New secret math benchmark stumps AI models and PhDs alike
Epoch AI allowed Fields Medal winners Terence Tao and Timothy Gowers to review portions of the benchmark. “These are extremely challenging,” Tao said in feedback provided to Epoch. “I think that in the near term basically the only way to…
Ars Live: Our first encounter with manipulative AI
While Bing Chat’s unhinged nature was caused in part by how Microsoft defined the “personality” of Sydney in the system prompt (and unintended side-effects of its architecture with regard to conversation length), Ars Technica’s saga with the chatbot began when…
Anthropic hires its first “AI welfare” researcher
The researchers propose that companies could adapt the “marker method” that some researchers use to assess consciousness in animals—looking for specific indicators that may correlate with consciousness, although these markers are still speculative. The authors emphasize that no single feature…
Claude AI to process secret government data through new Palantir deal
An ethical minefield Since its founders started Anthropic in 2021, the company has marketed itself as one that takes an ethics- and safety-focused approach to AI development. The company differentiates itself from competitors like OpenAI by adopting what it calls…
New SMB subscription may not end VMware migrations
Broadcom has a new subscription tier for VMware virtualization software that may appease some disgruntled VMware customers, especially small to medium-sized businesses. The new VMware vSphere Enterprise Plus subscription tier creates a more digestible bundle that’s more appropriate for smaller…
Law enforcement operation takes down 22,000 malicious IP addresses worldwide
An international coalition of police agencies has taken a major whack at criminals accused of running a host of online scams, including phishing, the stealing of account credentials and other sensitive data, and the spreading of ransomware, Interpol said recently….
ChatGPT has a new vanity domain name, and it may have cost $15 million
On Wednesday, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman merely tweeted “chat.com,” announcing that the company had acquired the short domain name, which now points to the company’s ChatGPT AI assistant when visited in a web browser. As of Thursday morning, “chatgpt.com” still…
Trump plans to dismantle Biden AI safeguards after victory
That’s not the only uncertainty at play. Just last week, House Speaker Mike Johnson—a staunch Trump supporter—said that Republicans “probably will” repeal the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act, which is a Biden initiative to spur domestic semiconductor chip production, among…
Corning faces antitrust actions for its Gorilla Glass dominance
The European Commission (EC) has opened an antitrust investigation into US-based glass-maker Corning, claiming that its Gorilla Glass has dominated the mobile phone screen market due to restrictive deals and licensing. Corning’s shatter-resistant alkali-aluminosilicate glass keeps its place atop the…
Anthropic’s Haiku 3.5 surprises experts with an “intelligence” price increase
Speaking of Opus, Claude 3.5 Opus is nowhere to be seen, as AI researcher Simon Willison noted to Ars Technica in an interview. “All references to 3.5 Opus have vanished without a trace, and the price of 3.5 Haiku was…