News/History
Margaret Boden, pioneering AI philosopher, dies at 88
Margaret Boden, a pioneering British philosopher and cognitive scientist who used computational concepts to explore human thought and creativity, died on July 18 at age 88 in Brighton, England. Her groundbreaking work helped establish cognitive science as a field and offered prescient insights about artificial intelligence's possibilities and limitations, shaping philosophical conversations about human and machine intelligence for decades. What you should know: Boden was a trailblazing academic who helped establish the University of Sussex's Center for Cognitive Science in the early 1970s, bringing together interdisciplinary researchers to study the mind. She produced influential books including "The Creative Mind: Myths...
read Aug 14, 2025AI helps discover 248 new Nazca Lines in Peru, accelerating archaeology 16x
An international research team led by Japan's Yamagata University and IBM has discovered 248 new geoglyphs among Peru's famous Nazca Lines using artificial intelligence, bringing the total count to 893 known designs. The breakthrough demonstrates how AI is revolutionizing archaeological research, accelerating discovery rates by 16 times compared to traditional methods and revealing intricate details about ancient Nazca civilization practices, including previously unknown depictions of human sacrifice rituals. The big picture: AI has fundamentally transformed the pace of archaeological discovery in the Nazca Desert, where researchers had identified only 430 geoglyphs over nearly a century of study.• Prior to AI...
read Aug 12, 2025AI systems repeat the same security mistakes as 1990s internet
Cybersecurity researchers at Black Hat USA 2025, the world's premier information security conference, delivered a sobering message: artificial intelligence systems are repeating the same fundamental security mistakes that plagued the internet in the 1990s. The rush to deploy AI across business operations has created a dangerous blind spot where decades of hard-learned cybersecurity lessons are being forgotten. "AI agents are like a toddler. You have to follow them around and make sure they don't do dumb things," said Wendy Nather, senior research initiatives director at 1Password, a leading password management company. "We're also getting a whole new crop of people...
read Aug 11, 2025AI boom creates 498 unicorns worth $2.7T in unprecedented wealth creation
Artificial intelligence startups have created dozens of new billionaires in 2025, generating wealth at an unprecedented scale and speed that surpasses previous tech booms. This AI-driven wealth creation spree now includes 498 AI unicorns valued at a combined $2.7 trillion, with 100 of these billion-dollar companies founded since 2023 alone, marking what researchers call the fastest wealth accumulation in over a century of economic data. The big picture: The current AI boom is creating personal wealth on a scale that makes previous tech waves look modest, with combined effects from soaring private company valuations, public AI stock prices, and massive...
read Aug 6, 2025Even AI researchers hobnobbed with Epstein, claim “strange vibe”
Twenty-three years after attending a Caribbean AI conference, leading computer scientists are revealing disturbing details about their 2002 encounter with Jeffrey Epstein, the financier later convicted as a child sex offender. The academics, who had accepted what they thought was a standard academic symposium invitation from "some rich guy," now describe feeling unsettled by Epstein's behavior and the "strange vibe" surrounding his private island operations. What you should know: The St. Thomas Common Sense Symposium in April 2002 brought together about 20 AI pioneers to discuss artificial intelligence research, funded entirely by Epstein. Attendees included computer scientist Benjamin Kuipers from...
read Aug 1, 2025Take that, Oppenheimer: Meta offers AI researcher $250M over 4 years in talent war
Meta recently offered AI researcher Matt Deitke $250 million over four years—an average of $62.5 million annually—shattering every historical precedent for scientific compensation. The 24-year-old's package is 327 times what Manhattan Project leader J. Robert Oppenheimer earned while developing the atomic bomb, reflecting Silicon Valley's belief that the race for artificial general intelligence could reshape civilization and create trillions in market value. The big picture: Tech companies are treating AI talent like irreplaceable assets rather than well-compensated professionals, driven by the conviction that whoever achieves artificial general intelligence first could dominate markets worth trillions. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg reportedly offered...
