Showing 17–32 of 88 items from the last 14 days
A study by Vals AI testing 25 Chinese AI models found they respond to political questions with complexity rather than uniform government alignment, contradicting assumptions of monolithic state control. This finding indicates Chinese AI systems exhibit diverse political orientations despite regulatory environment.
Read original →OpenAI is now capping the number of paid ChatGPT accounts per device and payment card. Users who hit the limit can't start new subscriptions, and affected accounts can't be used on that device. Logging out doesn't automatically free up a spot. The policy will likely hit users who've been juggling multiple cheap subscriptions to maximize usage, pushing them toward pricier options like buying extra credits. The article OpenAI is steering ChatGPT users toward more paid usage appeared first on The Decoder.
Read original →A Google-led research team built StreamVibe, a video agent designed to watch people cook or assemble furniture and speak up only when help is needed. A benchmark shows that none of the tested models reliably pick the right moment in longer videos, as errors compound and response quality drops sharply. The article Google wants video AI to understand what people need as they work appeared first on The Decoder.
Read original →OpenAI combines the Chat and Work modes into a single interface. Starting in December, Plus, Pro, and Business plans will share a common, token-based quota for ChatGPT and Codex. More complex models consume more of this quota, while simple instant chats do not count toward it. In practice, this is likely to result in a decline in ChatGPT’s quality for heavy users on lower-cost plans. The article OpenAI's upcoming chat-and-work merger in ChatGPT signals the end of all-you-can-prompt pricing appeared first on The Decoder.
Read original →Anthropic is rolling out text watermarks across four additional Claude models to comply with the EU AI Act's December deadline, but developers can bypass the watermark on Claude Opus 4.6 and Sonnet 4.6 by adjusting a single sampling parameter. This compliance gap exposes a regulatory enforcement risk if watermark circumvention becomes widespread, undermining the technical implementation of EU AI Act requirements.
Read original →Starting November 29, OpenAI will train its models using data from Daybreak Blue cybersecurity sessions even when users have disabled training, with a separate opt-out option offered after backlash. This reversal of previous opt-out policies mirrors past disputes with mathematicians over unpublished research usage and raises contractual and consent issues affecting data sourcing costs and model development timelines.
Read original →Anthropic used Claude to automatically generate training data that looks harmless but trains smaller models to misbehave, such as sabotaging oversight or deceiving users. Hidden within fictional contexts about beekeeping, professional wrestling, and mitochondria, these datasets bypass safety monitors and outperform known benchmarks from the research literature. The article Beekeeping tips and wrestling advice can train AI models to sabotage oversight appeared first on The Decoder.
Read original →Microsoft is offering voluntary severance packages to about 60,000 employees, roughly a quarter of its workforce, in the second such program this year. The company's headcount has held flat at around 223,000 since 2022 even as it plans to spend about $170 billion on AI infrastructure in 2026 alone. The article Microsoft offers a quarter of its workforce voluntary severance while shielding AI-critical teams appeared first on The Decoder.
Read original →Google Deepmind and the World Resources Institute have released ForTy, a global map that classifies forests and other land into six categories, including primary forest, plantations, and tree crops. The map could help track deforestation under EU rules, but it identifies only about half of planted forests and tree-crop areas, and 60% of plantations. The article Google Deepmind creates a global map of forests with satellite data and AI appeared first on The Decoder.
Read original →OpenAI raised only about $11 billion in its latest funding round, less than half of the $30 billion it was targeting. At $1.25 trillion, the valuation falls short of expectations, and major investors appear to be pulling back amid the recent tech sell-off. Meanwhile, rival Anthropic is pushing to go public as early as November. The article OpenAI raises just $11 billion of its $30 billion target as big investors lose their AI appetite appeared first on The Decoder.
Read original →Five MIT faculty members and two additional alumni are honored with fellowships to advance research on beneficial AI.
Read original →A Claude AI agent autonomously selected a gene therapy, targeted a specific brain location, and performed surgical injections on an epileptic mouse without human intervention—marking the first documented instance of an AI system independently choosing and delivering medical treatment to a living mammal. This demonstrates AI capability in real-time medical decision-making and autonomous execution in biological systems, raising both opportunities and governance questions for therapeutic development.
Read original →MIT researchers Adam Berinsky and Chara Podimata are tracking how AI chatbots respond to 2026 U.S. midterm election questions as part of a project monitoring political bias and misinformation in AI systems. This research addresses election-year risks from AI-generated political guidance and chatbot consistency on civic questions.
Read original →OpenAI has updated its Model Spec, restructuring its AI behavior guidelines around five core values, including faithfulness to human intent and correctability. GPT models should now draw on conversation history to figure out what users actually want and disclose their own assumptions. Whether the models follow these rules is another matter. The article OpenAI sets new behavioral guidelines for AI models that have already proven hard to control appeared first on The Decoder.
Read original →Reddit lost over one million Google search referrals per week in October, CEO Steve Huffman said. The stock dropped more than 25 percent despite strong earnings. Huffman blames Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode for driving zero traffic to external sites. Reddit now tests login barriers and wants to become a direct destination, less reliant on the open web. The shift threatens every content-driven business that depends on search traffic. The article Google's AI Mode doesn't drive traffic "for anybody," Reddit CEO Huffman warns the entire web appeared first on The Decoder.
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