off guard by the glasses' popularity, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg claiming that they were a "bigger hit sooner than we expected" during a July earnings call, with demand "still outpacing our ability to build them."
That's despite several companies, including Google and Snapchat, releasing similar products in years past, <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/052115/how-why-google-glass-failed.asp">both of which</a> <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2017/10/28/why-snapchat-spectacles-failed/">fared far worse</a>.
A tiny LED light on the front of the glasses indicates whether somebody is using them to record video. But it's <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/joe-rogan-smart-glasses-mark-zuckerberg">easy to cover up</a>, and experts have since warned that the specs could <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/facebook-glasses-record-people">easily be used to invade the privacy of others</a>.
And as it turns out, that could also make them a useful tool in the arsenal of a terrorist.
"From a reconnaissance perspective, you’re really getting a sense of the eyeline and eyesight and all the things that you’re going to want to look out for if you’re trying to plan an attack," strategic counterterrorism expert Sam Hunter <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/gadgets/are-metas-smart-glasses-product-worn-new-orleans-attacker-rcna186419">told NBC News</a>. "It’s starting to get more and more into the footage of this is what it actually looks like and feels like when you’re in that environment."
"I would not be surprised if you see versions of them or folks using them for attack planning in the future, again because they’re so discreet in terms of capturing that footage," he added.
More on the glasses: <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/facebook-glasses-record-people">Facebook Proud of New Glasses That Let You Record People Without Them Knowing</a>

Powered by Meta Terrorism

The footage is bone-chilling.

New Orleans Terrorist Used Meta Ray-Ban Smart Glasses, FBI Says

In an astonishing feat of laziness, Amazon Prime Video service has adorned the iconic 1922 horror film "Nosferatu" with a slapdash poster that was obviously generated using AI.
The poster — <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AmazonPrimeVideo/comments/1fcfd1u/nosferatu_ai_cover/">first</a> <a href="https://x.com/nitecrawIerz/status/1832703439572242698">discovered</a> by eagle-eyed netizens last fall and resurfaced as Robert Eggers' remake of the beloved classic wows critics in theaters — turns the vampire Count Orlok's monstrous visage into a yassified rendition with a strangely slender body, his harrowing appearance replaced with an aesthetic straight out of a "Twilight" movie.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-338673" src="https://wordpress-assets.futurism.com/2025/01/bafkreib7hguw2ys2gibn46xthbxhqwe6hvseb6dykg3iiojxmthmk2hvx4-1200x675.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="675" />
To add suck further blood out of the original's legacy, its iconic use of typography was exchanged for a font that closely resembles Papyrus, a typeface so widely hated that it spawned its own <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8PdffUfoF0">series of "Saturday Night Live" sketches</a>.
In other words, it's exactly the kind of uninspired slop you'd expect an AI image generator to spit out. It's a sign of the times — highlighting a worrying trend as companies like Amazon continue to <a href="https://futurism.com/people-prefer-ai-art-blind-test">undermine the work of human artists</a> by leaning into cheapo AI.
The online reaction to the insipid art was resoundingly negative.
"A horrible one-two punch of anti-art sentiment," <a href="https://x.com/DannyVegito/status/1850191307089551607">tweeted</a> podcast host Danny Vegito.
"Amazon Prime is using generative AI to replace movie posters for iconic films that already exist and already have posters they could use," artist Jon Neimeister, who worked on the hit video game "Hearthstone," wrote in a <a href="https://x.com/DannyVegito/status/1850191307089551607">Bluesky post</a> earlier this week. "Not only are we forced to see this shit everywhere, but they're overwriting art history with it."
Other users pointed out that despite years of technological advancements in the generative AI space, the image is riddled with conspicuous technical issues.
"God, that looks horrible," another Bluesky user <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/scatterbrainart.bsky.social/post/3lf5ssmnvuc2c">responded</a>. "His finger is melting into his clothing. Three years of hype and it still CAN'T DO FINGERS."
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-338676" src="https://wordpress-assets.futurism.com/2025/01/Screenshot-2025-01-07-at-10.32.04 AM-1200x865.png" alt="" width="1200" height="865" />
Other users pointed out that the oversized Moon in the background mysteriously blocks the clouds behind it.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-338677" src="https://wordpress-assets.futurism.com/2025/01/Screenshot-2025-01-07-at-10.36.51 AM-1200x726.png" alt="" width="1200" height="726" />
A stark line that runs vertically through the background also suggests a lazy Photoshop job unbefitting for a movie of such repute.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-338678" src="https://wordpress-assets.futurism.com/2025/01/Screenshot-2025-01-07-at-10.39.24 AM-1200x715.png" alt="" width="1200" height="715" />
Worse yet, as plenty of others argued, the 1922 classic has its own <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/matthewdowsmith.bsky.social/post/3lf44e54mdc2e">highly creative and original marketing material</a> that could've been used or adapted instead.
There's a good chance Amazon was trying to cash in on the hype surrounding the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nulvWqYUM8k">most recent interpretation</a> of "Nosferatu," which stars Bill Skarsgård as Count Orlok. A quick scan on an Amazon Prime section titled "Horror movies" shows the sloppy poster featured prominently, suggesting the tech giant was attempting to fit the vintage movie in with B-level drivel or trick users into thinking they were looking at the new version.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-338674" src="https://wordpress-assets.futurism.com/2025/01/Screenshot-2025-01-07-at-10.06.55 AM-1200x1091.png" alt="" width="1200" height="1091" />
The kerfuffle is particularly ironic considering that the original 1922 film was itself accused of being an unauthorized adaptation of Bram Stoker's 1897 novel "Dracula." The minor changes, such as renaming Count Dracula to Count Orlok, were glaring to the point that Stoker's widow <a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/film/nosferatu-and-the-fangs-of-copyright-infringement-1.4814233">sued the makers of the 1922 movie for copyright violation</a>.
But in spite of efforts to destroy remaining prints, the movie's eerie qualities were undeniable, and it became a classic in its own right (like "Dracula" before it, the film fell into the public domain several years ago.)
One thing's for sure: Amazon's tacky poster is unlikely to ever attain the cachet of "Nosferatu" and its iconic imagery — unless it's reappropriated by future screenings in a mocking fashion, that is.
As the use of generative AI continues to encroach on virtually every aspect of our daily lives, we should expect to encounter more bargain-basement reskins like this one — at least until consumers rebel at human creativity being buried under a deluge of AI slop.
More on generative AI: <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/facebook-planning-ai-powered-users">Facebook Planning to Flood Platform with AI-Powered Users</a>