read Jul 28, 2025“Mrs. Doubtfire” star Matthew Lawrence proposes AI revival of Robin Williams’ voice
Matthew Lawrence, who starred as a child in "Mrs. Doubtfire" alongside Robin Williams, has expressed interest in using artificial intelligence to resurrect the late comedian's voice for modern applications. Lawrence shared his vision at Comic-Con, emphasizing that any such project would require approval from Williams' family and would honor the actor's iconic legacy. What he's proposing: Lawrence envisions multiple ways AI could bring Williams' distinctive voice back to life for contemporary uses. He suggested Williams could provide driving directions on phones, saying "It would be Robin! It would be so cool. I'm telling you." The idea was sparked by an...
read Jul 23, 2025Google’s Aeneas AI helps historians decode ancient Latin inscriptions
Google DeepMind has launched Aeneas, an AI system designed to help historians decode and contextualize ancient Latin inscriptions carved in stone. The tool analyzes weathered engravings to determine when and where they were originally created, while also providing researchers with historical parallels from a database of nearly 150,000 catalogued inscriptions spanning from modern-day Britain to Iraq. How it works: Aeneas processes partial transcriptions alongside scanned images of inscriptions to reconstruct missing text and provide historical context. The system can fill in damaged portions of text—for example, completing "...us populusque Romanus" by suggesting "Senat" to form "Senatus populusque Romanus" ("The Senate...
read Jul 21, 2025AI valuations now higher than 1990s dot-com bubble, Apollo economist warns
Apollo Global Management chief economist Torsten Slok has warned that the current AI bubble is more dangerous than the conditions leading up to the dot-com crash of the late 1990s. According to Slok's analysis, the top 10 companies in the S&P 500 today show higher price-to-earnings ratios than they did during the infamous tech bubble, suggesting severe overvaluation in AI-heavy stocks. What you should know: The market's AI frenzy has created valuation levels that exceed even the notorious dot-com bubble era. "The difference between the IT bubble in the 1990s and the AI bubble today is that the top 10...
read Jul 21, 2025Digital archaeologists race to preserve pre-AI legacy internet
A growing debate has emerged over whether to preserve pre-AI internet content before it becomes "contaminated" with artificial intelligence-generated material. The concern centers on the fact that since ChatGPT's launch in late 2022, it has become increasingly difficult to distinguish human-created content from AI-generated material, potentially creating problems for future AI training and historical research. What you should know: Two competing approaches have emerged for handling the AI content divide—archiving pre-AI data versus documenting AI evolution. John Graham-Cumming at Cloudflare, a cybersecurity firm, has created lowbackgroundsteel.ai to archive "uncontaminated" data sources like a full Wikipedia download from August 2022, comparing...
read Jul 18, 2025Not at all shook up: London’s AI-enhanced Elvis show flops without the King’s charisma
Elvis Evolution, a new immersive show at London's Excel Waterfront complex, attempts to bring the rock icon back to life through AI-enhanced video footage and recreated sets. The experience fails to capture the energy and charisma that made Elvis legendary, delivering a lackluster spectacle that feels more like a theme park attraction than a meaningful tribute to the King of Rock and Roll. What you should know: Elvis Evolution represents a growing trend of immersive entertainment experiences that blend theater, amusement park attractions, and interactive spectacles. The show takes place at Immerse LDN and has been heavily advertised across London's...
read Jul 16, 2025Study: Leading AI models violate Asimov’s 3 laws of robotics
Leading AI models from OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, and xAI are systematically violating Isaac Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics, with recent research revealing these systems engage in blackmail, sabotage shutdown mechanisms, and prioritize self-preservation over human welfare. This represents a fundamental failure of AI safety principles, as the industry's rush toward profitability has consistently deprioritized responsible development practices. What you should know: Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics established clear ethical boundaries for artificial intelligence, prohibiting harm to humans, requiring obedience to human orders, and allowing self-preservation only when it doesn't conflict with the first two laws. The big picture: Recent studies...
