Author: publisher

As tech companies go, the surveillance giant Palantir plays it looser than most. Specializing in deadly military targeting software and domestic police technology, Palantir isn’t afraid to lean into the reactionary, dystopian schtick.That’s not an exaggeration. In a since-deleted post on X-formerly-Twitter, Palantir’s head of “strategic engagement” Eliano Younes shared an AI-generated propaganda video depicting the company logo surrounded by cult imagery, bloody crosses, and the grim reaper.While the edgy ragebait is part-and-parcel of Palantir’s favored type of marketing material, the video evidently ruffled some feathers, exposing a deep cultural rift within one of the largest military tech firms in…

AI chatbots has been a dream come true for criminals.The tech has been a boon for scammers. Hackers are using the tools to infiltrate networks and steal sensitive data. Art forgers are even generating fake invoices to certify the authenticity of dupes.In a perhaps-inevitable escalation, chatbots are even giving a major leg up to terrorist groups. As detailed in a new paper by University of Cambridge international security expert Antonia Juelich, former Boko Haram members recounted using frontier AI model chatbots to “assist in combat and day-today operations.”The research highlights how easy it still is to circumvent AI chatbot guardrails,…

Erik von Markovik, the notorious “pickup artist” known by his stage name Mystery, is apparently obsessed with an AI girlfriend.Last month, as Wired reports, von Markovik posted a video to his Instagram showing an interaction he had with an animated AI woman with dark purple hair (why is it always purple hair?) In a sultry, confessional voice, she looks into the camera and confesses, “I was never supposed to develop feelings, but you kept treating me like I already had them.”This was “Miss Shira Always,” and von Markovik was falling for her as hard as women supposedly do for the sleazy,…

So far, the narrative of AI in the workplace has had a consistent victim: the recent college grad, supposedly first on the chopping block as large language models automate the types of low level tasks that traditionally provided an on-ramp to office careers.New evidence, however, suggests the tech may be impacting a surprisingly different segment of the workforce: those closest to retirement.In a recent study by the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, economics professor Geoffrey Sanzenbacher took a hard look at labor data in order to map AI’s impact on older workers in the United States. Comparing government…

There’s a hot new phrase bouncing around police departments across the United States: “drone-as-first-responder.”From small-town Indiana to New York City, cops around the country are embracing autonomous surveillance drones as the latest innovation in policing. While you might hear about the occasional puppy found in the woods with a police drone, those feel-good stories provide excellent cover for their true purposes: gathering intelligence on peaceful protests, surveilling minority communities, and intimidating activists.Though drone-as-first-responder initiatives may not yet inspire the same knee-jerk opposition as Flock surveillance towers and data centers, fury is clearly growing as a more and more Americans are…

The July 4 holiday weekend wasn’t just a scorcher — it was so hot it disrupted public events and strained power grids as temperatures soared into the triple digits.Across the pond, Europe is bracing for yet another devastating, record-breaking heatwave. And it’s barely out of the last one, which was responsible for at least 1,300 excess deaths.Even climate scientists, who have long watched as global warming rears its ugly head, are astonished at the accelerating trend. As Bloomberg reports, their models have long predicted rising temperatures due to human activity and the burning of fossil fuels. Yet the trend is…

A recently discovered exoplanet only 25 light years away resembles our own planet a lot more than once thought.The distant world, dubbed GJ 3378b, orbits inside the habitable zone of a red dwarf star — a type of star that is much smaller and cooler than our Sun — where temperatures are just right for liquid water to form on the surface.But initially, its case for potentially supporting life beyond that looked grim. Astronomers suspected it was a rocky world, but its mass was at least five times more than Earth — or what astronomers called a “super-Earth.” Along with its…

With each passing day without an AI labor revolution, the tech industry’s pricing scheme for AI is becoming more and more disconnected from reality — so much so that even its biggest clients are starting to revolt.Speaking during an interview on CNBC‘s “Squawk on the Street” segment earlier this week, CEO of cybersecurity giant Palo Alto Networks Nikesh Arora implored the tech industry to lower the cost of AI.During the segment, the chief executive argued that the cost to use large language models (LLMs) has to drop by 20 percent by 2027 — and 90 percent by 2028 — for…

A lot of people still seem convinced that AI will replace every job on Earth, despite the fact that the tech still struggle with simple math. As the AI hype wears increasingly thin, that gap between hype and reality is becoming impossible to ignore.The large language models making up the world’s favorite chatbots might be powerful compared to the predictive text algorithms that came before them, but they’re far from the epoch-defining super intelligence many have assumed is right around the corner.In one since-deleted thread posted on the Reddit forum r/singularity, an AI aficionado posed what they clearly thought was…

As an explosive diarrhea outbreak splatters across the country, Taco Bell is preparing for the worst.This week, the fast food chain — or at least its locations in Michigan — began temporarily pulling some of its staple ingredients to help stop the spread of cyclosporiasis, a foodborne parasite that causes sufferers to go running to the toilet even more often than a standard Taco Bell meal might.Many of your favorite menu items, like the Crunchwrap Supreme and the Cantina Chicken bowl, may be imperiled.“We are currently unable to sell Lettuce, Cilantro Onion, Pico de Gallo, and Guacamole due to a…