Did Google create a sentient A.I.? A Blade Runner theory of humanity — Last weekend, the Washington Post published a story about a Google software engineer, Blake Lemoine, who thinks the company’s artificial intelligence chatbot generator, Language Model for Dialogue Applications — or LaMDA — is sentient. This he decided after multiple conversations with LaMDA, some of which he published, in which the…

Modern mass culture needs new ideas. Why don’t we have any? — In late May, Justin Timberlake announced that he’d sold his share of rights to his entire song catalogue for $100 million to Hipgnosis Song Management, an intellectual property rights management company listed on the London Stock Exchange. It’s not the only one paying big for back catalogues. Two years ago…

The term ‘mass shooting’ allows too many people to avoid the problem — and the solution — A great place to start to end mass shootings in America is stricter gun control. It feels crazy to have to state this from the outset, but amidst other, certifiably insane suggestions like only having a single door defended by an armed guard or booby-trapping the buildings, it’s necessary to…

Bad ideas are taking over the world. Why is this happening? — If Elon Musk were the only asshole we had to put up with, things might be tolerable. At the very least, we might have the energy to deal with him. But it’s not just Elon — he’s just bought the biggest platform for assholes who, since the news of his…

What will it take for some of us to live more difficult lives for the sake of everyone’s survival? — In a video posted online earlier this week, a JetBlue pilot speaks over his plane’s intercom to the passengers. “I’ve been going up and down this coast, from South Florida to New York for about 35 years,” he tells them. “I’ve worked through the blackout, 9–11, all the storms, the…

OpenAI’s DALL-E 2‘s impressive drawings bolster a theory that computers are better than humans — that’s a lie. — Do you want to see an image of teddy bears mixing sparkling chemicals as mad scientists in a steampunk style? Next question: How many do you want? DALL-E 2, the upgraded artificial intelligence imagery program from OpenAI that can create unique images merely from written descriptions, can provide as many…

Pierre Poilievre is perfecting his populist pitch. Recent history shows it could work. — “Want to see a $5 million house here in Vancouver?” Canadian Conservative MP Pierre Poilievre asks at the start of a recent video. “Feast your eyes on the home of your dreams,” he says as the camera pans and he stands in front of a small, slightly dilapidated bungalow. His…

International sanctions are crushing Russia’s economy, but Russians may not fully know why — At Yale’s school of management, you’ll find a list of — at writing — over 300 companies that have either suspended their operations in Russia, otherwise limited their engagement in the country, or actively made it difficult for Russia/Russians to be part of the global market. The most recent major…

How a misunderstood viral political theory became a self-fulfilling prophecy — “Imagine having a take so bad that, 33 years later, TIME puts out a cover dunking on it without any specific citation to your work and yet everyone knows exactly what it’s a reference to,” someone quipped this week on Twitter. The TIME cover was this one — atop an…