the digest (Page 53)

Latest in the digest

Global Illuminations' team, which made an open source Minecraft game, will work on OpenAI "core products including ChatGPT."

OpenAI Just Bought a Game Studio Working on a “Minecraft” Clone

By Frank Landymore

Researchers have built a humanoid robot called Pibot that can pilot a jet without having to make any major modifications to the cockpit.

Scientists Build Humanoid Robot That Can Pilot a Plane

By Victor Tangermann

The James Webb Space Telescope has once again captured imagery of the furthest star ever detected — and revealed that it may not be alone.

James Webb Space Telescope

Webb Telescope Makes Surprising Finding About the Most Distant Star Ever Seen

By Noor Al-Sibai

A tiny little winged drone can soar with close to zero throttle, thanks to an impressive algorithm that responds to changing winds.

Scientists Build Drone That Seeks Air Currents Like a Bird, Flying With Almost No Power

By Frank Landymore

A review of eight different AI pedestrian detectors revealed the programs to be worse at detecting darker-skinned pedestrians and kids.

Advanced Transport

Driverless Cars are Biased Against Dark-Skinned People and Kids, Scientists Say

By Maggie Harrison Dupré

A new survey shows that the vast majority of senior executives say would've approached their return-to-work push "differently."

Forcing Workers Back to the Office Might Not Have Been a Good Idea After All

By Frank Landymore

White noise podcasts have found a huge footing on Spotify, amounting to tens of millions of dollars in lost profit.

Spotify Annoyed by People Uploading Hours of White Noise

By Victor Tangermann

If you haven't been able to catch the Perseids yet, an incredible (and free!) live stream will let you watch the meteor shower in real time.

Haven’t Caught the Perseids Yet? This Amazing Live Stream Lets You Watch Them in Real Time

By Maggie Harrison Dupré

A massive flotilla of ships is currently stuck in the world's worst traffic jam at the Panama Canal — and it might not end for weeks.

Science & Energy

200 Ships Are Stuck at the Panama Canal

By Noor Al-Sibai

Sustaining much more than eight billion is not only unsustainable, it could lead to an imminent "population correction."

Science & Energy

Scientist Predicts Brutal “Population Correction”

By Victor Tangermann

A now-removed travel article published by Microsoft inexplicably recommended The Ottawa Food Bank as a "cannot miss!" tourist attraction.

Microsoft Deletes Bizarre AI-Generated Travel Guide That Recommended Visiting Food Bank With an “Empty Stomach”

By Frank Landymore

Google DeepMind researchers have finally found a way to make life coaching even worse: infuse it with generative AI.

Google’s Apparently Building an AI That Tells You How to Live Your Life

By Maggie Harrison Dupré

Bored Apes investors are suing Sotheby's and a number of celebs including Paris Hilton for hyping up the tokens back in 2021.

Bored Ape Investors Are Suing Paris Hilton as the Whole Thing Falls Apart

By Victor Tangermann

A cloud outage caused 3D printers from the company Bambu to go haywire and print by themselves, in some cases destroying their own parts.

3D Printers Go Rogue, Start Printing While Owners Are Asleep

By Frank Landymore

An NYU professor is locked out of his Twitter social media account after criticizing Twitter CEO Elon Musk.

Professor Says Elon Musk Locked Him Out of His Twitter Account

By Sharon Adarlo

The New York Times is said to be weighing a lawsuit against OpenAI over intellectual property infringement behind closed doors.

The New York Times Is Apparently Considering a Lawsuit Against OpenAI

By Maggie Harrison Dupré

Self-Driving Car Gets Stuck in Freshly Poured Concrete

Self-Driving Vehicles

Self-Driving Car Gets Stuck in Freshly Poured Concrete

By Victor Tangermann

Tesla owners keep reporting a bit of a problem with their vehicles losing power... and locking them inside.

Tesla Seems to Have a Small Problem With People Getting Locked Inside Its Cars

By Noor Al-Sibai

At least two advertisers have pulled out of advertising on X-formerly-Twitter, after their ads appeared next to ads that promoted fascism.

Brands Horrified When Their Twitter Ads Appear on Nazi Posts

By Victor Tangermann

A bizarre Bank of Ireland glitch allowed customers to withdraw up to 1,000 Euros from their accounts — even if they didn't have the money.

Bank Accidentally Lets People Withdraw Money From ATMs Even If They Don’t Have Any

By Maggie Harrison Dupré

Lamborghini just teased its "first 100 percent electric" supercar by posting an image of a silhouette. More details to follow soon.

Advanced Transport

They Seem to Be Working on an Electric Lamborghini

By Victor Tangermann

Russian state media recently shared the first images taken by its Luna-25 spacecraft, showing the Earth as a small dot in the distance.

