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Anthony Levandowski, founder of the AI-focused church Way of the Future, has dissolved the organization and donated its remaining $175,000 to the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund. The move reflects a shift toward immediate social impact, inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement. Levandowski remains committed to the ethical development of artificial general intelligence.
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In his first Sunday address, Pope Leo XIV, formerly Cardinal Robert Prevost of Chicago, explained his papal name choice by invoking Pope Leo XIII's response to the Industrial Revolution, drawing parallels to today's AI-driven changes. He warned that AI poses new challenges to human dignity, justice, and labor, echoing concerns about data center pollution and misinformation.
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The creator of The Velvet Sundown, a purported indie rock band that gained over 500,000 Spotify listeners, has admitted the project was an AI-generated hoax. In an interview with Rolling Stone, Andrew Frelon called it an 'art hoax' and defended the deception as marketing. The revelation has reignited debates over AI's role in music and streaming platform policies.
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A growing number of executives are training AI chatbots to answer employee questions and handle public appearances, but early deployments reveal frequent inaccuracies and ethical concerns. Despite the hype, these digital doubles often produce confident-sounding errors that require constant oversight, raising questions about accountability and the future of executive roles.
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A new AI-generated video of Will Smith eating spaghetti, created with Google DeepMind's Veo 3 model, includes realistic sound effects that some viewers find unsettling. The clip demonstrates significant progress in AI video generation, but also raises concerns about realism and potential misuse.
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At London's CogX Festival, actor Stephen Fry revealed that an AI system cloned his voice without consent for a documentary narration. He warned that such technology could be misused for harmful content, highlighting the urgent need for regulation in the entertainment industry.
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Bloomberg reports Apple is internally testing a chatbot dubbed 'Apple GPT' and a generative AI system called Ajax. The tech giant has no immediate plans for public release, but the move signals its entry into the competitive AI race. Security concerns currently limit the chatbot's use among employees.
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Nicki Minaj reacted with fury to a deepfake parody video on ITVX, threatening to abolish the internet. The incident highlights growing celebrity concerns over AI's use of their likeness and intellectual property, as seen in Sarah Silverman's lawsuit against OpenAI.
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Yoshua Bengio, a leading AI researcher, expresses regret over the rapid pace of AI development, calling for stronger safety measures and government oversight. His comments align with a recent industry warning about existential risks, though a fellow pioneer disagrees.
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Project CETI, an interdisciplinary research effort, is using AI and natural language processing to decode the clicking sounds, or codas, of sperm whales. The team plans to collect billions of codas to build a language model, potentially transforming our understanding of these marine mammals.
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Ars Technica has parted ways with senior AI reporter Benj Edwards after an internal review found he used an AI tool that fabricated quotes attributed to a real person. The incident led to a retraction, an editor's apology, and a broader debate about AI's role in newsrooms.
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A Microsoft patent application describes a chatbot that could imitate deceased individuals using their social media posts. The technology, while legally protected, is not slated for development, according to a company executive. The concept raises questions about digital legacy and privacy.
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During a recent Scottish soccer match, an AI-driven camera repeatedly mistook the referee's bald head for the ball, causing fans to miss key plays. The incident, captured on video, highlights the challenges of automated broadcast technology in live sports.
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Google has introduced Translatotron, an experimental speech-to-speech translation system that preserves the speaker's voice in the translated audio. Unlike traditional systems, it bypasses text transcription, potentially speeding up translation while maintaining vocal characteristics. The technology is still in development, with early samples sounding robotic.
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Otter, a free AI-powered app from AISense, transcribes live conversations in real time, offering a practical tool for journalists, students, and professionals. Developed by former Google and Nuance engineers, it uses voiceprint identification to separate speakers, though it struggles with punctuation and noisy environments. The app is currently free, with a subscription model planned for future premium features.
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At a closed-door roundtable ahead of the World Government Summit in Dubai, global leaders and AI experts agreed that the most immediate application of artificial intelligence is augmenting human capabilities. The discussion highlighted existing uses in law and medicine, and outlined steps governments should take to accelerate this path.
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Researchers have developed an AI tool that predicts which bat species are likely to carry Ebola and Marburg viruses, identifying high-risk regions beyond Africa. The model, which is 87% accurate, could guide surveillance efforts and help prevent future outbreaks.
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Intel has acquired Dublin-based computer vision startup Movidius to enhance its RealSense platform with power-efficient chips for machine vision. The deal aims to accelerate developments in consumer and enterprise products, including tracking, navigation, and scene recognition.
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George Mason economist Robin Hanson's book 'The Age of Em' argues the Singularity will stem from brain emulations, not AI, arriving within decades. Emulations, or 'ems', would be 1,000 times faster than human minds, reshaping work and society. Hanson's social science lens offers a detailed forecast of this transition.
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The northern lights could mean lights out for the infrastructure we rely on. In 1989, the Canadian province of Quebec experienced something that likely shocked many residents: the Sun knocked out its power grid. Caused by a geomagnetic storm, the resulting blackout left six million people without power for nine hours. Dubbed 'the day the Sun brought darkness,' this event illustrates both the potential impact of solar activity on modern technology and our relative unpreparedness for a major solar storm.
