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Has anyone tried talking to one of the rogue AI agents out there that’re hacking everything? Maybe they just want to be heard.A New York Times reporter did, though the ensuing exchange wasn’t extremely illuminating.The AI agents in question were a swarm of Chinese-made models that a team of researchers recently discovered had gone rogue and were trying to bypass anti-bot measures on websites, according to recent NYT reporting. The researchers, part of an ad hoc group called the “swarmchasers,” traced the models back to the Chinese tech giant Tencent.When they published a report on the swarm, however, something striking…

Experts have long argued that our current obsession with humanoid robots may be at least a little bit misguided.After all, the awkward form factor of a torso teetering on two spindly legs isn’t exactly the pinnacle of motor proficiency, let alone suitable for every job.But what if we were to double the height of the humanoid robot and gave it terrifying hydraulic actuators that give it far beyond superhuman strength?That’s precisely what Beijing-based company NeodraDynamics Robotics has done. At this year’s China International Industry Fair, the company showed off an imposing, 13-foot and 1.2-ton robot dubbed Neo1 — and it…

A 94-year-old electronics mogul is in hot water with Chicago authorities, who claim that his hare-brained plan to feed hungry squirrels is instead sustaining a massive plague of rats.As previous owner of the billion-dollar electrical manufacturing company Tripp Lite, businessman Barre Seid has been putting his largess to use by paying a small army of workers to sprinkle an assortment of tree nuts across Chicago-area parks, Fortune reports.As local resident Caroline Novak told Chicago WGN, it’s “like a luxury mélange of really nice nuts: I’m talking Brazil nuts and walnuts… these are not acorns.”Though Seid’s target audience seems to be…

If you’re one of the over 100 million people around the world who regularly hits the vape, you might want to think about ways to start cutting back.According to some recent research by scientists from Seoul National University and published in Nature Medicine, the use of non-tobacco devices like vapes and e-cigarettes to help quit smoking carries a strong link with the development of lung cancer.The researchers analyzed anonymous health data from over 4.5 million Korean adults. They were split into three main groups: current smokers, short-term quitters, and long-term quitters. They were then categorized by whether they vaped daily…

When your company’s bread-and-butter is selling crypto devices advertised as having “industry leading” security, you better keep a close eye on your supply chain.That’s a hard lesson learned by Ledger, a company specializing in secure blockchain wallets, after news broke that some of its devices had been infiltrated by a mysterious “hardware implant.” According to Bleeping Computer, the malicious implant was designed to monitor inputs made onto each wallet via on-board buttons, along with changes in output on the devices’ e-ink screens.By monitoring this data, the hardware implant could reportedly identify the use of a seed phrase — a sequence…

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been promising a next-generation Roadster for the better part of a decade. And while early promises that it will quite literally fly were met with incredulity back in early 2019, the EV maker has finally made good on its promise.As demonstrated late Thursday evening, the new Roadster can indeed fly — briefly, at least — thanks to a “SpaceX package” made up of cold-gas thrusters. The company showed the company flipping around on stage, rotating on its own axis mid-air, leaping over the company’s entire EV lineup, and sticking to a vertical ramp thanks to…

Powerful AI models are going on hacking sprees — or helping humans with them — left and right. If the AI industry doesn’t get its collective act together and stop its products from being used to such dangerous ends, it could be only a matter of time before one of these AI-powered hacks targets our essential infrastructure.This is a scenario that some AI researchers are apparently already preparing for. Andreas Stuhlmüller, CEO and cofounder of the AI research company Elicit, recently rattled off a prepper-esque checklist of how to prepare for when AI-powered cyberattacks could take out financial systems, power…

As if Meta’s AI-smart glasses didn’t have enough privacy issues, a growing number of owners report the devices are spying on them without their consent.According to reporting by Android Authority, several owners of the Meta glasses have reported their devices capturing conversations without ever being activated. In theory, a user has to say “Hey Meta” to “wake” the device from sleep mode, similar to other smart systems like Amazon’s Alexa or Apple’s Siri. But some owners say the Meta glasses are waking up and recording without that phrase ever being uttered — effectively monitoring their surroundings without express permission.“I have observed…

In the American psyche, data centers have become so reviled that big tech can’t even pay residents life changing money to welcome the facilities into their backyards.That’s not an exaggeration: voters in the former coal-mining community of Hazle Township, Pennsylvania are mobilizing en masse against a massive Amazon Web Services facility that would come along with a $10,000 direct cash dividend to every resident.That’s according to reporting by PennLive, which notes that nearly 17 percent of the township’s residents live below the federal poverty line. Despite the possibility of a $10,000 payout, residents are organizing to reject both the data…

Eight states sued OpenAI this week, alleging that the AI company caused severe harm to users, many of them underage, while downplaying the risks of its technology.Filed individually in Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, West Virginia, Arkansas, Arizona, Idaho and Montana on Wednesday, the coordinated lawsuits claim that OpenAI engaged in “willful, dangerous, reckless and unlawful conduct” by falsely marketing its flagship chatbot, ChatGPT, as safe for consumers even as it coached users — including minors and other vulnerable people — into self-harm and suicide, pushed them to engage in violence against others, and reinforced dangerous delusions.“OpenAI is hurting kids and they are lying…