Nvidia’s CEO has been taking calls from the president recently, including two days ago when he put Trump on speakerphone on a conference stage. Now CNBC reports Huang is expected to attend Trump’s state dinner next week with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Someone may be getting pretty nervous about AI and data center regulation!
AI commentary is frothy this week! Obama chimed in with a series of posts on X saying he’s neither an AI “accelerationist” nor a “doomer.” In a familiar tone from the former president, he cautioned that choices we make about technology “should not be made just by the companies involved, but by all of us.”
“We need government — and specifically our leaders in Washington — to get proactive in coming up with concrete proposals, laws, and regulations that deal with serious safety concerns,” Obama said.
I was dismayed to discover only 9% of US adults answered all eight questions correctly in the Pew Research Center’s basic quiz on the First Amendment. How well can you do? Hint: it’s a leash on government restriction of speech. With that, I’m sure you’ll score better than Brendan Carr.
[Pew Research Center]
Apple cleaned up on stage at last night’s Emmy Awards with big wins for Pluribus and Widow’s Bay. But new CEO John Ternus might have been even more excited about getting to show off the iPhone Duo.
Trump may have lost the aggression of David Sacks as AI czar, but he’s now picking up the baton. In another all-timer posted to Truth Social, Trump says the only guardrails AI needs can be provided by his “high IQ.” This comes right on the heels of AI leaders, including Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, who Trump maligns in his post, stating they want to slow down AI development for safety reasons.
Opposing AI and data centers? That could now make you look “treasonous” in Trump’s warped world.
It’s reportedly with the permission of the human announcers John Buccigross and Darren Pang who do in-game voiceovers. As a long-time player of the series I’m very curious what you think about this. For me, it seems like one of the best possible use cases for AI generation, considering it’s annoying to hear the exact same commentary over and over, and because there’s no possible way humans could record VO for every possible scenario.
On the 25th anniversary of 9/11, the former president, who became a painter in his retirement, just shared a self-portrait from his most fateful day. (He also has a new collection of paintings related to 9/11.) The original image depicts Bush receiving news of the attack from his chief of staff, as the president was reading a book to Florida schoolchildren. The “whisper” image has become a potent meme over the years.
City council meetings across the country have had wild characters for a while, but we’re now seeing literal villains show up in support of mass surveillance. A few weeks ago we saw Darth Vader show up in San Diego in support of Flock cameras, and now we have Dr. Doom showing up in Seattle claiming “total dominion” and that he’ll be watching the entire city.
Elon Musk’s lawyer Alex Spiro sent a legal threat to Alex Gibney and the production company behind the new Musk documentary, which so far is receiving strong reviews. We know very well by now that Musk’s “free speech” persona is just a cheap costume. The letter, described by THR, looks plainly like an intimidation device. At least Gibney doesn’t seem intimidated.
[The Hollywood Reporter]
Alex Gibney’s three-hour-plus documentary on Elon Musk is closer than the Moon. It’ll premiere at the Venice International Film Festival on September 8th. Here’s the first teaser: