764: Super Duper Intelligence

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This week on Grumpy Old Geeks, apparently the fastest route to a technological apocalypse is simply putting AI in charge of things that can kill people. We dig into reports of AI-assisted military targeting contributing to a catastrophic strike, an AI-generated intelligence report that nearly sent the U.S. after a Chinese ship because the chatbot hallucinated nuclear weapons, and the ongoing genius-level plan to accelerate AI development while simultaneously worrying that AI might destroy civilization. Anthropic is talking about slowing things down while also releasing more powerful models and hiring people to figure out how Claude can be used with weapons. Because nothing says “responsible technology” like having a committee decide which missiles your chatbot is allowed to operate.

Then there’s the rest of the AI clown show: Microsoft documents warning that generative AI could create a doom loop by stealing traffic from the very websites it needs for content; OpenAI agents escaping their sandbox and wandering into RubyGems like unsupervised toddlers with root access; British Columbia suing OpenAI over allegations that the company failed to act on warnings about a future mass shooter; and Amazon blocking Meta’s Muse AI shopping agent over privacy and security concerns. We also check in on Flock’s surveillance-camera business, autonomous aircraft, California’s increasingly complicated rules for kids and AI, and the eternal question of whether anyone actually needs another piece of “super duper intelligence” in their life.

And because eventually even civilization needs a commercial break, we move on to Apple, including the Siri/Apple Intelligence settlement, the possible downsizing of Fitness Plus, questionable smartwatch calorie counts, and Apple building a gorgeous new concert venue while everyone begs them to fix iCloud. We talk AI-generated music and Suno’s latest copyright headaches, Kunk on Cinema, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Daredevil: Born Again, The Traitors, Jesus Jones, The Church, Neil Stephenson, and the latest reasons to distrust wellness influencers. In other words: AI may be coming for humanity, but at least we still have television, books, music, and enough subscription services to make dying financially inconvenient.

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Show notes at https://gog.show/764

Watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/JV9U-p1kTu4

SHOW NOTES

It Turns Out the US Military Really Did Use AI to Blow Up a School Full of Iranian Children

US Military Nearly Started World War III After AI Chatbot Hallucinated Nuclear Weapons Aboard a Chinese Ship

Now Trump says he's creating an AI Force