Yassified Nosferatu

"A horrible one-two punch of anti-art sentiment."

Amazon Mocked for Slapping AI-Generated Poster on Beloved 1922 Film "Nosferatu"

<h2>FUbar</h2>
In a run-of-the-mill fight on social media — you know, the type that the ultra-wealthy used to remain aloof from — Elon Musk deployed an appalling slur against disabled people.
"F u r*tard," the 53-year-old billionaire quipped on X-formerly-Twitter after a user <a href="https://x.com/joni_askola/status/1875955917528969449">accused him of spreading disinformation</a> on the platform he owns.
That childish retort is, it seems, one of the Donald Trump advisor's favorite words. A quick analysis of Musk's tweets reveals that <a href="https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1783955057123447191">over the past year</a>, he's repeatedly used the disability-denigrating slur. He seemed particularly in its thrall in Decemeber, when he dished it out at least six times — <a href="https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1869514617619444197">half of which</a> came <a href="https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1869514680911511813">on a single day</a>, <a href="https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1869517702328725530">December 18</a>.
Derived from the antiquated "<a href="https://ndcpd.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/16/2023/02/History-of-Stigmatizing-Names-2016.pdf">mental retardation</a>" terminology to <a href="https://www.specialolympics.org/stories/impact/why-the-r-word-is-the-r-slur">describe people with intellectual disabilities</a>, the <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/376401/r-word-slur-return-euphemism-treadmill-cycle">so-called "r-word" has increased in popularity</a> over the past few years as right-wing, fascist rhetoric has gained a greater foothold both online and in <a href="https://helengrover.substack.com/p/hipsters-are-the-vanguard-of-fascism">real life</a>.
Along with Musk, folks that populate what used to be known as the "alt-right" — like fellow traveler Laura Loomer — have also embraced the term as a catch-all for those who support ideas they oppose. Last year, for instance, the "<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/19/politics/laura-loomer-donald-trump-florida/index.html">proud Islamophobe</a>" directed it at "Thrift Shop" artist Macklemore after he <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmg6vbt04TY">released a video supporting Palestine</a>, calling him a "<a href="https://x.com/LauraLoomer/status/1787878242357068197">straight-up r*tard</a>."
<h2>Positivity, Please</h2>
Beyond the ableist term's gross resurgence, it's also ironic that Musk has lobbed it so repeatedly given that in recent weeks, the site's owner has called for less "negative" rhetoric and even announced that he <a href="https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1875355425601999255">plans to change X's algorithm</a> to promote "positivity."
After first issuing his plea for pleasantry on December 30, folks on the platform and its increasingly popular competitor, Bluesky, <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/elon-musk-twitter-be-nice">clowned on Musk</a> for failing to embody his own newfound ideal. With his penchant for slur usage once again going on main, those jabs only continued.
"No wonder this algorithm is so messed up," <a href="https://x.com/tjcrowley/status/1876291046109487475">tweeted one observer</a>.
"So does this come under 'positive', or 'informative'?" <a href="https://x.com/JonathanPieNews/status/1876173194773844160">pondered another</a>, quote-tweeting Musk's "<a href="https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1876168991330439314">F u</a>" tweet.
