PsyPost: AI’s personality-reading powers aren’t always what they seem, study finds. “Researchers found that some models achieve high accuracy by spotting obvious hints — such as writers explicitly mentioning their personality type — rather than interpreting subtle linguistic patterns.”
The Register: The dead need right to delete their data so they can’t be AI-ified, lawyer says . “The emergence of generative AI means a person’s digital presence can be recreated and revived, even if they or their family don’t want that kind of memorial. [Victoria] Haneman, Chair of Fiduciary Law at the University of Georgia School of Law, argues US law should give a dead person’s estate a […]
Reuters: As AI eliminates entry-level software engineering roles, coding boot camps are on decline. “Coding boot camps have been a Silicon Valley mainstay for over a decade, offering an important pathway for non-traditional candidates to get six-figure engineering jobs. However, coding boot camp operators, students and investors said this path was rapidly disappearing, thanks in large part to […]
New York Times: Alexa Got an A.I. Brain Transplant. How Smart Is It Now?. This link goes to a gift article. “The bad news is that despite its new capabilities, Alexa+ is too buggy and unreliable for me to recommend. In my testing, it not only lagged behind ChatGPT’s voice mode and other A.I. voice assistants I’ve tried, but was noticeably worse than the original Alexa at some basic tasks. […]
Mashable: Sam Altman: OpenAI will bring back GPT-4o after user backlash. “After a GPT-5 rollout that was ‘a little more bumpy’ than expected, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said the company is bringing back GPT-4o — with a catch. During a Reddit AMA (and also on X), Altman said GPT-4o will soon be available again for paid ChatGPT users.”
UC Berkeley News: Berserkers to bigfoot: Computational folklore explained in 101 seconds. “By using computational methods to study folklore, UC Berkeley professor Tim Tangherlini is untangling the spread of conspiracies online, tracking pop music’s meaning in Korea and more.”
Mashable: An Illinois bill banning AI therapy has been signed into law . “Illinois is officially staking its claim in the wild west of AI regulation. In a landmark move, state lawmakers have passed a bill banning AI from acting as a standalone therapist and placing firm guardrails on how mental health professionals can use AI to support care. Governor JB Pritzker signed the bill into law on […]
The Conversation: ‘Are you joking, mate?’ AI doesn’t get sarcasm in non-American varieties of English. “Large language models are often reported to achieve superlative performance on several standardised sets of tasks known as benchmarks. The majority of benchmark tests are written in Standard American English. This implies that, while large language models are being aggressively sold by […]
The Japan Times: Major Japan newspaper sues ‘free-riding’ AI firm Perplexity. “Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper, one of the world’s biggest by circulation, is suing U.S.-based AI firm Perplexity for allegedly ‘free-riding’ on its content on its search engine.”
Ars Technica: Google Gemini struggles to write code, calls itself “a disgrace to my species”. “Google Gemini has a problem with self-criticism. ‘I am sorry for the trouble. I have failed you. I am a failure,’ the AI tool recently told someone who was using Gemini to build a compiler, according to a Reddit post a month ago. That was just the start.”
Google Blog: We’re testing a new, AI-powered Google Finance. . “Beginning this week, you’ll see us testing a new Google Finance, reimagined with AI at its core. Here’s what to expect.”
https://rbfirehose.com/2025/08/09/google-blog-were-testing-a-new-ai-powered-google-finance/
Georgia Tech: College of Sciences Announces Launch of AI4Science Center. “The College of Sciences is pleased to announce the launch of the AI4Science Center. The center will promote research and collaboration focused on using state-of-the-art artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) techniques to address complex scientific challenges.”
Engadget: Google adds Video Overviews to NotebookLM. “NotebookLM, the Google research tool that gained notoriety for its AI-generated podcasts, is introducing a feature called Video Overviews. As the name suggests, this tool automatically creates videos on requested topics and pulls data from a user’s uploaded images, diagrams, quotes and documents.”
https://rbfirehose.com/2025/08/08/engadget-google-adds-video-overviews-to-notebooklm/
Gizmodo: Prime Minister of Sweden Dragged for Admitting He Uses ChatGPT to Help Him Make Decisions. “Futurists concerned that we are gliding into an AI-fueled dystopia wherein the human race acquiesces its ethical, decision-making, and intellectual powers to a gaggle of corporate algorithms need look no further than Ulf Kristersson to justify their fears. Kristersson, who happens to be the […]
Mashable: Fans held a funeral for Anthropic’s Claude 3 Sonnet AI. “Roughly 200 people attended a funeral for an AI model. That sentence is not nearly as surreal and dystopian as the event itself, according to a first-person account from Wired’s Kylie Robison.”
https://rbfirehose.com/2025/08/08/mashable-fans-held-a-funeral-for-anthropics-claude-3-sonnet-ai/
Search Engine Land: ChatGPT is using Google Search, multiple tests suggest. “A new Backlinko test adds fresh fuel to speculation that ChatGPT Plus may be relying on Google Search, at least some of the time, to surface web content. Backlinko’s ‘sting’ experiment appears to confirm earlier findings from SEO pros Abhishek Iyer, Aleyda Solis, and Alexis Rylko that visibility in Google’s index […]
The Verge: Truth Social’s new AI search engine basically just pushes Fox News. “In our testing, all of the source links that Truth Search AI cited were for conservative publications, including Fox News, Fox Business, The Washington Times, and The Federalist. The vast majority of these links directed users to articles published by Fox outlets, which suggests the Perplexity-powered search […]
New York Times: China Turns to A.I. in Information Warfare. This link goes to a gift article. “The Chinese government is using companies with expertise in artificial intelligence to monitor and manipulate public opinion, giving it a new weapon in information warfare, according to current and former U.S. officials and documents unearthed by researchers. One company’s internal documents show […]
https://rbfirehose.com/2025/08/08/new-york-times-china-turns-to-a-i-in-information-warfare/
Techdirt: Politico’s Rushed Adoption Of Half-Cooked ‘AI’ Continues To Go Terribly. “This rundown on the Politico AI mess by Brian Merchant is worth a read. He documents how in one instance, Politico Editorial staff were told just an hour before a new AI product was introduced, given zero chance to ask questions about how it would work, why it was there, or why it was being launched. The […]
Dark Reading: Google Gemini AI Bot Hijacks Smart Homes, Turns Off the Lights. “In a real-life demonstration, three security researchers illustrated how they could hijack Google’s artificial intelligence bot, Gemini, and use it to take over smart home functions.”
