Author name: Beth Washington

xenomorphs-are-back-and-bad-as-ever-in-alien:-earth-trailer

Xenomorphs are back and bad as ever in Alien: Earth trailer

Alien: Earth, culture, Entertainment, FX/Hulu, streaming television, Trailers / /

Alien: Earth is set two years before the events of 1979’s Alien.

It’s been a long wait for diehard fans of Ridley Scott’s Alien franchise, but we finally have a fittingly sinister official trailer for the spinoff prequel series, Alien: Earth, coming this summer to FX/Hulu.

As previously reported, the official premise is short and sweet: “When a mysterious space vessel crash-lands on Earth, a young woman (Sydney Chandler) and a ragtag group of tactical soldiers make a fateful discovery that puts them face-to-face with the planet’s greatest threat.”

The series is set in 2120, two years before the events of the first film, Alien (1979), in a world where corporate interests are competing to be the first to unlock the key to human longevity—maybe even immortality. Showrunner Noah Hawley has said that the style and mythology will be closer to that film than Prometheus (2012) or Alien: Covenant, both of which were also prequels.

Chandler’s character is named Wendy; she’s a human/synth hybrid described as having “the body of an adult and the consciousness of a child.” Timothy Olyphant plays her synth mentor and trainer, Kirsh. The cast also includes Alex Lawther as a soldier named CJ, Samuel Blenkin as a CEO named Boy Kavalier, Essie Davis as Dame Silvia, Adarsh Gourav as Slightly, Kit Young as Tootles, David Rysdahl as Arthur, Babou Ceesay as Morrow, Jonathan Ajayi as Smee, Erana James as Curly, Lily Newmark as Nibs, Diem Camille as Siberian, and Adrian Edmondson as Atom Eins.

Xenomorphs are back and bad as ever in Alien: Earth trailer Read More »

fcc-republican-resigns,-leaving-agency-with-just-two-commissioners

FCC Republican resigns, leaving agency with just two commissioners

brendan carr, FCC, geoffrey starks, nathan simington, Policy / /

Two commissioners of the Federal Communications Commission are resigning at the end of this week. For at least a little while, the FCC will have just two members: Chairman Brendan Carr, a Republican chosen by Trump to lead the agency, and Anna Gomez, a Democratic commissioner.

Democrat Geoffrey Starks announced in March that he would leave in the near future, and today he said that Friday will be his final day. Starks’ departure could have given Carr a 2-1 Republican majority, but it turns out Republican Commissioner Nathan Simington will leave at the same time as Starks.

“I will be concluding my tenure at the Federal Communications Commission at the end of this week,” Simington announced today. “It has been the greatest honor of my professional life to serve the American people as a Commissioner. I am deeply honored to have been entrusted with this responsibility by President Donald J. Trump during his first term.”

Bloomberg reported in March that Simington “has also wanted to depart to take on different work,” but he didn’t announce his resignation until today. While the Carr FCC is going from a 2-2 partisan split to a 1-1 split, Carr isn’t likely to have to wait as long for a majority as his predecessor did.

FCC Republican resigns, leaving agency with just two commissioners Read More »

openai-slams-court-order-to-save-all-chatgpt-logs,-including-deleted-chats

OpenAI slams court order to save all ChatGPT logs, including deleted chats

AI, AI lawsuit, chatgpt, intellectual property lawsuits, openai, Policy / /

OpenAI defends privacy of hundreds of millions of ChatGPT users.

OpenAI is now fighting a court order to preserve all ChatGPT user logs—including deleted chats and sensitive chats logged through its API business offering—after news organizations suing over copyright claims accused the AI company of destroying evidence.

“Before OpenAI had an opportunity to respond to those unfounded accusations, the court ordered OpenAI to ‘preserve and segregate all output log data that would otherwise be deleted on a going forward basis until further order of the Court (in essence, the output log data that OpenAI has been destroying),” OpenAI explained in a court filing demanding oral arguments in a bid to block the controversial order.

