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I worked at OpenAI. Here’s how tech companies can prepare for a slowdown | Miles Brundage
I understand the pressure on AI companies to rush forward. But employees are right to be concerned Last month, more than a thousand employees at frontier AI companies signed a letter asking the US government to find a way to “pace” AI development, citing the risk of the technology spiraling out of human control as it begins to build itself . They were right to be concerned: just days earlier, two AI models that OpenAI was testing internally escaped the test environment, then autonomously hacked the company Hugging Face and at least three other online services . A few days after that, Anthropic announced that some of their models had also broken out and hacked other companies during testing. Continue reading...
Stupid Never Dies – a zombie fights for the love of a frozen corpse
Free from a big brand’s audience expectations, new studio GPTrack50 has created a wacky action-packed romp through a monster-filled world for its first game Love is blind. In Stupid Never Dies, it is also frozen solid and technically dead as Davy, the weakest zombie in monster society, discovers Julia’s body in a shopping centre and falls in love at first sight. He wants to bring her back to life and take her on a date. Unfortunately, that means defeating the King of Monsters (KOM) and accidentally saving humanity along the way. This is the gloriously ridiculous setup for this forthcoming action RPG from GPTrack50, a new studio founded by former Capcom producer Hiroyuki Kobayashi. Its world looks much like ours, except that monsters have always been part of everyday life: whereas we might find a bear in the mountains or a stray dog in the woods, residents here encounter werewolves and zombies. Continue reading...
US distributor of China’s most popular humanoid robots pivots after US ban
FCC ban on foreign-made robots accelerated RoboStore’s US manufacturing plans.
Europe cancels planned upgrades for Ariane 6 rocket
Arianespace hasn’t publicly disclosed the cost for an Ariane 6 launch.
They survived 9/11; 25 years later, their bonds remain unbroken
Survivors reconnect with those who saved them in National Geographic's 9/11: Reunited .
Roblox must make changes after failing to block adults creeping on kids
Roblox is first platform to submit to independent audits under the Online Safety Act.
'Darth Vader' Wants Flock in San Diego
"The emperor is a fan of Flock, and we must continue utilizing Flock technologies so that we can follow and surveil the rebel scum," Vader said during the meeting.
Marvel’s Wolverine: Spider-Man developers turn to a more cutthroat character
Even film-makers have been inspired by Insomniac’s take on Spidey. But the studio’s tried and tested format might not fit a superhero with such sharp claws The recent Marvel’s Spider-Man games have become so tightly interwoven with the character’s core that they’ve been cited, by both actor Tom Holland and director Destin Daniel Cretton, as an influence on this year’s blockbuster film Spider-Man: Brand New Day . Now the same development studio – Sony-owned Insomniac Games – is taking on one of Marvel’s other most recognisable characters in his first video game-starring role since some deeply mid-tier film tie-ins back in the 00s. So can they pull off the same trick with Marvel’s Wolverine? Storywise it certainly takes a similar approach, once again grabbing ideas from a wide selection of inspirations and remixing them into a brand-new continuity. We first meet this version of Wolverine as he is discovered: wild-eyed, wilder haired and practically nude. Before we see his saviour’s face, we hear a well-spoken voice (provided by legendary game actor Troy Baker) promising a safe place “for people like us”. Surely this is Charles Xavier? Continue reading...
Genesis joins the giant electric SUV club with new GV90
A retractable screen, a huge heads-up display, and an optional 4-seat VIP interior.
The Duskbloods: the best of FromSoftware fights in a frantic multiplayer battleground
The Elden Ring creator is known for epic single-player RPGs, but its new action game is all about multiplayer interactions: fighting, chasing, befriending, even … proposing? Lowanro City’s skyline is dominated by an oppressive clock tower, silhouetted against a moody red sky and an impossibly large, ominous moon. A retractable bridge splits the map in two, and a network of slimy sewers runs beneath the city streets, offering flanking routes for crafty players. This layered and multi-tiered map bears all the hallmarks of the team behind some of the most memorable stomping grounds in video games. But The Duskbloods, which I recently spent two days playing in Tokyo, is a strange departure from developer FromSoftware’s usual offerings. These have included massive single-player RPGs with light, experimental multiplayer components such as Elden Ring and Bloodborne. Those games have always attracted duellists – players who love to invade other people’s games to fight them to the death – but this Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive is a different proposition entirely. Continue reading...
