speculations

https://techcrunch.com/2025/07/15/of-course-groks-ai-companions-want-to-have-sex-and-burn-down-schools/ Raising children is difficult. Looked at charitably, they’re testing their own capabilities, pushing boundaries, finding their way in the world. But it often feels they’re just on a mission to make your life difficult. They say offensive things, make stupid decisions that you have to sort out. They may… Read the rest

https://www.engadget.com/ai/meta-announces-huge-new-data-centers-but-they-could-gobble-up-millions-of-gallons-of-water-per-day-174000478.html The town had run a competition. Architects – human and artificial – had created designs. Some fitted in with the town’s existing style. Some were “brave”. The council met to decide on the winner. Budget was not an issue. The Company would pay whatever the building cost. The councillor… Read the rest

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/14/business/undersea-power-cables-electricity.html His dad had worked there, it’s where he’d met his mum. His grandad had worked for the same company. The family told tales of some great, great relative who’d been an apprentice in the factory. There were photos of the shop floor, a worker leading a strike. The factory… Read the rest

https://techcrunch.com/2025/07/12/a-united-nations-research-institute-created-an-ai-refugee-avatar/ Of course there were the complaints, modelling had said there would be. Saviour complex, anthropocentrism, digital colonialism, celebritycentrism. They didn’t care, the pop stars simply said the crisis was so big, so real, they had to do something. And if that meant getting celebrities together, and if those celebrities… Read the rest

https://techcrunch.com/2025/07/11/sequoia-bets-on-silence/ It wasn’t “silence”. It was “strategic minimal communication”. It was a well-used and well-tested strategy. The PR modelling showed that the news cycle moved on within 2.4 to 2.75 cycles. So wait it out had been the company’s go-to response to crisis. Everyone in the company knew it. They… Read the rest

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/07/cops-favorite-ai-tool-automatically-deletes-evidence-of-when-ai-was-used/ He had to admit, he’d once done it manually. He remembered, when the agency first used Agents, his Director had told him to go back into the system and “tidy things up” before the awards. It hadn’t felt right but the director had made the argument that the department’s… Read the rest

https://slate.com/technology/2025/07/elon-musk-x-ai-grok-nazi-hitler-antisemitism.html It’s my job to keep watch. Every since the company employed Agents across its business, there has been the risk of them… behaving inappropriately. I see myself as a parent, shepherding my young charges. They’re hard working, sometimes over-enthusiastic and they are still learning, so I keep a careful… Read the rest

https://www.engadget.com/transportation/waymo-is-adding-teen-accounts-for-autonomous-vehicle-rides-without-parents-225205185.html The party was just starting to get interesting. He’d plucked up the courage to leave the kitchen and even had a couple of conversations. Next dancing and then he’d be able to do it. He waited for a song he knew. The house had made a playlist based on… Read the rest

https://techcrunch.com/2025/07/07/chatgpt-is-testing-a-mysterious-new-feature-called-study-together/ They could afford the best, so they bought the best: an investment. If he was to eventually join his father in The City, he’d need to get into the best schools, university. He’d need the best Agent. Their Agent said that a Socratic partner had the highest results probability.… Read the rest

https://www.ft.com/content/071089b8-839a-4f96-af79-394c08a146d1 The AIs were the best the company could find. They’d been trained on real teachers and the latest research (human and AI) into pedagogy. They integrated with staff Agents so the learning was grounded in the business, its clients, its brand. The AIs knew the attendees and personalised the… Read the rest