the digest (Page 29)

Latest in the digest

OpenAI got a lot of criticism this week for departures and a restrictive nondisclosure agreement. Sam Altman is clearly freaked.

Sam Altman Clearly Freaked Out by Reaction to News of OpenAI Silencing Former Employees

By Jon Christian

Tesla is slashing another 600 jobs at its facilities in California, running the gamut from factory workers to highly qualified engineers.

Tesla’s Firing Even More Employees as Crisis Deepens

By Jon Christian

Strange Photos Show NASA Astronauts Testing Spacesuits With No Arms or Visors

Strange Photos Show NASA Astronauts Testing Spacesuits With No Arms or Visors

By Jon Christian

An environmental group has slapped Tesla with a lawsuit this week for spewing pollution and violating the Clean Air Act.

Tesla Factory Accused of Spewing Illegal Amounts of Air Pollution

By Sharon Adarlo

OpenAI employees are forced to sign a restrictive nondisclosure agreement (NDA) forbidding them from ever criticizing the company.

OpenAI Employees Forced to Sign NDA Preventing Them From Ever Criticizing Company

By Jon Christian

It might sound like a joke, but OpenAI has dissolved the team responsible for making sure advanced AI doesn't turn against humankind.

OpenAI Researcher Quits, Flames Company for Axing Team Working to Prevent Superintelligent AI From Turning Against Humankind

By Jon Christian

The Chinese military recently showed off numerous robot dogs outfitted with machine guns on their backs, as Agence France-Presse reports.

China Shows Off Robot Dogs Armed With Machine Guns

By Victor Tangermann

Their app gradually makes your phone inputs more delayed and offset, and their findings show it's more effective than a timed lockout.

Scientists Invent Evil Way to Cut Screen Time: App That Makes Your Phone More and More Annoying to Use the Longer You’re On It

By Frank Landymore

After chasing it for years, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is humblebragging that all his international fame is taking a toll.

After Spending Years Relentlessly Chasing Fame, Sam Altman Complains That He’s Getting Recognized in Public Too Much

By Jon Christian

After gunmen killed more than 140 people, supporters of the terrorist group ISIS released a slick AI-generated propaganda video.

Artificial Intelligence

ISIS Affiliates Using AI to Generate Propaganda Promoting Terrorism

By Sharon Adarlo

Microsoft's water use and carbon emissions have increased compared to 2020 numbers due to artificial intelligence datacenters.

Artificial Intelligence

Microsoft’s Emissions and Water Use Shoot Up as It Goes All in on AI Datacenters

By Sharon Adarlo

The research explores how the reintroduction of bison into an ecosystem helped boost the overall amount of carbon sucked up by plants.

A Single Herd of Bison Can Help Capture CO2 From Over 40,000 Cars, Scientists Find

By Frank Landymore

A powerful Australian mining magnate has been trying to get an unflattering portrait of her removed from a museum.

Science & Energy

Billionaire Mining Magnate Not Happy With Her Portrait Hanging in Museum

By Jon Christian

Reddit's wallstreetbets meme stock investors are back in full force — but their latest ruse isn't playing out as expected.

GameStop Stock Is Crashing Catastrophically After Meme Hype

By Victor Tangermann

The American newspaper giant and USA Today owner Gannett is using AI to generate a bulleted list of "Key Points" for news articles.

Artificial Intelligence

USA Today Using AI to Generate Parts of Articles, Leaked Memo Shows

By Maggie Harrison Dupré

Astronomers have identified seven stars in our galaxy that could potentially host a Dyson sphere — a hypothetical alien megastructure.

Scientists Identify Seven Star Systems That May Be Hosting Alien Megastructures

By Victor Tangermann

MotorTrend finally settled the debate, proving once and for all that Tesla's Cybertruck stunt involving towing a Porsche 911 was rigged.

Tesla Video Showing Cybertruck Beating Porsche 911 While Towing Porsche 911 Was a Lie, Independent Test Demonstrates

By Victor Tangermann

OpenAI's GPT-4 is so lifelike, it can trick more than 50 percent of human test subjects into thinking they are talking to a person.

Artificial Intelligence

Majority of Humans Fooled by GPT-4 in Turing Test, Scientists Find

By Noor Al-Sibai

Remember all of Elon Musk's claims that Teslas would be actually autonomous soon? Thanks to one lawsuit, he might have to pay for them.

Tesla Forced to Face Lawsuit by Drivers Who Says Elon Misled About Autopilot, FSD Capabilities

By Noor Al-Sibai

It's been 7 weeks since a Singaporean cargo ship crashed into Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge, and its crew is still stranded aboard.

Crew Still Stranded Aboard Ship in Baltimore Nearly Two Months After Bridge Disaster

By Noor Al-Sibai

The robot, named Sophia, gave painfully generic answers and even plugged the AI industry. Many students felt "disrespected" by the decision.