Russia Sends Back Photos From Trip to Moon

By Victor Tangermann

As we get closer to the trial against disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, prosecutors are teasing new evidence from Caroline Ellison.

It Sounds Like Caroline Ellison Has Some Major Dirt on Sam Bankman-Fried

By Noor Al-Sibai

X-formerly-Twitter owner Elon Musk is making it more difficult to access content via external links by literally slowing them down.

Twitter Now Throttling Traffic to Sites Elon Musk Doesn’t Like

By Victor Tangermann

In an interview with CNN, Kaku dismissed AI chatbots as "glorified tape recorders," arguing we're vastly overestimating their capabilities.

Michio Kaku Says AIs Like ChatGPT Are “Glorified Tape Recorders”

By Victor Tangermann

According to a joint report from NASA and NOAA scientists, July may have just been the hottest month in recorded history.

July Was the Hottest Month in Recorded History

By Maggie Harrison Dupré

Ford CEO Jim Farley tried to charge an all electric light truck, the F-150 Lightning, during a road trip, but he ran into trouble.

Advanced Transport

Ford CEO Goes on Road Trip in Electric F-150, Runs Into Charging “Reality Check”

By Sharon Adarlo

Scientists at the University of Chicago claim to have invented a tool that protects artists' work from being accurately reproduced by AI.

Artificial Intelligence

Scientists Say New Tool Makes Images Worthless for Training AI

By Maggie Harrison Dupré

People in an isolated area of Peru claim they were attacked by aliens but investigators think it's actually illegal miners using jetpacks.

Cops Say “Aliens” Attacking Amazonian Village Are Men With Jetpacks

By Sharon Adarlo

Self-driving cars caused a major traffic jam on Friday in San Francisco when ten of its self-driving taxis simply shut down.

Self-Driving Vehicles

Ten Self-Driving Cars Cause Huge Traffic Jam After Losing Wireless Signal

By Maggie Harrison Dupré

Harvard alien-hunter Avi Loeb posited that superhuman aliens could be building universes in labs and that his haters are just "jealous."

Harvard Professor Says Godlike Aliens May Be Creating Universes in Labs

By Noor Al-Sibai

In a 2020 paper, SEC chief Gary Gensler warned that AI could lead to disastrous uniformity and interconnectedness in financial structures.

Artificial Intelligence

SEC Head Fears AI Could Cause a Financial Crash

By Maggie Harrison Dupré

In an unprecedented ruling, a state judge has sided with a group of youth climate activists who sued the state of Montana over fossil fuels.

The Kids Who Sued Montana Over Climate Change Just Won

By Noor Al-Sibai

Australian nature enthusiast Brodie Moss was astonished to find the massive tail fin of a humpback whale sticking straight out of the ocean.

Science & Energy

Puzzling Video Shows Whale With Tail Frozen Out of Water

By Victor Tangermann

Claire "Grimes" Boucher has taken a cultural stance nearly as bizarre as her decision to procreate with Elon Musk.

Grimes Says She Loves Being Mansplained To

By Noor Al-Sibai

Elon Musk is accusing Mark Zuckerberg of being "a chicken" after he pointed out that Musk has been trying weasel out of their fight.

Musk Rages at Zuckerberg After Getting Called Out for Trying to Weasel Out of Fight

By Victor Tangermann

A Tesla Cybertruck has been spotted abandoned and apparently broken down on the side of the interstate near Silicon Valley.

Advanced Transport

Cybertruck Already Found Broken Down and Abandoned on Side of Road

By Noor Al-Sibai

Former crypto CEO Sam Bankman-Fried is officially heading to a Brooklyn jail to await trial after being accused of tampering with witnesses.

Sam Bankman-Fried Heads to Squalid Jail

By Victor Tangermann

The Chinese military claims it has developed technology that would allow for "infinite" lasers that don't go haywire.

Chinese Military Says It’s Figured Out How to Build Laser Weapons That Can Fire Indefinitely

By Noor Al-Sibai

New research suggests that there's a massive asteroid crater hidden beneath Australia, dwarfing even the impact that killed the dinosaurs.

Science & Energy

Scientists Intrigued by Huge Structure Buried Under Australia

By Frank Landymore

OpenAI's "BotGPT" is hitting the streets, ready to devour anything that's ever been posted online. Luckily, it's pretty easy to block.

OpenAI Deploys Crawler to Vacuum Up Your Posts and Train AI With Them

By Frank Landymore

Security researchers say they can hack a card shuffling machine widely used by casinos to show the hands of other players.

Hackers Gain Control of Casino Card Shuffling Machine for Godlike Control Over Games

By Frank Landymore

A known AI hater, Nick Cave has once again gone off on OpenAI's ChatGPT and its imitators being used to mimic real songwriting.

