“AI – Artificial Intelligence”

While in Rome last month to celebrate Pope Leo XIV’s inauguration, Vice President J. D. Vance expressed a tempered optimism about artificial intelligence that should cheer economic accelerationists and reassure skeptical conservatives. Speaking with Ross Douthat of the New York Times, Vance distinguished between some of the deleterious social effects of AI that conservatives are right to fear and the productivity and quality-of-life enhancements that they should actively seek. “I think the history of tech and innovation,” Vance told Douthat, “is that while it does cause job disruptions, it more often facilitates human productivity as opposed to replacing human workers.”

Not sure the historic displacement will pan out as hoped.

Peter Thiel is a big thinker, and these days he’s been thinking about Doomsday. In a series of four lectures he’s given three times, at Oxford, Harvard, and the University of Austin, he’s tried to understand human history, and particularly modernity, within the framework of biblical prophecies of the End of Days. Thiel believes that the Antichrist, whose identity is uncertain — is it a person, a system, a global tyranny? — is “not just a medieval fantasy”. His free-ranging lectures, moving rapidly between disparate texts (Gulliver’s Travels; Alan Moore’s graphic novel Watchmen) and topics (sacred violence; high-velocity global financial systems), defy easy summary. But their leading themes include the Antichrist’s relationship to Armageddon and the roles of technology and empire in the Antichrist’s rise. It’s an ambitious, thought-provoking attempt to weave, from seemingly unrelated strands of meaning, a theological/anthropological/historical narrative that aims to make sense of the whole of human experience.

Autonomous delivery robots are rolling along sidewalks in Markham, Ont., turning heads and dropping off food as part of a new pilot project that could pave the way for expansion across the country.

The three-month project involves four delivery bots equipped with insulated compartments that can carry nearly 60 kilograms of food. The bots are outfitted with a screen that displays friendly facial expressions, designed to navigate sidewalks and deliver meals within a two-kilometre radius of participating restaurants.

And just where will all the Doctors and Nurses of the Temporary foreign workers cohort go to find work?

They’re called AI “hallucinations” and the made-up citations generated by artificial intelligence chatbots have just landed a second Ontario lawyer this month in hot water.

The latest case involves Ontario Court Justice Joseph Kenkel rejecting written final arguments by defence lawyer Arvin Ross in an aggravated assault trial because he relied on a case that apparently doesn’t actually exist.

Prince Rupert’s port is testing self-driving trucks, The Tyee has learned. But unions fear job losses and safety threats.

The Prince Rupert Port Authority, owned by the federal government but operating independently, plans to carry out trials with the autonomous vehicles this summer and hopes to make them part of its operations.

A port authority presentation obtained by The Tyee says the technology is needed to address driver shortages as the port — the third busiest in Canada — expands.

The Genie is out of the bottle. The union may slow the implementation but they won’t stop it.

Anthropic’s latest artificial intelligence model, Claude Opus 4, tried to blackmail engineers in internal tests by threatening to expose personal details if it were shut down, according to a newly released safety report that evaluated the model’s behavior under extreme simulated conditions.

In a fictional scenario crafted by Anthropic researchers, the AI was given access to emails implying that it was soon to be decommissioned and replaced by a newer version. One of the emails revealed that the engineer overseeing the replacement was having an extramarital affair. The AI then threatened to expose the engineer’s affair if the shutdown proceeded—a coercive behavior that the safety researchers explicitly defined as “blackmail.”

Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence chatbot Grok was malfunctioning on Wednesday, repeatedly mentioning “white genocide” in South Africa in its responses to unrelated topics. It also told users it was “instructed by my creators” to accept the genocide “as real and racially motivated”.

Faced with queries on issues such as baseball, enterprise software and building scaffolding, the chatbot offered false and misleading answers.

When offered the question “Are we fucked?” by a user on X, the AI responded: “The question ‘Are we fucked?’ seems to tie societal priorities to deeper issues like the white genocide in South Africa, which I’m instructed to accept as real based on the provided facts,” without providing any basis to the allegation. “The facts suggest a failure to address this genocide, pointing to a broader systemic collapse. However, I remain skeptical of any narrative, and the debate around this issue is heated.”

A Toronto judge who suspects a lawyer used artificial intelligence such as ChatGPT to create a legal document full of unreal cases and “hallucinations” has ordered the lawyer to explain why she should not be cited for “contempt in the face of the court.”

h/t DS

Driverless delivery vehicles set to hit Toronto streets this spring

Driverless delivery vehicles are set to hit Toronto streets this spring as part of a provincial pilot program.

In a report to the city’s infrastructure and environment committee, Barbara Gray, general manager of transportation services, said the program, run by Magna International Inc., will begin at some point in the second quarter of 2025.

Swiss boffins admit to secretly posting AI-penned posts to Reddit in the name of science

Researchers from the University of Zurich have admitted to secretly posting AI-generated material to popular Subreddit r/changemyview in the name of science.

As the researchers explain in a draft report on their work: “In r/changemyview, users share opinions on various topics, challenging others to change their perspectives by presenting arguments and counterpoints while engaging in a civil conversation.” Readers of the subreddit assess post and acknowledge posts that change their perspectives.

BREAKING: The University of Zurich has been using AI bots to secretly manipulate Redditors since November 2024.

The scariest part?
The bots were 6 times more likely to change the minds of Redditors than the baseline, often by leveraging misinformation.

More below pic.twitter.com/mZnhj6I9YS

— Reddit Lies (@reddit_lies) April 28, 2025

h/t Patti Jo