For all his <a href="https://futurism.com/civil-rights-groups-horrified-elon-musk-racist">terrible rhetoric</a>, flinging this horrendous slur is yet another jarring mask-off moment for Musk that reminds us who he really is. When it comes to negativity on X, the call is clearly coming from inside the house.
More on Muskian missives: <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/elon-musk-endorses-afd-tesla">Elon Musk Endorses Nazi-Linked German Party, Even Though It Opposed Tesla’s Gigafactory</a>

Slurring Words

"No wonder this algorithm is so messed up."

As He Calls for "Positivity" on Twitter, Elon Musk Keeps Using a Disgusting Slur Against the Intellectually Disabled as a Bullying Insult

<h2>Path Forward</h2>
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has tried all <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/sam-altman-excited-agi-2025">kinds of</a> <a href="https://futurism.com/sam-altman-agi-achievable-current-hardware">rhetorical</a> <a href="https://futurism.com/sam-altman-imply-openai-building-god">strategies</a> to suggest that the dawn of artificial general intelligence (AGI) is nigh — and in new missive, now he's trying a fresh pitch: that while OpenAI hasn't quite created AGI quite yet, it knows the roadmap to get there.
"We are now confident we know how to build AGI as we have traditionally understood it," Altman wrote in a <a href="https://blog.samaltman.com/reflections">personal blog post</a>.
There's a lot to unpack about what a "traditional" understanding of AGI might entail. In the past, <a href="https://futurism.com/sam-altman-imply-openai-building-god">OpenAI has described it</a> as a "system that outperforms humans at most economically valuable work" and Altman characterized it as a "<a href="https://futurism.com/sam-altman-imply-openai-building-god">magic intelligence in the sky</a>," though an exact definition <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-does-artificial-general-intelligence-actually-mean/">remains shrouded</a> in controversy.
One thing's for sure: this latest appeal dovetails perfectly with OpenAI and Altman's current business proposition: that they can pull off economically compelling AI, if only they can <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/openai-needs-vastly-more-money">obtain more and more financial and computing resources</a> to build the systems to support it.
To that end, Altman wrote in his new post that AI "agents" may begin to "join the workforce" this year. In doing so, the CEO wrote, these seemingly AIs will "materially change the output of companies" — which would also mean, of course, that they'd replace human workers, with all the baggage that entails.
<h2>Glory Days</h2>
In reality, whether OpenAI is really on the cusp of finally birthing AGI — which <a href="https://futurism.com/sam-altman-agi-achievable-current-hardware">Altman has been teasing</a> <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/sam-altman-human-tier-ai-coming-soon">for ages</a> — is a matter of serious contention among experts.
Sure, maybe it can fund enough data centers to scale its way to true human-level intelligence, but it's also perfectly possible that it'll <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/ai-expert-crash-imminent">hit a wall</a>, or that its gains are <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2024/11/20/ai-scaling-laws-are-showing-diminishing-returns-forcing-ai-labs-to-change-course/">already leveling off</a>.
But for all Altman's bravado, his latest entreaty sounds a lot like <a href="https://www.theinformation.com/articles/microsoft-and-openais-secret-agi-definition?rc=st1fhw">OpenAI's familiar and steady drip of AGI investment pitches</a>.
"This sounds like science fiction right now, and somewhat crazy to even talk about it," the CEO contended. "That’s alright — we’ve been there before and we’re OK with being there again."
More on OpenAI: <a href="https://futurism.com/openai-employee-claims-agi">OpenAI Employee Says They’ve "Already Achieved AGI"</a>