Nick Cave Unloads on Musicians Using ChatGPT to Write Songs

By Noor Al-Sibai

Default Futurism featured image

The Wealthy Are Weirdly Psyched to Download Their Brains Into Computers

By Maggie Harrison Dupré

The US Department of Energy will invest $1.2 billion to build two direct air capture facilities that will remove carbon from the atmosphere.

White House Pledges $1.2 Billion to Suck Carbon Out of the Air

By Frank Landymore

NASA's adorable new Moon rovers are lightweight and about the size of a carry-on — and as a video shows, they can get some sweet air, too.

Watch NASA’s New Moon Rover Yeet Itself Over a Boulder

By Noor Al-Sibai

The biggest, brightest meteor shower of the year, the annual Perseids shower, will be on full display this Saturday and Sunday.

The Most Amazing Meteor Shower of the Year Is This Weekend

By Maggie Harrison Dupré

While it's customary to hear about Teslas crashing and burning, one that came back from the dead in Ukraine is another thing entirely.

Man Puzzled When His Totaled Tesla Comes Back Online in Ukraine

By Noor Al-Sibai

Researchers have found that bots are better at completing CAPTCHAs than humans in both accuracy and speed.

Artificial Intelligence

AI Is Now Better Than Humans at Solving Those Annoying “Prove You’re a Human” Tests

By Victor Tangermann

If Elon Musk's recent posts are anything to go by, his fight with Mark Zuckerberg will be an epic, "Gladiator"-style affair in Italy.

Elon Says the Zuck Fight Is Back On, Gladiator-Style

By Victor Tangermann

As more and more preprints detailing efforts to reproduce the room-temperature superconductor come rolling in, things aren't looking good.

Science & Energy

That Room-Temperature Superconductor Seems to Be Falling Apart

By Victor Tangermann

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover has come across a fascinating hexagonal pattern in salt deposits that looks eerily familiar.

Scientists Intrigued by Hexagonal Pattern on Surface of Mars

By Victor Tangermann

A New Zealand supermarket's AI recipe bot suggested users chef up a series of poisonous, deadly, and/or cannibalistic meals.

Artificial Intelligence

Supermarket’s Meal-Planning AI Suggests Deadly Poison for Dinner

By Maggie Harrison Dupré

Boeing's latest Starliner delay highlights the widening gap between it and SpaceX, which is slated to launch its seventh crewed NASA mission.

Boeing Is Getting Absolutely Destroyed by SpaceX

By Maggie Harrison Dupré

The dust floating around the International Space Station is worse than what's milling around in your house or apartment, researchers found.

Scientists Alarmed by What Space Station Astronauts Appear to Be Breathing

By Noor Al-Sibai

Educators are struggling to respond to widespread cheating with ChatGPT. Some instances of cheating, though, are easier to spot than others.

Artificial Intelligence

Idiot Students Are Submitting Answers Saying “I Am an AI Language Model”

By Frank Landymore

James Manyika, Google's head of head of "tech and society," is straddling the contradictory gap between AI optimism and AI doomsay.

Google’s Lead AI Guy Says AI Will Be Amazing, Unless It Kills Us

By Maggie Harrison Dupré

Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic has kicked off its first-ever all-tourist trip into the upper atmosphere, but not space.

Richard Branson Blasts Daredevils a Bit High, But Definitely Not Into Space

By Victor Tangermann

Cosmonaut Sergey Prokopyev went for a ride on a robotic arm outside the International Space Station after outfitting it with a work platform.

Cosmonaut Ghost Rides 37-Foot Robotic Arm Outside Space Station

By Frank Landymore

Nobody has ever accused Elon Musk of being a regular guy, but a new excerpt from an upcoming biography casts him as a genuinely tedious nerd.

Elon Musk Put Tesla on Autopilot During Date With Grimes, Then Closed His Eyes and Took His Hands Off the Wheel

By Noor Al-Sibai

Elon Musk has already come up with plenty of excuses to wriggle out of sparring with Mark Zuckerberg. Now he wants to have a "noble" debate.

Terrified Elon Musk Suggests “Debate” With Zuckerberg Instead of Cage Fight

By Victor Tangermann

Researchers found that ChatGPT got just half of 517 Stack Overflow prompts wrong, indicating it's not great at spitting out perfect code.

ChatGPT Actually Gets Half of Programming Questions Wrong

By Victor Tangermann

Author Jane Friedman got some seemingly AI-written books listed under her name taken down after posting about it on Twitter and her own blog.

Artificial Intelligence

Author Annoyed to Find Amazon Selling AI-Generated Books Under Her Name

By Noor Al-Sibai

If it were up to NASA administrator Bill Nelson, the US needs to get to the Moon before China since it might be unwilling to share resources.

NASA Head Concerned That China Will Steal Lunar Resources

By Victor Tangermann