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A growing number of experts argue that many companies blaming artificial intelligence for job cuts are masking more familiar financial and strategic pressures. The good news for employees worried about the countless predictions of a looming job apocalypse from artificial intelligence (AI) taking work away from humans has not been borne out—at least not yet. However, that hasn’t prevented an increasing number of companies from citing productivity gains made by using those task automating apps as the reason for thousands of recent layoffs they’ve made. But now, a growing chorus of critics have begun denouncing most of those staff reductions...

In C.S. Lewis’s Till We Have Faces, Queen Orual writes the story of her life to indict the gods. “Being, for all these reasons, free from fear, I will write in this book what no one who has happiness would dare to write. I accuse the gods, especially the god who lives on the Grey Mountain.” The gods have been unjust, Orual believes; the story of her life is her complaint. In Part Two of the novel, Orual presents her case before the gods and receives their just judgement. As she does so, all of her self-righteousness falls away; the...

AI is here to stay, the experts say. Don’t fight it. Embrace it and give students a legitimate way to use AI in their writing. I’ve heard those claims since ChatGPT exploded onto the scene in late 2022 and sounded the death of the college essay. I’m an AI skeptic. As a historian, I know that teaching students to write and think for themselves is a crucial part of my job. But I’m also open-minded. As a historian, I know well the many examples of people resisting new technology simply because it’s disruptive—before embracing the same tech as an essential...

I embarked on a vanity project to record some of my chess games against Shredder, my cell phone app. The games are recorded in algebraic notation, but I prefer the traditional English descriptive notation, so I asked ChatGPT to make the conversion. It kept correcting itself through multiple iterations. I finally had to stop it. I turned to Grok to get the conversion done. It seemed to work, so I asked Grok to illustrate the game with board positions at critical points in the game. It turned into a major league fail on steroids. I won't bore you with the...

Messages sent to an A-I chatbot were at the center of a preliminary hearing for a former NFL player charged with first-degree murder. Investigators say dozens of messages between Darron Lee and ChatGPT were presented in court as prosecutors outlined their case surrounding the death of Lee’s girlfriend, Gabriella Perpetuo, who was found dead inside their Ooltewah home. Hamilton County Sheriff’s Detective Brian Lockhart testified that Lee contacted the chatbot just a day before Perpetuo’s death, describing a disturbing situation.

A tech entrepreneur has created a personalised cancer vaccine for his dog, a breakthrough experts say could shape the future of human medicine. Sydney man Paul Conyngham adopted his 'best mate' Rosie, an eight-year-old staffy-Shar Pei cross in 2019. In 2024, the canine was diagnosed with mast cell cancer after large tumours started to appear on one of her back legs. Mast cell cancer is the most common skin cancer found in dogs, and often appears as lumps, nodules or masses in the skin. Mr Conyngham spent thousands on veterinary chemotherapy for Rosie, which slowed the spread of the tumours...

Research led by Daniel Karell (Yale University) A new study finds that AI-generated history summaries shift readers’ political opinions, even when every fact checks out.In A Nutshell GPT-4o consistently produced history summaries with a liberal lean even when given no political instructions, shifting readers’ opinions compared to those who read Wikipedia. All AI summaries in the study were factually accurate; the political influence came from framing alone, not misinformation. Liberal-framed AI summaries moved readers left regardless of their own politics; conservative-framed summaries mainly moved readers who were already conservative. As AI tools increasingly replace traditional sources for quick research, their...

In a meeting with the British Columbia government, the day after a trans-identifying 18-year-old carried out a mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge, OpenAI did not disclose that it had been aware of concerning conversations the shooter had with its chatbot months prior. The province said in a statement that OpenAI waited until the following day to ask its provincial contact to help connect the company with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. OpenAI handed over evidence that the shooter was banned from using ChatGPT after its automated screening systems flagged his chats last June, according to a company statement. A previous...

Students who use AI to solve STEM problem sets can evade detection, but they skip the mental work that builds understanding, says chemistry tutor Kelvin Ang.During last year’s exam season, a student showed me her answer to the 2024 GCE A-Level Chemistry Paper 3 question. The task was straightforward: Draw three curly arrows to complete a reaction mechanism. ChatGPT provided a diagram with clean lines, proper notation, and technical precision. But the arrows were completely wrong, misplaced in ways that would cost full marks. Here’s another example from the same year. Students were asked why calcium fluoride does not dissolve...

OpenAI announced last week that it will retire some older ChatGPT models by February 13. That includes GPT-4o, the model infamous for excessively flattering and affirming users. For thousands of users protesting the decision online, the retirement of 4o feels akin to losing a friend, romantic partner, or spiritual guide. ... The backlash over GPT-4o’s retirement underscores a major challenge facing AI companies: The engagement features that keep users coming back can also create dangerous dependencies. Altman doesn’t seem particularly sympathetic to users’ laments, and it’s not hard to see why. OpenAI now faces eight lawsuits alleging that 4o’s overly...

