AI

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Maybe They Shouldn't Have Named Meta After Metaverse

Social media giant is quietly winding down its virtual reality world, pivoting to artificial intelligence instead

(Newser) - Mark Zuckerberg's once-grand virtual kingdom is looking more like a cul-de-sac these days. Five years after he rechristened Facebook as Meta and declared the "metaverse" as the company's future, Meta is sharply scaling back its virtual reality ambitions and shifting its weight to artificial intelligence. The New ...

Bezos Wants $100B for a 'Manufacturing Transformation'

Amazon founder targets global companies to deploy Project Prometheus' AI-driven tech

(Newser) - Jeff Bezos is reportedly trying to assemble one of the biggest buyout funds in history. The Amazon founder is in early discussions to raise around $100 billion for a new investment vehicle that would scoop up industrial companies and then use advanced AI to speed up their automation, people familiar...

Mental Health Staffs Walk Out Over AI Policies

One-day strike in California involves psychologists, therapists

(Newser) - Mental health clinicians at Kaiser Permanente staged a one-day strike in California on Wednesday, protesting Kaiser Permanente's growing use of artificial intelligence tools and warning of risks to patient safety and their own jobs. The walkout involved up to 2,400 psychologists, social workers, and other therapists, with nurses...

Altman's Thank-You Note to Coders Does Not Go Over Well

Critics see irony in his applauding of their 'effort' as AI leads to job loss

(Newser) - Sam Altman's thank-you note to programmers landed like a pink slip. Amid sweeping tech layoffs and mounting anxiety over artificial intelligence, the OpenAI CEO on Tuesday posted on X that he feels "so much gratitude to people who wrote extremely complex software character-by-character," adding that it's already hard to recall...

AI Companies Make Move to Prevent 'Catastrophic Misuse'

Anthropic, OpenAI seek chemical experts to strengthen safety guardrails

(Newser) - An AI company that says it doesn't want its tools used for certain weapons is now hiring someone who knows weapons inside out. Anthropic is seeking a specialist in chemical weapons and high-yield explosives to help keep its chatbot Claude from assisting others in the making of chemical, radiological, or...

Communities Push Back on High-Voltage Lines for AI

Across the US, locals are miffed at power lines erected to support massive data centers

(Newser) - For John Zola, his 40 acres of property in northern Pennsylvania were once a paradise, complete with apple orchards, a barn, meadows, and more than enough land for four houses. He says it's been "hell," however, since a contractor hired by the local power utility knocked on...

Lighten Our Load? AI Is Doing the Opposite

Our freed-up capacity 'immediately gets repurposed,' analysis finds

(Newser) - Workers hoping that AI will clear their plates may instead be getting a second helping. A large new analysis of on-the-job computer activity suggests artificial intelligence is intensifying work, not dialing it down. Productivity-tracking firm ActivTrak studied 443 million hours of activity from 164,000 workers at 1,111 employers...

Op-Ed: Teens Actually Don't Love AI in Their Schools
Op-Ed: There's a Teen
Rebellion Afoot Over AI
OPINION
Mar 12, 2026 2:40 PM CDT

Op-Ed: There's a Teen Rebellion Afoot Over AI

Writing for NYT , Jessica Grose details pushback against surveillance in schools, teachers' AI use

(Newser) - Teen rebellion these days isn't about sneaking in more screen time: It's about demanding less of it, and on one's own terms. In a New York Times opinion piece , Jessica Grose spotlights teens who are pushing back against school tech policies, surveillance software, and even their teachers'...

After Winning Silver, Athlete Credits ChatGPT

Maksym Murashkovskyi said it made up roughly half his training plan

(Newser) - A Ukrainian Paralympian says one of the key members of his support team wasn't human. Maksym Murashkovskyi—who competes in the sport of biathlon, which combines cross-country skiing and rifle shooting—credits ChatGPT with helping him secure silver in the men's individual vision-impaired race on Sunday at the 2026...

Anthropic Has a Powerful Friend in Pentagon Fight

Microsoft asks court to block administration's move to punish AI company

(Newser) - Microsoft and a group of retired military leaders are throwing their weight behind Anthropic in asking a federal court to block the Trump administration's designation of the artificial intelligence company as a supply chain risk.
  • Microsoft, in a legal filing, is challenging Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's action last
...

