Can AI sandbag safety checks to sabotage users? Yes, but not very well — for now
AI companies claim to have robust safety checks in place that ensure that models don’t say or do weird, illegal, or unsafe stuff. But what if the models were capable of evading those checks and, for some reason, trying to sabotage or mislead users? Turns out they can do this,
Read moreGusto’s head of technology says hiring an army of specialists is the wrong approach to AI
As founders plan for an increasingly AI-centric future, Gusto co-founder and head of technology Edward Kim said that cutting existing teams and hiring a bunch of specially trained AI engineers is “the wrong way to go.” Instead, he argued that non-technical team members can “actually have a much deeper understanding
Read moreInvestments in generative AI startups topped $3.9B in Q3 2024
Not everyone is convinced of generative AI’s return on investment. But many investors are, judging by the latest figures from funding tracker PitchBook. In Q3 2024, VCs invested $3.9 billion in generative AI startups across 206 deals, per PitchBook. (That’s not counting OpenAI‘s $6.6 billion round.) And $2.9 billion of
Read moreJoseph Jacks bets on open source startups, a ‘paradox of philanthropy and capitalism’
Open source might be many things, but one thing it’s not is a business model — by most estimations, at least. However, that hasn’t stopped Joseph Jacks and OSS Capital from seeking some of the earliest-stage, open source startups and funding them through their formative years. These include the likes
Read moreThe Internet Archive hackers still have access to its internal emailing tools
Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Early this morning, I received an email from “The Internet Archive Team,” replying to a message I’d sent on October 9th. Except its author doesn’t seem to have been the digital archivists’ support team — it was apparently written by the hackers
Read moreThrone’s toilet camera takes pictures of your poop
Throne is an Austin-based health startup. It sells a camera. That clips onto the side of a toilet bowl. It takes pictures of your poop. Currently in beta, the system utilizes artificial intelligence to examine your dookie as a way of determining things like gut health and hydration. Turns out
Read moreChannel capacity of a telegraph
Claude Shannon’s famous paper A Mathematical Theory of Communication [1] includes an example saying that the channel capacity of a telegraph is log2 W where W is the largest real root of the determinant equation Where in the world did that come from? I’ll sketch where the equation above came
Read moreFormer OpenAI CTO Mira Murati is reportedly fundraising for a new AI startup
Mira Murati, the OpenAI CTO who announced her departure last month, is raising VC funding for a new AI startup, according to Reuters. This startup will reportedly focus on building AI products based on proprietary models and could raise more than $100 million in this round. At the time of
Read moreDJI sues Department of Defense over listing as a Chinese military company
Drone-maker DJI filed a lawsuit Friday against the US Department of Defense over its inclusion on a DoD list of “Chinese military companies.” A DJI spokesperson said the company filed the suit after “attempting to engage with the DoD for more than sixteen months” and deciding “it had no alternative
Read moreWhat we know about the layoffs at Meta
Welcome back to Week in Review. This week, we’re diving into the recent layoffs at Meta; the fallout from the battle between WordPress and WP Engine; and whether Cybertrucks are simply too big to exist in Europe. Let’s get into it. Multiple teams at Meta were hit by layoffs this
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