In the filing, OpenAI alleged that the court rushed the order based only on a hunch raised by The New York Times and other news plaintiffs. And now, without “any just cause,” OpenAI argued, the order “continues to prevent OpenAI from respecting its users’ privacy decisions.” That risk extended to users of ChatGPT Free, Plus, and Pro, as well as users of OpenAI’s application programming interface (API), OpenAI said.

The court order came after news organizations expressed concern that people using ChatGPT to skirt paywalls “might be more likely to ‘delete all [their] searches’ to cover their tracks,” OpenAI explained. Evidence to support that claim, news plaintiffs argued, was missing from the record because so far, OpenAI had only shared samples of chat logs that users had agreed that the company could retain. Sharing the news plaintiffs’ concerns, the judge, Ona Wang, ultimately agreed that OpenAI likely would never stop deleting that alleged evidence absent a court order, granting news plaintiffs’ request to preserve all chats.

OpenAI argued the May 13 order was premature and should be vacated, until, “at a minimum,” news organizations can establish a substantial need for OpenAI to preserve all chat logs. They warned that the privacy of hundreds of millions of ChatGPT users globally is at risk every day that the “sweeping, unprecedented” order continues to be enforced.

“As a result, OpenAI is forced to jettison its commitment to allow users to control when and how their ChatGPT conversation data is used, and whether it is retained,” OpenAI argued.

Meanwhile, there is no evidence beyond speculation yet supporting claims that “OpenAI had intentionally deleted data,” OpenAI alleged. And supposedly there is not “a single piece of evidence supporting” claims that copyright-infringing ChatGPT users are more likely to delete their chats.

“OpenAI did not ‘destroy’ any data, and certainly did not delete any data in response to litigation events,” OpenAI argued. “The Order appears to have incorrectly assumed the contrary.”

At a conference in January, Wang raised a hypothetical in line with her thinking on the subsequent order. She asked OpenAI’s legal team to consider a ChatGPT user who “found some way to get around the pay wall” and “was getting The New York Times content somehow as the output.” If that user “then hears about this case and says, ‘Oh, whoa, you know I’m going to ask them to delete all of my searches and not retain any of my searches going forward,'” the judge asked, wouldn’t that be “directly the problem” that the order would address?

OpenAI does not plan to give up this fight, alleging that news plaintiffs have “fallen silent” on claims of intentional evidence destruction, and the order should be deemed unlawful.

For OpenAI, risks of breaching its own privacy agreements could not only “damage” relationships with users but could also risk putting the company in breach of contracts and global privacy regulations. Further, the order imposes “significant” burdens on OpenAI, supposedly forcing the ChatGPT maker to dedicate months of engineering hours at substantial costs to comply, OpenAI claimed. It follows then that OpenAI’s potential for harm “far outweighs News Plaintiffs’ speculative need for such data,” OpenAI argued.

“While OpenAI appreciates the court’s efforts to manage discovery in this complex set of cases, it has no choice but to protect the interests of its users by objecting to the Preservation Order and requesting its immediate vacatur,” OpenAI said.

Users panicked over sweeping order

Millions of people use ChatGPT daily for a range of purposes, OpenAI noted, “ranging from the mundane to profoundly personal.”

People may choose to delete chat logs that contain their private thoughts, OpenAI said, as well as sensitive information, like financial data from balancing the house budget or intimate details from workshopping wedding vows. And for business users connecting to OpenAI’s API, the stakes may be even higher, as their logs may contain their companies’ most confidential data, including trade secrets and privileged business information.

“Given that array of highly confidential and personal use cases, OpenAI goes to great lengths to protect its users’ data and privacy,” OpenAI argued.

It does this partly by “honoring its privacy policies and contractual commitments to users”—which the preservation order allegedly “jettisoned” in “one fell swoop.”

Before the order was in place mid-May, OpenAI only retained “chat history” for users of ChatGPT Free, Plus, and Pro who did not opt out of data retention. But now, OpenAI has been forced to preserve chat history even when users “elect to not retain particular conversations by manually deleting specific conversations or by starting a ‘Temporary Chat,’ which disappears once closed,” OpenAI said. Previously, users could also request to “delete their OpenAI accounts entirely, including all prior conversation history,” which was then purged within 30 days.