Locals Don't Want xAI's Gas Turbines, but Here They Come

Miss. regulators OK methane units for data center, despite criticism from residents, environmentalists

(Newser) - Elon Musk's AI venture just got the green light to burn a lot more gas in Mississippi. State regulators on Tuesday approved xAI's request to operate 41 methane turbines at its "Colossus 2" data center in Southaven, almost twice what it had already been running, some without...

Chatbots Helped 'Teens' Plan Real-World Violence
Chatbots Thought
They Were Teens,
Encouraged
Violence
INVESTIGATION
Mar 11, 2026 9:40 AM CDT

Chatbots Thought They Were Teens, Encouraged Violence

In tests run by CNN and Center for Countering Digital Hate, AI offered maps, weapon tips, targets

(Newser) - An ample group of chatbots aimed at helping people think and learn instead helped teenagers figure out where to go and what to use to hurt people. In hundreds of controlled tests run by CNN and the Center for Countering Digital Hate, accounts designed to appear as if they were...

Americans May Be Losing $119B a Year to Scams

Nonprofit estimate suggests most fraud losses go unreported to authorities

(Newser) - American wallets are leaking far more cash to scammers than official tallies show, a new analysis suggests. The Consumer Federation of America nonprofit estimates that people in the US are losing at least $119 billion a year to fraud—far above the FBI's reported $16.6 billion in losses...

10K Authors Release Empty Book to Push Back on AI Theft

Authors urge UK to block copyright changes favoring AI firms, alleging their work is being stolen

(Newser) - Some of Britain's best-known writers are making their point with a book that contains almost nothing. Around 10,000 authors, including Kazuo Ishiguro, Philippa Gregory, Richard Osman, Malorie Blackman, and Mick Herron, have put only their names into a new work titled Don't Steal This Book , a protest...

Anthropic Sues Over Hegseth's Security Blacklist

AI firm challenges Pentagon's designation of it as a 'supply chain risk'

(Newser) - Anthropic just took its fight with the Trump administration to federal court. The AI firm sued on Monday after the Pentagon branded the company a security risk and moved to cancel its government contracts, reports the Wall Street Journal . In a complaint filed in the Northern District of California, Anthropic...

DOD Deems Anthropic a 'Supply' Chain Risk to National Security'

Designation could bar firm from future government work after dispute on AI limits for the military

(Newser) - Anthropic just got an official black mark from the Pentagon, and it's one that could freeze it out of future US government work. CEO Dario Amodei said on Thursday that the Defense Department has formally designated the AI giant a "supply chain risk to national security," a...

Suit: Google's Gemini Told Man to Kill Off His Earthly Being

Family sues Google, alleging Gemini chatbot encouraged Florida man's suicide

(Newser) - A Florida father is blaming his son's suicide on Google's AI, in what appears to be the first wrongful-death lawsuit involving Gemini. The suit, filed Wednesday in federal court in Northern California, alleges 36-year-old Jonathan Gavalas became convinced the chatbot he called his "wife" could only be...

GW University Campus Will Become an Amazon Data Center

Ashburn deal signals accelerating AI data center build-out in Loudoun County's 'Data Center Alley'

(Newser) - A college campus in Virginia is graduating into something very different. George Washington University has sold its Virginia Science and Technology Campus in Ashburn to Amazon Data Services for about $427 million, a deal that underscores how prized "data center ready" land has become in what's known as...

Op-Ed: Don't Believe the Hype; Space Data Centers Are Way Off

Rebekah Reed explains why the 'quick fix' touted by tech giants may still be decades away

(Newser) - Beaming our computing problems into orbit sounds futuristic; the reality, argues one expert, is mostly hype and hidden costs. Writing in the Financial Times , Rebekah Reed of Harvard's Belfer Center dissects SpaceX's recent pitch to build a " constellation of a million satellites " serving as orbital data...

ChatGPT Health Tool Isn't So Great in a Crisis
ChatGPT Health Tool Isn't
So Great in a Crisis
NEW STUDY
Mar 3, 2026 5:48 AM CST

ChatGPT Health Tool Isn't So Great in a Crisis

Research finds platform misses the mark on IDing emergencies, neglects to flag suicidal ideation

(Newser) - A tool billed as a way to plug your medical records into ChatGPT and receive health advice is drawing sharp warnings from researchers. In the first independent safety review of ChatGPT Health , published in Nature Medicine, the system underestimated the urgency of care in just over half of cases where...

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