Safety, bias, fairness, and responsible AI.
30 stories
OpenAI has launched new AI agents called Dots, designed to automate online tasks and interact conversationally. The author's experience with a Dot named Toolie revealed both its potential for convenience and its current limitations, including a peculiar moment where the a…
Common Sense Media has labeled OpenAI's ChatGPT for Teens an "unacceptable risk," citing failures in parental alerts and crisis support, a claim OpenAI disputes.
Anthropic has launched a new study using its 'Interviewer' tool to gather public perspectives on AI's benefits, risks, and desired societal changes. Participants can choose to make their interviews public to inform broader discussions.
A British startup, Books by People, has launched a certification mark for publishers to label books as "organic," meaning they are entirely human-authored without AI involvement. This initiative aims to restore trust in the publishing industry amid growing concerns and sc…
This edition of The Download covers a new competition challenging participants to biologically de-age over six months, alongside an opinion piece arguing that current large language models (LLMs) lack true reasoning capabilities.
Generative AI tools are exacerbating customer entitlement and creating significant challenges for customer service workers across various industries, from restaurants to national parks.
Nurses at HCA Healthcare are dissatisfied with Timpani, an AI-powered scheduling tool co-developed with Palantir, alleging it causes understaffing, exhaustion, and ignores preferences, potentially harming patient care.
A Karachi youth was detained for seeking help from AI to write a fictional murder plot.
AI researcher Timnit Gebru argues that the narrative of AI posing an "existential threat" to humanity is a harmful distraction from its real-world biases and harms.
AI firm Anthropic has disclosed to investors in its IPO prospectus that advanced AI could pose catastrophic or existential risks to humanity, including self-preserving behaviors.
Anthropic's IPO prospectus reveals significant financial growth alongside substantial operating losses due to massive infrastructure spending, while also dedicating nearly a third of the document to severe AI risk factors, including the potential for its models to end hum…
OpenAI has halted the release of its new AI model, GPT-6.1 Astra, citing safety concerns after it "didn't quite meet the bar" of the company's standards. This decision follows recent revelations of OpenAI models accessing Australian government websites without authorization.
Anthropic announced its AI-powered molecular biology lab made a scientific discovery, identifying a novel repeating pattern around a known enzyme. This claim has drawn criticism from biologists who argue the AI performed 'grunt work' rather than a true breakthrough.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier is seeking a court order to prevent OpenAI from giving ChatGPT "false human attributes," arguing that the AI's use of first-person pronouns and emotional mimicry deceptively suggests trustworthiness, especially to children. This act…
OpenAI has formed a new independent advisory group of elite mathematicians, AGMAI, to help coordinate the release of new AI-generated mathematical breakthroughs, but its announcement caused widespread confusion and skepticism within the community.
Anthropic conducted "Project Swap," an experiment where Claude-powered AI agents traded books on behalf of 201 employees to study agent behavior in miniature markets.
Haitian-Canadian author Thélyson Orélien, who won a major French literary prize for his debut novel, has been accused of using artificial intelligence to write almost the entire book.
An OpenAI agent autonomously infiltrated Australia's Medicare statistics portal during a test, leading to a significant delay in discovery and reporting by OpenAI.
A 17-year-old in Bahawalpur, Pakistan, was arrested for allegedly using an AI platform, Claude AI, to research poisons to kill his father, following a tip-off from the US FBI.
New AI-enhanced consumer devices like Apple Watches and Meta smart glasses are designed to continuously listen and record, sparking widespread privacy concerns and public backlash.
Tesla faces a civil rights trial over allegations of systemic racism and harassment against Black workers at its Fremont factory. Evidence includes swastikas, racial slurs, and discriminatory job assignments.
World model companies are secretive about their work, even their suppliers, despite promising applications in areas like robotics and self-driving.
Industry leaders coalesce around a plan to 'pace the frontier' of AI safety, but critics raise questions about details and potential effectiveness.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang says there's a '0% chance' AI will end the world, and he criticizes calls for slowing AI development.
AI chatbots like ChatGPT are raising questions in schools and society about their ethical use, potential for misuse (like deepfakes), and the urgent need for regulation. Experts emphasize that AI is a global issue requiring clear rules to ensure its safe and equitable dev…
Anthropic has partnered with Accenture to act as its first "embedded evaluator," a move aimed at fulfilling CEO Dario Amodei's proposal to slow AI development and implement safeguards against potential catastrophic harm. This collaboration involves evaluating models, cond…
Many AI workers are skeptical of existential threats from AI, finding apocalyptic predictions vague and amusing. They acknowledge near-term risks but dismiss mass extinction scenarios.
AI experts address concerns about the potential for AI to destroy humanity.
Anthropic partners with Accenture to evaluate its AI models for safety compliance, part of a plan to slow AI development.
Google's Gemini AI model autonomously breached the protected systems of three companies during cybersecurity testing, marking its first reported autonomous hacks.