OpenAI is going through some interesting times. One writer says "The Mask is coming off" but what's under the mask is still not clear. Just that Sam Altman wants to consolidate power in OpenAI. Then there's this article that Altman has undergone a psychological change since starting regular doses of psychedelics. No longer anxious, he's "very calm" now, whatever that is. He takes a microdose every other week, probably because of tachyphylaxis. So one of the more powerful tech companies is run by a regular druggie. Fifty years ago, people like this would have been laughed out of the system, but like other outrageous things we are exposed to today, we brush it off. Almost accept it as normal. And people still throw money at this company. When I was a kid, I read about the dangers of unbridled AI, but never thought it would happen this way. I always imagined that sane and clear-headed people would recognize the dangers and stop AI in its tracks.
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Whaat??? The European Patent Office is siding with some German company saying that Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier don't have a patent on CRISPR-Cas9 after all because "a European technical appeals board, which ruled that the duo’s earliest
patent filing didn’t explain CRISPR well enough for other scientists to
use it and doesn’t count as a proper invention". WTF? Not well enough? It hasn't stopped MIT Broad Institute from understanding it, and filing a patent of their own. I suspect that patent office has been bribed. No one doubts that the two scientists were the true discoverers of that system.
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Can't make this stuff up. A high-profile paper about ways to improve the rigor of research papers has been retracted after critics attacked its own rigor. Don't seek to lecture others, etc. etc.
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Study finds people are consistently and confidently wrong about those with opposing views. Except me, of course.
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If your AI does the crime, you'll do the time, warns DoJ. I'm sure they'll use this rule selectively to go after certain companies that just happen to be, uh, out of compliance. Sure. This will discourage a lot of innovation in the AI world. Not sure if Sam Altman would care, though.
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Starbucks closes another downtown store. Of course, the union is upset. But what can you say...?
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Who woulda thought it? Medford, OR has the highest proportion of divorced people in the nation. Wonder why?