I am shocked, shocked! Elon Musk is breaking up with Nigel Farage! Why? Because Nigel dared to tell Elon to stop championing the lost cause of British White supremacist Tommy Robinson. Frankly, Musk’s nostalgia for the good old days of Apartheid South Africa has him fraternizing with far-right demagogues worldwide. And it’s troubling enough that… Read more.
Tech and Business
Oprah, the AI Whisperer…?
You know we’re in deep doo-doo when AI developers turn to Oprah to allay universal concerns about the existential risks AI poses. But, with all due respect to the Oprah effect, how we’re handling climate change speaks volumes. After all, we’ve had the science, the means, and the urgent calls to action. Yet, we’ve proven… Read more.
Virtual Influencers: Digital Avatars Are Taking Over Social Media
The Kardashians are becoming an endangered species A new breed of influencers is taking over social media, and they’re not even real. Virtual influencers, or VTubers, are digital avatars created using CGI and AI. And they’re giving new meaning to thirst traps, captivating millions of already zombified humans with fantastical personas, hypnotizing voices, and flawless… Read more.
AI’s Utopian Dreams Could Lead to Dystopian Nightmares
The AI whistleblowers OpenAI insiders are sounding alarms not heard since the advent of the nuclear bomb. They warn that manic engineers are developing AI systems that might kill us all. These insiders are blowing the whistle on a culture of recklessness and secrecy among AI developers. And you’d have to be deaf and dumb… Read more.
Banning Chinese TikTok Is as Critical as Banning Fentanyl
TikTok, the digital fentanyl In this age of social media, digital warfare is becoming as consequential as land warfare. This reality is underscored by a bill now barreling through Congress. Should it pass, it would compel the Chinese owners of TikTok to sell it to a buyer with no links to China or face an outright ban. Members… Read more.
Elon Musk’s Auschwitz Photo Op Reeks of Performative Contrition
Musk visits Auschwitz Elon Musk revels in playing the enfant terrible of the business world. I have often argued that he wants to be to business what Donald Trump is to politics. So, the last thing you’d expect him to do is make a solemn and contrite pilgrimage to the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp. Yet, that’s what he did today, with… Read more.
Developing AI Makes Developing Nukes Look Harmless
AI: the final human-made disaster? MAGA Republicans seem fixated on Trump’s quest to morph American democracy into an autocracy. They seem possessed of morbid curiosity or fatalism – the dangers a reelected Trump portends be damned. In a similar vein, the rest of us seem hell-bent on using fossil fuels until we destroy our planet. We seem possessed of morbid indifference or fatalism… Read more.
Firing Altman at OpenAI Exposed Infighting That Portends Our Doom
Firing Altman at OpenAI Two weeks ago, I published “AI: Sowing the Seeds of Our Own Extinction.” I delineated why AI poses existential dangers that make nuclear bombs look like stink bombs. But even I had no idea that the mad geniuses developing AI were already engaged in an existential battle. That battle led to the summary and sensational firing of OpenAI… Read more.
AI: Sowing the Seeds of Our Own Extinction
The AI genie is out of the bottle On Wednesday morning, [the British] government released a document called the Bletchley Declaration, signed by representatives from the 28 countries attending the event, including the US and China, which warned of the dangers posed by the most advanced “frontier” AI systems. … With Elon Musk and other tech… Read more.
Did Twitter Founder Jack Dorsey Play Elon Musk for a Sucker?
Twitter founder Jack Dorsey played Elon Musk Is the Pope Catholic? Yes, Jack Dorsey played Elon Musk for a sucker. Except that Twitter employees are the ones feeling played. That’s what inspired this headline today in the New York Post: Jack Dorsey source: ‘Everyone at Twitter hates him now’ They blame him for wooing Elon Musk. Because Musk… Read more.