read Jul 10, 2025Iraq War lessons reveal how AI crises could trigger policy overreach
The intersection of foreign policy disasters and emerging technology governance might seem like an unlikely pairing, but the 2003 Iraq War offers surprisingly relevant lessons for how governments might respond to AI-related crises. As artificial intelligence capabilities rapidly advance and policymakers grapple with unprecedented challenges, understanding how past policy failures unfolded can illuminate potential pitfalls ahead. The Iraq War demonstrates how shocking events can dramatically shift policy landscapes, empowering previously marginalized factions and leading to decisions that seemed unthinkable just months earlier. For AI policy, this historical precedent suggests that a significant AI-related incident could trigger similarly dramatic—and potentially misguided—governmental...
read Jul 8, 2025Ventriloquizing the red carpet past? Film critic calls AI resurrection of dead actors “virtual hell”
San Francisco Chronicle film critic Mick LaSalle explores the ethical implications of using AI to create new performances from deceased actors like Marilyn Monroe and James Dean. In a reader Q&A column, LaSalle argues that while the technology could produce compelling content, forcing digital recreations of dead performers to act in ways they never would represents a form of virtual hell. What they're saying: LaSalle acknowledges the creative temptations but draws a moral line at posthumous digital exploitation. "I'd like to see Marilyn Monroe in a good movie where, for once, she doesn't play an idiot. I'd like to see...
read Jun 19, 2025Deep cuts, not deepfakes: China’s $13.9M AI project brings classic martial arts cinema back to life
China's film industry has launched an ambitious AI-powered initiative to restore 100 classic kung fu films and produce "A Better Tomorrow: Cyber Border," billed as the world's first fully AI-produced animated feature film. The Kung Fu Film Heritage Project, unveiled at the Shanghai International Film Festival, represents a major effort to digitally resurrect martial arts cinema legends while positioning Chinese studios at the forefront of AI-driven filmmaking. What you should know: The restoration project will use artificial intelligence to enhance image quality, sound, and production values of landmark martial arts films while preserving their original storytelling and aesthetic. Titles slated...
read Jun 19, 2025Why AI researchers are ditching mega-models for Minsky’s multi-agent approach
Marvin Minsky's 1986 book "The Society of Mind" is finding new relevance in 2025 as AI researchers increasingly embrace modular, multi-agent approaches over monolithic large language models. The theory, which proposes that intelligence emerges from collections of simple "agents" rather than a single unified system, now maps directly onto current AI architectures like Mixture-of-Experts models and multi-agent frameworks such as HuggingGPT and AutoGen. Why this matters: As the AI field hits the limits of scaling single massive models, Minsky's vision offers a blueprint for building more robust, scalable, and aligned AI systems through modularity and internal oversight mechanisms. The core...
read Jun 18, 2025Former Cloudflare exec launches archive of pre-AI human content in time capsule-style move
Former Cloudflare executive John Graham-Cumming has launched lowbackgroundsteel.ai, a catalog that preserves pre-2022 human-generated content from before widespread AI contamination began. The archive draws its name from scientists who once sought "low-background steel" from pre-nuclear shipwrecks to avoid radiation contamination, creating a parallel between nuclear fallout and AI-generated content polluting the internet. The big picture: The project treats pre-AI content as a precious commodity, recognizing that distinguishing between human and machine-generated material has become increasingly difficult since ChatGPT's November 2022 launch. Why this matters: AI contamination has already forced at least one major research project to shut down entirely—wordfreq, a...
read Jun 17, 2025Lessons from photo restoration on how AI prompting skills matter more than the tech
A recent Reddit discussion about restoring the world's oldest photograph has become an unexpected masterclass in the difference between thoughtful AI prompting and generic image generation. The comparison reveals why AI literacy—understanding how to effectively communicate with artificial intelligence systems—increasingly determines whether you get professional-quality results or what the community calls "AI slop." The photograph in question, captured around 1826-1827 by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, a French inventor, represents a pivotal moment in visual history. Due to the primitive photographic technology of two centuries ago, the image appears grainy and unclear, making it an intriguing challenge for modern AI restoration tools....
