The less-than-magical Willy Wonka event, briefly explained
Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka in the 1971 film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. | Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images The viral fiasco in Scotland that made kids cry — and prompted calls to police. Willy Wonka, a storybook character…
America’s first moon landing in 50 years, explained
Intuitive Machines employees cheer during a watch party moments after they became the first commercial company to softly land on the moon on February 22, 2024, in Houston. | Raquel Natalicchio/Houston Chronicle/Getty Images The groundbreaking development speaks to the growing…
What two years of AI development can tell us about Sora
A screenshot of a video generated by Sora, OpenAI’s generative video model. | Sora/OpenAI CEO Sam Altman If you want to know the future of OpenAI’s latest tool, take a look at Midjourney and DALL-E 2. Remember when AI art…
AI-generated video is here to awe and mislead
CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty Images OpenAI’s Sora is designed to be a “world simulator.” Right now it’s having trouble breaking a glass. A tiny fluffy monster kneels in wonder beside a lit candle. Two small pirate ships battle inside a…
Can California show the way forward on AI safety?
Moor Studio/Getty Images A new state bill aims to protect us from the most powerful and dangerous AI models. Last week, California state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) introduced a landmark new piece of AI legislation aimed at “establishing clear,…
Carmakers pumped the brakes on hybrid cars too soon
The Ford’s Maverick Hybrid pickup truck saw a huge jump in sales last year. | Umair Irfan/Vox In the age of electric vehicles, the hybrid is still a contender. Are electric vehicles hitting a pothole? Ford announced last month that…
Can effective altruism stay effective?
Christina Animashaun/Vox The flow of new money and interest into core EA fields like AI safety poses a challenge to a movement that was used to being small. This past weekend I attended the latest Effective Altruism Global conference, which…
Can the courts save us from dangerous AI?
Need protection against AI risks? Better call Saul. | AMC Networks A law professor proposes an old-fashioned remedy for very new problems: legal liability. One quote about AI I think about a lot is something that Jack Clark, a co-founder…
Should we make our most powerful AI models open source to all?
Meta has been a leader in making AI open source. | SOPA Images/LightRocket via Gett The debate over the safety of democratizing AI is missing the point. If you’ve used a modern AI system — whether an art generator like…
What wearing Apple’s Vision Pro headset does to our brains
The Apple Vision Pro goes on sale February 2, but it will take some time before people figure out what to do with it. | Philip Pacheco/Bloomberg via Getty Images Apple’s mixed reality headset heralds a new era of “spatial…