“AI – Artificial Intelligence”

Swiss boffins admit to secretly posting AI-penned posts to Reddit in the name of science

Researchers from the University of Zurich have admitted to secretly posting AI-generated material to popular Subreddit r/changemyview in the name of science.

As the researchers explain in a draft report on their work: “In r/changemyview, users share opinions on various topics, challenging others to change their perspectives by presenting arguments and counterpoints while engaging in a civil conversation.” Readers of the subreddit assess post and acknowledge posts that change their perspectives.

BREAKING: The University of Zurich has been using AI bots to secretly manipulate Redditors since November 2024.

The scariest part?
The bots were 6 times more likely to change the minds of Redditors than the baseline, often by leveraging misinformation.

More below pic.twitter.com/mZnhj6I9YS

— Reddit Lies (@reddit_lies) April 28, 2025

h/t Patti Jo

If it’s daytime, odds are a lone box truck is cruising the streets between Toronto and Brampton, Ont., with no one behind the wheel.

Bristling with more than two dozen cameras, radars and “lidar” — a laser-based measurement of distance — the vehicle ferries groceries daily from an automated Loblaw Cos. Ltd. warehouse at a supermarket in Etobicoke to its headquarters 25 kilometres west of the city.

Sikhs hardest hit …

Which will conquer the White House?

Days before the Democrats left the White House, the president’s National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan, issued a stark warning. “The next few years,” he said, “will determine whether artificial intelligence leads to catastrophe — and whether China or America prevails in the AI arms race.”

In this remark, Sullivan displayed far more lucidity regarding AI than did other members of the Democratic establishment. (Take Kamala Harris’ bewildering characterisation of bias and misinformation as “existential” threats.) Their successors in the White House, though, see AI as central to their plans for American dominance. Last week, the Trump administration slapped strict export controls on Nvidia’s H20 chip. And on Monday, the president’s science and technology policy chief, Michael Kratsios, told an audience of technologists that AI would be central to the new “Golden Age of America”. 

A few weeks ago, after the first preview of my play about artificial intelligence in San Francisco, I found myself talking to Edward (not his real name), an agreeable programmer with a ponytail who didn’t make much eye contact but was eager to discuss the performance and the tech world more broadly. “Have you heard of Iain Banks’s The Culture”? Edward asked. I hadn’t. The Culture, I would later learn, is a sci-fi series about a far-future, post-scarcity utopia run by godlike AIs, where death, suffering, and even traditional economics are obsolete.

I asked Grok to draw me an AI controlled dystopia.

Oddly the sphere triggered the memory of a recurring suffocating nightmare I used to have as a child.

I hadn’t thought of it in many years.

OpenAI co-founder and CEO Sam Altman once warned that artificial intelligence “may cause significant harm to the world.” His chatbot is already harming babies, mothers and pro-life volunteer organizations by directing them to the baby-killing organization Planned Parenthood for information on crisis pregnancy centers.

Uber is trialling taxis without drivers across America – but how safe are they really?

The driver of the car beside me realises, too late, that he is in the wrong lane. As the lights change he darts forward, directly into our path. With a whirl of the steering wheel, my Uber swerves, just in time to avoid collision. It’s lucky, as it turns out, that there wasn’t anyone in the driver’s seat – I’m not sure human reflexes would have been fast enough.

I’m in downtown Austin, Texas, where I’ve spent the day trialling the latest revolution from taxi company Uber: self-driving cars.

More than 1,000 musicians – including Annie Lennox, Damon Albarn and Kate Bush – released a silent album on Tuesday in protest at the UK government’s planned changes to copyright law, which they say would make it easier for AI companies to train models using copyrighted work without a licence.

Under the new proposals, AI developers will be able to use creators’ content on the internet to help develop their models, unless the rights holders elect to “opt out”.

The artists hope the album, entitled Is This What We Want?, will draw attention to the potential impact on livelihoods and the UK music industry.

Pop music is already less musical and more formulaic than in any previous era.

The age of autotune has not produced much that AI could not do better.

Bonus – No more political statements by the likes of Madonna!

Sam Altman, the chief executive of OpenAI – the maker of ChatGPT – has rebuffed a $97.4bn (£78.4bn) bid to take over the firm from a consortium of investors led by Elon Musk.

Musk’s attorney, Marc Toberoff, confirmed he submitted the bid for “all assets” of the tech company to its board on Monday.

The offer is the latest twist in a longstanding battle between Musk, the world’s richest man and right hand to US President Donald Trump, and Open AI chief executive Sam Altman over the future of the start-up at the centre of the AI boom.