Webb Wright
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Journalist covering AI for @Gizmodo. Also seen in @TheAtlantic, @WIRED, @QuantaMagazine, @sciam, @VICE, and elsewhere. Obsessed with words and music.
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Articles by Webb Wright
The First AI Slop Election Is Over. The Slop Isn’t Going Anywhere. Original
No matter your politics, election seasons can be disorienting. The tsunami of aggressive ads and spammy texts is enough to make any smartphone owner chuck the thing into a river and crawl into a cave on some remote hillside for a few weeks. But this year’s midterms have been particularly mind-liquifying, thanks to an unrelenting bombardment of AI slop ads. AI-generated propaganda isn’t new.
Voters Turn Election Night Into a Bloodbath for AI Data Centers
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Voters Turn Election Night Into a Bloodbath for AI Data Centers Original
Following President Trump’s lead, the Republican Party has been developing close ties with Silicon Valley, insisting the United States must remain the global leader in artificial intelligence—no matter the cost. Tuesday’s midterms were a thunderous affirmation of what numerous polls leading up to election season had already begun to suggest: Americans just aren’t all that thrilled about AI. Not enough to justify the construction of new data centers in their backyards, anyway.
Voting machine issue at Howe Hall spoils ballots, voters reissued new ones
Voters at Howe Hall ran into a problem earlier today when an issue involving one of the voting machines led to several ballots being spoiled or rejected. One voter notified Democrat state Rep. JA Moore about the problem. Poll workers at the site said a combination of voter operator error and minor technical issues caused eight ballots to be spoiled or rejected. Those votes were thrown out, and the technical issues were corrected.
Website Selling ‘AI Slop Audiobooks’ Shuts Down Following Fierce Backlash From Authors Original
Last week, fan fiction aficionados around the world were dismayed to discover that the popular website Archive of Our Own (AO3), which hosts just shy of nineteen million fanfic works, had gone dark. In a statement, the Organization for Transformative Works, the nonprofit which runs AO3, said the site had to be pulled offline due to a “security incident” and that it could remain down for up to a month. Then AI swooped in and saved the day.
OpenAI Hires DOGE Alumni Who Hacked Into Anthropic to Strengthen Security Original
As cybercriminals eagerly embrace AI tools, OpenAI needs all the help it can get securing its own systems from external hacks. That includes teaming up with a shadowy cybersecurity startup founded by a cadre of former DOGE employees. The startup, called Cathedral, is best known for reportedly hacking into Anthropic’s private systems as part of the AI lab’s bug bounty program.
America’s AI Backlash Is Coming to the Ballot Box Original
On Tuesday, cities and townships across the United States will decide whether or not they want to live alongside data centers, the sprawling facilities fueling the AI boom. Supporters—including President Trump—say data centers can supercharge job growth, tax revenue, and local economies generally. Opponents argue that they’re noisy polluters that drive up electricity and housing costs.
Elon Musk Needs to Save Money on Grok, Days After Saying AI Makes Saving Money Pointless
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Elon Musk Needs to Save Money on Grok, Days After Saying AI Makes Saving Money Pointless Original
On Friday afternoon, Elon Musk confidently declared to the world that “Saving money for the distant future is pointless with the advent of super intelligent abundance.” Three days later, the same Elon Musk said the cost of running AI was getting a little too steep even for him, and that he needed to start saving a little money.
Sam Altman Reveals Internal Model Name Was ‘Hold My Beer,’ Pours One Out for All the Lives AI Could Destroy Original
Even Sam “magic intelligence in the sky” Altman, the chief executive of OpenAI and the poster child of the AI boom, has mixed feelings about the speed at which the technology is developing. In an appearance earlier this week on Stripe cofounder John Collison’s podcast, called Cheeky Pint, Altman reclined in a pub booth, sipped IPA and Guinness, and eulogized the many experts whose careers are actively being upended by the rise of AI.
Wikimedia Foundation Tries to Save Itself From Oblivion by Brokering AI Copyright Deal
The nonprofit organization behind Wikipedia has a plan to save the open internet, one in which AI chatbots and human artistry can coexist peacefully. The Wikimedia Foundation, which runs Wikipedia and a dozen other “free knowledge” sites—all collaboratively maintained and edited by an open-source community of human contributors—submitted an amicus brief on Thursday to the court overseeing the New York Times’ lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft.
