A Sense of Doubt blog post #3312 - AI Extinction Level THREAT and Slashdot Round-Up
A lot of good news here.
A lot of good news here.
The AI thing is motivating.
But the lead in gasoline and its effects on cognition is disturbing.
As always, my blog is more of my study than my instruction.
Final grades are still looming and so just this share today,
Thanks for tuning in.
Canada's 'Online Harms' Bill Would Be an Assault On Free Speech, Civil Liberties Groups Say
A Toronto Sun columnist writes that two Canadian civil liberties groups are "sounding alarms" about the proposed new Online Harms Act (C-63): The Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) and the Canadian Constitution Foundation (C...
Mock 'News' Sites With Russian Ties Pop Up in U.S.
An anonymous reader shared this story from the New York Times: Into the depleted field of journalism in America, a handful of websites have appeared in recent weeks with names suggesting a focus on news close to home: D.C. Weekly, the New ...
US Must Move 'Decisively' To Avert 'Extinction-Level' Threat From AI, Gov't-Commissioned Report Says
The U.S. government must move "quickly and decisively" to avert substantial national security risks stemming from artificial intelligence (AI) which could, in the worst case, cause an "extinction-level threat to the human species," says a report commission...
Automakers Are Sharing Consumers' Driving Behavior With Insurance Companies
Automakers, including G.M., Honda, Kia, and Hyundai, have been collecting detailed driving data from millions of Americans through internet-enabled connected-car apps. The data, which includes information on speed, hard braking, and rapid accelerations, is...
Airbnb is Banning Indoor Security Cameras
Airbnb will no longer allow hosts to use indoor security cameras, regardless of where they're placed or what they're used for. In an update on Monday, Airbnb says the change to "prioritize the privacy" of renters goes into effect on April 30th. From a repo...
Boeing's Woes Continue as 50 Injured on Australia-New Zealand Flight
Dozens of people have been injured by what officials described as a "strong movement" on a Chilean flight from Australia to New Zealand. From a report: In a statement on Monday, Chilean LATAM Airlines blamed the injuries on "a technical event during the...
US Will 'Do Whatever It Takes' To Curb China Tech, Raimondo Says
The US could further tighten controls on China's access to sophisticated semiconductor technologies, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said, signaling Washington may intensify its campaign to prevent Beijing catching up in military capabilities. From a repo...
U. of Texas at Austin Will Return To Standardized Test Requirement
The University of Texas at Austin said Monday that it would again require standardized tests for admissions (non-paywalled source), becoming the latest selective university to reinstate requirements for SAT or ACT scores that were abandoned during...
Jensen Huang Says Even Free AI Chips From Competitors Can't Beat Nvidia's GPUs
An anonymous reader shares a report: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang recently took to the stage to claim that Nvidia's GPUs are "so good that even when the competitor's chips are free, it's not cheap enough." Huang further explained that Nvidia GPU pricing isn'...
slashdot sum - MONDAY MARCH 11th
Lead From Gasoline Blunted the IQ of About Half the U.S. Population, Study Says
Slashdot reader ArchieBunker shared this article from NBC News: Exposure to leaded gasoline lowered the IQ of about half the population of the United States, a new study estimates. The peer-reviewed study, published Monday in the journal Proceedi...
California State Legislator Proposes Ending Daylight Saving Time
Legislation proposed in California "aims to repeal Daylight saving time and put California permanently on Standard time," reports a San Diego news station:
In November 2018, California voters passed Prop 7, a measure that would allow the sta...
'Now Fusion Has a Chance': New MIT Research Claims Fusion Power's 'Practicality' Has Been Proven
An anonymous reader shared this article from Futurism: More than two years since MIT claimed its scientists achieved a breakthrough in fusion energy, the university is claiming that new research "confirms" that the magnet-based design used in ...
'Monumental' Experiment Suggests How Life on Earth May Have Started
An anonymous reader shared this article from the Washington Post: A much-debated theory holds that 4 billion years ago, give or take, long before the appearance of dinosaurs or even bacteria, the primordial soup contained only the possibility of life....
Does Reddit Represent the Return of the Junk Stock IPO?
An article in Inc notes a "wild projection" in Reddit's SEC filing that Reddit's global market opportunity by 2027 is $1.4 trillion." Some of the numbers lead back to a single individual: Sam Altman. The co-founder and chief executive of ChatGP...
