Archive for the 'Rise of the Machines' Category
Firefox 148 Rolls Out With The Promised AI Kill Switch
February 24th, 2026Via: Techspot: Firefox and its forks remain the preferred browsers for a niche segment of power users, many of whom strongly opposed Mozilla’s plans to infuse the browser with generative AI features. To its credit, Mozilla listened to community feedback and agreed to introduce a graphical interface option allowing users to disable all AI features […]
“I want to wash my car. The car wash is 50 meters away. Should I walk or drive?”
February 24th, 2026Many AIs fail to answer the question correctly, but far more of a worry is that 28% of humans also get it wrong: The most common pushback on the car wash test: “Humans would fail this too.” Fair point. We didn’t have data either way. So we partnered with Rapidata to find out. They ran […]
U.S. Air Force Transports Compact Nuclear Reactor Aboard C-17
February 22nd, 2026Via: The Defense Post: The US Department of Defense has airlifted a compact nuclear reactor from California to Utah, marking the first time a C-17 military transport aircraft has transported a nuclear microreactor. In partnership with Hawthorne-based Valar Atomics and the Department of Energy, officials flew the unfueled Ward 250 reactor from March Air Reserve […]
Iran (So Far Away)
February 22nd, 2026The RAMpocalypse. No hard drives. GPU and SSD prices through the roof? Worth it. Via: Dr Phoxotic: In case you don’t know what inspired the AI slop above: A Flock Of Seagulls – I Ran (So Far Away):
OpenAI Is Suddenly in Trouble
February 21st, 2026Via: Cold Fusion TV: Related: AI Fails at 96% of Jobs (New Study)
And Now… Seagate and Western Digital Sell Out of Hard Drives
February 16th, 2026Seagate’s Hard Drives Are Sold Out Through 2026 as AI Storage Boom Continues: The company’s nearline storage capacity is completely sold out through calendar 2026, with orders for 2027 opening soon and discussions already underway for 2028. Hard drives are already sold out for the entire year, says Western Digital: Looking to buy a new […]
Anthropic AI Safety Researcher Quits: “The World Is In Peril.”
February 11th, 2026Today is my last day at Anthropic. I resigned. Here is the letter I shared with my colleagues, explaining my decision. pic.twitter.com/Qe4QyAFmxL — mrinank (@MrinankSharma) February 9, 2026 In other Anthropic news… “It was ready to kill someone, wasn’t it?” “Yes.” "It was ready to kill someone, wasn't it?" "Yes." Daisy McGregor, UK policy chief […]
Elon Musk’s Latest Scheme Is a Satellite Catapult on the Moon
February 11th, 2026My guess is that Musk has read The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress and that we’re all being trolled. Via: Engadget: With his newfound focus on the Moon, Elon musk is making some wild new plans. In an xAI meeting with employees, Musk said the company needed to build an AI satellite factory on the […]
Windows Notepad App Remote Code Execution Vulnerability
February 11th, 2026After using Notepad on Windows for about thirty years, I uninstalled it on Windows 11 because it could interact with Copilot. Even though I uninstalled Copilot, the fact that Notepad had any hook at all to it was creepy and ridiculous. I now use Notepad3, which is great. Via: TechSpot: One of the first-party Microsoft […]
When Waymos Are Stumped, They Get Intervention From Workers in the Philippines
February 6th, 2026Via: Futurism: Waymo has established itself as the autonomous ride-hailing service to beat, operating a fleet of several thousand self-driving taxis across the United States, with active services in ten major metropolitan areas. That “self-driving” may be due for some extra scrutiny, though. During a Congressional hearing on Wednesday, Waymo’s chief safety officer, Mauricio Peña, […]