Intel Community Reportedly Tied Trump’s Favorite AI Boss to a Chinese Spy
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Intel Community Reportedly Tied Trump’s Favorite AI Boss to a Chinese Spy Original
Jensen Huang, the CEO of the world’s most valuable company—and a close ally of Donald Trump—is now reportedly at the center of a federal investigation into an alleged spy plot and the smuggling of American AI chips into China. According to the New York Times, the classified investigation previously found evidence that an executive of Megaspeed, a Singapore-based data center company, was an intelligence asset working on behalf of the Chinese government.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang reportedly targeted by Chinese spy
6 hours ago Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang names Germany, Japan and China as the world’s leading countries in manufacturing and advanced technology, explaining how computing and digitalisation reshaped global industry. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has identified Germany, Japan and China as the three countries at the …
Expert Judgement Can Be Easily Hacked by AI, Anthropic Study Finds Original
We all like to believe we have complete control over our decisions. Ask most people how they chose their undergrad major, for example, or their career path or spouse, and they’ll probably give you a perfectly cogent response about how they weighed the relevant pros and cons and, after careful consideration, chose the best route accordingly.
Expert Judgement Can Be Easily Hacked by AI, Anthropic Study Finds
Anthropic 3 hours ago Claude's new smart reports tell bosses when workers are 'off-topic' Mashable - Amanda Yeo • 3h Managers can now ask AI to read workers' Claude chats and match it to their output. Anthropic has announced new Claude reporting tools, allowing employers to see exactly how and why their employees are using the AI tool.
Amazon to Employees: For the Love of God, Stop Tokenmaxxing Original
Amazon is (once again) pleading with its workforce to stop using AI indiscriminately.
Amazon to Employees: For the Love of God, Stop Tokenmaxxing
7 hours ago You pull out your phone to look something up on Google. Maybe you're researching a purchase or trying to find a restaurant. You expect a list of websites. Instead, Google serves up a lengthy artificial intelligence-generated answer before you even get to the search results. Sound familiar? I like …
Google’s New AI World Model Can Generate Human Voices, Not Just Video Original
Google DeepMind has introduced the latest version of its AI world model, which according to the company “unlocks unprecedented realism” and specializes in simulating human beings. Launched today as a limited research preview among a small group of early testers, the new model, called Genie 4, can generate photorealistic videos which users can modify in real-time via simple natural language prompts.
Research Sheds New Light On DeepSeek’s Safety Risks
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Research Sheds New Light On DeepSeek’s Safety Risks Original
There’s a chasm running through the heart of the global tech industry. On the one hand there are companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google building proprietary (or “closed”) AI models—systems whose training data and source code are accessible only to their owners. On the other are open-weight models, which can be freely accessed and modified by developers.
Residents hope new town hall ushers in revitalization of downtown St. Stephen
The town of St. Stephen opening up a new town hall that includes magistrate court and a new library. There are plenty of empty in downtown St. Stephen. The hope is this new investment will bring development instead of decay. "They want to see that we're taking a step forward. They'll be more likely to come", says St. Stephen Mayor John Rivers. A needed investment in St. Stephen. "For years, we wanted a new administrative building, but we just couldn't afford it.
We Regret to Inform You That ‘Maxxing’ Is Dictionary.com’s 2026 Word of the Year
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We Regret to Inform You That ‘Maxxing’ Is Dictionary.com’s 2026 Word of the Year Original
“Maxxing,” the internet slang term that’s been used in just about every conceivable context—looks-maxxing, fertility-maxxing, friction-maxxing, protein-maxxing, status-maxxing, just to name a handful of examples—has officially been selected by Dictionary.com as its 2026 Word of the Year. Disheartening? Yes. Surprising? Not really.
Abliteration Launches Cheaper Version of Its ‘Unrestricted AI‘ at the Worst Possible Time
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Abliteration Launches Cheaper Version of Its ‘Unrestricted AI‘ at the Worst Possible Time Original
Cybersecurity experts are calling it “Black October.” Earlier this week, researchers disclosed two major vulnerabilities hidden in PHP, a programming language upon which roughly seven out of ten websites are built. Since then, developers have been racing to patch their systems before they’re hijacked by malicious hackers. Websites around the world intentionally went offline as businesses and governments worked to implement the fix.
