These models are trained on text gathered from the internet, including all the malicious, silly, untrue, malicious stuff people have written online, which they then spit out like truth.
As tech companies tap the internet again, they collect AI-written text to use to train larger, more convincing models, which humans can use to create incredible things. more meaning before it is collected multiple times, ad nausea. This problem—AI that feeds itself and produces increasingly polluting output—will only grow unless we act and act quickly. Read full story.
—Melissa Heikkila
Melissa’s story is from The Algorithm, her weekly newsletter that illuminates the murky world of AI. Registration to get it in your inbox every Monday.
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I’ve scoured the Internet to find you today’s most interesting/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1. Elon Musk has not said whether to resign or not
Instead, he’s (eventually) questioning whether Twitter polls are a wise way to make decisions. (guard)
+ The moments that have defined Musk’s Twitter tenure to date. (WP $)
+ The company is changing rapidly under him, often hourly. (Vox)
+ Does it really matter if Musk is CEO or not when he owns Twitter? (intercept)
+ Bill Gates thinks the company is stirring up digital polarization. (FT $)
+ Mastodon has gained more than two million new users since Musk took over. (precipice)
2 China is trying to live with covid
The government’s decision to quickly abandon its no-covid strategy has baffled officials. (NYT $)
3 Sam Bankman-Fried has agreed to be extradited to the US
But it’s not clear when. (Reuters)
+ He spent his first week in prison watching movies and reading articles about himself. (NY magazine $)
+ These are just some of the things that SBF has spent a million dollars on. (FT $)
+ You can opt out of the crypto revolution. (MIT Technology Review)
4 negotiators have reached a landmark agreement to protect the planet
If successful, it will protect at least a third of land and water by 2030. (Vox)
+ Why the oil-rich Gulf is investing heavily in clean energy (economist $)
+ Climate action is gaining momentum. So are disasters. (MIT Technology Review)
5 Deadly Streptococcus A infections may be spreading across the US
An outbreak in the UK has killed 16 children and the US could be next. (Wired $)