AGI-memnon

"This sounds like science fiction right now, and somewhat crazy to even talk about it."

Sam Altman Says OpenAI Has Figured Out How to Build AGI

<h2>Fiscal Shortage</h2>
While trying its darndest to become profitable, OpenAI is still falling comically short — which, since it's the 800-pound gorilla in the nascent AI industry, should probably give pause to its rivals both large and small.
In a <a href="https://x.com/sama/status/1876104315296968813">post on X-formerly-Twitter</a>, CEO Sam Altman admitted an "insane" fact: that the company is "currently losing money" on ChatGPT Pro subscriptions, which <a href="https://openai.com/index/introducing-chatgpt-pro/">run $200 per month</a> and give users access to its suite of products including its <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/openai-o1-self-preservation">o1 "reasoning" model</a>.
"People use it much more than we expected," the cofounder wrote, later <a href="https://x.com/sama/status/1876104580070813976">adding in response to another user</a> that he "personally chose the price and thought we would make some money."
Though Altman didn't explicitly say why OpenAI is losing money on these premium subscriptions, the issue almost certainly comes down to the enormous expense of running AI infrastructure: the massive and increasing amounts of electricity needed to power the facilities that power AI, not to mention the cost of building and maintaining those data centers.
Way back in spring 2023, analyst <a href="https://www.theinformation.com/articles/microsoft-readies-ai-chip-as-machine-learning-costs-surge?rc=st1fhw">Dylan Patel told The Information</a> that the company was likely spending around $700,000 per day running ChatGPT, or about 36 cents per query; nowadays, a single query on the company's most advanced models can <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/openai-o3-cost-per-query">cost a staggering $1,000</a>.
In other words, there's an inconvenient reality for anyone in the AI space trying to turn a profit, as <a href="https://futurism.com/openai-pivoting-benefiting-humankind-making-money">OpenAI now is</a>: the smarter these systems get, the more expensive they become to run — which poses a major problem for pricing.
<h2>Is This Loss</h2>
With <a href="https://www.theinformation.com/articles/openai-coo-says-chatgpt-passed-11-million-paying-subscribers?rc=st1fhw">around 10 million paying subscribers</a>, that gargantuan overhead means OpenAI is still <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/27/technology/openai-chatgpt-investors-funding.html">burning through mountains of cash</a> while chasing the dream of profitability.
Indeed, according to insiders who <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2024/09/27/openai-sees-5-billion-loss-this-year-on-3point7-billion-in-revenue.html">spoke to CNBC last fall</a>, OpenAI was on track to lose a whopping $5 billion in 2024, which put the company firmly in the red compared to its $3.7 billion in revenue.
To that end, the company's board of directors sheepishly admitted in an <a href="https://openai.com/index/why-our-structure-must-evolve-to-advance-our-mission/">end-of-year blog post</a> that OpenAI needs way more cash than it previously thought — even though it <a href="https://www.reuters.com/technology/artificial-intelligence/openai-closes-66-billion-funding-haul-valuation-157-billion-with-investment-2024-10-02/">secured $6.6 billion in funding</a> just a few months prior.
"We once again need to raise more capital than we'd imagined," the governing body wrote. "Investors want to back us but, at this scale of capital, need conventional equity and less structural bespokeness."
Though there have reportedly been internal talks to <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2024/09/27/openai-might-raise-the-price-of-chatgpt-to-22-by-2025-44-by-2029/">raise the price of a regular ChatGPT subscription</a> (which currently costs a more modest $20 per month), that level of pricing increase doesn't seem like it'll keep up with the energy demands of powering the behemoth — or the draw of shinier new toys.
More on ChatGPT: <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/ai-cooling-company-stock-rise">What the Company With the Highest Stock Gain From AI Actually Does Is Extremely Grim</a>

Cost Deficiency

"People use it much more than we expected."

