The Obtain: AI’s refusal drawback and weight-loss drug uncomfortable side effects
That is immediately’s version of The Obtain, our weekday e-newsletter that gives a every day dose of what’s occurring on the planet of expertise.
We’re placing an excessive amount of religion in AI’s capacity to say no
Right this moment’s AI fashions are skilled to refuse an enormous variety of prompts. In case you ask your chatbot the right way to poison a colleague or the right way to tie a noose, likelihood is it’ll flip you down. However refusal fails, generally horrifically.
Some individuals are trying to make use of AI to hone organic pathogens and construct autonomous drone swarms. Ultimately, failed refusals might lead to international calamity. What’s extra, counting on refusal means drawing a line between what a mannequin ought to obey and what it should disobey.
Governments may even get to attract their very own strains, probably proscribing free speech. On the similar time, the capabilities that make AI helpful may additionally make it harmful. If we wish it to assist treatment most cancers, AI wants genetics experience that might additionally produce bioweapons.
Learn the complete story on the formidable tradeoffs of AI refusal.
—Arthur Holland Michel
This story is from the subsequent problem of our print journal. Subscribe now to get your arms on a replica as quickly because it lands on Wednesday 21 October!
We’re nonetheless determining the uncomfortable side effects of GLP-1 weight-loss medication
This week my colleague Antonio Regalado reported on new analysis suggesting GLP-1 medication might sluggish organic getting older. It’s the most recent in a raft of potential advantages related to these medication. However there are additionally some bizarre uncomfortable side effects.
The commonest are gastrointestinal, however researchers are additionally investigating doable hyperlinks to hair loss, nail problems and harm to the nerves behind the attention.
—Jessica Hamzelou
This story is from The Checkup, our weekly biotech e-newsletter. Enroll to obtain it in your inbox each Thursday.
10 Local weather Tech Corporations to Watch: Envision Power and its international ambitions for wind energy
Envision Power is one in all MIT Expertise Evaluate’s10 Local weather Tech Corporations to Watch 2026, obtainable solely to subscribers.
China is putting in wind generators sooner than another nation. Certainly one of its main producers, Envision Power, is integrating renewable vitality into knowledge facilities, utilizing wind generators to generate energy and batteries to retailer it on-site.
Not too long ago, it turned the primary firm to immediately energy an information middle completely with renewable vitality. An AI-powered system optimizes the facility output so the power can obtain a gradual provide, no matter whether or not the wind is blowing. Now, it needs to carry that strategy to knowledge facilities in deserts around the globe.
Learn the way Envision plans to energy the worldwide AI growth with renewable vitality.
—Cici Zhang
The must-reads
I’ve combed the web to search out you immediately’s most enjoyable/essential/scary/fascinating tales about expertise.
1 The US has frozen inexperienced playing cards for Microsoft and different IT companies
It’s accused them of utilizing visa fraud to interchange American staff. (CNBC)
+ And suspended them from a key green-card program. (AP)
+ Adobe, Infosys, Tata, and different IT companies are additionally affected. (TechCrunch)
+ Microsoft says 80% of its H-1B filings concerned present workers. (BBC)
2 A drone strike in Russia knocked out a second Yandex knowledge middle
Ukraine struck and partly disabled the power in Kaluga. (Reuters $)
+ One other Yandex knowledge middle was hit by a drone a day earlier. (CNBC)
+ Information facilities have turn into massive targets for army strikes. (Bloomberg $)
+ They might be safer in house. (MIT Expertise Evaluate)
3 Anthropic has banned “abusive or merciless conduct” towards Claude
Claude may also finish conversations with repeated abuse. (Verge)
+ The coverage builds on Anthropic’s analysis into AI welfare. (Guardian)
+ Debates over AI consciousness are a lure. (MIT Expertise Evaluate)
4 OpenAI has slashed its income forecast by $20 billion
The transfer has sparked considerations about AI investments. (Guardian)
+ What’s at stake in AI’s trillion-dollar gamble? (MIT Expertise Evaluate)
5 Gene enhancing has revealed how a mouse embryo develops
The strategies may assist us perceive developmental problems. (Nature)
+ Feminine clones of male mice have arrived. (MIT Expertise Evaluate)
6 SpaceX has unveiled a plan to turn into a serious cellular provider
It’s shopping for $8 billion in wi-fi spectrum from an funding agency. (WSJ $)
+ The deal may assist it problem AT&T and Verizon. (Verge)
7 ICE has explored utilizing a Palantir instrument to analyze voter fraud
It wished to trace individuals suspected of voting illegally. (Wired $)
8 Peter Thiel is utilizing biblical prophecy to argue towards AI regulation
His new “Antichrist” lecture casts AI security as a menace to freedom. (Politico)
9 MIT’s Margaret Hamilton, whose software program helped land Apollo 11, has died
She led the workforce that programmed Apollo’s onboard computer systems. (BBC)
+ And have become a software program pioneer in a male-dominated area. (NYT $)
10 This yr’s Nobel science prizes are real-life sci-fi
They span the cosmos, the human mind, and the origins of life. (Economist $)
Quote of the day
“The White Home considers anybody that makes use of the time period, ‘Synthetic Intelligence,’ versus the extremely accepted new and extra correct time period, ‘Tremendous Intelligence,’ THE ENEMY!”
—President Donald Trump provides an ominous menace to his AI rebranding technique in a submit on Fact Social, Axios stories.
Yet one more factor
This futuristic house habitat is designed to self-assemble in orbit
Increasingly more individuals are touring past Earth, however the Worldwide House Station can solely maintain 11 of them at a time.
Aurelia Institute, an structure R&D lab primarily based in Cambridge, MA, is constructing an answer: a habitat that launches in compact stacks of flat tiles—and self-assembles in orbit.
The idea might sound far-fetched, but it surely’s already gained help from NASA. Learn the complete story.
—Sarah Ward
We are able to nonetheless have good issues
A spot for consolation, enjoyable, and distraction to brighten up your day. (Obtained any concepts? Drop me a line.)
+ What’s it wish to fly an F-16 at 1,000 mph and pull 9G? This movie finds out.
+ Meet Jimothy, the raccoon with an extra-short neck who has captured hearts internationally.
+ An indie recreation developer created a mesmerizing 3D cyberpunk metropolis completely from ASCII characters.
+ What number of luggage of potato chips would it not take to make you float? A Taiwanese video maker has discovered.