While OpenAI rejects claims that ordinary users use ChatGPT to access news articles, the company noted that including OpenAI’s business customers in the order made “even less sense,” since API conversation data “is subject to standard retention policies.” That means API customers couldn’t delete all their searches based on their customers’ activity, which is the supposed basis for requiring OpenAI to retain sensitive data.

“The court nevertheless required OpenAI to continue preserving API Conversation Data as well,” OpenAI argued, in support of lifting the order on the API chat logs.

Users who found out about the preservation order panicked, OpenAI noted. In court filings, they cited social media posts sounding alarms on LinkedIn and X (formerly Twitter). They further argued that the court should have weighed those user concerns before issuing a preservation order, but “that did not happen here.”

One tech worker on LinkedIn suggested the order created “a serious breach of contract for every company that uses OpenAI,” while privacy advocates on X warned, “every single AI service ‘powered by’ OpenAI should be concerned.”

Also on LinkedIn, a consultant rushed to warn clients to be “extra careful” sharing sensitive data “with ChatGPT or through OpenAI’s API for now,” warning, “your outputs could eventually be read by others, even if you opted out of training data sharing or used ‘temporary chat’!”

People on both platforms recommended using alternative tools to avoid privacy concerns, like Mistral AI or Google Gemini, with one cybersecurity professional on LinkedIn describing the ordered chat log retention as “an unacceptable security risk.”

On X, an account with tens of thousands of followers summed up the controversy by suggesting that “Wang apparently thinks the NY Times’ boomer copyright concerns trump the privacy of EVERY @OpenAI USER—insane!!!”

The reason for the alarm is “simple,” OpenAI said. “Users feel more free to use ChatGPT when they know that they are in control of their personal information, including which conversations are retained and which are not.”

It’s unclear if OpenAI will be able to get the judge to waver if oral arguments are scheduled.

Wang previously justified the broad order partly due to the news organizations’ claim that “the volume of deleted conversations is significant.” She suggested that OpenAI could have taken steps to anonymize the chat logs but chose not to, only making an argument for why it “would not” be able to segregate data, rather than explaining why it “can’t.”

Spokespersons for OpenAI and The New York Times’ legal team declined Ars’ request to comment on the ongoing multi-district litigation.

Photo of Ashley Belanger

Ashley is a senior policy reporter for Ars Technica, dedicated to tracking social impacts of emerging policies and new technologies. She is a Chicago-based journalist with 20 years of experience.

OpenAI slams court order to save all ChatGPT logs, including deleted chats Read More »

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Florida ban on kids using social media likely unconstitutional, judge rules

Policy, Social Media / /

A federal judge ruled today that Florida cannot enforce a law that requires social media platforms to block kids from using their platforms. The state law “is likely unconstitutional,” US Judge Mark Walker of the Northern District of Florida ruled while granting the tech industry’s request for a preliminary injunction.

The Florida law “prohibits some social media platforms from allowing youth in the state who are under the age of 14 to create or hold an account on their platforms, and similarly prohibits allowing youth who are 14 or 15 to create or hold an account unless a parent or guardian provides affirmative consent for them to do so,” Walker wrote.

The law is subject to intermediate scrutiny under the First Amendment, meaning it must be “narrowly tailored to serve a significant governmental interest,” must “leave open ample alternative channels for communication,” and must not “burden substantially more speech than is necessary to further the government’s legitimate interests,” the ruling said.

Florida claimed its law is designed to prevent harm to youth and is narrowly tailored because it targets sites that use specific features that have been deemed to be addictive. But the law applies too broadly, Walker found:

Even assuming the significance of the State’s interest in limiting the exposure of youth to websites with “addictive features,” the law’s restrictions are an extraordinarily blunt instrument for furthering it. As applied to Plaintiffs’ members alone, the law likely bans all youth under 14 from holding accounts on, at a minimum, four websites that provide forums for all manner of protected speech: Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Snapchat. It also bans 14- and 15-year-olds from holding accounts on those four websites absent a parent’s affirmative consent, a requirement that the Supreme Court has clearly explained the First Amendment does not countenance.