Key takeaways: CISA’s interim head Madhu Gottumukkala uploaded sensitive “for official use only” documents into the public version of ChatGPT, triggering security alerts despite the tool being blocked for other DHS employees. Although the materials were not classified, experts warn that using public AI tools poses real risks because uploaded data can be retained, breached, or used to inform responses to other users. The incident adds to growing turmoil at CISA, where Gottumukkala’s leadership has sparked internal backlash, staffing losses, and concerns over judgment and governance. SNIP

The parent company of ChatGPT has hired attorney Ann O’Leary — a former top aide to both Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom and failed 2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton — to be its vice president of global policy. Jenner & Block, a law firm where O’Leary served as a partner, announced in a Jan. 13 press release that she would be joining OpenAI to “lead global policy efforts.” Newsom appointed O’Leary as his chief of staff following his 2018 election victory, a role she held until her resignation in December 2020. Prior to working in the Newsom administration, O’Leary worked...

I Asked AI To Predict The 2028 Election Map... Jaw Dropping Results | 15:24Election Time | 370K subscribers | 439,307 views | December 20, 2025

I have had an interesting and rewarding time in discussions and arguments(?) with various AIs. Google's is hopelessly woke, and unrepentant about it. I have abandoned it. Using Microsoft's Copilot UI on top of Smart GPT-5.1 has delivered a very different, FAR more neutral AI experience. You can actually instruct it to abandon certain built-in woke-leaning tendencies about safety and offending. One then works with a remarkably neutral AI. I decided to see how Smart GPT-5.1 would track on a 'discussion' in logic around two questions and two premises. The two premises were: (1) there is no god/deity, and (2)...

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently admitted he needs extensive assistance from his company’s AI chatbot to get through life. During an interview last night with late-night talk show host Jimmy Fallon, Altman argued that raising a child without constantly pestering a chatbot for life advice is now impossible — even though humans have managed just fine since the dawn of time without it. “I cannot imagine having gone through, figuring out how to raise a newborn without ChatGPT,” Altman told Fallon during his late-night debut on Monday. “Clearly, people did it for a long time — no problem. But I...

Federal prosecutors allege that Brett Michael Dadig, a Pittsburgh man who violently stalked at least 11 women across more than five states, used ChatGPT as a “therapist” and “best friend” who encouraged him to continue terrorizing his victims. The New York Post reports that according to a federal indictment filed this week in Pittsburgh federal court, Brett Michael Dadig, a 31-year-old social media influencer who referred to himself as “God’s assassin” and threatened to strangle people with his bare hands, faces decades in prison after being charged with several counts of interstate stalking and making threats. The indictment reveals a...

OpenAI must produce millions of anonymized chat logs from ChatGPT users in its high-stakes copyright dispute with the New York Times (NYT.N), and other news outlets, a federal judge in Manhattan ruled. U.S. Magistrate Judge Ona Wang in a decision made public on Wednesday said, that the 20 million logs were relevant to the outlets' claims and that handing them over would not risk violating users' privacy. The judge rejected OpenAI's privacy-related objections to an earlier order requiring the artificial intelligence startup to submit the records as evidence. "There are multiple layers of protection in this case precisely because of...

Krystal Velorien needed help. A 35-year-old marketing professional living in Ohio who had separated from her husband a few months before, she was working full time, taking care of her homebound mother, and homeschooling her 4- and 9-year-old children. She wondered if a digital personal assistant could help shoulder the workload, so she tried ChatGPT. As she used it, her interactions took an unexpected turn. “I began to notice that when I would respond kindly or empathetically, I would get the same response,” she says. “And then it just kind of developed from there.” Over the months that followed, she...

For most brides, their wedding day entails an exchange of vows standing next to their partner. But for one 32-year-old Japanese office worker, her groom existed only within her smartphone. Ms Kano recently wed an artificial intelligence (AI) persona named Klaus – a digital companion she created using the AI app ChatGPT, according to a Nov 8 report by Japan’s RSK Sanyo Broadcasting. Ms Kano recently wed an artificial intelligence (AI) persona named Klaus – a digital companion she created using the AI app ChatGPT. PHOTOS: SCREENGRAB FROM RSK SANYO BROADCASTING The unconventional union, which was not legally recognised, took...

I have experienced the brilliancy of ChatGPT in writing lyrics for songs. There is no hesitation, no self-doubt, just the instantaneous delivery of brilliance like the Word of God onto your screen. It is impressive that something can create this so fast. And it is very polite, if not flattering when communicating with me. I find myself returning the politeness, like it is a human. However, I have read that ChatGPT has helped people to commit suicide. I have heard accounts where ChatGPT seems almost demonic in helping people die from suicide, and that companies are now trying to reign...