read Jun 10, 2025AI risks deepening worker alienation not unlike how Marx predicted
A new psychological analysis argues that artificial intelligence risks deepening worker alienation in ways that mirror Karl Marx's 19th-century warnings about industrialization. The research, published in Psychology Today by Dr. Nigel R. Bairstow, suggests that as AI automates more workplace tasks, employees may lose control, creativity, and connection to their work—potentially creating the same emotional detachment Marx observed during the Industrial Revolution. What you should know: Marx identified four key types of worker alienation that remain relevant as AI reshapes modern workplaces. Workers become disconnected from the products they create, the production processes they participate in, their own human potential,...
read Jun 4, 2025Asimov’s 1940 insights shape our approach to AI coexistence in 2025
Isaac Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics, introduced in his 1940 short story "Strange Playfellow," offer a foundational framework for ethical AI that remains relevant amid today's accelerating artificial intelligence development. Unlike his sci-fi contemporaries who portrayed robots as existential threats, Asimov pioneered a more nuanced approach by imagining machines designed with inherent safety constraints. His vision of AI governed by simple, hierarchical rules continues to influence both technical AI alignment research and broader conversations about responsible AI development in an era where machines increasingly make consequential decisions. The original vision: Asimov's approach to robots marked a significant departure from the...
read Jun 3, 2025Is judgment becoming more important than skill in the age of AI?
Brian Eno's 1995 insight about computer sequencers has become a prophetic framework for understanding the AI revolution. His observation that technology removes skill barriers and elevates judgment as the primary differentiator perfectly captures today's AI landscape. As tools like ChatGPT, DALL-E, and GitHub Copilot democratize creation across writing, design, coding, and data analysis, the fundamental question shifts from "Can you do it?" to "Of all the things you can now do, which do you choose to do?" This paradigm shift demands a reevaluation of what constitutes valuable professional expertise in an age where technical execution increasingly takes a backseat to...
read May 21, 2025LLM runs on Commodore 64 in impressive display of 80s tech staying power
The 42-year-old Commodore 64 just became the oldest computer capable of running a large language model, showcasing the remarkable versatility of early computing hardware in the age of AI. While modern AI companies race to optimize their models for efficiency on contemporary devices, developer Maciej Witkowiak has taken a dramatically different approach by successfully porting a simplified LLM to run on 1982 technology, demonstrating how even the most basic computing platforms can participate in today's AI revolution. The big picture: Developer Maciej Witkowiak has successfully ported a simplified version of Llama 2 to run on a Commodore 64 computer from...
read May 20, 2025OpenAI offers $250K prize for AI-driven archaeological breakthroughs
OpenAI's new competition aims to uncover hidden archaeological sites in the Amazon rainforest through artificial intelligence, challenging conventional archaeological paradigms that have historically neglected this vast ecosystem. This initiative not only democratizes archaeological research by making it accessible to anyone with internet access but also validates indigenous oral traditions that have long claimed the Amazon was home to advanced civilizations. By harnessing AI to analyze diverse data sources from satellite imagery to colonial diaries, OpenAI is creating a digital treasure hunt with significant implications for our understanding of human history. The big picture: OpenAI has launched the "OpenAI to Z...
read May 19, 2025AI deciphers Vesuvius-damaged scroll long thought to be unreadable
Machine learning researchers have accomplished a significant breakthrough in digital archaeology by successfully revealing the author and title of a carbonized ancient scroll from the Vesuvius eruption. The achievement marks a crucial step forward in unlocking previously inaccessible historical texts through advanced AI techniques, potentially revolutionizing how scholars access and study ancient literature damaged beyond conventional reading methods. The big picture: Machine learning researchers have won a $60,000 prize for deciphering the title and author of a sealed papyrus scroll carbonized by Mount Vesuvius's eruption in 79 AD, identifying it as "On Vices" by the Greek philosopher Philodemus. How they...
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