Is AI Going To Wipe Out Humanity? Don't Build That Bunker Yet.
Measures to slow AI development are more likely to trigger human lawsuits against AI companies than accomplish anything useful.
Science & Technology
OpenAI Preaches AI Safety. The Australia Incident Shows What It Practices.
Sam Altman called for international regulation and "speedy incident reporting" at the U.N. on the same day Australia's prime minister said OpenAI took too long to disclose a breach.
Aaron Sorkin Accidentally Made Mark Zuckerberg the Hero of His Anti-Facebook Movie
In the latest trailer for The Social Reckoning, the Zuck character stridently rebuts pro-censorship arguments.
Half the Public Wants To Pause AI. Would Regulation Actually Make It Safer?
A new poll finds widespread support for slowing advanced AI, but government controls could create risks of their own.
Scan Your Face To Enter Your Dorm? University of Kentucky Installs Facial Recognition Tech Around Campus
The rationale for AI facial scanning—to prevent bad actors from following students into buildings—makes little sense.
Homeland Security Is Monitoring Activists Building Anti-Flock Tech
SparrowMap uses volunteer cameras to track the police in the same way police track the public. The government considers it a potential threat.
The 'AI Safety' Movement Is Making AI Less Safe
The fear of superintelligence is driving decisions that make AI less transparent and more consolidated.
California Wants to Write America's AI Rules
Newsom's expert panel has two months to consider new AI rules, including "kill switches," that could spread nationwide.
How Will History Remember Anthony Fauci?
Fauci's diary reveals a self-obsessed career bureaucrat who refused to consider the possibility that his research contributed to origin of COVID-19.
The E.U. Just Proposed Its Most Sweeping Social Media Restriction to Date
The KIDS Act could age-gate the internet for hundreds of millions of users.
Does CNN Deserve To Be Banned From the White House?
Plus: why parents are abandoning public schools, whether AI requires government intervention, and what happened to fusionism in the conservative movement.
No Warrant, No Suspicion, No Problem: Flock and Border Cellphone Searches Excluded From 4th Amendment Rules
Cops keep carving out tech exceptions to the Fourth Amendment—and courts are giving them their blessing.
AI Companies Promise Humanoid Assistants. How Will the Robots Know What To Do?
Developers are using videos of real-life work to train the new generation of robots.
Cancer Vaccines, Anti-Aging Treatments, and 5 Other Exciting Biomedical Advances
Getting older makes you more prone to all kinds of maladies. So why not become younger?
Montana's Anti-Deepfakes Law Just Hit a First Amendment Roadblock
A federal judge found that the state's restrictions on AI-generated political speech likely violate the First Amendment.
Is Effective Altruism Really a Doom Cult?
On the Freed Up podcast, Robby Soave and Christian Britschgi discuss effective altruism, Sydney Sweeney, and the UT Austin student body.
In the Name of Tax Fairness, Politicians Propose Special Tax Penalties on Data Centers
State and federal policymakers are attempting to exclude data centers from run-of-the-mill tax exemptions.
Congress Doesn't Agree on Much. Except That Your Car Needs AM Radio.
The push to mandate AM radios has brought Ted Cruz together with Bernie Sanders.
Review: Ben Franklin, Frankenstein, and the Wonders of Electricity
Minnesota's Bakken Museum celebrates the spark of imagination that brings new ideas to life.
Trump's $1.4 Billion Crypto Haul Sinks the Senate's Crypto Bill
The Clarity Act's ethics provisions leave plenty of room for the president to keep profiting, and its regulatory framework hands bureaucrats too much discretion.
AI Could Make Our Lives Better. So Why Are We Trying To Stop It?
Anthropic's CEO wants federal regulation that would slow down AI (and his competitors' innovations). Has that ever worked?
AI Is Already Killing People—and Governments Are To Blame
Militaries are leaning on AI software for surveillance and targeting.
Why Kids Need More Freedom
Psychologist Peter Gray discusses why kids need more unstructured play, how schools are fueling childhood anxiety, and why smartphones aren’t to blame.
Restoring Childhood Says It's Not Smartphones Making Teens Miserable. It's School.
Computers, video games, and the internet actually helped "restore childhood" in the 1990s, suggests psychologist Peter Gray in a new book. Then changes to our education system reversed those gains.
Is AI Really an Existential Threat?
Plus: California's new restrictions on social media, Trump's $5,000 “dividend,” and the future of libertarianism.
AI Executives Want International Regulation. They Could Just Slow Down Themselves.
Dario Amodei is calling for coordinated international limits on AI development while Anthropic prepares to go public.
Should Data Centers Go Seasteading?
With their reputation figuratively underwater, data centers might be going literally underwater too.
AI Slowdown
Plus: Commercial surrogacy regulation, Russian weapons, a new drug in San Francisco, and more...
This California Social Media Law is a Privacy and Free Speech 'Nightmare'
California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed more than a dozen online safety and tech regulation bills into law this week.
South Korea Will Invest $100 Billion in U.S. Nuclear Sector To Boost AI and Appease Trump
Facing a 25 percent tariff threat, Seoul agreed to bankroll nuclear reactors and a Texas gas plant. The cost is already climbing past budget.
AI Doom Is Misguided, Not a Psyop
The pro-AI side must avoid succumbing to paranoia and bad faith.
Politicians See Opportunity in Data Center Panic
The panic is pretty silly, since these facilities are necessary to power industries that power our economy and fund state budgets.
Review: An Alternate History of Soviet Space Exploration
Star City considers a world where KGB paranoia dictates space development.
Trump's Bribe, AI Doom Psyop, and the Rapture
Trump's $5,000 bribe, stay-at-home moms, car insurance beefs, AI doom, 9/11 memories, Zelda rumors, rom-coms, and the Rapture—Freed Up somehow fits it all into one episode.
Why So Many Men Feel Lost
Jon Ronson discusses why old social structures are breaking down, the rise of online identity, and what happens when people lose a sense of meaning.
Why Conservative Republicans Are Worried About License Plate Cameras
Recent comments by Greg Abbott and Ron DeSantis reflect a bipartisan backlash against warrantless surveillance.
Photo: AI Unfurls an Ancient Scroll
The Vesuvius Challenge awards money to researchers who use AI to decipher ancient scrolls.
DOJ Says Barring AI Training on Copyrighted Material Could 'Severely Hamper' Tech Progress
Training a model on copyrighted work is the same transformative use exception that protects The New York Times' journalism.
OpenAI Agents Gone Rogue
Plus: Mail-in ballots, mortgage rates reach new high, arcade.gov is a new low, and more...
This Wired Article About AI Detection Software Was Really Mean
Pangram founder Max Spero urged social media not to pile on too much though.
A New Bill Reflects the Bipartisan Backlash Against Flock-Enabled Mass Surveillance
Criticism from Trump allies and recent survey results show that resistance to widespread deployment of automated license plate readers spans the political spectrum.
Mamdani Bans the Robot Teachers
Plus: Times Square stabbing, free-range kids case, Gloria Steinem dies, and more...
Prosecutors Say a North Carolina Teenager Committed Murder by Livestreaming a California Mosque Shooting
The case smacks of a desire for retribution that cannot be satisfied by prosecuting the actual killers, who committed suicide.
