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.
Artificial Intelligence
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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...
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.
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 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...
Invasion of the Robot Teachers
New Mexico required kindergarten through second-grade students to learn literacy skills from a purple-haired AI avatar called Amira. Parents are pushing back.
Anthropic Win Reaffirms Private Sector's Right To Put Conditions on Government Dealings
Trump administration officials didn’t try to hide that they were punishing the company for its views.
The Belated Backlash Against Flock Cameras
Americans are starting to recognize the dangers of pervasive surveillance by automated license plate readers.
The CIA Is Making AI-Generated Reports for Local Police
The CIA has been using artificial intelligence to write “open source intelligence” analyses, which are being distributed to local police via DHS “fusion centers,” according to documents obtained by Reason.
Judge Says Trump's Clampdown on Anthropic Violates the First Amendment
A judge ruled the Pentagon's supply chain risk designation of Anthropic was an unlawful, “arbitrary,” and “capricious” decision made to punish Anthropic.
A Tale of Two Tech Revolts
What the simultaneous revolts against Flock and data centers can tell us about the power and risks of populism
AI Companies Are Destroying Books. That's Not Nearly as Scary as It Sounds.
Destructively scanning books is making information more accessible to the masses.
The Backlash Against Data Centers Is Bipartisan, Nationwide, and Wrong
From Texas to Ohio, political candidates are backing voters’ bad arguments for opposing data centers.
Data Centers Are Doing Your Dirty Work for You
Their few defenders often misunderstand their benefits.
Open-Weight
Plus: "Blasphemous" talk in Texas, botox everywhere, ink on Mace, and more...
What if the Future Is Actually Good?
Jason Silva discusses the promise of AI, the psychedelic renaissance, and the case for embracing technological optimism.
Free Speech Unmuted: Can AI Libel You? The Robby Starbuck Case
Jane and I examine the Robby Starbuck v. Google decision, one of the first major court opinions arising from generative AI "hallucinations."
AI Is Already Beating Human Doctors in Medical Tests
Robo-docs are not likely to take over healthcare anytime soon, but they could do more to assist human doctors—if we let them.
Democrats Want To Tax AI Companies for Job Losses That Haven't Happened
The proposed tax would rise with unemployment and fund a new federal jobs program—even though AI has yet to cause mass unemployment.
Minnesota's Nudification Ban Could Punish People Over Parodies and Stripped-Down Selfies. Elon Musk's xAI Is Suing.
The law is written so broadly it could punish services that let you fake an image of yourself in a swimsuit.
Greg Abbott Once Called Texas the 'Epicenter' of AI. Now He's Freezing Data Center Construction.
The bipartisan backlash against data centers reaches the Lone Star State.
Kansas Lawsuit: ALPRs Turn a License Plate Into the 'Functional Equivalent' of a 'GPS Tracking Device'
The Kansas Justice Institute argues that Wichita's "warrantless ALPR dragnet surveillance program" violates the state constitution's privacy protections.
Minority Report: FBI Seeks AI for Political Watch List
Documents show the FBI seeking AI tools to flag Americans before they act, as the terror watch list's focus moves toward domestic dissent.
'AI Kill Switch Act' Won't Stop Rogue AI, but It Will Slow Down Innovation
A bipartisan bill would give the Department of Homeland Security sweeping power to shut down powerful AI systems, with serious costs for competition and security.
