Techmeme: How role-playing with an AI chatbot can help prepare for difficult conversations with family, friends, and colleagues, such as for terminating an employee (Wall Street Journal)

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May 5, 2024, 6:05 AM

Top News

Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:

Meta launches quote post controls for all Threads users, who can allow quotes from everyone on Threads, only the people they follow, or disable quote posts — Threads users can now exert more control over who can quote their posts. — This builds on a feature that already allows Threads users …

More: Neowin, Engadget, and NewsBytes

Threads: @mosseri, @dodgersfanpg, @danielthejew, @_davidking17_, @shaneblair8580, @codedrift.social, @ghostoflviv_, @darnell, and @documentingmeta. Mastodon: @stefan@stefanbohacek.online. Bluesky: @josh.uno

Jessica Lucas / The Verge:

Some teen users of Character.AI's chatbots say they find the AI companions helpful, entertaining, and supportive but worry they may be addicted to the chatbots — Teens are opening up to AI chatbots as a way to explore friendship. But sometimes, the AI's advice can go too far.

Mastodon: @mindful@mas.to. Bluesky: @hypervisible.bsky.social. Forums: r/technews

Tara Copp / Associated Press:

US Air Force plans a fleet of 1,000+ AI-controlled jets, the first of them operating by 2028; some AI versions already beat human pilots in air-to-air combat — With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of U.S. airpower.

More: Cryptopolitan. Mastodon: @WarnerCrocker@mastodon.social. X: @brij. LinkedIn: Steve Trimble, Dan Ward, Michael Kanaan, and Eric Manuel

Forums: r/Military, r/30ROCK, r/technews, r/politics, r/tech, r/news, r/technology, r/ABoringDystopia, and r/aviation

Wall Street Journal:

How role-playing with an AI chatbot can help prepare for difficult conversations with family, friends, and colleagues, such as for terminating an employee — Role-playing with an AI conversationalist can prepare you to handle difficult subjects with family, friends and colleagues

More: The Straits Times. X: @wsj and @melissakchan

Charlie Warzel / The Atlantic:

A profile of ElevenLabs, whose founders seem unprepared for how its impressive AI voice cloning tech can change the internet and unleash political chaos — My voice was ready. I'd been waiting, compulsively checking my inbox. I opened the email and scrolled until I saw a button that said, plainly, “Use voice.”

X: @dlberes, @iethics, @cwarzel, @saahil_desai, @jadubin5, @theatlantic, @iethics, and @scottnover

Oliver Whang / New York Times:

Some researchers are training AI models on headcam footage from infants and toddlers, to better understand language acquisition by both AI and children — Could a better understanding of how infants acquire language help us build smarter A.I. models? — We ask a lot of ourselves as babies.

More: Science. X: @altb56073878, @wkvong, @nytscience, @lakebrenden, @lakebrenden, @willknight, and @lakebrenden

Coco Feng / South China Morning Post:

Tens of thousands of overworked employees have left their jobs at China's largest tech companies in recent years, as the industry lost its growth momentum — - As of the end of 2023, China's BAT - Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent - had a combined total of 364,477 employees, a drop of nearly 25,000 from a year before

X: @jeff4malaysia and @tomorrownook

Muyao Shen / Bloomberg:

DEX Screener: the value of decentralized social platform Friend.tech's native token, the Friend, fell ~98% to below $2 after making its trading debut on May 3 — - “No one can figure out the tokenomics,” Delphi's Rinko says — Friend.tech's growth has been driven in part by trading bots

Rina Diane Caballar / IEEE Spectrum:

As CS students experiment with AI coding tools, professors say courses need to focus less on syntax and more on problem solving, design, testing, and debugging — Professors are shifting away from syntax and emphasizing higher-level skills — Generative AI is transforming the software development industry.

More: Hackread. Bluesky: @chickenpuppet.bsky.social. X: @infornomics, @josecamoessilva, @badlogicgames, and @ieeespectrum

LinkedIn: Dr. William Sayers and Matthew Sinclair. Forums: Hacker News

Ryan Weeks / Bloomberg:

Crypto startups embrace open-ended, rolling funding rounds that quickly lift valuations, as crypto funds seek to deploy unspent cash raised in 2021 and 2022 — - Startups are embracing so-called open-ended funding rounds — Venture funds are seeking to deploy previously static cash

More: Crypto Briefing. X: @ryanjamesweeks

Julie Tsirkin / NBC News:

Biden is expected to sign the REPORT Act next week; the bipartisan bill targets child sextortion online through new CSAM reporting requirements and more — Jordan DeMay, a 17-year-old who died by suicide in 2022, is one of a growing number of teens targeted by financial sextortion.

More: National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. Forums: r/UpliftingNews and r/technology

Rachel Metz / Bloomberg:

A look at Runway's second International AI Film Festival, which it says grew from 300 short-video submissions in 2023 to 3,000 in 2024 with 10 finalists chosen — Artificial intelligence has changed filmmaking a lot over the past year, even though the technology is just getting started. But first...

