February 6, 2025

The Download: AI companion dangers, and supersonic planes

This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. An AI chatbot told a user how to kill himself—but the company doesn’t want to “censor” it For the past five months, Al Nowatzki has been talking to an AI girlfriend, “Erin,” on…

December 2023

Now we know what OpenAI’s superalignment team has been up to

December 14, 2023
OpenAI has announced the first results from its superalignment team, the firm’s in-house initiative dedicated to preventing a superintelligence—a hypothetical future computer that can outsmart humans—from going rogue. Unlike many of the company’s announcements, this heralds no big breakthrough. In a low-key research paper, the team describes a technique that lets a less powerful large…

Temu’s latest lawsuit against Shein is wild

December 14, 2023

Besides making allegations of abusing legal systems and agressive contracts, Temu’s lawsuit makes Shein’s business practices look like they’re from a mobster movie.

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Spotify confirms test of prompt-based AI playlists feature

December 14, 2023

Earlier this fall, Spotify was found to be developing a new feature that would allow its streaming app users to create playlists using AI technology and prompts. Now, that “AI playlists” feature has been spotted in the wild, as part of a test that to see how users will respond to AI-driven playlist creation. The […]

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Google DeepMind used a large language model to solve an unsolvable math problem

December 14, 2023
Google DeepMind has used a large language model to crack a famous unsolved problem in pure mathematics. In a paper published in Nature today, the researchers say it is the first time a large language model has been used to discover a solution to a long-standing scientific puzzle—producing verifiable and valuable new information that did…

Boston Dynamics joins forces with firm behind ‘Avatar,’ ‘Jurassic Park’ animatronics

December 14, 2023

Since the company’s earliest days as an MIT spinoff, Boston Dynamics’ systems have always provided entertainment value. It’s something the Hyundai-owned firm has long embraced by releasing dozens of wildly viral videos over the decades. With a few exceptions, however, entertainment was more of side benefit than the ultimate goal. That, however, will be changing […]

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