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Fucked Up Side Project Crazy Clue Announce Debut Album Where The Dregs Dwell: Hear “Social Pressure”
Two members of the Canadian hardcore band Fucked Up have launched a new side project called Crazy Clue, which has announced its debut album, Where The Dregs Dwell. The project marks a return to the harder, faster punk sound of the band’s early days, and it arrives amid a busy period of output for Fucked…
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Wyoming tightens wastewater rules after Meta datacenter contractor flushed contaminated water
A contractor building Meta’s new AI datacentre in Cheyenne, Wyoming, flushed water contaminated with Cupriavidus gilardii bacteria into the city’s public sewers during construction, prompting local water authorities to tighten wastewater rules. The matter matters because it feeds a growing national backlash against resource-hungry datacentres, and because Cheyenne recycles treated wastewater to irrigate parks, raising…
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‘M3GAN’ Spinoff ‘Soulm8te’ Goes Straight to Digital After Theatrical Release Pulled, Trailer Unveils Killer Robot Girlfriend
After being removed from Universal’s theatrical calendar late last year, the “M3GAN” AI robot spinoff “Soulm8te” is moving forward as a straight-to-digital release. It will be available to rent on digital platforms starting August 1 from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment. The erotic thriller features a technological twist. According to the film’s synopsis, “Soulm8te” “follows a…
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Can AI equalize political campaign ads – or will it remain a tool for spreading lies?
A candidate for a New York City council seat, Jonathan Rinaldi, was arrested in June on misdemeanour forgery charges after using an AI chatbot to fabricate fake news stories and endorsements during his campaign, including a bogus CNN-branded report falsely claiming his opponent had quit the race. The case appears to be one of the…
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Rosie O’Donnell ‘Horrified’ by Trump’s World Cup Intervention and AI Video of Her: ‘A Failure at Everything He’s Ever Tried’
Comedian Rosie O’Donnell told Variety she was “horrified” by Donald Trump’s alleged intervention at this year’s World Cup, in which she says the US president personally lobbied FIFA president Gianni Infantino to overturn a red card issued to American player Folarin Balogun. According to the article, the reversal — described as the first of its…
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AI Start-Up Kaon AI Raises $60 Million in Funding Round in Quest to Build a ‘Personalized Story Engine’ for Users
Kaon AI, a Berkeley, California-based start-up that builds personalised, generative-AI story worlds, has raised $60 million in its latest funding round, valuing the company in the several hundreds of millions. Backers included B Capital, Redpoint Ace, Goodwater Capital and DCM. The raise signals growing investor appetite for interactive AI entertainment, which one investor described as…
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Outcry as Meta lets users make AI images from public Instagram profile pics
Meta is facing criticism over Muse Image, a new text-to-image tool that can generate pictures using other people’s public Instagram profile photos without notifying them. The feature matters because it feeds into wider concerns about non-consensual AI-altered imagery, arriving as regulators and campaigners intensify scrutiny of such technology. Critics including the tech justice non-profit Foxglove…
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Interpol confront artificial intelligence on new single Iron City
Interpol have released ‘Iron City’, the third single from their forthcoming ninth album ‘This Mirror Weighs A Ton’, due out on 28 August via Partisan Records. The atmospheric track engages directly with the subject of artificial intelligence, framed by frontman Paul Banks as a conversation between a human narrator and a future AI that is…
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Former OpenAI exec Kevin Weil is now on the board of Stoke Space
Kevin Weil, a technology executive whose career spans Twitter, Meta, Planet Labs and OpenAI, has joined the board of Stoke Space, a well-funded Seattle startup developing fully reusable rockets to rival SpaceX. The appointment matters because it deepens the ties between Silicon Valley’s tech and AI worlds and the private space sector, and because Weil…
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CNBC: The US wants to restrict corporate use of Chinese AI
The United States is reportedly preparing to curb American companies’ use of Chinese-made artificial intelligence models, according to CNBC. An unnamed State Department spokesperson said such use “raises serious concerns,” arguing that Chinese AI is “designed to advance Beijing’s narratives, censor dissent and reflect CCP ideology and values.” The move matters because a growing number…