Roundup: What the OpenAI funding round reveals about tech
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Futurism
Economists Alarmed by Growing Demand for Sausage
Struggle Meals Is a recession coming? Who knows but economists in Texas are raising their eyebrows over the recent uptick of consumers buying sausages rather than more expensive cuts of meat, NBC News reports, a sign that people are feeling the pinch from runaway prices on, well, everything. This trend was highlighted in the latest […]
In Leak, Facebook Partner Brags About Listening to Your Phone’s Microphone to Serve Ads for Stuff You Mention
Actively Creepy In a pitch deck to prospective customers, One of Facebook's alleged marketing partners explained how it listens to users' smartphone microphones and advertises to them accordingly. As 404 Media reports based on documents leaked to its reporters, the TV and radio news giant Cox Media Group (CMG) claims that its so-called "Active Listening" software […]
Michigan Plotting to Re-Open Shuttered 1970s Nuclear Plant
Power Hour After shutting it down in 2022, Michigan is making an abrupt u-turn and is now planning to reopen an old 1970s nuclear power, according to The Wall Street Journal. When the power plants starts working again, the WSJ reports that the Palisades plant would become the first decommissioned nuclear power plant in the […]
AI Accuses Journalist of Escaping Psych Ward, Abusing Children and Widows
LibelGPT Microsoft's AI chatbot Copilot falsely accused a journalist of committing some of the crimes he covered, The Register reports, in yet another example of AI hallucinations spitting out damaging but untrue information. The journalist, Martin Bernklau, a court reporter from Tubingen, Germany, said that the AI described him as an escapee from a psych […]
Eli Lilly Offering Way Cheaper Zepbound, If You’re Willing to Buy Your Own Syringes
The makers of Zepbound, one of the most popular new brands of weight loss injectables on the market, are offering a massive price cut — if you're willing to purchase and dose your syringes out yourself. In a press release, drug giant Eli Lilly announced that it's releasing single-dose vials of tirzepatide, the active ingredient […]
Scientists Discover Ancient Viruses Frozen in Glacier
On Ice When analyzing core samples from an ancient Tibetan glacier, scientists found remnants of more than 1,700 viruses, most of which had never been seen before. As Ohio State University explained in a press release about the new findings from Tibet's massive Guliya Glacier — which was also the source of another trove of […]
No One Wants Apple To Scrape Their Websites for AI Training
Stop Sign Wired reports that a slew of major websites, including influential news publishers and top social media platforms, are blocking Apple's AI-focused web crawler from scraping their pages for AI training content. Per the report, media companies that have altered their robot.txt pages to lock Applebot out include The New York Times, The Atlantic, The […]
Employee Found Dead in Cubicle After Apparently Dying There Days Earlier
Final Swipe In a late-stage capitalist tragedy, an Arizona bank employee was found dead in her cubicle after clocking in on a Friday and apparently never clocking back out. As Arizona's KPNX local broadcaster reports, Tempe police are investigating the death of 60-year-old Wells Fargo employee Denise Prudhomme after her body was found at her desk […]
If You Think Cybertrucks Are a Mess Now, Wait Until Winter Hits
Deep Freeze Bad Idea More on the Tesla Cybertruck: Burglar Discovers You Can “Peel” Cybertruck and Access the Inside
Scientists Say New System Can Recycle Plastic Indefinitely Without Degrading Its Quality
Plastic Fantastic Plastic Everywhere More on plastic: Woman Disgusted When She Uses Tracker to See Where Her Plastic Recycling Really Ends Up