the digest (Page 54)

Latest in the digest

Zoom wants you to know that it definitely didn't use your video calls to train its AI — even if its convoluted TOS seems to say otherwise.

Artificial Intelligence

Zoom Insists It Wasn’t Using Private Calls to Train AI System

By Maggie Harrison Dupré

More researchers are piling on, burying the potentially revolutionary discovery of a room-temperature superconductor in skepticism.

The Claim of a Room Temperature Superconductor Is Starting to Look Fishy

By Victor Tangermann

From fundraising more than $100 million to hemorrhaging top talent the firm that makes Stable Diffusion has had a heck of a year.

Artificial Intelligence

The Company Behind Stable Diffusion Appears to Be Crumbling Into Chaos

By Noor Al-Sibai

Elon Musk's on-off partner Grimes seems to want to build bridges between the tech billionaire and the trans community.

Grimes Says She Asked Elon Musk Why He’s So Obsessed With Trans People

By Noor Al-Sibai

ai startups hackers

Artificial Intelligence

AI Startups Are Openly Engaged In Corporate Espionage

By Sharon Adarlo

Google and Universal Music Reportedly Want to Monetize Deepfaked AI Songs

By Frank Landymore

This writer argues that, though flawed, the anti-plastic straw movement marks a rare, meaningful moment for the anti-plastic movement.

The Anti-Straw Movement Was Dumb, Annoying, and… Actually Worked?

By Maggie Harrison Dupré

The Wall Street Journal has obtained exclusive dashcam footage of a Tesla crashing into a stopped emergency vehicle with Autopilot turned on.

Brutal Dashcam Footage Shows Tesla on Autopilot Smashing Into Police

By Victor Tangermann

NASA / Futurism

Scientists: Mars Is Spinning Faster, For, Uh, Some Reason

By Sharon Adarlo

Picture Alliance via Getty / Futurism

Artificial Intelligence

AI Knows What You’re Typing Just By Hearing It Over a Zoom

By Maggie Harrison Dupré

NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS

Immortal Mars Helicopter Still Soars After Emergency Landing, Takes Photo of Its Buddy

By Noor Al-Sibai

Getty / Futurism

Artificial Intelligence

How AI Could Predict the Outbreak of Infectious Diseases like Ebola

By Frank Landymore

Vatican Pool via Getty / Futurism

Artificial Intelligence

The Pope Doubles Down on AI Concerns

By Maggie Harrison Dupré

delivery robot vandalism

Invasion of Food Delivery Robots is Driving People to Vandalism and Theft

By Sharon Adarlo

Getty / Futurism

Artificial Intelligence

Revenge of the Writers: AI Fiction Analysis Site Toppled by Revolt

By Frank Landymore

Tesla / Futurism

Tesla CFO and Alleged Elon Whisperer Zach Kirkhorn’s Watch Is Finished

By Maggie Harrison Dupré

Getty / Futurism

AI Is Now Identifying Killer Asteroids Before They Approach Earth

By Noor Al-Sibai

anarchists crypto dollar

These Anarchists Want to Destroy the Dollar with Crypto

By Maggie Harrison Dupré

large prehistoric whale small head

Scientists: Massive Ancient Whale With Silly, Tiny Head Was Real

By Sharon Adarlo

Getty / Futurism

Elon Musk Will Pay Your Legal Bill If Your Tweets Got You Fired

By Noor Al-Sibai

Getty / Futurism

The Feds Are Now Using Crypto to Catch Drug Traffickers

By Noor Al-Sibai

Getty / Futurism

Facial recognition

Here’s What It’s Like To Be Falsely Arrested via Facial Recognition

By Sharon Adarlo

Drew Angerer via Getty / Futurism

UFO Whistleblower: What I Told Congress Was the “Tip of the Iceberg”

By Noor Al-Sibai

via Amazon/Futurism

Artificial Intelligence

The New Scam Flooding Amazon: AI-Generated Travel Guides

By Maggie Harrison Dupré

Eco-Clean Solutions / Keep Tahoe Blue

We Adore This Delightful Little Robot Helping Save Lake Tahoe

By Noor Al-Sibai

Chesnot via Getty / Futurism

Elon Musk Already Making Excuses Ahead of Fight With Zuckerberg

By Frank Landymore

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman took to Twitter to express his concern that AI might meddle with elections and the democratic process.