Artificial Intelligence

Students Show Up to Graduation, Find Commencement Speaker Is an AI Robot

By Frank Landymore

As The Information reports, Stable Diffusion maker Stability AI is facing a severe cash crunch and is in talks of being sold off.

Artificial Intelligence

The Maker of Stable Diffusion Is Collapsing, Considering Sale

By Victor Tangermann

NASA's Mars Curiosity rover has made up its mind and will continue down a rocky ridge that scientists believe was once a raging river.

NASA Mars Rover Following Path of What Appears to Be Ancient River

By Victor Tangermann

Writers at the newspaper giant Gannett quietly updated employment contracts to provide much more leeway for generating "news content."

Gannett Staff Furious Over Contract Allowing AI “to Generate News Content”

By Maggie Harrison Dupré

China's navy has apparently tested out its hypersonic rail gun — but during a demonstration of its power, things didn't go quite as planned.

China Uses Giant Rail Gun to Shoot Smart Bomb Nine Miles Into the Sky

By Noor Al-Sibai

Publishers Horrified at New Google AI Feature That Could Kill What’s Left of Journalism

Publishers Horrified at New Google AI Feature That Could Kill What’s Left of Journalism

By Sharon Adarlo

The Iberian orcas are back at it again, this time straight-up sinking a yacht near the Strait of Gibraltar.

Science & Energy

Orcas Strike Again, Sinking Yacht as Oil Tanker Called for Rescue

By Noor Al-Sibai

Scientists trying to find out why fish are spinning and dying in Florida may have discovered the culprit: poisonous algae.

Science & Energy

Scientists Ponder Why Fish Are Spinning Themselves to Death

By Sharon Adarlo

A gigantic piece of a SpaceX rocket crashed down on a rural farm in Saskatchewan, Canada — and the story only gets more Canadian from there.

Giant Piece of Space Junk Crashes Down on Farm of Canadian, Who Intends to Sell It and Spend Money on Hockey Rink

By Victor Tangermann

Elon Musk Didn’t Like What a Woman Told Him, So He Fired Her Entire Department

Elon Musk Didn’t Like What a Woman Told Him, So He Fired Her Entire Department

By Victor Tangermann

Boeing's Starliner launch had to be delayed yet again after teams found a small helium leak in the spacecraft's service module.

Leak Discovered in Problem-Plagued Boeing Spacecraft Before Astronaut Launch

By Victor Tangermann

This week, in Google's own marketing materials showing off "search in the Gemini era," the company made yet another blunder.

During Huge Demo, Google’s AI Provides Idiotic Advice About Photography That Would Destroy Film

By Victor Tangermann

According to credit card data obtained by market research firm YipitData, Tesla's Full Self-Driving software is struggling to catch on.

Self-Driving Vehicles

98 Percent of Drivers Who Try Tesla’s Full Self-Driving Demo Ditch It After the Trial Period Is Over

By Victor Tangermann

According to SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, Starship's anticipated fourth test flight could be as soon as next month.

SpaceX Preparing for Next Starship Launch, Elon Musk Says

By Frank Landymore

Ilya Sutskever, OpenAI cofounder and chief scientist, is leaving the company after moving to oust CEO Sam Altman in November.

Scientist Who Said Neural Networks May Already Be Conscious Leaves OpenAI After Leading Coup Against Sam Altman

By Noor Al-Sibai

In China, the AI cloning of dead relatives has become a thriving cottage industry, driving down prices and spurring technological advances.

Artificial Intelligence

People Are Selling AI Clones of Dead Relatives for Just $150

By Noor Al-Sibai

A Maine Cybertruck owner knew he'd be one of the only in the state to own the expensive Tesla, but didn't expect everyone to hate it.

Advanced Transport

Maine Man Alarmed When Everybody Mocks His Cybertruck, Flips Him Off

By Noor Al-Sibai

The climate experiment explored a technique called marine cloud brightening, in which aerosols are used to help clouds reflect more sunlight.

City Officials Halt Experiment to Hack Earth’s Climate, Citing Health Concerns

By Frank Landymore

A company placed portal-shaped "sculptures" in the cities of Dublin and New York, allowing residents to see each other. Chaos ensued.

“Portal” Between Dublin and NYC Shut Down After OnlyFans Model Flashes It

By Victor Tangermann

It appears that OpenAI executives were inspired by Spike Jonze's 2013 sleeper hit "Her" when creating the latest version of ChatGPT.

Sam Altman Inspired to Create AI by Tragic Movie Where Joaquin Phoenix Has Heart Broken by Chatbot

By Noor Al-Sibai

AI could be serving as a "great filter" that prevents alien civilizations from surviving long enough for us to notice them.

Artificial Intelligence

We’re Detecting No Alien Civilizations Because They Were Destroyed by AI, Astrophysicist Proposes

By Frank Landymore

After weeks of protracted issues with his Cybertruck, a vlogger is melting down and rescinding his Tesla fandom.

