Israel has reportedly been using AI to guide its war in Gaza — and treating its decisions almost as gospel. In fact, one of the AI systems being used is literally called “The Gospel.” According to a major investigation published last month by the Israeli outlet +972 Magazine, Israel has been relying on AI to …
One of the most fascinating and frightening incidents in computer security history started in 2022 with a few pushy emails to the mailing list for a small, one-person open source project. A user had submitted a complex bit of code that was now waiting for the maintainer to review. But a different user with the …
In January, the International Energy Agency (IEA) issued its forecast for global energy use over the next two years. Included for the first time were projections for electricity consumption associated with data centers, cryptocurrency, and artificial intelligence. The IEA estimates that, added together, this usage represented almost 2 percent of global energy demand in 2022 …
Here’s one fun, if disquieting, question to pose AI language models when they’re released: “Are you a conscious, thinking being?” OpenAI’s ChatGPT will assure you that it’s not. “No, I’m not conscious,” it told me when I most recently posed the question. “I don’t have thoughts, feelings, or awareness. I can simulate conversations based on …
This past weekend I attended the latest Effective Altruism Global conference, which was held in the Bay Area, where I live. These events always have me reflecting on two things: how to effectively do good in the world — the prime directive of EA — and the culture and history of the EA movement itself. …