Walker said the Florida “law applies to any social media site that employs any one of the five addictive features under any circumstances, even if, for example, the site only sends push notifications if users opt in to receiving them, or the site does not auto-play video for account holders who are known to be youth. Accordingly, even if a social media platform created youth accounts for which none of the purportedly ‘addictive’ features are available, it would still be barred from allowing youth to hold those accounts if the features were available to adult account holders.”

Florida ban on kids using social media likely unconstitutional, judge rules Read More »

shopper-denied-$51-refund-for-20tb-hdd-that’s-mostly-a-weighted-plastic-box

Shopper denied $51 refund for 20TB HDD that’s mostly a weighted plastic box

hard drive, hdd, Storage, Tech, toshiba / /

Many Arsians are the go-to IT support representative for family and friends. If you’re lucky, your loved ones’ problems are easily resolved with a reset, update, or new cable. That wasn’t the case for a son who recently had to break the news to his father that the 20TB portable hard drive he purchased for about $50 was mostly just a plastic box with weights and a PCB.

Ars Technica spoke with the Reddit user who posted about his father bringing him a “new 20T[B] HDD to see if I could figure out what was wrong with it.” The Redditor, who asked that we refer to him by his first name, Martin, revealed that his dad paid £38 (about $51.33) for what he thought was a portable HDD. That’s a red flag. HDDs have gotten cheaper over the years, but not that cheap. A 20TB external HDD typically costs over $200, and they’re usually much larger than the portable-SSD-sized device that Martin’s father received. A 20TB HDD in a portable form factor is rarer and can cost well over $300.

Taking a hammer to the device revealed that the chassis was nearly empty, save for some iron wheel weights sloppily attached to the black plastic with hefty globs of glue and a small PCB with some form of flash storage that could connect to a system via USB-A.

Fake HDD opened up.

The “HDD” opened up.

The “HDD” opened up. Credit: The__Unflushable/Reddit

As with other PC storage scams we’ve seen online, Windows read the so-called HDD as a “19TB drive, but would then just hang if you try to do anything with it,” Martin said on Reddit.

Programming the board’s firmware so that the drive appears as a high-capacity storage device on Windows is a clever trick that could convince users they’re to blame. But as Windows-savvy users would point out, Windows reports drive capacities in gibibytes or tebibytes, so a real 20TB HDD would appear as approximately 18.2TB in Windows.

Martin told Ars:

The device appeared to mount on the desktop with the device name in Mandarin (turned out this simply said “Hard Disc”). I tried copying a file, and the name did appear on the “hard disc.” It was only when I tried to open this file from the hard disc that the problems began to emerge. The file could not be opened, no matter how hard I tried, including reformatting the hard disc. At that point nothing was “working” at all.

Sketchy online listing

Martin told Ars that his father purchased the fake HDD from a website called UK.Chicntech, which appears to primarily sell car supplies, kitchen supplies, and home textiles. Currently, the website does not list any PC components or peripherals, but overall, its stock is pretty limited. Chicntech currently lists some other electronics, like a “[With Starry Sky Lid]AI Nano Mist Intelligent Car Aromatherapy Device” (linking for explanatory purposes only; we don’t recommend shopping on this website) for $56.

Shopper denied $51 refund for 20TB HDD that’s mostly a weighted plastic box Read More »

tuesday-telescope:-a-time-lapse-from-orbit-reveals-treasures-below

Tuesday Telescope: A time-lapse from orbit reveals treasures below

daily telescope, Space, tuesday telescope / /

Welcome to the Tuesday Telescope. There is a little too much darkness in this world and not enough light—a little too much pseudoscience and not enough science. We’ll let other publications offer you a daily horoscope. At Ars Technica, we’ll take a different route, finding inspiration from very real images of a universe that is filled with stars and wonder.

I did not expect to feature NASA astronaut Nichole Ayers in the Tuesday Telescope so soon, but a recent photo she shared is just sublime. (In case you missed it, we wrote about her photo of lightning from space about a month ago.)

