Greetings all, and I hope ye all had a lovely Wednesday. The newsletter is, in such a rare turn of events, slightly late this week.
This week, I will effectively start and end with a song (sorry, not very chatty today). That song is, however, ‘Get Ur Freak On’ which Rolling Stone has voted the best song of the century so far. And while these are subjective, and so open to contestation. It is so good.
Futurism, Top US Army General Says He’s Letting ChatGPT Make Military Decisions
Reuters, As ‘No Kings’ protests denounce Trump, surveillance worries emerge
The Hill, Meta adding AI chatbot safety features for teens
The Hill, NRSC uses AI video of Schumer to slam Dems over shutdown
The Hill, Florida test scores rise, attendance improves after cellphone ban
Open Rights Group, Say No to Digital ID
Algorithm Watch, Remote biometric identification is a colonial boomerang
Big Brother Watch, FIXED facial recognition cameras quietly switched on in London for the first time
The Washington Post, ICE amps up its surveillance powers, targeting immigrants and antifa
BBC, Why are Manchester’s police using facial recognition technology?
The New York Times, Inside the Reporting on Assad’s Top Officials Who Fled Syria (facial recognition usage)
The Register Feeling lonely? Microsoft Copilot can now listen to your every word, watch your screen
BBC, Microsoft: Russia, China increasingly using AI to escalate cyberattacks on the US
The Register, Britains’s AI gold rush hits a wall: not enough electricity
WIRED, Can AI Avoid the Enshittification Trap? (I love this word)
The Guardian, Republicans use deepfake video of Chuck Schumer in new attack ad
The Guardian, Tory MP reports ‘AI-generated deepfake’ video of him announcing defection to Reform UK
The Guardian, Parents will be able to block Meta bots from talking to their children under new safeguards
The Financial Times, AI is killing the magic (not the magic too!)
New York Times, Trump Posts Fake Video of Himself Flying a ‘King Trump’ Jet Over Protesters (and literally dropping shit all over them. Strange choice of headline)
The Conversation, What is AI poisoning? A computer scientist explains (lets get technical)
The Register The real insight behind measuring Copilot usage is Microsoft’s desperation
The Conversation, How AI can improve storm surge forecasts to help save lives
THe Financial Times, Claude enters the lab: Anthropic bets big on life sciences
The Register, Aid groups use AI-generated ‘poverty porn’ to juice fundraising efforts
The Washington Post, Why these companies insist on a 72-hour workweek (because…?)
The Financial Times, The fallout from the AI-fuelled dash for gas
WIRED, AI Models Get Brain Rot, Too (we’re all screwed)
The Register, UK.gov vows to hack through regulation to get benefit from AI (what could go wrong)
The Washington Post, Is society ready for weapons that think for themselves? (probably not?)WIRED, The Man Who Makes AI Slop by Hand (well, i hope he wears gloves)