Sam Altman Fears AI’s Effect on Elections

By Maggie Harrison Dupré

There's a ton of bizarrely-bright light shooting out of the Sun — and it's been happening for years right under our noses.

Scientists Say the Sun Has Been Shooting Out Super-Bright Light For Years Without Anyone Noticing

By Noor Al-Sibai

At nearly 70 degrees, the ocean has hit its highest recorded temperature in history — and scientists say it's only likely to continue to rise.

Ocean Hits Highest Recorded Temperature, Still Rising

By Maggie Harrison Dupré

Why build sophisticated rockets to get payloads into orbit, when you could simply build dumb and loud concrete tubes instead?

Startup Working on Super-Long Tube That Shoots Stuff Into Orbit at Mach 30

By Maggie Harrison Dupré

MIT researchers have figured out a way to create a supercapacitor simply by mixing cement, and a fine charcoal product called carbon black.

MIT Scientists May Have Found a Cheap Way of Storing Huge Amounts of Energy in Cement

By Victor Tangermann

NASA was supposed to help OceanGate design key parts of the Titan submersible — but the agency really wants you to know that it didn't.

Advanced Transport

Emails Show NASA’s Scramble to Distance Itself From Doomed Titan Sub

By Noor Al-Sibai

The record shattering high temperatures has proven to be too much for even seasoned desert-dwelling saguaro cactuses.

It’s So Hot That Decades-Old Cactuses Are Toppling Over in Defeat

By Frank Landymore

Lil Wayne has joined the ranks of artists who've weighed in on AI — and his take is as witty, individual, and potty-mouthed as his rhymes.

Artificial Intelligence

Lil Wayne Isn’t Worried About AI Because He’s Too Unique and “Amazing”

By Noor Al-Sibai

Four former ChatGPT content moderators have filed a petition for an investigation into the OpenAI-contracted moderation firm Sama.

Contractors Say OpenAI Psychologically Scarred Them for $2/Hour

By Maggie Harrison Dupré

During a test broadcast of the Twitter Live feature, Elon Musk decided to whip out his guns and spontaneously curl a dumbbell.

Elon Musk Lifts Weight During Office Meeting For Reasons Unknown

By Frank Landymore

A professor at the University of Virginia claims to have created a "freeze ray"-like device that was apparently inspired by Mr. Freeze.

Robots and Machines

Professor Says He’s Invented a Real-Life “Freeze Ray”

By Victor Tangermann

A pair of stars, one red dwarf, one brown dwarf, both of notable sizes small and large, have one of the tightest orbits ever spotted.

Two Tiny Stars Are Orbiting Each Other So Closely, the Entire System Could Fit In the Sun

By Frank Landymore

A Florida man named Joshua Hughes has taken Florida's worsening problem with invasive cane toads into his own hands.

Science & Energy

Florida Man Shoots 100 Poisonous Toads

By Maggie Harrison Dupré

The domain AI.com once took users to OpenAI's ChatGPT. Now, it's apparently changed hands, and redirects to Elon Musk's AI project, xAI.

OpenAI’s Former Domain AI.com Now Directs to Elon Musk’s AI Company

By Frank Landymore

Scientists have created a glass that uses DNA as its skeleton that far outclasses steel in strength and weight — at the nano-scale, at least.

Science & Energy

Scientists Use DNA to Construct Material Lighter and Stronger Than Steel

By Frank Landymore

Chatbot defamation cases continue to rise, as Meta's Blenderbot3 accused Stanford cybersecurity expert Marietje Schaake of being a terrorist.

Artificial Intelligence

Facebook AI Accuses AI Researcher of Being a Terrorist

By Maggie Harrison Dupré

Priscilla Chan is not at all pleased that her husband, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, has built a fighting ring in their backyard.

Mark Zuckerberg’s Wife Unhappy He’s Building Fighting Arena in their Backyard

By Noor Al-Sibai

Waves off of California's Pacific coast have been getting demonstrably bigger, even in the winter — and they keep hurting coastal communities.

Science & Energy

Freakishly Gigantic Waves Keep Battering California

By Noor Al-Sibai

Three Tesla owners in California have proposed a class action lawsuit, accusing the EV maker of falsely advertising its vehicles' ranges.

