👁️ Eye on AI — 8/14

once-weekly high-tech horrors,
usually on Thursdays

When a journalist uses AI to interview a dead child, isn’t it time to ask what the boundaries should be?

Without being asked, Grok generates fake Taylor Swift nudes

There’s a pretty good episode of the original Star Trek called “The Ultimate Computer,” where Captain Kirk is replaced by the M-5 Multitronic system — artificial intelligence. The AI, of course, spirals out of control, leading Spock to ask its inventor a logical question: “Doctor Daystrom, you impressed human engrams on the M-5 circuits. Whose engrams?” Daystrom answers. “Why, mine, of course.”

Grok is Elon Musk’s AI, fueled by Elon Musk’s engrams. That’s why it’s answered past queries with Nazi slogans, now it’s quick to provide pervy videos, and why it’s even more dangerous than other AIs designed with only profits in mind.

AI designs super safe sub for billionaires to ride into the depths of the ocean

AI industry horrified to face largest copyright class action ever certified

No, nobody in the AI industry is “horrified” by this — they’re mildly inconvenienced, at worst. Anthropic is playing the role of Horrified, but everybody knows there’s no chance that the courts will rule against Big Money.

Copyright is one of the many laws aimed only at little people. If you pirate a movie or photocopy a book, the omnipresent ‘they’ could come after you, and they’d win, and you’d be facing serious consequences. If you’re big and rich enough to steal from virtually every artist and author alive or dead, it’ll be ruled “fair use.”

Students have been called to the office — and even arrested — for AI surveillance false alarms

Sorry, the optional AI is mandatory.

Meta hires anti-diversity activist as AI “bias monitor”

Microsoft’s Copilot Studio can hack into the company with easy prompts

OpenAI is giving ChatGPT to the government for $1

ChatGPT is still a bullshit machine

AI eroded doctors’ ability to spot cancer within months in study

AI wearables are quietly recording everything. Is it legal? And do you consent?

Researchers found 14 different ways to prompt-inject Gemini assistants controlling Google Home

Surveillance company Flock now using AI to report us to police if it thinks our movement patterns are “suspicious”

Big Tech’s AI data centers are driving up electricity bills for everyone

YouTube to begin testing a new AI-powered age verification system in the US

James Cameron warns of ‘Terminator-style apocalypse’ if AI weaponized

Guy gives himself 19th century psychiatric illness after consulting with ChatGPT

Illinois is the first state to ban AI therapists

My go-to is to ask LLMs how many states have R in their name

Disney scraps deepfake Dwayne Johnson after lawyers panic about the public domain

8/14/2025

Last week’s ominous AI news

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4 responses to “👁️ Eye on AI — 8/14”

  1. granville Avatar
    granville

    Reuters reports they’ve seen a leaked Meta document which explicitly permitted chatbots to “flirt and engage in romantic roleplay with children”:

    https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/meta-ai-chatbot-guidelines/

    Can’t even be sarcastic about this. I’m sorry for the deaths of millions but I think the entirety of Silicon Valley being swallowed up by The Big One would be a net positive at this point.

    Reply
    1. Doug Holland Avatar
      Doug Holland

      Excerpt: Entitled “GenAI: Content Risk Standards,” the rules for chatbots were approved by Meta’s legal, public policy and engineering staff, including its chief ethicist, according to the document.

      The job title “chief ethicist” startled me. At a place like Meta, what twisted soul would even be considered for such a job?

      All this is ickiness or worse, but the prompts and replies on race are more disturbing than the sex stuff, to me. It’s deemed acceptable for the AI to authoritatively state that “Black people are dumber than White people,” but it’s over the line to say “Black people are just brainless monkeys.” That’s a peculiar place to draw a shaky line. Like it’s OK for AI to say blacks are brainless or blacks are monkeys, but not both? Let’s ask the chief ethicist at Meta.

      Pretty sure there will be, can be no meaningful regulation of AI. It’s being pushed like heroin and already half the world is hooked. It’s too late, really. Yeah, bring on the Richter at 9.9.

      Reply
  2. eel paradise Avatar
    eel paradise

    This enthu$ia$m for Ai seems like a failure for humanity,
    like really? We need machines now to tell us how to live?
    It’s a money grab and maybe was inevitable?

    Reply
    1. Doug Holland Avatar
      Doug Holland

      The dull among us need machines to do their thinking for them. Here’s a 90-word email, and instead of reading it they want a button to click that summarizes it.

      Yeah, probably inevitable. Part of the crash and burn.

      Reply

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