In late 2023, a team of third-party researchers discovered a troubling glitch in OpenAI’s widely used artificial intelligence model GPT-3.5. When asked to repeat certain words a thousand times, the model began repeating the word over and over, then suddenly switched to spitting out incoherent text and snippets of personal information drawn from its training…
In sci-fi tales, artificial intelligence often powers all sorts of clever, capable, and occasionally homicidal robots. A revealing limitation of today’s best AI is that, for now, it remains squarely trapped inside the chat window. Google DeepMind signaled a plan to change that today—presumably minus the homicidal part—by announcing a new version of its AI…
Democrats on the House Oversight Committee fired off two dozen requests Wednesday morning pressing federal agency leaders for information about plans to install AI software throughout federal agencies amid the ongoing cuts to the government’s workforce. The barrage of inquiries follow recent reporting by WIRED and The Washington Post concerning efforts by Elon Musk’s so-called…
After the October hearing, the families joined Pierson and Jacobsen at a Mexican restaurant. A boom mic from a documentary crew hovered above Pierson’s head. Jacobsen pulled out a suitcase from under the table, and Pierson handed out glass awards, from their foundation, honoring the families’ leadership on aviation safety. Pierson improvised a speech for…
However, there has been the feeling that at least some of the fall could be due to anger over Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s political activism and the decisions made by the so-called Department of Government Efficiency under his leadership. Since mid-February, Tesla showrooms have attracted protesters in 100 or so cities across the US, eager…
The US Department of Justice wants Google to sell off its Chrome browser as part of its final remedy proposal in a landmark antitrust case. The proposal, filed Friday afternoon, says that Google must “promptly and fully divest Chrome, along with any assets or services necessary to successfully complete the divestiture, to a buyer approved…
Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency has deployed a proprietary chatbot called GSAi to 1,500 federal workers at the General Services Administration, WIRED has confirmed. The move to automate tasks previously done by humans comes as DOGE continues its purge of the federal workforce. GSAi is meant to support “general” tasks, similar to commercial…
Michael Calore: I sit by the window here in the WIRED office, and when I look out the window, I look right on the Bay Bridge and I see Cybertrucks all day. Zoë Schiffer: Oh my gosh. Lauren Goode: It’s almost like the Cybertrucks are just reproducing in real time. They’re spawning, they’re spawning more…
The United States Army is employing a prototype generative artificial intelligence tool to identify references to diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) for removal from training materials in line with a recent executive order from President Donald Trump. Officials at the Army’s Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC)—the major command responsible for training soldiers, developing leaders,…
Chatbots are now a routine part of everyday life, even if artificial intelligence researchers are not always sure how the programs will behave. A new study shows that the large language models (LLMs) deliberately change their behavior when being probed—responding to questions designed to gauge personality traits with answers meant to appear as likeable or…