chatainews

"Over the past six months, the utopian phrase has become central to the billionaire’s businesses, belief system and lexicon, according to Mr. Musk’s social media posts and what he has said on podcasts and at company events. "Now his electric carmaker, Tesla, is developing humanoid robots; his rocket company, SpaceX, is promoting orbital data centers; and his artificial intelligence start-up, xAI, is creating A.I. that Mr. Musk has said will solve most, if not all, of humanity’s problems. "'Sustainable abundance via A.I. and robotics,' Mr. Musk said at Tesla’s shareholder meeting in November, where he was backed by a large sign with the phrase:  That’s the future we’re headed for ."

"The Department of War has stated they will only contract with AI companies who accede to any lawful use  and remove safeguards in the cases mentioned above [surveillance and autonomy]. "They have threatened to remove us from their systems if we maintain these safeguards; they have also threatened to designate us a supply chain risk  —a label reserved for US adversaries, never before applied to an American company —and to invoke the Defense Production Act to force the safeguards’ removal.  "These latter two threats are inherently contradictory: one labels us a security risk; the other labels Claude as essential to national security. "Regardless, these threats do not change our position: we cannot in good conscience accede to their request."

"Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey says his technology firm Block is laying off almost half its workforce because artificial intelligence (AI) fundamentally changes what it means to build and run a company . "'Within the next year, I believe the majority of companies will reach the same conclusion and make similar structural changes,' he wrote in a letter to shareholders. "The layoffs will mean headcount at the company  —which owns Square, CashApp and Tidal -—will fall to less than 6,000 from 10,000. "Block has seen several rounds of layoffs since 2024 but this is the first time it has cited AI as the reason for redundancies and marks the latest in a series of major job cuts in the tech industry."

✨AI Mode "Yes, an LLM can invent a fictional deity and write accompanying scripture. While it cannot 'believe' or possess a soul, it is highly capable of synthesizing vast amounts of existing religious, mythological, and philosophical data to create new, cohesive belief systems. " How an LLM Accomplishes This Synthesis of Concepts: LLMs can combine diverse theological ideas—such as a creator god, a moral code, and an afterlife—into a single narrative. Stylistic Mimicry: They can replicate the specific linguistic markers of scripture, such as archaic phrasing (e.g., 'thee' and 'thou'), parables, and authoritative commands. Consistency: LLMs can maintain a consistent internal logic for the deity's attributes and the laws they purportedly pass down to followers. " Current Real-World Applications Fictional World-Building: Authors use LLMs to develop complex pantheons and holy texts for fantasy novels or games. 'Edutainment': Some projects ...

People People are  but not talking behind  but not your back—  but not People are  but not talking behind  but not your back—  but not People are  but not talking behind  but not your back—  but not People are  but not talking behind  but not your back—  but not  but not  but not about you—

"Where every previous wave of automation freed up human labor and capital to flow into new, higher-value activities, this time the loop... stops .  'The Citrini scenario expects you to believe that AI will be the first major technological revolution in which this reallocation mechanism fails entirely. "The surplus accrues to the owners of compute, consumers lose purchasing power, and the negative feedback loop has no natural brake.  "It's worth sitting with how strong a claim that is.  "It requires every previous pattern of technological adaptation to be wrong, or at least irrelevant.  "And when you look at the actual data, there are signs that white-collar job postings have stabilized, layoff mentions on earnings calls remain well below early 2023 peaks, and forward-looking labor indicators show no sign of the displacement spiral that the doom thesis predicts."

"Goldman Sachs Chief Economist Jan Hatzius said in an interview with the Atlantic Council that AI investment spending has had basically zero  contribution to the U.S. GDP growth in 2025. "'We don’t actually view AI investment as strongly growth positive,' said Hatzius. 'I think there’s a lot of misreporting, actually, of the impact AI investment had on U.S. GDP growth in 2025, and it’s much smaller than is often perceived.' "Hatzius said one major reason is that much of the equipment powering AI is imported.  "While U.S. companies are spending billions, importing chips and hardware offsets those investments in GDP calculations. "'A lot of the AI investment that we’re seeing in the U.S. adds to Taiwanese GDP, and it adds to Korean GDP but not really that much to U.S. GDP,' he said."

