Technology
Tech stories worth arguing about.
- A new NBC News/SurveyMonkey poll finds most Americans think AI is doing more harm than good in schools, with many saying kids learn better without it — even as daily AI use keeps climbing among adults themselves. Is skepticism catching up to real problems, or running ahead of the evidence?
- President Trump dismissed growing AI safety warnings from Anthropic's Dario Amodei, OpenAI's Sam Altman and Elon Musk as a hoax, saying the only guardrail AI needs is a strong and smart president. Confidence in American leadership, or dismissing a real risk the industry itself is raising?
- Norway is considering becoming the first country to ban camera-equipped smart glasses like Meta's and Snap's, over fears they enable covert filming and facial recognition in public. Necessary privacy protection, or regulation racing ahead of tech people find useful?
- OpenAI quietly altered its new Astra model's benchmark scores multiple times after launch — boosting its own numbers while showing worse results for rival Anthropic's models. Routine tuning, or manipulating the scoreboard?
- OpenAI says a 10,000-agent AI swarm made progress on the unsolved Navier-Stokes math problem, then admitted it "cannot rule out" that a mathematician's private Codex notes helped get there — though the mathematician says he isn't accusing anyone of anything. Real red flag for how AI labs use private data, or an honest coincidence?
- The Seattle Times and Newsday are now suing OpenAI and Microsoft, accusing them of training AI on their journalism without permission or payment and calling it 'a snake eating its own tail.' Fair use that powers innovation, or AI strip-mining the news industry that feeds it?
- OpenAI and Anthropic's own CEOs are calling for AI development to slow down. Genuine alarm, or good PR?
- A bipartisan Senate bill would put federal guardrails on AI, with Klobuchar and Cruz both on board. Necessary, or premature?
- Billions in AI data centers are being blocked by local opposition. Are communities right to push back?
- Meta just released an open-weight AI model anyone can modify. Good for the world, or reckless?