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A controversial US surveillance program is up for renewal. Critics are speaking out.

What do the critics of Section 702 say? Of particular concern is that while the program intends to target people who aren’t Americans, a lot of data from US citizens gets swept... Read more »

This viral game in China reinvents hide-and-seek for the digital age

The “cat-and-mouse game,” as it’s usually referred to locally, has gone viral in China this year, drawing thousands of people across the country to events every week. It’s a fun combination of... Read more »

This company is building AI for African languages

The tool can be used on its own or integrated into existing AI tools like ChatGPT and online conversational chatbots. The hope is that Vulavula, which means “speak” in Xitsonga, will make... Read more »

The Download: what is death, and jailbreaking generative AI

I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology. 1 Elon Musk endorsed an antisemitic post on X Leaving its executives racing to suppress the damage. (NYT $)+ IBM... Read more »

The pain is real. The painkillers are virtual reality.

That’s why I was so excited to read about Smileyscope, a VR device for kids that recently received FDA clearance. It helps lessen the pain of a blood draw or IV insertion... Read more »

Text-to-image AI models can be tricked into generating disturbing images

Their work, which they will present at the IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy in May next year, shines a light on how easy it is to force generative AI models into... Read more »

The Biggest Questions: What is death?

To do so, though, we need to reconsider how we conceive of and approach life and death. Rather than thinking of death as an event from which one cannot recover, Parnia says,... Read more »

The Download: defining AGI, and making sense of the complicated universe

He also took to the stage yesterday speaking to developers at Microsoft Ignite, explaining all the ways in which devs can take advantage of its new AI-based tools to build exciting new... Read more »

2023 global cloud ecosystem

The cloud, fundamentally a tool for cost and resource efficiency, has long enabled companies and countries to organize around digital-first principles. It is an established capability that improves the bottom line for... Read more »

What’s coming next for fusion research

The aftermath After the first successful demonstration of net energy gain, “the first priority was to repeat it,” Budil said. “But the next five shots were duds. They really did not work.” ... Read more »