It Costs So Much to Run ChatGPT That OpenAI Is Losing Money on $200 ChatGPT Pro Subscriptions

<h2>Do or Donut</h2>
A man had the misfortune of becoming trapped inside a driverless Waymo taxi as it drove around a Scottsdale, Arizona parking lot in circles — instead of getting him to the airport for his imminent flight.
Tech entrepreneur Mike Johns <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/posts/mikejohns_lyft-uber-omg-activity-7271962168286191617-E7j4/">shared a video of the distressing encounter</a> on LinkedIn last month.
"I have a flight to catch, why is this thing going in a circle?" an exasperated Johns told Waymo customer service in the video. "I'm going dizzy."
"I've got my seatbelt on, I can't get out of the car," he said. "Has this been hacked? What's going on?"
Fortunately, Johns eventually got a refund and even made it to the airport in time, as the <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-01-05/los-angeles-man-trapped-in-circling-waymo-says-he-missed-his-flight-home">LA Times reports</a>.
Nonetheless, the incident highlights the significant rough edges that remain for robotaxis, even as they become an increasingly common sight on US streets. Despite years of research and development, plenty of vehicles are still getting stuck — to their helpless customers' dismay.
"My Waymo experience sucked," Johns wrote in the caption of his video. "Mind you I was on my way to the airport and nearly missed my flight. I'll keep it old fashion and just Lyft or Uber."
<h2>Ride Along</h2>
Waymo, a subsidiary of Google owner Alphabet, launched its robotaxi service in LA last fall. For years now, the company has been offering driverless ride-hailing to riders in both Phoenix and San Francisco.
As Waymo plans expansions in <a href="https://waymo.com/waymo-one-austin/">Austin</a>, <a href="https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article297065439.html">Miami</a>, and <a href="https://waymo.com/blog/2024/12/partnering-with-nihon-kotsu-and-go-on-our-first-international-road-trip">Tokyo, Japan</a>, it stands out in a crowded field of would-be competitors — <a href="https://futurism.com/why-tesla-cybercab-robotaxi-no-sense">most notably Elon Musk's Tesla</a> — trying to make the idea of a driverless taxi service a reality.
There have been considerable growing pains for most of those ventures, from robotaxis <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/video-waymo-stuck-roundabout">getting stuck in roundabouts</a> to <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/robotaxi-smashes-delivery-robot">smashing into delivery robots</a>. As the <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/self-driving-dirty-secret">New York Times reported</a> in September, robotaxi services often require humans to take over control as a result.
General Motors' Waymo competitor Cruise has become the poster child of the tech's shortcomings, with the <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2024/12/11/gm-is-giving-up-on-cruise-robotaxis-pivots-to-personal-autonomous-vehicles/">company shutting down</a> in December following several <a href="https://futurism.com/california-revokes-cruise-robotaxi-permit">hair-raising safety incidents</a>.
Whether the services will ever provide an advantage over getting a ride from a human driver remains unclear. A <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/waymo-expensive-slower-taxis#:~:text=A%20new%20study-,conducted%20by%20Forbes,-reveals%20how%20Waymo">study by Forbes</a> last year <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/waymo-expensive-slower-taxis#:~:text=A%20new%20study-,conducted%20by%20Forbes,-reveals%20how%20Waymo">found that</a> Waymo rides aren't just more expensive, but they take twice as long on average.
In short, their presence on public streets has not only become a nuisance but a glimpse of an automated future that foregoes human connection in favor of efficiency and profit (which, it's worth noting, still <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/waymo-not-profitable">seems a long way off</a>).
"It's just, again, a case of today's digital world," Johns <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/losangeles/news/la-man-nearly-misses-flight-as-self-driving-waymo-taxi-drives-around-parking-lot-in-circles/">told CBS News</a>. " A half-baked product and nobody meeting the customer, the consumers, in the middle."
"Human-less, right?" he added. "Human-less. "That's the ghost in the shell, right?"
More on robotaxis: <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/tesla-has-secretly-been-testing-robotaxis">Tesla Has Secretly Been Testing Robotaxis</a>