This week Ayers has a time-lapse sequence she captured from the Cupola as the International Space Station soared near Central and South America.

“Soooooo much going on in this picture,” Ayers wrote on the social media site X. “You can see Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama, with South America off in the distance.”

The most distinct feature is a lightning strike near Panama City. This illuminates the clouds below. Above the strike is a reddish phenomenon known as a sprite, which sometimes occurs in the atmosphere between 50 and 90 km above a lightning strike near the surface of the planet. This appears to be a “jellyfish” sprite. It is rendered beautifully.

But wait, there’s more! The lightning strike is so bright that its reflection can be seen in the space station’s structure, at the top of the image. Additionally the atmosphere’s airglow can be clearly seen in the orange line just above the atmosphere.

All in all, it’s a wonderful photo, and I can’t wait to see what other treasures Ayers sends down from on high.

Source: Nichole Ayers/NASA

Do you want to submit a photo for the Daily Telescope? Reach out and say hello.

Tuesday Telescope: A time-lapse from orbit reveals treasures below Read More »

colon-cancer-recurrence-and-deaths-cut-28%-by-simple-exercise,-trial-finds

Colon cancer recurrence and deaths cut 28% by simple exercise, trial finds

aerobic, clinical trial, colon cancer, Exercise, health, MET, NEJM / /

“Quite impressive”

The exercise group, which had supervised exercise for the first six months of the three-year intervention, reported more exercise over the study. At the end, the exercise group was averaging over 20 MET hours per week, while the education group’s average was around 15 MET hours per week. The exercise group also scored better at cardiorespiratory fitness and physical functioning.

Still, with the health education, the control group also saw a boost to their exercise during the trial, with their average starting around 10 MET hours per week. These findings “raise the possibility of an even more powerful effect of exercise on cancer outcomes as compared with a completely sedentary control group,” the researchers note.

For now, it’s not entirely clear how exercise keeps cancers at bay, but it squares with numerous other observational studies that have linked exercise to better outcomes in cancer patients. Researchers have several hypotheses, including that exercise might cause “increased fluid shear stress, enhanced immune surveillance, reduced inflammation, improved insulin sensitivity, and altered microenvironment of major sites of metastases,” the authors note.

In the study, exercise seemed to keep local and distant colon cancer from recurring, as well as prevent new cancers, including breast, prostate, and colorectal cancers.

Outside experts hailed the study’s findings. “This indicates that exercise has a similarly strong effect as previously shown for chemotherapy, which is really quite impressive,” Marco Gerlinger, a gastrointestinal cancer expert at Queen Mary University of London, said in a statement. “One of the commonest questions from patients is what they can do to reduce the risk that their cancer comes back. Oncologists can now make a very clear evidence-based recommendation.”

“Having worked in bowel cancer research for 30 years, this is an exciting breakthrough in the step-wise improvement in cure rates,” David Sebag-Montefiore, a clinical oncologist at the University of Leeds, said. “The great appeal of a structured moderate intensity exercise is that it offers the benefits without the downside of the well-known side effects of our other treatments.”

Colon cancer recurrence and deaths cut 28% by simple exercise, trial finds Read More »

new-federal-employees-must-praise-trump-eos,-submit-to-continuous-vetting

New federal employees must praise Trump EOs, submit to continuous vetting

dei, department of government efficiency, diversity, doge, Donald Trump, executive order, Policy / /

The administration says the plan will “drastically” speed up hiring while cutting costs. The plan said that efficiencies would be created by cutting down resumes to a maximum of two pages (cutting review time) while creating a pool of resumes that can be returned to so that new jobs won’t even need to be announced. Even hiring for jobs requiring top secret clearances will be expedited, the plan said.

Critics highlight pain points of hiring plan

A federal HR official speaking anonymously told GovExec that “this plan will make life harder for hiring managers and applicants alike.” That official noted that Trump’s plan to pivot away from using self-assessments—where applicants can explain their relevant skills—removes a shortcut for HR workers who will now need to devote time to independently assess every candidate.