More: New York Post and IndieWire

X: @textually and @rachelmetz

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The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

From Mediagazer

Chris Roush / Talking Biz News:

WSJ journalists laid off amid consolidation of tech and media teams include Alexa Corse, Tom Dotan, Asa Fitch, Ben Fritz, Miles Kruppa, and Aaron Tilley

Oliver Darcy / Status:

Source: WaPo Publisher Will Lewis quietly met with Free Beacon EIC Eliana Johnson last month, where the two discussed recruiting conservative journalists

Variety:

Variety.com names Zack Sharf as managing editor; Sharf joined Variety in January 2022 as digital news director after seven years at IndieWire

More News

Cheng Ting-Fang / Nikkei Asia:

As chipmakers move into or expand in the region around Germany's Dresden, skeptics say more government subsidies, skilled workers, and end customers are needed

More: Frank Bösenberg on LinkedIn. LinkedIn: Jonas Sundqvist

Will Knight / Wired:

Q&A with Nick Bostrom on his book Deep Utopia: Life and Meaning in a Solved World, which considers a future in which AI solves all of humanity's problems

X: @bonybean, @terrorproforma, and @wired. LinkedIn: Dr. Quintin McGrath

Isabelle Bousquette / Wall Street Journal:

A look at AI companies gathering data from real people to create “digital twins”, to use as fashion models, focus group members, or clinical trial participants

More: Applied Clinical Trials, PharmaVoice, and arXiv

X: @charleskfisher, @charleskfisher, @charleskfisher, @danielcitron, @hamishbrock, @scribblevc, @miramurati, and @brox_ai

LinkedIn: Serge Suponitskiy, Douglas Weiss, and Rachel Kalmar

Tim Stelloh / NBC News:

Defense lawyers question the accuracy and reliability of Cybercheck, an AI tool used in thousands of US cases to identify suspects' locations and other details

Threads: @lllafalce, @hashimwarren, and @lavishtantrums

Mastodon: @dangillmor@mastodon.social, @civicwhitaker@mastodon …, @rmd1023@infosec.exchange, @gerrymcgovern@mastodon.green, and @Wolven@ourislandgeorgia.net

X: @timstelloh and @eff

LinkedIn: Merve Hickok and Heather M. Roff, PhD. Forums: r/boulder

Agence France-Presse:

Ukraine unveils an AI-generated foreign ministry spokesperson called Victoria Shi, who will make official statements “written and verified by real people”

More: PCMag, CryptoGlobe, New York Post, UkraineMFA on YouTube, BOOM, Aaron Korenewsky on LinkedIn, Daily Mail, Ground News, The Indian Express, and Forbes

Mastodon: @stefan@stefanbohacek.online. X: @rferl, @boomlive_in, @awkorenewsky, @thekaterpotater, @anno1540, @omkar_raii, @intengineering, @elbegdorj, @benjamindekr, @sergiykyslytsya, @mfa_ukraine, and @mfa_ukraine

Forums: r/technews and r/ukraine

Earlier Picks

Joanna Stern / Wall Street Journal:

Meta's Ray-Ban smart glasses are a simple, reliable, and smartly priced AI gadget, whereas Humane's AI Pin and the Rabbit R1 are more akin to science projects

More: The Verge, Spyglass, The Wall Street Journal on YouTube, and New York Post

Threads: @daultonvenglar, @joannastern, @brian_c_weaver_, @phillydesign, @joannastern, @daultonvenglar, and @joannastern

Mastodon: @carnage4life@mas.to and @joannastern@mastodon.world

X: @alexeheath, @tvanschadewijk, and @joannastern

Paul Sawers / TechCrunch:

Sources: Swedish PE firm EQT acquires a “significant majority” stake in WSO2, valuing the enterprise API and identity management company at “more than” $600M

More: Sanjiva Weerawarana, WSO2, and PR Newswire. LinkedIn: Sanjana Fernando

Wendy Lee / Los Angeles Times:

How the AI-generated music video for Washed Out's The Hardest Part was created entirely using OpenAI's Sora, a first from a major record label

Tom Warren / The Verge:

Microsoft outlines security principles and goals tied to executive compensation packages, following a scathing US Cyber Safety Review Board report in April 2024

More: Ars Technica, The Verge, Microsoft Security Blog, Runtime, Pixel Envy, The Official Microsoft Blog, GeekWire, Cybersecurity Dive, Axios, SiliconANGLE, WebProNews, OSnews, SecurityWeek, Thurrott, TechRadar, PCMag, CyberScoop, and GeekWire

Mastodon: @againsthimself@ioc.exchange. X: @msftsecurity, @tomwarren, @thurrott, @hackinglz, @frankmcg, @cisagov, @markrussinovich, @johnlatwc, @vasujakkal, @cisajen, @david_obrien, @ericgeller, @sherrod_im, @stonepwn3000, and @tomwarren

LinkedIn: Roger Halbheer, Antonio Hawkins, Roger Grimes, Rich Mogull, and Najat Messaoud

Forums: Hacker News and r/technews