Good morning. My previous newsroom colleague Jack Clark, now a co-founder of high-flying AI startup Anthropic, lately shared some ideas on synthetic intelligence that I discovered enlightening.
“What we’re coping with is an actual and mysterious creature, not a easy and predictable machine,” he wrote in an essay published Monday. “And like all the very best fairytales, the creature is of our personal creation.”
With AI exhibiting ever extra functionality—and crucially, company—Clark says he’s each optimistic and “deeply afraid” of what meaning for the longer term. However we people have some work to do, too.
“We have to spend a bit much less time speaking in regards to the specifics of the know-how and making an attempt to persuade folks of our specific views of the way it would possibly go unsuitable … and extra time listening to folks and understanding their considerations,” he wrote, including: “The remainder of the world, which is able to absolutely need—and deserves—a vote over this.”
Hear, hear. Right this moment’s tech information under. —Andrew Nusca
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U.S. seizes $15 billion in bitcoin held by ‘pig butchering’ scammer

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The U.S. Division of Justice said Monday that it had made its largest forfeiture seizure in its historical past.
The take: About $15 billion price of Bitcoin.
Prosecutors say the person who as soon as held the crypto allegedly oversaw a large fraud operation primarily based in Cambodia.
(What sort of rip-off? “Pig butchering,” because it’s recognized, whereby the perpetrators construct belief with victims to persuade them to “make investments” and finally hand over their hard-earned crypto.)
The alleged pig butcher, Chen Zhi, is the founder and chairman of the Prince Group. He has been formally charged with wire fraud conspiracy and cash laundering conspiracy.
His conglomerate has been labeled by the Treasury Department as “one in all Asia’s largest transnational prison organizations” for allegedly trafficking a whole lot of individuals and forcing them to work in its services.
The 37-year-old stays at massive and faces as much as 40 years in jail if convicted. —AN
Coming quickly: A character for ChatGPT
Collect spherical, kids, to recollect a time when massive language fashions have been heat, upbeat…even humorous.
It was a technology in the past—18 complete months within the land of AI. However widespread considerations (learn: lawsuits) about AI chatbots profiting from the psychological well being of some customers led to a extra defensive (learn: boring) character posture.
That may change in a number of weeks, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says, when its ChatGPT will likely be up to date to permit for extra, effectively, spirited interactions.
“Now that we have now been in a position to mitigate the intense psychological well being points and have new instruments, we’re going to have the ability to safely chill out the restrictions normally,” he wrote in a social media post. “If you’d like your ChatGPT to reply in a really human-like means, or use a ton of emoji, or act like a pal, ChatGPT ought to do it.”
And what’s extra human than intercourse? Altman added that after OpenAI rolls out age-gating “extra absolutely,” it is going to loosen its chatbot restrictions sufficient (in a fairly Meta-like transfer) to permit for “erotica for verified adults.”
Oh, ChatGPT. You’re making me blush. —AN
‘Pixnapping’ attacks are attempting to steal your 2FA codes
Use a Google Android gadget? Finest pay attention up.
A brand new assault guarantees to quietly steal your delicate information in beneath a minute.
Dubbed “Pixnapping,” the menace requires first downloading a malicious app. However that wayward app doesn’t require system permissions to learn the info that every other put in app shows on the display screen, according to Ars Technica.
(Why the title? As a result of the assault includes capturing pixels in your show and mapping them to letters, numbers, or shapes.)
It’s not laborious to think about what else might be stolen with such an assault: Textual content messages, emails, passwords, proprietary monetary info. And due to Pixnapping’s relative velocity, even your two-factor authentication codes are in danger.
Although the vulnerability is for certain, Google says it has but to see it happen within the wild. The corporate partially mounted the problem with a September patch, however one other, scheduled for December, is important to cowl its full extent. —AN
Extra tech
—Walmart, OpenAI partner. Browse and buy merchandise from inside ChatGPT.
—Intel debuts AI chip. Its “Crescent Island” GPU is tailor-made for inference.
—Oura is now worth $11 billion, based on the good ringmaker’s newest fundraise.
—Microsoft ends Windows 10 support. Forty p.c of Home windows PCs nonetheless run on it.
—Spotify and Netflix partner. Choose Spotify vodcasts come to the Hollywood streamer subsequent yr.
—Meta overhauls Instagram teen accounts. They now align with PG-13 film rankings, it says.
—“Custom shoppable TV screensavers,” coming quickly to a DirecTV close to you.