The tentative agreement the Hollywood actors' union reached last week with movie studios goes further in outlining specific AI compensation requirements than agreements Hollywood writers 'and directors' unions won earlier this year.
Why it matters: Actors face a different type of existential threat from AI than some of their Hollywood peers.
The Israeli government appears to be turning to controversial spyware maker NSO Group to help track those kidnapped and murdered by Hamas in the last month, according to a source with direct knowledge of NSO's operations.
Why it matters: NSO has come under fire for providing governments with surveillance technology that they have later used to spy on journalists, dissidents and human rights activists.
Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales thinks humans have an edge on AI for least the next 20 or 30 years, and that the future of knowledge will always involve "serious effort" by people, he told Axios at Web Summit in Lisbon, Portugal.
Details: Wales said in his keynote interview at Europe's largest and most controversy-plagued tech conference that ChatGPT and competitors are "actually pretty bad" and "still a long way from being a reliable source."
Humane's forthcoming AI wearable is an exciting glimpse of a future that might never fully materialize — and even if it does, there's no guarantee Humane will be the company to usher it in.
State of play: The $699 Ai Pin aims to replace the smartphone and its myriad apps with a voice-controlled AI assistant, foregoing a screen in favor of an innovative laser-projected display.
Valve is releasing a better version of its PC gaming handheld Steam Deck this week and hopes to release a generational upgrade, a Steam Deck 2, that's at least two to three years away, Valve designers tell Axios.
Why it matters: Valve is one of gaming's most successful companies in both software (enduring game franchises like Half-Life and Counter-Strike) and services (the dominant online PC marketplace Steam) — but it has a reputation for fickleness with hardware products.
It's easy to over-interpretthe death of small modular reactor firm NuScale's Idaho project, but it nonetheless has lessons — and omens — for the future.
Catch up fast: Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems and NuScale last week said there weren't enough buyers for the project's increasingly costly energy.
Google is suing a group of online scammers who appear to be using its logos in a scheme targeting the general public's interest in artificial intelligence.
Why it matters: Google's complaint appears to be the first action a major technology company has taken to crack down on the growing number of AI-related online scams.
AI companies including OpenAI and Anthropic have signed up to suppress terrorist content, joining the Christchurch Call to Action — a project started by French President Emmanuel Macron and then New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern in the wake of the 2019 mass killing at a Christchurch, N.Z. mosque.
Why it matters: Government leaders and companies declared that "without safeguards, it is inevitable advanced AI capabilities will be weaponized by terrorists and violent extremists" — and conceded in a paper obtained by Axios that a "massive amount" of terrorist content has been disseminated since Hamas attacked Israel Oct. 7.
