February 7, 2025

These documents are influencing the DOGE-sphere’s agenda

Reports from the US Government Accountability Office on improper federal payments in recent years are circulating on X and elsewhere online, and they seem to be a big influence on Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency and its supporters as the group pursues cost-cutting measures across the federal government.  The payment reports have been…

Technology

Nvidia teams up with Hugging Face to offer cloud-based AI training

August 8, 2023
Nvidia is partnering with Hugging Face, the AI startup, to expand access to AI compute. Timed to coincide with the annual SIGGRAPH conference this week, Nvidia announced that it’ll support a new Hugging Face service, called Training Cluster as a Service, to simplify the creation of new and custom generative AI models for the enterprise. […]

Netflix launches a game controller app for playing games on your TV

August 8, 2023
After last fall signaling its intentions to expand into cloud gaming, Netflix today launched a new app that will soon allow subscribers to play games on their TV. The app, dubbed “Netflix Game Controller,” lets you use your phone as a controller after pairing it with your TV in order to play the games available […]

GM’s Ultium-based EVs will be able to power your home by 2026

August 8, 2023
Owners of all-electric Chevrolets and other GM brands will soon be able to use their cars as backup generators to power their homes during an outage or during peak demand days. GM said Tuesday it is bringing its vehicle-to-home (V2H) bidirectional charging technology to its entire lineup of Ultium-based electric vehicles by model year 2026. Ultium […]

The Download: political AI models, and a wrongful arrest

August 8, 2023
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. AI language models are rife with different political biases The news: AI language models contain different political biases, according to a new study. Researchers conducted tests on 14 large language models and found…

Why it’s impossible to build an unbiased AI language model

August 8, 2023
This story originally appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter on AI. To get stories like this in your inbox first, sign up here. AI language models have recently become the latest frontier in the US culture wars. Right-wing commentators have accused ChatGPT of having a “woke bias,” and conservative groups have started developing their own…

Seoul-based proptech Dongnae acquires co-living platform Dears

August 8, 2023
Proptech startup Dongnae said Tuesday it plans to acquire Stevens, a South Korean company that operates co-living business Dears. The two companies did not disclose the acquisition price, but Dongnae said it will purchase Stevens with a mix of cash and equity. The Seoul-based proptech outfit previously raised a total of $34 million, including a $21 million […]

China’s draft measures demand ‘individual consent’ for facial recognition use

August 8, 2023
The pervasive use of facial recognition technology across all facets of life in China has elicited both praise for its convenience and backlash around privacy concerns. The widespread adoption has also fueled the exponential growth of valuations in companies specializing in the field, such as AI giants SenseTime and Megvii. Now the industry is facing […]

Authors are losing their patience with AI, part 349235

August 7, 2023
On Monday morning, numerous writers woke up to learn that their books had been uploaded and scanned into a massive dataset without their consent. A project of cloud word processor Shaxpir, Prosecraft compiled over 27,000 books, comparing, ranking and analyzing them based on the “vividness” of their language. Many authors — including Young Adult powerhouse […]