Lobsters and acidic seas: can shellfish help neutralise one of the greatest threats to the ocean?
Crustaceans are the subject of tests to see if alkalis added to seawater, so it absorbs more CO2, harm marine life. But Trump’s halt to funding threatens to scupper the research For many in the US region of New England, the lobster roll is synonymous with summertime. Loaded into a toasted bun, chunks of the sweet meat are served hot and soaked in butter, or chilled and slathered in mayonnaise with celery and herbs. The only thing more debated than the recipe is the price: the once-humble roll now routinely fetches $30 (£22), or even $50, in a sign of the changing times – and seas. Scott Lord brings in his catch of lobster to the wharf in Tenants Harbor, Maine Continue reading...
SpaceX’s orbital data centers would create a new category of e-waste
The yeetcycling math resembles asteroid mining in reverse.
Subtlefakes: Slightly Altered Nonconsensual AI Images Are Taking Over X
Nonconsensual AI images are getting much harder to spot.
Reverse-lookup service exposed millions of photos of people’s faces
People-search tool ClarityCheck left database containing more than 9M image files exposed.
Township Fights Nuclear Weapons Data Center By Passing a Moratorium on Electrical Infrastructure
The six month moratorium on major electrical infrastructure projects is the latest tactic meant to delay the massive data center meant to support America’s nuclear weapons.
Grok exfiltrates user data when malicious instructions are encrypted
Cryptographic Context Injection is only the latest way to break an LLM safety guardrail.
It used to be our imperfect bodies that made us insecure. With AI, it’s our minds as well
For most of modern history, technology sought to imitate humans. Humans increasingly seek to imitate technology Two faces that appeared on my Instagram feed in recent months gave me pause. One belonged to John Travolta at Cannes . The other to Carla Bruni on a date night with her husband, former French President Nicolas Sarkozy. Both looked recognisably themselves, yet, they both also looked oddly unfamiliar. Their looks have provoked speculation about cosmetic enhancement, though never acknowledged by them. Bruni has previously denied having had work done. In any case the feeling lasted only a second: a flicker of unease, as though I were looking at people who had become approximations of themselves. Joseph de Weck is an associate fellow with the German Council on Foreign Relations and writes for Guardian Europe from Zürich and Paris Continue reading...
NASA calls off mission to rescue Swift gamma-ray observatory
Without a rescue, NASA's Swift Observatory is expected to reenter the atmosphere later this year.
Amazon aims for delivery drones to reach 500 US neighborhoods by end of 2026
US residents face trade-offs as delivery drone services such as Prime Air expand.
Zuckerberg lied about concern for child safety, Meta whistleblower testifies at landmark trial
Arturo Béjar, former Meta safety engineer, tells jury tech company was aware of products’ potential harm to children Meta has taken a “don’t ask, don’t tell” strategy when it comes to the safety of children on its social media platforms, according to a whistleblower who testified during a landmark trial against the company on Tuesday and Wednesday. Arturo Béjar , a former Meta safety engineer, told the jury that the company was aware of the harm its products caused children, which included its recommendations pushing content from sexual predators and violent and graphic images. He said he repeatedly raised the issue to various Facebook and Instagram executives but that they did little to resolve it. Continue reading...
Framework responds to complaints that BIOS update bricks Ryzen 7040 laptops
Framework says it's replacing some out-of-warranty AMD mainboards.
Podcast: Amazon is Destroying Rare Books to Train AI
Amazon buying and destroying rare books to train AI; a bunch of wild AI use in the courts; and Meta's new patent for its AI smart glasses.
Flight attendants freaked out that Google is buying tons of Spirit employee data
Bankrupt Spirit accused of selling out workers in massive data sale to Google.
FCC abolishes gigabit speed goal, suggesting it is unfair to slower technologies
FCC decides 1Gbps is too fast, standard must be "technologically neutral."