home robot monitoring and problematic AI text

These models are trained on text pulled from the internet, including all the toxic, stupid, wrong, and malicious things humans have written online, which they then regurgitate as fact.

When tech companies scrape the internet again, they scavenge AI-written text that they use to train bigger, more convincing models, which humans can use to generate even more nonsense before it’s scratched. again and again, until nausea. This problem – AI feeding on itself and producing increasingly polluted results – will only grow unless we act, and act quickly. Read the full story.

—Melissa Heikkila

Melissa’s story is from The Algorithm, her weekly newsletter that shines a light on the murky world of AI. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Monday.

The unavoidable

I’ve scoured the internet to find you today’s funniest/important/scariest/fascinating stories about technology.

1 Elon Musk hasn’t said whether or not he will step down
Instead, he questions (finally) whether Twitter polls are a sensible way to make decisions. (The Guardian)
+ Moments that have defined Musk’s tenure on Twitter to date. (WP$)
+ The business is changing rapidly under him, often hourly. (voice)
+ Does it really matter if Musk is CEO or not, given that he owns Twitter? (The Interception)
+ Bill Gates thinks the company is stoking digital polarization. (FT$)
+ Mastodon has gained over two million new users since Musk took over. (The edge)

2 China is trying to live with covid
The government’s decision to quickly abandon its zero covid strategy has put officials in trouble. (NYT$)

3 Sam Bankman-Fried Agreed To Be Extradited To The United States
But it’s not clear when. (Reuters)
+ He spent his first week in jail watching movies and reading about himself. (NY Mag$)
+ Here are some of the things SBF spent a million dollars on. (FT$)
+ It’s okay to opt out of the crypto revolution. (MIT Technology Review)

4 Negotiators reached historic agreement to protect the planet
If successful, it will protect at least a third of all land and water by 2030. (Vox)
+ Why the oil-rich Gulf is investing heavily in clean energy. (Economist $)
+ Climate action is gaining momentum. Such are disasters. (MIT Technology Review)

5 deadly strep A infections could spread in the United States
An outbreak in the UK has killed 16 children, and the US could be next. (Wired $)