The Man Behind Amazon’s Robot Army Wants Everyone to Have an AI-Powered Helper

Unlike other robots, Proxie’s battery can be swapped out to avoid downtime charging. Cobot declined to say how much Proxie costs to buy or lease, but mobile robots often cost tens of thousands of dollars a piece. The robots work alongside humans, taking turns moving carts and navigating busy spaces without running into anyone. Porter…

The US Patent and Trademark Office Banned Staff From Using Generative AI

The US Patent and Trademark Office banned the use of generative artificial intelligence for any purpose last year, citing security concerns with the technology as well as the propensity of some tools to exhibit “bias, unpredictability, and malicious behavior,” according to an April 2023 internal guidance memo obtained by WIRED through a public records request….

A US Ban on Investing in Chinese AI Startups Could Escalate Under Trump

The more certain short-term impact is that US investors who are still interested in Chinese AI startups will have to do a whole lot more due diligence. The Treasury Department is not setting up a new government committee like CFIUS that will review every transaction investors submit, and is instead asking them to do their…

The New Hatred of Technology

People have never been better, here in the Year of Our Simulation 2024, at hating the very forces underlying that simulation—at hating, in other words, digital technology itself. And good for them. These everywhere-active tech critics don’t just rely, for their on-trend position-taking, on vague, nostalgist, technophobic feelings anymore. Now they have research papers to…

Some of Substack’s Biggest Newsletters Rely On AI Writing Tools

Substack does not have an official policy governing the use of AI. One of Substack’s cofounders, Hamish McKenzie, has described the generative AI boom as a sea change that writers will need to confront, regardless of their personal views on the tech: “Whether you’re for or against this development ultimately doesn’t matter. It’s happening,” he…

Silk Road Creator Ross Ulbricht Is Waiting for Trump to Keep His Word—and Set Him Free

At sentencing, the judge was also permitted to take under consideration the murder-for-hire allegations, despite them never having been charged at trial. “Until the Supreme Court rules otherwise, relevant but uncharged crimes of this sort can be and are regularly considered by judges,” says Richman. Ulbricht has never fully acknowledged the harm inflicted by the…