The Apple IIgs: On a Machine This Slow, You Had To Get Weird
Long-time Slashdot reader garote writes: It's the year 1991. You're a teenage computer geek.
You've just upgraded to an Apple IIgs, your first "16-bit" computer. To relieve the crushing boredom of your High School coursework, you and your frien...
New US Defense Department Report Found 'No Evidence' of Alien Technology
An anonymous reader shared this report from the Guardian: The U.S. is not secretly hiding alien technology or extraterrestrial beings from the public, according to a defense department report.
On Friday, the Pentagon 'published the findings ...
America's Justice Department Opens Criminal Investigation Into Boeing's Window Blowout Incident
America's Department of Justice "has launched a criminal investigation into the Boeing jetliner blowout that left a gaping hole on an Alaska Airlines plane," reports the Associated Press, citing a report from the Wall Street Journal.
"As part of ...
Are We in the 'Anthropocene,' the Human Age? Scientists Say: Nope
Science magazine "has confirmed that a panel of two dozen geologists has voted down a proposal to end the Holocene — our current span of geologic time, which began 11,700 years ago at the end of the last ice age — and inaugurate a new ...
To Replace HexChat, Linux Mint is Building a New Desktop Chat App Called 'Jargonaut'
Ubuntu-based Linux Mint includes HexChat software by default "to offer a way for users of the distro to talk to, ask questions, and get support from other users," according to the Linux blog OMG Ubuntu.
But in February HexChat's...
slashdot sum - THURSDAY MARCH 07th
Airlines Are Coming for Your Carry-Ons
Carriers have gotten stricter about how many items you can take on board, no matter how small they are. From a report: Fanny packs. Cross-body bags. Shopping bags. Pillows and blankets. The Southwest Airlines gate agent rattled off so many items that co...
Apple Terminated Epic's Developer Account
Epic Games, in a blog post: We recently announced that Apple approved our Epic Games Sweden AB developer account. We intended to use that account to bring the Epic Games Store and Fortnite to iOS devices in Europe thanks to the Digital Markets Act (DMA)...
Why Desktop Linux Is Finally Growing In Popularity
According to the latest data from StatCounter, Linux's market share has reached 4.03% -- surging by an additional 1% in the last eight months. What's the reason behind this recent growth? "That's a good question," writes ZDNet's Steven Vaughan-Nichols. "Wh...
Man Charged With Smuggling Greenhouse Gases Into US
In a first-of-its-kind prosecution, a California man was arrested and charged Monday with allegedly smuggling potent, greenhouse gases from Mexico. From a report: Michael Hart, a 58-year-old man from San Diego, pleaded not guilty to smuggling hydrofluo...
Screen Time Robs Average Toddler of Hearing 1,000 Words Spoken By Adult a Day, Study Finds
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: The average toddler is missing out on hearing more than 1,000 words spoken by an adult each day due to screen time, setting back their language skills, a first-of-its kind study has found. The resea...
Microsoft Engineer Warns Company's AI Tool Creates Violent, Sexual Images, Ignores Copyrights
An anonymous reader shares a report: On a late night in December, Shane Jones, an AI engineer at Microsoft, felt sickened by the images popping up on his computer. Jones was noodling with Copilot Designer, the AI image generator that Microsoft debuted i...
Public Trust In AI Is Sinking Across the Board
Trust in AI technology and the companies that develop it is dropping, in both the U.S. and around the world, according to new data from Edelman shared first with Axios. Axios reports: Globally, trust in AI companies has dropped to 53%, down from 61% fi...
Amazon Pays $650 Million For Nuclear-Powered Data Center
Michelle Lewis reports via Electrek: One of the US's largest nuclear power plants will directly power cloud service provider Amazon Web Services' new data center. Power provider Talen Energy sold its data center campus, Cumulus Data Assets, to Amazon W...
Meta Abandons Hacking Victims, Draining Law Enforcement Resources, Officials Say
41 state attorneys general penned a letter to Meta's top attorney on Wednesday saying complaints are skyrocketing across the United States about Facebook and Instagram user accounts being stolen, and declaring "immediate action" necessary to mitigate the r...
BlackCat Ransomware Group Implodes After Apparent $22M Payment By Change Healthcare
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Krebs on Security: There are indications that U.S. healthcare giant Change Healthcare has made a $22 million extortion payment to the infamous BlackCat ransomware group (a.k.a. "ALPHV") as the company struggles t...
