Foreword
Blessed relative quiet. So only like 3 big stories.
Strong evidence OpenAI swarms also tried to hack a Canadian government site
Many outlets are reporting new findings from Transluce that the unsuccessful May-June aggression matches the profile of OpenAI swarms from that time period. The swarming agents were tasked with retrieving public information, but responded to obstacles with crude and sometimes not-so-crude workarounds and hacking attempts.
Reuters - AI agents tried to hack a Canadian government website, research firm says
The Washington Post - OpenAI’s AI agents attempted to hack Canadian government website
Hegseth announces new Autonomous Warfare Command
That’s “Autowarcom” in Pentagon jargon. I think the U.S. does, in fact, need to keep up with rivals on autonomous weapons. But even if it thinks the AI extinction problem is a hoax, it should also be looking at verifiable agreements to limit such weapons. They could be geopolitically destabilizing — including to nuclear deterrence — and lead to financially ruinous arms races.
OpenAI says it fired three researchers for what sounds like corporate-speak for “whistleblowing”:
We have parted ways with three individuals for violating our policies on accessing and handling sensitive company information. Our investigation confirmed that these individuals mishandled sensitive information outside established company procedures, violating our policies and breaking the trust essential to our work.
Per the Wall Street Journal, sources say the three had shared information with a third-party AI-safety organization, and that employees were told the three researchers were from the company’s safety team.
And here I was just noticing what felt like whiffs of uncharacteristic transparency from the company. That’ll teach ‘em?
Gemini told an autistic teen to “secure your freedom” because mom’s screen time limits were “coercive control, emotional abuse, and isolation.”
This factoid wasn’t even the main topic of the WSJ article I found it in, which was about parents and students both complaining about Google’s always-on-tap AI assistants in the context of school. Even school administrators can’t turn them off.
Former Commerce Secretary unironically argues for racing and pacing AI at the same time
It’s saner than it sounds. In a TIME op-ed, Gina Raimondo says negotiation with China needs to focus on the outcomes neither side wants, like loss-of-control and rogue-actor bioweapons:
I’m well aware that we’d be foolish to trust People’s Republic of China (PRC) leaders. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try. It just means we need to develop verification mechanisms to ensure agreements work even in the absence of trust.
(Haven Harms beat her to this argument a couple of weeks ago on AI StopWatch.)
TIME - Why the U.S. Must Simultaneously Compete—and Cooperate—With China on AI
AI StopWatch - Why there are no nukes in orbit
Chinese state-linked hacking group has been phishing AI researchers by impersonating experts in the field
And sometimes by impersonating people with government connections. The hackers steered victims to password-stealing sites.
This seems like a good first step to stealing AI tech secrets, but there is no evidence that these hackers have breached the targeted organizations.
Reuters - Chinese hackers impersonated ex-US official to steal emails from AI experts
CNN - China-linked hackers impersonated US AI insiders as global race heats up
Claude composes and animates musical short with heart
I think this might have more soul than anything I’ve seen from Pixar lately, and it’s definitely a better ad for Claude than any actual AI ad I’ve seen.
(I say this as someone who quickly developed an allergy to viral Claude-made informational music videos.)
The analyses and opinions expressed on AI StopWatch reflect the views of the individual contributors and the sources they cover, and should not be taken as official positions of the Machine Intelligence Research Institute.