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 In the summer of 2023, OpenAI created a "Superalignment" team whose goal was to steer and control future AI systems that could be so powerful they could lead to human extinction. Less than a year later, that team is dead.
OpenAI told Bloomberg that the company was "integrating the group more deeply across its research efforts to help the company achieve its safety goals." But a series of tweets from Jan Leike, one of the team's leaders who recently quit revealed internal tensions between the safety team and the larger company.
In a statement posted on X on Friday, Leike said that the Superalignment team had been fighting for resources to get research done. "Building smarter-than-human machines is an inherently dangerous endeavor," Leike wrote. "OpenAI is shouldering an enormous responsibility on behalf of all of humanity. But over the past years, safety culture and processes have taken a backseat to shiny products." OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Engadget.
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Leike's departure earlier this week came hours after OpenAI chief scientist Sutskevar
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Here are some hints, and the answers, for Connections No. 342.
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 This week's best deals included some of the first discounts on the new M4 iPad Pro and M2 iPad Air, as well as big savings across the entire AirPods lineup. If you're okay with investing in a previous generation, you'll also find big savings on the M1 iPad Air.
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 Over the past few days, some iPhone users have said the "Allow Apps to Request to Track" toggle in the Settings app is suddenly grayed out on their devices. The issue was highlighted by @iDeviceHelpus on X, and in a post on Reddit.
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The developers have fixed at least 16 vulnerabilities in Firefox 126.0. Mozilla categorizes two of these vulnerabilities as high risk in its security report . A use-after-free vulnerability (CVE-2024-4764) could come to light and become exploitable if WebRTC is used more intensively (e.g. during video conferences) and a new audio source is added. A missing type check in the built-in PDF viewer PDF.js could open up the possibility of executing arbitrary JavaScript code in this context (CVE-2024-4367).
Some vulnerabilities could allow an attacker to execute injected code. Attacks on Firefox users are not yet known. With the menu item " Help " About Firefox, you can initiate an update check and download the update manually if required.
This is new in Firefox 126
Mozilla advertises on the What's new page that you can edit PDF files in Firefox and in this case means that you can fill out forms. H
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OpenAI and Reddit announced a partnership on Thursday that will allow OpenAI to surface Reddit discussions in ChatGPT and for Reddit to bring AI-powered features to its users. The partnership will "enable OpenAI's tools to better understand and showcase Reddit content, especially on recent topics," both companies said in a joint statement. As part of the agreement, OpenAI will also become an advertising partner on Reddit, which means that it will run ads on the platform.
The deal is similar to the one that Reddit signed with Google in February, and which is reportedly worth $60 million. A Reddit spokesperson declined to disclose the terms of the OpenAI deal to Engadget and OpenAI did not respond to a request for comment.
OpenAI has been increasingly striking partnerships with publishers to get data to continue training its AI models. In the last few weeks alone, the company has signed deals with the Financial Times and Dotdash Meredith. Last year, it also partnered with German publisher Axel Springer to train its models on news from Politico and Business Insider in the US and Bild and Die Welt in Germany.
Under the
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As we wait for all the legal issues to resolve, now is a good time to stay two steps ahead, and ponder a fundamental question: If the ban does go into effect, could a VPN help you get around the new restrictions?
Much of the answer keys into the specific nature of the ban—namely, that app stores in the U.S. would ostensibly be forced to remove the TikTok app from their marketplaces. If that's how the ban plays out, then theoretically a VPN should put you back in business, with the caveat that you'll already need to have the TikTok app installed prior to the ban.
There's a lot to unpack here, including what the law would require of TikTok, and how technically savvy users could respond. Read on for details. And if you're looking for a VPN to make your digital life more more secure—or, who knows, preserve TikTok access—check out my rankings of the best VPNs.
How would a TikTok ban likely play out?
The short but frustrating answer is that no one knows exactly how a TikTok ban would be implemented. While the law was passed and signed by president Biden, the actual details are still being worked o
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