LOW POWER MODE: I sometimes put the blog in what I call LOW POWER MODE. If you see this note, the blog is operating like a sleeping computer, maintaining static memory, but making no new computations. If I am in low power mode, it's because I do not have time to do much that's inventive, original, or even substantive on the blog. This means I am posting straight shares, limited content posts, reprints, often something qualifying for the THAT ONE THING category and other easy to make posts to keep me daily. That's the deal. Thanks for reading.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2403.13 - 10:10
- Days ago = 3176 days ago
- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I plan to continue Hey Mom posts at least twice per week but will continue to post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.
As always, my blog is more of my study than my instruction.
Final grades are still looming and so just this share today,
Thanks for tuning in.
US Must Move 'Decisively' To Avert 'Extinction-Level' Threat From AI, Gov't-Commissioned Report Says (time.com)
The U.S. government must move "quickly and decisively" to avert substantial national security risks stemming from artificial intelligence (AI) which could, in the worst case, cause an "extinction-level threat to the human species," says a report commissioned by the U.S. government published on Monday. Time:"Current frontier AI development poses urgent and growing risks to national security," the report, which TIME obtained ahead of its publication, says. "The rise of advanced AI and AGI [artificial general intelligence] has the potential to destabilize global security in ways reminiscent of the introduction of nuclear weapons." AGI is a hypothetical technology that could perform most tasks at or above the level of a human. Such systems do not currently exist, but the leading AI labs are working toward them and many expect AGI to arrive within the next five years or less.
The three authors of the report worked on it for more than a year, speaking with more than 200 government employees, experts, and workers at frontier AI companies -- like OpenAI, Google DeepMind, Anthropic and Meta -- as part of their research. Accounts from some of those conversations paint a disturbing picture, suggesting that many AI safety workers inside cutting-edge labs are concerned about perverse incentives driving decisionmaking by the executives who control their companies. The finished document, titled "An Action Plan to Increase the Safety and Security of Advanced AI," recommends a set of sweeping and unprecedented policy actions that, if enacted, would radically disrupt the AI industry. Congress should make it illegal, the report recommends, to train AI models using more than a certain level of computing power.
The threshold, the report recommends, should be set by a new federal AI agency, although the report suggests, as an example, that the agency could set it just above the levels of computing power used to train current cutting-edge models like OpenAI's GPT-4 and Google's Gemini. The new AI agency should require AI companies on the "frontier" of the industry to obtain government permission to train and deploy new models above a certain lower threshold, the report adds. Authorities should also "urgently" consider outlawing the publication of the "weights," or inner workings, of powerful AI models, for example under open-source licenses, with violations possibly punishable by jail time, the report says. And the government should further tighten controls on the manufacture and export of AI chips, and channel federal funding toward "alignment" research that seeks to make advanced AI safer, it recommends.
The three authors of the report worked on it for more than a year, speaking with more than 200 government employees, experts, and workers at frontier AI companies -- like OpenAI, Google DeepMind, Anthropic and Meta -- as part of their research. Accounts from some of those conversations paint a disturbing picture, suggesting that many AI safety workers inside cutting-edge labs are concerned about perverse incentives driving decisionmaking by the executives who control their companies. The finished document, titled "An Action Plan to Increase the Safety and Security of Advanced AI," recommends a set of sweeping and unprecedented policy actions that, if enacted, would radically disrupt the AI industry. Congress should make it illegal, the report recommends, to train AI models using more than a certain level of computing power.
The threshold, the report recommends, should be set by a new federal AI agency, although the report suggests, as an example, that the agency could set it just above the levels of computing power used to train current cutting-edge models like OpenAI's GPT-4 and Google's Gemini. The new AI agency should require AI companies on the "frontier" of the industry to obtain government permission to train and deploy new models above a certain lower threshold, the report adds. Authorities should also "urgently" consider outlawing the publication of the "weights," or inner workings, of powerful AI models, for example under open-source licenses, with violations possibly punishable by jail time, the report says. And the government should further tighten controls on the manufacture and export of AI chips, and channel federal funding toward "alignment" research that seeks to make advanced AI safer, it recommends.
slashdot sum - TUESDAY MARCH 12th
Canada's 'Online Harms' Bill Would Be an Assault On Free Speech, Civil Liberties Groups Say
A Toronto Sun columnist writes that two Canadian civil liberties groups are "sounding alarms" about the proposed new Online Harms Act (C-63): The Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) and the Canadian Constitution Foundation (C...