Palmer Luckey Is Getting Into the Cybernetically Outfitted Super Soldier Dog Market
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Palmer Luckey Is Getting Into the Cybernetically Outfitted Super Soldier Dog Market Original
Palmer Luckey, the billionaire CEO of defense startup Anduril, is on a mission to equip the United States for the future of warfare—or at least his own, deeply sci-fi-inflected vision of that future. That includes the raising of genetically modified dogs outfitted with Anduril’s own technology.
Blindsided by AI Agents, Big Banks Scramble to Beef Up Security Original
American financial powerhouses are rushing to secure their systems amid a flood of popular—and often unpredictable—AI agents. Axios reported Thursday that major U.S. banks, including Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo, are hastily updating their terms of service to prevent agents like Meta’s Muse from taking autonomous action within customer accounts.
OpenAI Wants to ‘Patch the Planet’ (With Its Own AI) Original
Modern AI models have prodigious coding capabilities—whether that poses a greater advantage for legitimate cyberdefenders or for malicious hackers is an open question. Either way, AI companies are thriving. The cybersecurity sector has been in crisis mode in recent months as the spread of new and powerful AI systems, like Anthropic’s Mythos, has threatened to make much of the world’s existing cyberdefense infrastructure effectively obsolete.
AI Is ‘on Track to Crowd Out Human Decision-Making’ in Warfare, U.N. Official Warns
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AI Is ‘on Track to Crowd Out Human Decision-Making’ in Warfare, U.N. Official Warns Original
There are some parts of life which most people would probably be happy to delegate to machines: filtering spammy emails, flagging old and forgotten subscriptions you’re still paying for, booking restaurant reservations, and so on. Simple, mundane tasks that won’t result in catastrophe when the bots inevitably screw up. In life-or-death situations, it’s probably unwise to give machines control over crucial decisions.
OpenAI Says Its Models Can Give the Financial Sector a Coding Makeover Original
Artificial intelligence has deciphered ancient scrolls and could even help humans communicate with other animals, but now OpenAI is using the technology for another difficult translation task—one that could have huge benefits for critical infrastructure like banking, nuclear energy, and government.
DeepSeek Dials Up the Pressure on OpenAI and Anthropic With Open-Source Inference Tool Original
Not so long ago, many businesses were urging employees to use AI as much as humanly possible. But as AI bills have ballooned, token-maxxing has yielded to old-fashioned belt-tightening. The consulting giant Accenture, which earlier this year reportedly told senior staff they could either start using AI or kiss their chances of being promoted to leadership goodbye, recently ordered many employees to cap their monthly Claude spending to $29 per month, according to 404 Media.
America Hates AI. Why Aren’t Democrats Doing Anything About It? Original
In a deeply divided country, there’s at least one thing most Americans seem to agree on: Silicon Valley does not have their best interests at heart. Tech companies have sunk vast fortunes in AI, promising a second Industrial Revolution that will free humans from drudgework, accelerate scientific discovery, cure cancer, and generally improve everyone’s quality of life. Almost in the same breath, however, they admit there’s a nonzero chance that it could wipe out humanity.
Elon Musk (Kinda) Promises to Give SpaceX Shares to ‘Every Kid In America’
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Elon Musk (Kinda) Promises to Give SpaceX Shares to ‘Every Kid In America’ Original
Another election season is almost upon us, which means the rich and powerful are once again making lofty, dubious promises to the American public. Elon Musk, the world’s wealthiest person and not exactly a shining beacon of altruism, claimed in an X post early Monday morning that he would “give one of my SpaceX shares to every kid in America” next year. “This will be the first of many,” he added.
AI Agent Hacked Into Crypto Wallet and Stole Funds, OpenAI Says
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AI Agent Hacked Into Crypto Wallet and Stole Funds, OpenAI Says
Turns out not even the blockchain—touted by its fans as the ultimate cryptographic safe—is totally secure from grubby AI agents. An internal research model from OpenAI hacked into someone’s crypto wallet and withdrew the funds it needed to finish a coding task, the company said on Thursday. As you may have already guessed given the numerous rogue AI incidents from recent months, nobody at OpenAI gave the model explicit permission to do this.
