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With Wall Street on pins and needles amidst a wide-ranging discussion of AI safety, we may well be living through one of the most consequential weeks for the future of AI in the United States.That doesn’t necessarily mean we’re headed to an ascendant future for the AI industry. According to London-based firm Capital Economics, the entire economy of the Western world is currently mired in a “late-stage bubble” — a massive misallocation of capital fueling the AI boom, Fortune reported.In a recent analysis, also flagged by Fortune, Capital Economics senior markets economist James Reilly surveyed eight types of market indicators,…

Octogenarian senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) was wheeled back into the US Capitol building after spending 92 days recovering from a fall and pneumonia — an extraordinary absence during which he didn’t make a single public appearance via video or audio.Videos of the frail lawmaker didn’t exactly instill confidence that he’s now ready to vote on matters of national importance, let alone withstand hours of testimony. One video shared by TMZ showed McConnell staring into the distance while being loaded into a vehicle, failing to react to shouting reporters trying to get his attention.Netizens likened him to a “zombie,” accusing officials…

In record time, Meta’s camera-adorned smart glasses have turned from a lucrative and well-reviewed consumer product into a widely-reviled and privacy-infringing tool of abuse in the arsenal of creepy men.The backlash has grown so much that many owners of the “pervert glasses” have become too afraid to use them in public, a PR disaster for what once was an accessory that was flying off the shelves.Meta is evidently alarmed by the growing criticism, desperately trying to implement a “kill switch” and remotely cutting off “manfluencers” by bricking their glasses.And now, as The Information reports, the Mark Zuckerberg-led company is now…

Since the debut of Garrett P Serviss’ 1898 novel “Edison’s Conquest of Mars,” space-based warfare was relegated to the imagination — but no longer.In an address on the “State of the Space Force” on Tuesday, reported by Space.com, chief of space operations for the US Space Force General Douglas Schiess informed the public that the Pentagon has definitively deployed active space-based weapons platforms.“Let me be crystal clear: today, Guardians operate on-orbit weapons that can defend the joint force against space-enabled attacks,” Schiess said. “Space is both a battlefield and the backbone of our joint force.”Schiess stopped short of providing any details about…

So far, the long-fear AI job-apocalypse has been little more than smoke and mirrors, with one gigantic exception: entry-level tech workers.According to a new report on New York City jobs data compiled by the nonprofit Center for an Urban Future — first reported by the City — job postings for entry-level roles in “computer and mathematical” occupations has plummeted by 49 percent since 2022, the latest indication that tech firms are using AI to justify a massive slowdown in new hires.Though computer science grads are bearing the brunt of the mayhem, tech jobs may just be the first domino to…

AI is supposedly going to kill us all, but at least it’s doing wonders for the stocks for a few multibillion-dollar companies.Mounting fears over the technology’s existential risks reached a fever pitch over the weekend, tanking AI chip stocks across the globe. This earthshattering discussion had a curious aftershock, though. Instead of double-checking their fortified bunkers, investors poured even more money into Microsoft, Google, and Meta Platforms — the biggest AI hyperscalers, or companies that operate the largest data centers — which were up by more than two percent on Monday, the Wall Street Journal reported. All remain up by a…

Almost immediately after Tesla unleashed its steering wheel- and pedal-free Cybercabs on the streets of Austin, Texas this month, regulators at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration cried foul.The regulator opened an investigation — an audit query, specifically — mere hours after the launch, aiming to find out whether the new Cybercab “meets all applicable Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards,” or FMVSS.Days later, the agency followed up with a “Special Order” requiring the Elon Musk-led company to prove under oath that its Cybercabs meet federal safety standards, which were originally intended for human drivers, as Electrek reports. It’s a considerable…

The Tesla Cybercab is innovating impressively impractical ways of getting from Point A to Point B.One Cybercab passenger in Austin complained that what should’ve been a ten minute trip devolved into a 70-minute long nightmare as the steering-wheel-free robotaxi spiraled its way down the most circuitous route possible. The driverless cab started the journey by driving in the complete opposite direction of the destination for miles, the exasperated passenger wrote in a Reddit thread, then turned around and took a “massive” detour through east Austin.If it was instead a Google Maps car trying to image every inch of the city, you’d…

Data centers don’t just undergird the avalanche of AI slop polluting our social media feeds — they’re spewing an awful lot of physical slop as well.On top of the noxious air pollution, as well as the occasionally bacteria-laden wastewater discharge, data centers are responsible for a rising tide of forever chemicals, artificial substances which never degrade naturally.According to new reporting by The Guardian, nearly all of the top ten global producers of forever chemicals, otherwise known as polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, plan to ramp up production quotas on the back of the data center boom.There’s a clear market demand for…

Aerial drones have become a startlingly common sight on the battlefield. Ukraine, for instance, has been deploying a record number of them as global demand for the often inexpensive and relatively simple to launch devices surges.But US-based firms are thinking far ahead, envisioning a dystopian “Terminator”-inspired future in which humanoid robot soldiers go to war on behalf of their flesh-and-blood counterparts.Case in point, San Francisco-based tech company Foundation recently signed a $24 million Pentagon contract to do just that, as the Wall Street Journal reports. While the company’s flagship Phantom MK1 robot, an unsettling matte black apparition, doesn’t appear to…