Mock 'News' Sites With Russian Ties Pop Up in U.S.
An anonymous reader shared this story from the New York Times: Into the depleted field of journalism in America, a handful of websites have appeared in recent weeks with names suggesting a focus on news close to home: D.C. Weekly, the New ...
US Must Move 'Decisively' To Avert 'Extinction-Level' Threat From AI, Gov't-Commissioned Report Says
The U.S. government must move "quickly and decisively" to avert substantial national security risks stemming from artificial intelligence (AI) which could, in the worst case, cause an "extinction-level threat to the human species," says a report commission...
Automakers Are Sharing Consumers' Driving Behavior With Insurance Companies
Automakers, including G.M., Honda, Kia, and Hyundai, have been collecting detailed driving data from millions of Americans through internet-enabled connected-car apps. The data, which includes information on speed, hard braking, and rapid accelerations, is...
Airbnb is Banning Indoor Security Cameras
Airbnb will no longer allow hosts to use indoor security cameras, regardless of where they're placed or what they're used for. In an update on Monday, Airbnb says the change to "prioritize the privacy" of renters goes into effect on April 30th. From a repo...
Boeing's Woes Continue as 50 Injured on Australia-New Zealand Flight
Dozens of people have been injured by what officials described as a "strong movement" on a Chilean flight from Australia to New Zealand. From a report: In a statement on Monday, Chilean LATAM Airlines blamed the injuries on "a technical event during the...
US Will 'Do Whatever It Takes' To Curb China Tech, Raimondo Says
The US could further tighten controls on China's access to sophisticated semiconductor technologies, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said, signaling Washington may intensify its campaign to prevent Beijing catching up in military capabilities. From a repo...
U. of Texas at Austin Will Return To Standardized Test Requirement
The University of Texas at Austin said Monday that it would again require standardized tests for admissions (non-paywalled source), becoming the latest selective university to reinstate requirements for SAT or ACT scores that were abandoned during...
Jensen Huang Says Even Free AI Chips From Competitors Can't Beat Nvidia's GPUs
An anonymous reader shares a report: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang recently took to the stage to claim that Nvidia's GPUs are "so good that even when the competitor's chips are free, it's not cheap enough." Huang further explained that Nvidia GPU pricing isn'...
slashdot sum - MONDAY MARCH 11th
Lead From Gasoline Blunted the IQ of About Half the U.S. Population, Study Says
Slashdot reader ArchieBunker shared this article from NBC News: Exposure to leaded gasoline lowered the IQ of about half the population of the United States, a new study estimates. The peer-reviewed study, published Monday in the journal Proceedi...
California State Legislator Proposes Ending Daylight Saving Time
Legislation proposed in California "aims to repeal Daylight saving time and put California permanently on Standard time," reports a San Diego news station:
In November 2018, California voters passed Prop 7, a measure that would allow the sta...
'Now Fusion Has a Chance': New MIT Research Claims Fusion Power's 'Practicality' Has Been Proven
An anonymous reader shared this article from Futurism: More than two years since MIT claimed its scientists achieved a breakthrough in fusion energy, the university is claiming that new research "confirms" that the magnet-based design used in ...
'Monumental' Experiment Suggests How Life on Earth May Have Started
An anonymous reader shared this article from the Washington Post: A much-debated theory holds that 4 billion years ago, give or take, long before the appearance of dinosaurs or even bacteria, the primordial soup contained only the possibility of life....
Does Reddit Represent the Return of the Junk Stock IPO?
An article in Inc notes a "wild projection" in Reddit's SEC filing that Reddit's global market opportunity by 2027 is $1.4 trillion." Some of the numbers lead back to a single individual: Sam Altman. The co-founder and chief executive of ChatGP...
The Apple IIgs: On a Machine This Slow, You Had To Get Weird
Long-time Slashdot reader garote writes: It's the year 1991. You're a teenage computer geek.
You've just upgraded to an Apple IIgs, your first "16-bit" computer. To relieve the crushing boredom of your High School coursework, you and your frien...
New US Defense Department Report Found 'No Evidence' of Alien Technology
An anonymous reader shared this report from the Guardian: The U.S. is not secretly hiding alien technology or extraterrestrial beings from the public, according to a defense department report.
On Friday, the Pentagon 'published the findings ...