Tesla Sued for Exaggerating Battery Range

By Victor Tangermann

Florida has had a recent surge of leprosy cases and the disease may have become endemic to the state, according to the CDC.

Very Normal! Leprosy Cases Surging in Florida, Government Says

By Sharon Adarlo

Kenya claims it is shutting down Sam Altman's eyeball-scanning cryptocurrency within its borders — but Worldcoin has a different take.

Worldcoin and Kenya Argue About Who’s Breaking Up With Whom

By Noor Al-Sibai

"Star Trek" legend William Shatner has chimed in, calling recent congressional hearings about UFO reports "ridiculous."

Annoyed William Shatner Weighs in on Claims of Government Harboring UFOs

By Victor Tangermann

A Florida sheriff's office is apparently fed up with folks calling them about groups of manatees having group sex in public.

Science & Energy

Florida Sheriff Begs Public to Stop Calling About Manatee Orgies

By Noor Al-Sibai

A convincing hoax tricked numerous media publications into reporting that Barbie-maker Mattel was to go plastic-free by 2030.

Science & Energy

Mattel Denies Claim That All Barbies Will Be Compostable

By Maggie Harrison Dupré

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi was shocked to learn how much it costs to take a three-mile ride in New York City using his company's app.

Advanced Transport

Uber CEO Stunned When He Heard Cost of 3-Mile Uber Ride

By Noor Al-Sibai

An app called Remini claims to use generative AI to show users what their future kids might look like. Security experts wonder if it's safe.

Artificial Intelligence

App Claims to Use AI to Show What Your Children Would Look Like

By Maggie Harrison Dupré

The NHTSA is officially investigating reports of Tesla drivers losing steering control and power steering while driving.

Government Investigating Tesla Over Small Issue Where Steering Wheel Locks Up While Driving

By Victor Tangermann

A friendly beluga whale who has been suspected of being a Russian spy is looking downright skinny in a recent photo compared to a 2019 image.

Science & Energy

The Suspected Russian Spy Whale Isn’t Looking So Good

By Sharon Adarlo

Another stone left unbranded in Twitter's disastrous X rebrand: CEO Linda Yaccarino's former username, which was quickly snagged by a troll.

Trolls Immediately Steal Twitter CEO’s Handle After “X” Name Change

By Maggie Harrison Dupré

The Ethereum-based token called ApeCoin, linked to the once-coveted Bored Apes NFT collection, dropped to an all-time low on Tuesday.

The Bored Ape Crypto Just Hit an All-Time Low

By Victor Tangermann

It looks like Elon Musk is once again ignoring his politics in search of a government handout — this time for Tesla's electric semi-trucks.

Tesla Begs Biden for Nearly $100 Million to Build Semi-Truck Charging Stations

By Noor Al-Sibai

OpenAI has applied for new trademark for "GPT-5," giving us a glimpse of its successor to its blockbuster large language model GPT-4.

OpenAI Drops Huge Clue About GPT-5

By Victor Tangermann

Disney and NBC are both watching a proposed New York law that would bar them from lucrative state tax breaks if they use AI to replace humans.

Artificial Intelligence

Disney Furious at Law That Would Cut Tax Breaks If It Replaced Actors With AI

By Noor Al-Sibai

Experts, including executives who are marketing these tools, argue that AI chatbots are doomed to forever come up with falsehoods.

Artificial Intelligence

It’s Impossible for Chatbots to Stop Lying, Experts Say

By Victor Tangermann

A professional UFO hunter is throwing cold water on the government whistleblower who claims the Pentagon has alien carcasses.

SETI Institute Shreds UFO Whistleblower’s Claims About Alien Corpses

By Noor Al-Sibai

Artificial Intelligence

An Asian Woman Asked AI to Improve Her Headshot and It Turned Her White

By Noor Al-Sibai

Another day, another step closer to the normalization of romantic AI chatbot partners — if Andreessen Horowitz has things its way, that is.

Artificial Intelligence

Venture Capital Firm Releases Instructions for Creating AI Girlfriend

By Maggie Harrison Dupré

The only thing beastly about the MrBeast Burger is, apparently, the allegedly "raw" and uncooked meat that comprises it.

MrBeast Sues His Ghost Kitchen for Serving “Revolting” Burger

By Noor Al-Sibai