YouTuber Melts Down as Tesla Refuses to Replace His “Lemon” Cybertruck

By Noor Al-Sibai

Tesla has begun rehiring some of the 500-employee Supercharger team Elon Musk let go in its entirety last month, Bloomberg reports.

Elon Musk Starts Rehiring Some of the Supercharger People He Fired

By Victor Tangermann

The executive in charge of Cybertruck manufacturing has mysteriously left Tesla, adding to a lengthy list of senior managers who have left.

Head of Cybertruck Manufacturing Mysteriously Leaves Tesla

By Victor Tangermann

Caught with pie on their faces, some companies are copping to using ChatGPT and other generative AI tools to write important legal documents.

Company “Sheepishly” Admits Its Employee Handbook Was Generated With ChatGPT, Doesn’t Have Anti-Harassment Policy

By Noor Al-Sibai

Scientists have long argued about how the Universe is shaped — and according to a new study, the more complex explanations are more correct.

The Universe May Be Shaped Like a Hall of Mirrors, Scientists Say

By Noor Al-Sibai

Yet another OpenAI executive has been caught lacking on camera when asked if the Sora video generator was trained using YouTube videos.

Another OpenAI Executive Choked When Asked If Sora Was Trained on YouTube Data

By Noor Al-Sibai

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman let slip that he wants the company to be able to generate "NSFW stuff" like erotica and gore.

Sam Altman Says OpenAI Would Like to Enable Gore and Erotica for “Personal Use”

By Noor Al-Sibai

Tractors and other farm equipment broke down in the middle of planting season due to an extreme solar storm over the weekend.

Solar Storm So Powerful It Shut Down Farm Equipment Across the US and Canada

By Victor Tangermann

A cruise ship came to port on Saturday with a surprising and stinky stowaway: a dead, rotting whale was found on its bow.

Science & Energy

Cruise Ship Alarmed to Discover a 50,000-Pound Dead Whale Stuck to the Front of It, Seemingly After Getting Run Down and Dying

By Sharon Adarlo

A secretive startup called Applied Physics has published a "milestone study," arguing that warp drives are entirely possible.

New Study Claims Warp Drives Are Possible

By Victor Tangermann

Amazon is planning to roll out its fleet of delivery drones in Arizona — but as Wired reports, soaring temperatures are hampering efforts.

Amazon’s Delivery Drones Are Shutting Down on Hot Summer Days

By Victor Tangermann

Three Space Force Guardians recently traveled to El Paso, Texas, to complete a set of challenges, turning them into "space cowboys."

Space Force Obtains Three “Space Cowboys”

By Victor Tangermann

A new carbon capture facility that claims to be the biggest in the world, began sucking the carbon from the air in Iceland.

Renewable Energy

World’s Largest Vacuum to Suck Carbon From Atmosphere Turns On for First Time

By Victor Tangermann

A massive solar storm is blasting the Earth's atmosphere with charged particles, resulting in auroras that will be visible across the US.

Massive Solar Storm to Trigger Northern Lights Across North America

By Victor Tangermann

Donald Trump didn't have a computer or an email address, according to former aide Madeline Westerhout and used to dictate tweets to her.

Donald Trump Doesn’t Use a Computer or Have an Email Address, Former Aide Reveals in Court

By Victor Tangermann

OpenAI Mocked for Issuing Infringement Claim Over Its Logo While Scraping the Entire Web to Train AI Models

By Maggie Harrison Dupré

A Cybertruck owner got a rude awakening when his new Tesla vehicle started leaking coolant after a mere 35 miles of driving.

Advanced Transport

Coolant Starts Pouring Out of Brand New Cybertruck After Driving 35 Miles

By Sharon Adarlo

Masked protesters broke down a fence and tried to breach a Tesla factory building in Germany in order to stop expansion plans.

Protesters Break Fence, Swarm Tesla Gigafactory

By Sharon Adarlo

Tesla's head of product launches Rich Otto announced this week that he has left the EV maker after seven years.

Tesla Exec Quits, Trashes Company

By Victor Tangermann

After firing the 500-person EV charging team, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has reversed course, saying he's still committed to expanding the network.

After Firing Entire Supercharger Team, Elon Musk Reverses Course and Says He’ll Be Spending $500 Million on Growing the Charging Network

By Victor Tangermann

Google employees have been pretty down as of late amid massive layoffs — but according to the company's C-suite, the beatings won't continue.

Google Execs Say Employees Will Be Rewarded for Huge Profits With Fewer Layoffs

By Noor Al-Sibai

Tesla-obsessed vigilantes reportedly attempted to smuggle two Tesla Cybertrucks into Russia — but got caught well before they could get there.

Advanced Transport

Smugglers Busted Trying to Sneak Cybertrucks Into Russia

By Victor Tangermann

The email Tesla sent to an unnamed recently worker to lay them off, posted by the The Verge, has an unmistakably icy vibe to it.

Tesla’s Layoff Emails Seem Unnecessarily Mean

By Sharon Adarlo