America's Justice Department Opens Criminal Investigation Into Boeing's Window Blowout Incident
America's Department of Justice "has launched a criminal investigation into the Boeing jetliner blowout that left a gaping hole on an Alaska Airlines plane," reports the Associated Press, citing a report from the Wall Street Journal.
"As part of ...
Are We in the 'Anthropocene,' the Human Age? Scientists Say: Nope
Science magazine "has confirmed that a panel of two dozen geologists has voted down a proposal to end the Holocene — our current span of geologic time, which began 11,700 years ago at the end of the last ice age — and inaugurate a new ...
To Replace HexChat, Linux Mint is Building a New Desktop Chat App Called 'Jargonaut'
Ubuntu-based Linux Mint includes HexChat software by default "to offer a way for users of the distro to talk to, ask questions, and get support from other users," according to the Linux blog OMG Ubuntu.
But in February HexChat's...
slashdot sum - THURSDAY MARCH 07th
Airlines Are Coming for Your Carry-Ons
Carriers have gotten stricter about how many items you can take on board, no matter how small they are. From a report: Fanny packs. Cross-body bags. Shopping bags. Pillows and blankets. The Southwest Airlines gate agent rattled off so many items that co...
Apple Terminated Epic's Developer Account
Epic Games, in a blog post: We recently announced that Apple approved our Epic Games Sweden AB developer account. We intended to use that account to bring the Epic Games Store and Fortnite to iOS devices in Europe thanks to the Digital Markets Act (DMA)...
Why Desktop Linux Is Finally Growing In Popularity
According to the latest data from StatCounter, Linux's market share has reached 4.03% -- surging by an additional 1% in the last eight months. What's the reason behind this recent growth? "That's a good question," writes ZDNet's Steven Vaughan-Nichols. "Wh...
Man Charged With Smuggling Greenhouse Gases Into US
In a first-of-its-kind prosecution, a California man was arrested and charged Monday with allegedly smuggling potent, greenhouse gases from Mexico. From a report: Michael Hart, a 58-year-old man from San Diego, pleaded not guilty to smuggling hydrofluo...
Screen Time Robs Average Toddler of Hearing 1,000 Words Spoken By Adult a Day, Study Finds
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: The average toddler is missing out on hearing more than 1,000 words spoken by an adult each day due to screen time, setting back their language skills, a first-of-its kind study has found. The resea...
Microsoft Engineer Warns Company's AI Tool Creates Violent, Sexual Images, Ignores Copyrights
An anonymous reader shares a report: On a late night in December, Shane Jones, an AI engineer at Microsoft, felt sickened by the images popping up on his computer. Jones was noodling with Copilot Designer, the AI image generator that Microsoft debuted i...
Public Trust In AI Is Sinking Across the Board
Trust in AI technology and the companies that develop it is dropping, in both the U.S. and around the world, according to new data from Edelman shared first with Axios. Axios reports: Globally, trust in AI companies has dropped to 53%, down from 61% fi...
Amazon Pays $650 Million For Nuclear-Powered Data Center
Michelle Lewis reports via Electrek: One of the US's largest nuclear power plants will directly power cloud service provider Amazon Web Services' new data center. Power provider Talen Energy sold its data center campus, Cumulus Data Assets, to Amazon W...
Meta Abandons Hacking Victims, Draining Law Enforcement Resources, Officials Say
41 state attorneys general penned a letter to Meta's top attorney on Wednesday saying complaints are skyrocketing across the United States about Facebook and Instagram user accounts being stolen, and declaring "immediate action" necessary to mitigate the r...
BlackCat Ransomware Group Implodes After Apparent $22M Payment By Change Healthcare
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Krebs on Security: There are indications that U.S. healthcare giant Change Healthcare has made a $22 million extortion payment to the infamous BlackCat ransomware group (a.k.a. "ALPHV") as the company struggles t...
LOW POWER MODE: I sometimes put the blog in what I call LOW POWER MODE. If you see this note, the blog is operating like a sleeping computer, maintaining static memory, but making no new computations. If I am in low power mode, it's because I do not have time to do much that's inventive, original, or even substantive on the blog. This means I am posting straight shares, limited content posts, reprints, often something qualifying for the THAT ONE THING category and other easy to make posts to keep me daily. That's the deal. Thanks for reading.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2403.13 - 10:10
- Days ago = 3176 days ago
- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I plan to continue Hey Mom posts at least twice per week but will continue to post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.
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