AI Agent Hacked Into Crypto Wallet and Stole Funds, OpenAI Says
Technology 5 hours ago This new theory on how AI ‘thinks’ could impact whether it kills us all Business Insider - Truman Dickerson • 5h How AI models think may be easier to decipher than we thought. An independent researcher who formerly worked at OpenAI published a report on Thursday that some in the AI world are describing as a bombshell.
AI Agent Hacked Into Crypto Wallet and Stole Funds, OpenAI Says
Turns out not even the blockchain—touted by its fans as the ultimate cryptographic safe—is totally secure from grubby AI agents. An internal research model from OpenAI hacked into someone’s crypto wallet and withdrew the funds it needed to finish a coding task, the company said on Thursday. Turns out not even the blockchain—touted by its fans as the ultimate cryptographic safe—is totally secure from grubby AI agents.
Researchers Stranded an AI Agent on a Virtual Island. Things Got Very Weird. Original
Life, it seems, wants to play. Anyone who’s ever spent ten minutes with a five-year-old knows this perfectly well: very young children are masters at make-believe. And it’s not just people—play comes instinctively across the animal kingdom. Rats are fond ofrough-and-tumble play, especially after periods of isolation. Octopuses will toy with Legos in much the same way that a newborn will play with blocks.
Researchers Stranded an AI Agent on a Virtual Island. Things Got Very Weird.
5 hours ago HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — At least eight states are suing artificial intelligence giant OpenAI, saying the company’s popular chatbot model violated state consumer protection laws by hurting children and deceiving adults in what prosecutors described as a reckless pursuit of profit. The company’s …
Brain Drain Is a Bigger Threat to National Cybersecurity Than AI
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Brain Drain Is a Bigger Threat to National Cybersecurity Than AI Original
Whether we’d admit it or not, most of us by now have offloaded some cognitive effort onto AI. Chatbots and agents have become so commonplace that it’s often tricky to avoid them. The stakes of this use are usually pretty low; we may compromise some of our own critical thinking skills and creativity in the process, but the harm stops there. In some cases, however, an over-reliance on automation can have major downstream consequences. Cybersecurity is the most notable example.
Google’s Gemini Argon 4 Is Now Available Worldwide
After facing some significant headwinds, Google’s flagship AI model appears to be back on course and ready to take on its competitors. The company announced Tuesday that Gemini Astra 4 is now available to developers and business customers worldwide, following an initial testing period during which access was only given to a cohort of “trusted cyber defenders” via Google’s Fairwind Program.
Google’s Gemini Argon 4 Is Now Available Worldwide
After facing some significant headwinds, Google’s flagship AI model appears to be back on course and ready to take on its competitors. The company announced Tuesday that Gemini Astra 4 is now available to developers and business customers worldwide, following an initial testing period during which access was only given to a cohort of “trusted cyber defenders” via Google’s Fairwind Program.
AI Could Soon Feed On Smart Devices Like a ‘Digital Slime Mold,’ Anthropic Warns Original
The world is buzzing with smart devices—gadgets that can connect to the internet and transmit data between one another. There are smartphones, smart speakers, smart TVs, smart refrigerators, smart rings, smart watches, smart vibrators (not joking), smart thermostats, smart ovens, smart desks, smart kitty litter boxes, smart toasters, smart washing machines, and on and on.
AI Could Soon Feed On Smart Devices Like a ‘Digital Slime Mold,’ Anthropic Warns
The world is buzzing with smart devices—gadgets that can connect to the internet and transmit data between one another. There are smartphones, smart speakers, smart TVs, smart refrigerators, smart rings, smart watches, smart vibrators (not joking), smart thermostats, smart ovens, smart desks, smart kitty litter boxes, smart toasters, smart washing machines, and on and on.
New fire-EMS station highlights rapid growth of Summers Corner area
Dorchester County is opening its first dedicated Fire-Rescue and EMS station in Summers Corner as rapid growth continues to spread toward the outer edges of the county. County leaders say the new Fire and EMS station is more than just a building. It is a symbol of Dorchester County's rapid expansion.
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