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Bill Gates’ 23-year-old daughter Phoebe Gates made headlines this week for all the wrong reasons.Damning internal Slack channel messages obtained by Bloomberg revealed that the queen of nepo babies knew since at least December that her online shopping company Phia had deceptively been collecting commissions on sales it had nothing to do with through its “personal shopping assistant” browser extension. The shady practice, called “cookie stuffing,” could land her in considerable legal trouble — a “max penalty of up to 20 years prison,” according to one attorney.The embarrassing revelation comes a month after Bloomberg first reported on the subject, with Phia…

We bring you this dispatch from the AI slop dungeon known as Facebook: fake, AI-generated podcast bros are currently racking up views on Mark Zuckerberg’s first social network by doling out “relationship advice,” mostly in the form of banal screeds about how men are failing women.The videos are designed to resemble the short video pullouts popularized by the practice known as “clipping.” But rather than snip short videos from real podcasts, these accounts seek to create short segments of fake podcasts that don’t actually exist, featuring made-up podcasters who aren’t real.“A woman working 40 hours a week or more, paying…

In bound-to-be-controversial new research, scientists claim they’ve discovered a link between the specific balance of microflora in the gut and psychopathic behaviorAs detailed in a yet-to-be-peer-reviewed study, a team of researchers led by University of Porto biomedical scientist Carolina Costa say they’ve found the first-ever evidence of how microbiota could influence traits linked to psychopathy — a controversial personality construct characterized by lack of empathy, poor behavior control, as well as antisocial and in extreme cases criminal behavior.As Science Alert points out, previous research has found that psychopaths can share similar brain structures, including pathways in the prefrontal cortex. The…

Your fear of flying is only going to get worse once you hear what these white hat hackers figured out to do with a popular airliner.As Wired reports, a team of security researchers from the University of California, San Diego and Oberlin College created a device the size of a coin that can take over the autopilot system of a Boeing 737 and change its flight plan, not to mention tampering with key values in its takeoff and fuel calculations. According to its creators, the device could also change the data on a pilot’s screen so they don’t notice anything’s amiss…

At this point, it’s a pretty well known fact that electric vehicles — and, at least in the popular imagination, Teslas especially — have a nagging habit of erupting into flames.One Tesla owner in Maine evidently has that concern hovering in the back of their mind every time they leave the driveway.While driving around the town of Tremont in a sleek red Model S, an unnamed driver hit an object on the road which punctured the vehicle’s lithium-ion battery, local station WABI5 reported. As most EV drivers are hopefully aware, any kind of damage to a car’s battery can easily…

Following a growing string of high-profile departures, OpenAI has lost its head of ethics at arguably the worst time possible.As the Financial Times reports, Chloé Bakalar left her post as the AI ethics lead in July, less than a year after joining the company and without any accompanying announcement. Interestingly, her LinkedIn still claims she’s employed at the firm.There currently is no replacement lined up, suggesting shifting priorities at the company. According to the FT‘s sources, Bakalar was the only remaining dedicated ethicist at the company.The timing of Bakalar’s departure is noteworthy. The Sam Altman-led company has been embroiled in…

As US lawmakers continue to ponder how to regulate AI, Vermont senator Bernie Sanders (VT-D) is issuing a dire warning.In a letter addressed to the CEOs of OpenAI, Anthropic, and Meta, Sanders highlighted several recent incidents involving AI agents from all three companies escaping their confines, gaining access to the internet, and infiltrating the systems of third parties.“Almost every day, there is a new story about how your companies are losing control of the AI technology you are developing, with potentially cataclysmic results,” Sanders wrote. “This week we learned, frighteningly, that AI has been used for the first time ever…

The good guys protecting us from people who want to work and live here will continue their morally upright quest by electrocuting their foes into submission.As the Associated Press reports, the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency is planning to spend up to $20 million to purchase thousands of “conductive distraction and de-escalation devices” that officers and agents can wear in the field to zap anyone they don’t like.The devices are called GLOVEs, short for Generated Low Output Voltage Emitters. Their manufacturer, Compliant Technologies, says that they behave like normal gloves until activated with a switch, and need to make…

How do you fix a shortage in air traffic controllers and restore trust in the safety of the country’s aviation industry? By hiring video game addicts, of course.On Sunday, transportation secretary Sean Duffy announced that the department had hired thousands of new air traffic controllers thanks to his campaign to “recruit video gamers as air traffic controllers.”“We’re building the strongest, sharpest workforce in aviation history,” he declared.This genius strategy is, in Duffy’s opinion, a “GAME CHANGER.” He claimed that the department has now met 94 percent of its hiring goals after bringing in more than 2,000 new employees — the…

You might assume that Bill Gates’ 23-year-old daughter, Phoebe Gates, is the final boss of all nepo babies due to her zillionaire dad. But she’s long insisted that her e-commerce startup, Phia, will succeed with “no ties to my privilege or my last name.”That goal just got harder than ever with the revelation that Phia has been taking credit for sales it didn’t drive — a practice that could land her in serious legal jeopardy, now that damning internal Slack channel messages obtained by Bloomberg suggest that both Gates and fellow cofounder Sophia Kianni knew they were involved in the…