The Download: OpenAI’s predictable hack, and an AI stock sell-off

The Download: OpenAI’s predictable hack, and an AI stock sell-off">

This is today’s edition of The Download , our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology.

Reading OpenAI’s account last week of how some of its models broke their containment and hacked into the computer systems of Hugging Face, another AI company, was the first time I got genuine chills about what large language models are now able to do. But this is a case of human hubris, not rogue AI.

I am not an alarmist. In fact, I have been pushing back against AI scare stories for years . Even so, this incident crossed a line. I think it’s the clearest illustration yet of how the people building and testing this technology do not fully understand what they’re doing.

Here’s why OpenAI could—and should—have seen this coming .

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I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.

1 There’s a growing global AI stock sell-off underway Chip and memory stocks are bearing the brunt so far. ( FT $) + It was partly sparked by a report that a Chinese company has started making a key piece of chip equipment for the first time. ( The Information $) + Like their US rivals, Chinese AI firms are struggling to find a path to profitability. ( NYT $) + What even is the AI bubble? ( MIT Technology Review ) 2 Some people’s chats with Claude were open to anyone online OpenAI had a near-identical issue with ChatGPT last year. ( BBC ) + Is a secure AI assistant even possible? ( MIT Technology Review ) 3 France just witnessed its first ever “fire cloud” It’s a scary sign of the intensity of the blazes burning there. ( Wired $) 4 Meta is screwing up its smart glasses rollout Privacy issues keep cropping up, and its response is invariably too little, and too late. ( The Verge $) + They even have a nickname: “pervert glasses.” ( Vox $) 5 Efforts are underway to measure Spotify’s AI slop problem People are desperate for it to start labelling AI-generated music. ( 404 Media ) + We’re in a weird era regarding AI’s role in literature. ( The Atlantic $) 6 People are renting out their faces to AI in China Often for microdramas, which are big business and increasingly rely on AI. ( Rest of World ) + How Chinese short dramas became AI content machines. ( MIT Technology Review ) 7 Microsoft is having a torrid year Rivals building better AI tools are threatening its business on multiple fronts. ( Business Insider $) 8 How bots took over the internet They now outnumber humans, in terms of overall web traffic. ( New Yorker $)