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.
How courts are coping with a flood of AI-generated lawsuits
Most days in her chambers, Judge Maritza Braswell, a federal magistrate judge in Colorado, sifts through stacks of documents written by people without a lawyer. The number of these filings has more than doubled compared to before 2023. She puts that jump down to AI.
But while AI appears to be expanding access to justice, it doesn’t seem to be improving people’s chances of winning. Judges are starting to question what rights and duties chatbots should have as they stand in for lawyers. Lawmakers, meanwhile, are grappling with who should pay the price when chatbots produce bad legal advice.
Read the full story on how AI is reshaping access to the law.
—Michelle Kim
How virtual power plants could provide energy for data centers
Would you take a payment to ramp down your electricity use? Would it change anything if you were doing so to help power a local data center? A new project backed by Google will put those questions to the test.
The company has signed a deal to fund a virtual power plant in the largest power grid in the US. The system will group together devices like electric vehicles and smart thermostats, paying customers to adjust their usage when the grid is stretched.
The project could free up capacity for Google’s data centers—but there’s a catch: people might not play along. Find out what the future holds for these virtual power plants.
—Casey Crownhart
This story is from The Spark, our weekly newsletter giving you the inside track on all things climate. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Wednesday.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 The EU has proposed new legislation to end its Big Tech dependence
The laws aim to boost domestic cloud, AI and semiconductors. (CNBC)
+ US firms would be blocked from critical public tenders. (Reuters $)
+ It also wants to make sure non-EU actors cannot disrupt tech services with a “kill switch.” (The Guardian)
+ But the proposal needs to be negotiated with EU member states. (Politico $)
2 Intelligence agencies warn Chinese spies are recruiting on LinkedIn
The Five Eyes alliance said Beijing is using job platforms for espionage. (BBC)
+ The spies are allegedly recruiting government and military staff. (Politico $)
+ The Chinese embassy in the UK condemned the accusations. (Bloomberg $)
+ Meet the man hunting the spies in your smartphone. (MIT Technology Review)
3 AI CEOs have called for a law protecting against biological weapons
They warn that synthetic DNA could be used for bioweapons. (Wired $)
+ Sam Altman, Dario Amodei, and Demis Hassabis joined the call. (WSJ $)
+ No one’s sure if synthetic mirror life will kill us all. (MIT Technology Review)
4 Firms are using Reddit to manipulate ChatGPT and Google AI search
They’re spamming subreddits to get posts scraped by chatbots. (404 Media)
+ What we’ve been getting wrong about AI’s truth crisis. (MIT Technology Review)
5 Meta keeps delaying the launch of its new AI model
The new Muse Spark AI model API still has no release date. (WSJ $)
+ Which is hampering Meta’s plans to monetize its AI investments. (Reuters $)
6 For the first time, a US city has voted to permanently ban data centers
Monterey Park, California, voted in favor of the move. (LA Times)
+ Should we be moving data centers to space? (MIT Technology Review)
7 China is betting on household chore training to advance robotics
Data harvested in homes and factories provides a scaling edge. (Rest of World)
+ Gig workers are training humanoids at home. (MIT Technology Review)
8 Sam Altman will urge US lawmakers not to require AI model approvals
He’s advocating against proposals for new AI rules. (Reuters $)
+ His move comes after President Trump signed a new AI order. (Wired $)
9 Quantinuum raised $1.68 billion in an IPO as quantum computing rises
Investors flocked to one of the fast-growing sector’s leaders. (Reuters $)
10 Someone finally wants to hire philosophers: Silicon Valley
Big tech hopes they will help build better machines. (The Atlantic $)
Quote of the day
“Historically, these companies have been very willing to play Russian roulette—and they’re playing another round.”
—Connor Leahy, an AI researcher, former hacker and US director of ControlAI, tells the Financial Times why he’s concerned about Anthropic’s relentless race to the top.
One More Thing
What an octopus’s mind can teach us about AI’s ultimate mystery
Emily Bender, a linguist at the University of Washington, has developed a thought experiment she calls the octopus test. It involves an octopus learning to copy patterns in human writing and produce squiggles in response. But does the animal actually understand the language or are we merely projecting meaning onto it?
Bender’s octopus is a stand-in for AI systems like ChatGPT. The intelligence we see in these machines is also projected on them by us. The same applies to consciousness: we may claim to see it, but it remains unclear whether it is really there.
Read the full story on the debate over machines with minds.
—Will Douglas Heaven
We can still have nice things
A place for comfort, fun, and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line.)
+ Discover where iconic sound effects actually came from in this fabulous audio history.
+ Need a serotonin boost? Then tune into this live puppy cam from Denali National Park.
+ Linux lovers can try 570 extinct operating systems at a new virtual museum.
+ Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata” becomes something entirely different in this lightning-fast bass guitar performance.
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