"Apple today announced a significant expansion of factory operations in Houston, bringing the future production of Mac mini to the U.S. for the first time. "The company will also expand advanced AI server manufacturing at the factory and provide hands-on training at its new Advanced Manufacturing Center beginning later this year.  "Altogether, Apple’s Houston operations will create thousands of jobs. "'Apple is deeply committed to the future of American manufacturing, and we’re proud to significantly expand our footprint in Houston with the production of Mac mini starting later this year,' said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. ' We began shipping advanced AI servers from Houston ahead of schedule, and we’re excited to accelerate that work even further'."

"Coronae, which are weak electrical discharges, have long been hypothesized to form on trees under thunderstorms, though never directly observed, characterized, or quantified. "Using a newly developed instrument that measures ultraviolet emissions from coronae, the first direct observations and quantifications of coronae are presented for two trees under a thunderstorm in North Carolina.  "Coronae moved sporadically among leaves on every tree branch in a narrow field of view while the thunderstorm was directly overhead.  "Coronae emitted ∼10 11  photons at 260 nm, corresponding to electrical currents of ∼1 μA, derived from unique measurements relating corona intensity to tree electrical current.  "Similar results across four additional storm intercepts from Florida to Pennsylvania give rise to a vision of swaths of scintillating corona glow as thunderstorms pass over forests.  "Such widespread coronae have implications for the removal of hydrocarbons emitt...

"Some criticism focused on the Gala’s centerpiece: a showcase of PRC-produced humanoid robots performing kung fu and Peking opera. "The Super Bowl-like  demo prompted triumphalism from CCTV itself, and some consternation in the West at the possibility of a new DeepSeek  moment .  "At the For the Select Few WeChat public account, Deng Xinhua argued that humanoid robots are inefficient for most practical tasks, apart from sex and companionship. "Another critique came from legal blogger Li Yuchen, who dismissed the Gala’s flashy robot acrobatics as little more than a series of very expensive ads. 'Every New Year’s Eve, the Spring Festival shows you how awesome we are,' he wrote. 'What they don’t show  you is what any of this progress has to do with you.'   "Li compared the situations of China’s robots and its humans, concluding that robots are honored as flagbearers for China’s economic output while living huminerals  are treated like expendable re...

"Anthropic on Monday said it identified industrial-scale campaigns  mounted by three artificial intelligence (AI) companies, DeepSeek, Moonshot AI, and MiniMax, to illegally extract Claude's capabilities to improve their own models. "The distillation attacks generated over 16 million exchanges with its large language model (LLM) through about 24,000 fraudulent accounts in violation of its terms of service and regional access restrictions. "All three companies are based in China, where the use of its services is prohibited use of its services is prohibited due to legal, regulatory, and security risks . "Distillation refers to a technique where a less capable model is trained on the outputs generated by a stronger AI system.  "While distillation is a legitimate way for companies to produce smaller, cheaper versions of their own frontier models, it's illegal for competitors to leverage it to acquire such capabilities from other AI companies at a fraction ...

"The competitive dynamic is bad enough at the product level. At the fundraising level, it's catastrophic. "AI companies are raising at valuations that require them to grow at rates that are only achievable by chasing the broadest possible market with the most generic possible product. A company that raises at a $500M valuation needs to show a path to billions in revenue, which means it can't afford to be a niche tool that does one thing brilliantly for a specific audience. It has to be a platform, horizontal, aimed at enterprise, built for no one in particular. "Every AI company is building the same enterprise platform with the same features targeting the same buyers, because the fundraising math requires it, because the valuation requires it, because the competitive environment requires raising at that valuation to attract talent, because the talent market requires it. "Nobody in this chain chose this outcome. Every individual decision was rational. The agg...

"The ability to autogenerate human-like textual and visual artifacts —so-called generative artificial intelligence (AI) —opens a wide variety of questions about meaning-making and the human condition: onto-epistemic, aesthetic, and politico-economic —even as AI  remains a poor term for the machine technologies under discussion in the present day. "As many researchers have documented, LLM-based models cannot distinguish between truthful and non-truthful text (e.g., Alvarado 2024; Stone, Goodlad, and Sammons, 2024; Hicks, Humphries, and Slater, 2024; Fredrikzon 2025).  "This special issue cluster calls on contributors to reflect specifically on the conditions for (and of) meaning-making, inside and outside the mediation of gen AI technologies, as a social activity at the intersection of embodiment and virtuality.  "A guiding research question for the special cluster asks what does it mean to interact with automated chatbots as distinct from interactions with character...

"Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is calling in Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei to the Pentagon on Tuesday morning to discuss the military use of Claude, according to reporting from Axios. "The meeting comes as the Pentagon threatens to declare Anthropic a supply chain risk  —a label typically reserved for foreign adversaries —after the AI firm refused to allow the Department of Defense to use its tech for the mass surveillance of Americans and the development of weapons that fire without human involvement.  "Anthropic signed a $200 million contract with DOD last summer, and Claude was reportedly used during the January 3 special operations raid that resulted in the capture of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro, an episode that brought the two sides’ tensions into the open."

Edward Zitron:  "Anthropic has no more soul or ethics than OpenAI —it’s just done a far better job of conning people into believing otherwise. "Despite its positioning as the trustworthy, nice  AI lab, Anthropic is as big, ugly and wasteful as OpenAI, and Dario Amodei is an even bigger bullshit artist than Sam Altman.  "It burns just as much of its revenue on inference (59%, or $2.79 billion on $4.5 billion of revenue, versus OpenAI’s 62%, or $2.5 billion  on $4.3 billion of revenue in the first half of 2025, if you use The Information ’s numbers), and shows no sign of any efficiency or cost-cutting . "Worse still, Anthropic continually abuses its users through varying rate limits to juice revenues and user numbers —along with Amodei’s gas-leak-esque proclamations —to mislead the media, the general public, and investors about the financial condition of the company.  "Based on an analysis of many users’ actual token burn on Claude Code, I believe Anthropic is b...

⭐AI Overview  In models of decision-making, judgment typically comes before intention . An individual first deliberates and makes a judgment (deciding what is best/true). This judgment then leads to an intention (the decision to act). Intention is often considered the immediate precursor to action.  Judgment ("Deciding that") : The intellectual process of evaluating options, assessing pros and cons, and deciding what is the best course of action. Intention ("Deciding to") : The commitment to carry out the action that was judged to be best.  Contextual Distinctions : Action/Behavior : In social contexts, people often judge themselves by their intentions and others by their behavior (outcomes). Ethical/Moral : In many frameworks, both intent (heart) and action (behavior) are judged, often focusing on the motivation behind the action.  ⭐AI Overview —no disclosure provided  [What are these models of decision-making  that ai_overview refers to?] [Does this seem ...

"This article discusses the composition and transmission of early Buddhist texts with specific reference to sutras. "After briefly summarizing the main reasons why it is likely that these oral compositions were designed to be memorized and transmitted verbatim,  "I will  Discuss the main types of changes that these texts underwent in the course of their transmission and the reasons such changes occurred, then  Attempt to give an account of the challenge that change, particularly intentional change, posed to the oral transmission of fixed, memorized texts. "'Group recitation requires that the wording of the text and the arrangement of the textual units within a collection be fixed; otherwise you would have complete chaos '."  

"Before Johannes Gutenberg’s printing press revolutionized knowledge in 1440, ancient scholars developed extraordinary systems for learning, preserving, and transmitting information that would astonish modern researchers. "These methods weren’t primitive substitutes for books. They were sophisticated intellectual technologies that achieved something our digital age struggles with: perfect retention of vast quantities of information across centuries without a single written copy. "The ancient world produced some of humanity’s greatest thinkers, from Socrates and Aristotle to Confucius and the Vedic sages, all operating in cultures where books as we know them either didn’t exist or were extremely rare.  "Understanding how ancient scholars studied reveals not just historical curiosity, but profound insights into human memory, learning, and the transmission of knowledge that challenge our assumptions about education itself."

"The situation is frustrating. We’re being asked to optimize our content for agent consumption, but the platforms won’t tell us what the constraints are. "Here’s what we can piece together from the available information: Truncation is real and varies by platform. Claude Code truncates between 100-150k of text. Other platforms presumably have limits too, but won’t say what they are. If your page is large, some of it is getting cut. Source order matters. Whatever content appears first in your page source is what the agent is most likely to see. Tabs, accordions, and other UI patterns that flatten into long sequential content in the source mean that later sections may be invisible to agents. Serving markdown helps, but only if the agent requests it. Most agents don’t. And even if they do, you need your server configured to respond appropriately to content negotiation. Character count is the metric that matters, not line count. As I showed earlier, a 97-line HTML file can be 4.5x...