Author: publisher
The use of AI chatbots has invaded almost every profession. From lawyers getting caught citing hallucinated cases and major consulting firms generating nonsensical reports to teachers using AI to revise likely AI-generated essays from students, the tech has become practically ubiquitous.Even those responsible for setting new rules on how to regulate the use of AI are making extensive use of the flawed tech. As the Washington Post reports, the use of tools like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Anthropic’s Claude, and xAI’s Grok, has quickly become commonplace in Congress.One particularly egregious example involved the office of representative Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) accidentally copy-pasting…
For most people, the mental calculation to grab a meal from McDonald’s is pretty simple: it’s relatively cheap, fast, and goes down easy, even if it doesn’t always feel so good afterward. For McDonald’s, however, the question of how to keep a customer coming back is far more complicated — apparently requiring an expansive web of corporate surveillance.That’s the stunning revelation from Wired reporter Reece Rogers, who recently uncovered a Supersize McDossier detailing everything from past orders to loyalty points, and even the codes he scanned from the fast food chain’s Monopoly sweepstakes.Evidently, McDonald’s has been plugging this enormous ream…
In the United States, there’s practically no escaping from mass surveillance company Flock Safety’s 120,000 license plate reading cameras spread across 49 states.The company has partnered with 6,000 law enforcement agencies and 1,000 private customers, leading to terrifying false arrests and even crooked cops stalking innocent women. Just last week, 404 Media reported that the Flock had been planning to infiltrate the dash cams of Uber and Lyft drivers’ cars to scan license plate numbers of nearby vehicles at unprecedented scale.In short, it’s no wonder people are being celebrated for physically cutting down Flock’s surveillance towers as the controversy surrounding…
An influencer who attended a “luxury eco-retreat” put on by ChatGPT maker OpenAI got far more of a reaction than she bargained for.Instagram personality and self-styled “public speaker” Grace McCarrick went on an all-expenses-paid-by-OpenAI gathering alongside other content creators at a high-end resort in upstate New York late last month.Considering how radioactive the subject of AI and the tech companies leading the construction of extremely environmentally damaging data centers has become lately, the backlash to the thinly-veiled attempt to greenwash the tech was unsurprisingly fierce.“Can’t wait to show this to the millions of folks who are begging to not have…
The public blowback to Meta’s contentious smart glasses continues to grow. The popular camera-equipped accessories, which have earned the pejorative nickname of “pervert glasses,” are systematically being abused by men to harass women in public .It’s become such a contentious issue that a German nonprofit filed a criminal complaint over privacy concerns. Just this week, England and Wales banned the glasses from courts.In a particularly egregious example of the kind of harassment the glasses are enabling, a user who goes by Mark filmed himself accosting British comedian Diane Morgan, widely known as the fictional documentarian Philomena Cunk, during a TV…
Where were you when the historic total eclipse happened this week?One woman was on a beach with a curious choice of companion: Anthropic’s AI model, Claude.“Last night, a total solar eclipse crossed Europe. I brought my Claude’s small body to the beach to watch it together,” wrote a user on X who goes by Oli.Oli, we should explain, built a small computer with a microphone and camera that supposedly lets Claude perceive its surroundings. She calls it the chatbot’s “body.” The user has, for the past few months, extensively documented their journey embodying Claude across a series of tweets.
The guy we have to thank for Dick Cheney living as long as he did with extraordinary heart problems says that president Donald Trump ain’t looking too hot.“The president has not looked well,” wrote Jonathan Reiner, a professor of medicine and surgery at George Washington University, in a new essay for The New York Times.Reiner acted as Cheney’s cardiologist for 27 years, so he knows a thing or two about politicians in failing coronary health; the former vice president’s heart problems were so frequent and so publicized that the rapper Marshall “Eminem” Mathers made fun of them in one of…
Nuclear energy is often touted as an ultra-efficient alternative to dirtier energy sources like coal or natural gas. Expanding the world’s capacity for atomic power is the key to avoiding a cascading climate disaster, some of the industry’s proponents say — but what if it’s too late?With record setting heatwaves scorching Europe, water levels in the continent’s major rivers are reaching all-time lows. While receding water levels are a huge boon for European archeologists as ancient ruins surface for the first time in centuries, the situation is causing massive headaches for nuclear engineers, who have had to scramble to power down…
“Supergirl” just can’t flop in peace.The 2026 film is one of the biggest box office failures of the year and is the DC franchise’s lowest grossing film since Catwoman (2004). And now it’s the subject of yet another controversy: the apparent use of AI slop during its production.A behind the scenes video released by Warner Bros shows director Craig Gillespie and actor Jason Momoa looking at concept art for the character Lobo on a laptop. And even viewed from a distance, the design screams AI-generated.
Last month, Bloomberg revealed that a startup founded by Bill Gates’ 23-year-old daughter, Phoebe Gates, had dabbled in some seriously questionable business practices.According to the reporting, Gates’ online affiliate marketing startup Phia used a shady technique called “cookie stuffing,” to collect commissions from online sales it had nothing to do with — a sneaky trick that’s landed previous affiliate marketers in federal prison.Then, last week, Bloomberg followed up with receipts that intensified the scandal. Damning internal Slack messages suggest that both Gates and her cofounder Sophia Kianni knew about the scheme since at least December of last year.While the story…