The Strangely Believable Tale of a Mythical Rogue Drone

The Strangely Believable Tale of a Mythical Rogue Drone

Did you hear about the Air Force AI drone that went rogue and attacked its operators inside a simulation?  The cautionary tale was told by Colonel Tucker Hamilton, chief of AI test and operations at the US Air Force, during a speech at an aerospace and defense event in London late last month. It apparently involved taking…

Deepmind’s AI Is Learning About the Art of Coding

Deepmind’s AI Is Learning About the Art of Coding

In the field of computer science, there is perhaps no more fundamental task than to sort. Bubble, heap, merge—take your pick. The methods for reordering data inside a computer have been theorized to death, served as practice exercises for millions of novices, and been optimized for decades by expert developers. Type a sort() function in…

Don’t Want Students to Rely on ChatGPT? Have Them Use It

Don’t Want Students to Rely on ChatGPT? Have Them Use It

When I first caught students attempting to use ChatGPT to write their essays, it felt like an inevitability. My initial reaction was frustration and irritation—not to mention gloom and doom about the slow collapse of higher education—and I suspect most educators feel the same way. But as I thought about how to respond, I realized…

Chegg Embraced AI. ChatGPT Ate Its Lunch Anyway

Chegg Embraced AI. ChatGPT Ate Its Lunch Anyway

In subjects such as engineering, chemistry, and statistics, which drive significant traffic to Chegg but often involve diagrams, there was a sense that relying too heavily on AI to parse visual information was unreasonable, the former employees say. So the ethics of unleashing an imperfect product gave Chegg pause. “We knew generative was coming down…

If Pinocchio Doesn’t Freak You Out, Microsoft’s Sydney Shouldn’t Either

If Pinocchio Doesn’t Freak You Out, Microsoft’s Sydney Shouldn’t Either

In November 2018, an elementary school administrator named Akihiko Kondo married Miku Hatsune, a fictional pop singer. The couple’s relationship had been aided by a hologram machine that allowed Kondo to interact with Hatsune. When Kondo proposed, Hatsune responded with a request: “Please treat me well.” The couple had an unofficial wedding ceremony in Tokyo, and Kondo…

Why Hollywood Really Fears Generative AI

Why Hollywood Really Fears Generative AI

“The nature of the impact on performers is unique, especially with generative AI tools that can be used to recreate a performer image, likeness, or voice persona, or to do things that they didn’t originally contemplate ever doing,” says Crabtree-Ireland. “That’s a concern.” Actors, like all Americans, are protected against commercial appropriation of their identity…