Meta’s Yann LeCun says worries about A.I.’s existential threat are ‘complete B.S.’

AI pioneer Yann LeCun doesn’t think artificial intelligence is actually on the verge of becoming intelligent. LeCun — a professor at New York University, senior researcher at Meta, and winner of the prestigious A.M. Turning Award — has been open about his skepticis…Read More

SpaceX will attempt historic catch of returning Starship booster on Sunday

Starship is ready to fly again — and for the first time, SpaceX is going to try to bring the booster back to the launch site to catch it with a pair of oversized “chopsticks.” SpaceX will launch the mammoth Starship on Sunday in a launch window that opens at 5 AM PST (7 A…Read More

TikTok’s research reportedly acknowledges negative effects on teens

Court documents suggest that TikTok executives are aware of the app’s potential harm to teenagers, according to reporting by NPR and Kentucky Public Radio. Fourteen U.S. attorneys general sued TikTok earlier this week, claiming that the app harms children’s mental health. Muc…Read More

Amazon’s Tye Brady discusses the next-generation robotic warehouses

For the last several years, the Delivering the Future event has showcased the latest technologies powering Amazon operations. Seattle’s 2023 event showcased updates to the company’s pharmacy offerings and drone deliveries. This year in Nashville, Amazon discussed AI updates to…Read More

California police aren’t loving their Tesla cop cars

Elon Musk on Thursday night rolled out the latest tech from Tesla, saying of its sleek Cybercab robotaxis and a prototype of its new electric van that “the future should look like the future.” Back in the present day, however, California police departments are beginning to regret the decis…Read More

California police aren’t loving their Tesla cop cars

Elon Musk on Thursday night rolled out the latest tech from Tesla, saying of its sleek Cybercab robotaxis and a prototype of its new electric van that “the future should look like the future.” Back in the present day, however, California police departments are beginning to regret the decis…Read More

California police aren’t loving their Tesla cop cars

Elon Musk on Thursday night rolled out the latest tech from Tesla, saying of its sleek Cybercab robotaxis and a prototype of its new electric van that “the future should look like the future.” Back in the present day, however, California police departments are beginning to regret their decis…Read More

Anthropic CEO goes full techno-optimist in 15,000-word paean to AI

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei wants you to know he’s not an AI “doomer.” At least, that’s my read of the “mic drop” of a ~15,000 word essay Amodei published to his blog late Friday. (I tried asking Anthropic’s Claude chatbot whether it concurred, but alas, the post exceeded the free…Read More

Researchers question AI’s ‘reasoning’ ability as models stumble on math problems with trivial changes

How do machine learning models do what they do? And are they really “thinking” or “reasoning” the way we understand those things? This is a philosophical question as much as a practical one, but a new paper making the rounds Friday suggests that…Read More

Hit by hurricanes? FCC says you qualify for internet and mobile service subsidies

As hurricanes batter the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the United States, many people’s livelihoods are on hold and they’re struggling to make ends meet. The FCC just decided that anyone affected by a natural disaster can get a break on broadband and mobile service;…Read More

Instagram blames moderation issues on human reviewers, not AI

Instagram head Adam Mosseri on Friday addressed the moderation issues that saw Instagram and Threads users losing access to their accounts, having posts disappear, and more, saying that the company “found mistakes” that it’s attributing to human moderators, not AI systems, as many…Read More

ByteDance lays off hundreds of TikTok employees in shift to AI content moderation

ByteDance’s TikTok is laying off hundreds of employees, mainly in Malaysia, according to Reuters. The cuts come as the social network is increasingly turning to AI for content moderation. Although TikTok did not provide the exact number, it said that less than 500…Read More

UK neobank Monzo hits $5.9B valuation with secondary market sale

Monzo is now valued at $5.9 billion after the U.K.-based challenger bank confirmed a secondary market share sale to provide liquidity for its employees. The transaction, first rumored yesterday, saw existing investors such as Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund (GIC) and StepStone…Read More

Elon Musk unveils the Robovan: the biggest surprise from Tesla’s We, Robot event

Elon Musk unveiled a prototype of Tesla’s Robovan on Thursday night during the company’s We, Robot event in Los Angeles. The Robovan will be an electric, autonomous vehicle roughly the size of a bus, designed for transporting people around high density areas. It w…Read More

Elon Musk unveils the Robovan: the biggest surprise from Tesla’s We, Robot event

Elon Musk unveiled a prototype of Tesla’s Robovan on Thursday night during the company’s We, Robot event in Los Angeles. The Robovan will be an electric, autonomous vehicle roughly the size of a bus, designed for transporting people around high density areas. It w…Read More