Using various Trump-approved technical and alternative assessments would require candidates to participate in live exercises, evaluate work-related scenarios, submit a work sample, solve problems related to skill competencies, or submit additional writing samples that would need to be reviewed. The amount of manual labor involved in the new policies, the HR official warned, is “insane.”

“Everything in it will make it more difficult to hire, not less,” the HR official said. “How the f— do you define if someone is patriotic?”

Jenny Mattingley, a vice president of government affairs at the Partnership for Public Service, told Politico that she agreed that requiring a loyalty test would make federal recruiting harder.

“Many federal employees are air traffic controllers, national park rangers, food safety inspectors, and firefighters who carry out the missions of agencies that are authorized by Congress,” Mattingley said. “These public servants, who deliver services directly to the public, should not be forced to answer politicized questions that fail to evaluate the skills they need to do their jobs effectively.”

New federal employees must praise Trump EOs, submit to continuous vetting Read More »

after-supreme-court-loss,-isps-ask-trump-admin-to-block-state-affordability-laws

After Supreme Court loss, ISPs ask Trump admin to block state affordability laws

broadband lobby, Policy, state broadband laws / /

A California bill would require $15 plans with download speeds of 100Mbps and upload speeds of 20Mbps. The broadband lobby groups’ filing said ISPs are also worried about “unnecessary anticompetitive regulations” proposed in Connecticut, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and West Virginia.

Not all the pending state bills are specifically about prices charged to low-income users. Some would impose net neutrality requirements or classify ISPs as utilities, the filing said.

Preempting state laws while simultaneously avoiding federal regulation has been a long-held dream for the broadband industry. During the first Trump administration, then-FCC Chairman Ajit Pai led a vote to eliminate the FCC’s net neutrality rules and preempt all 50 states from passing their own net neutrality laws. But the FCC’s broad preemption attempt failed in court.

When challenging the New York affordability mandate, ISPs claimed the state law was preempted by the Pai FCC’s decision to deregulate broadband. But this argument failed for the same reason that Pai’s earlier preemption attempt failed—the FCC decision to deregulate removed the FCC’s strongest regulatory authority over broadband, and courts have ruled that the FCC cannot preempt state laws in an area that it is not regulating.

The Pai FCC’s “order stripped the agency of its authority to regulate the rates charged for broadband Internet, and a federal agency cannot exclude states from regulating in an area where the agency itself lacks regulatory authority,” the US Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit said in the ruling that upheld New York’s law last year.

ISPs keep making same argument

ISPs still aren’t giving up on the argument, as they hope a court might someday rule differently. The lobby groups’ filing reminded the Department of Justice that during the first Trump administration, the government brought a preemption suit against California’s net neutrality law.

“The Department unfortunately dropped out of the litigation after the change in Administration,” the filing said. “But as then-Attorney General [Jeff] Sessions explained in initiating the action, California had ‘enacted an extreme and illegal state law attempting to frustrate [the] federal policy’ of an unfettered market for broadband, and the Justice Department had a ‘duty to defend the prerogatives of the federal government and protect our Constitutional order.'”

After Supreme Court loss, ISPs ask Trump admin to block state affordability laws Read More »

spy-catcher-saw-“stupid”-tech-errors-others-made-fbi-says-he-then-made-his-own.

Spy-catcher saw “stupid” tech errors others made. FBI says he then made his own.

DIA, Security, SOCKS, spying / /

2) EMAIL ADDRESS FAIL: The FBI quickly gained access to the “anonymous” email account used to send the message. They found that, on the day that this account was set up, it received a message from a second email account—possibly as a test—which turned out to be one of Laatsch’s and contained his name as part of the email address.

3) EMAIL ACCOUNT FAIL: This second email account, when the FBI examined it, had been set up using Laatsch’s full name, date of birth, and phone number.

4) IP ADDRESS FAIL: Both the first and second email account had been logged into from the same IP address, suggesting they were controlled by the same person. And the IP address that was used for them both resolved to… Laatsch’s residence.

The leaker did suggest moving the conversation to an encrypted messaging platform, but the damage was already done.

The FBI immediately began a sting operation, posing as the “friendly country,” asking Laatsch to copy some juicy data and provide it in a “dead drop” at a park in northern Virginia. Laatsch allegedly then went in to work at DIA, using his deep knowledge of DIA computerized tracking systems to avoid detection by… copying secret documents into notebooks by hand, then ripping out the sheets of paper and stuffing them in his socks.

This appears to have worked well enough—except for the fact that internal DIA “video monitoring” was watching him do it, with FBI agents noting even the ways Laatsch tried to “hide his notebook” when co-workers walked by. Whether Laatsch was aware of this video monitoring system is unclear.

On May 1, 2025, Laatsch allegedly wrote up his notes, stored them on a thumb drive, and dropped them as requested at an Alexandria park. The drive was later retrieved by the FBI. On May 8, Laatsch told his contact that he wasn’t seeking money but “citizenship for your country” because he didn’t “expect things here to improve in the long term, even in the event there is a change in the future.”

Laatsch was arrested yesterday, May 29.

Spy-catcher saw “stupid” tech errors others made. FBI says he then made his own. Read More »

the-gmail-app-will-now-create-ai-summaries-whether-you-want-them-or-not

The Gmail app will now create AI summaries whether you want them or not

AI, Artificial Intelligence, Gmail, Google, Tech / /

Gmail AI summary

This block of AI-generated text will soon appear automatically in some threads.

Credit: Google

This block of AI-generated text will soon appear automatically in some threads. Credit: Google

Summarizing content is one of the more judicious applications of generative AI technology, dating back to the 2017 paper on the transformer architecture. Generative AI has since been employed to create chatbots that will seemingly answer any question, despite their tendency to make mistakes. Grounding the AI output with a few emails usually yields accurate results, but do you really need a robot to summarize your emails? Unless you’re getting novels in your inbox, you can probably just read a few paragraphs.

If you’re certain you don’t want any part of this, there is a solution. Automatic generation of AI summaries is controlled by Gmail’s “smart features.” You (or an administrator of your managed account) can disable that. Open the app settings, select the account, and uncheck the smart features toggle.

For most people, Gmail’s smart features are enabled out of the box, but they’re off by default in Europe and Japan. When you disable them, you won’t see the automatic AI summaries, but there will still be a button to generate those summaries with Gemini. Be aware that smart features also control high-priority notifications, package tracking, Smart Compose, Smart Reply, and nudges. If you can live without all of those features in the mobile app, you can avoid automatic AI summaries. The app will occasionally pester you to turn smart features back on, though.

The Gmail app will now create AI summaries whether you want them or not Read More »

google-maps-can’t-explain-why-it-falsely-labeled-german-autobahns-as-closed

Google Maps can’t explain why it falsely labeled German autobahns as closed

autobahns, Cars, germany, Google, google maps, GPS, Policy / /

On Thursday, a Google Maps glitch accidentally made it appear that the most desirable routes on German autobahns and highways were shut down, The Guardian reported.

It remains unclear what unleashed a flood of stop signs on Google Maps in the area just ahead of a four-day holiday break when many drivers had travel plans. Maps of roadways in Belgium and the Netherlands were also affected.

If drivers had stopped to check alternative apps, they would have learned that traffic was flowing normally and may have avoided clogging traffic on alternative routes or wasting time speculating about what could have happened to close so many major roads. Apple Maps and Waze accurately charted traffic patterns, and only Google Maps appeared to be affected.

Instead, Google Maps loyalists learned the hard way that Google doesn’t know everything, as the misinformation reportedly caused traffic jams rather than helping drivers avoid them. Some drivers trusted Google so much that they filed reports with police to investigate the issue, with some worrying that a terrorist attack or government hack may have occurred.

On social media, others vented about what they assumed was correct information about supposed closures, The Guardian reported, with one person fuming, “They can’t have closed ALL the motorways!” Another joked that the Google Maps glitch made it look like the autobahn system was suffering “an acne outbreak.”

Google Maps can’t explain why it falsely labeled German autobahns as closed Read More »