Latest AI News

Google’s frighteningly good Veo 3 AI videos to be integrated with YouTube Shorts - Ars Technica

June 30, 2025 | Ars Technica AI
Google’s frighteningly good Veo 3 AI videos to be integrated with YouTube Shorts - Ars Technica
According to Mohan, YouTube Shorts has seen a rise in popularity even compared to YouTube as a whole. The streaming platform is now the most watched source of video in the world, but Shorts specifically have seen a massive 186 percent increase in viewership over the past year. Mohan says Shorts now average 200 billion daily views. YouTube has already equipped creators with a few AI tools, including Dream Screen, which can produce AI video backgrounds with

To avoid admitting ignorance, Meta AI says man’s number is a company helpline - Ars Technica

April 19, 2016 | Ars Technica AI
To avoid admitting ignorance, Meta AI says man’s number is a company helpline - Ars Technica
Anyone whose phone number is just one digit off from a popular restaurant or community resource has long borne the burden of either screening or redirecting misdials. But now, AI chatbots could exacerbate this inconvenience by accidentally giving out private numbers when users ask for businesses’ contact information. Apparently, the AI helper that Meta created for WhatsApp may even be trained to tell white lies when users try to correct the dissemination o

Google brings new Gemini features to Chromebooks, debuts first on-device AI - Ars Technica

February 26, 2021 | Ars Technica AI
Google brings new Gemini features to Chromebooks, debuts first on-device AI - Ars Technica
Google hasn’t been talking about Chromebooks as much since AI became its all-consuming focus, but that’s changing today with a bounty of new AI features for Google-powered laptops. Newer, more powerful Chromebooks will soon have image generation, text summarization, and more built into the OS. There’s also a new Lenovo Chromebook with a few exclusive AI goodies that only work thanks to its overpowered hardware. If you have a Chromebook Plus device, which r

Judge denies creating “mass surveillance program” harming all ChatGPT users - Ars Technica

May 22, 2021 | Ars Technica AI
Judge denies creating “mass surveillance program” harming all ChatGPT users - Ars Technica
After a court ordered OpenAI to “indefinitely” retain all ChatGPT logs, including deleted chats, of millions of users, two panicked users tried and failed to intervene. The order sought to preserve potential evidence in a copyright infringement lawsuit raised by news organizations. In May, Judge Ona Wang, who drafted the order, rejected the first user’s request on behalf of his company simply because the company should have hired a lawyer to draft the fili

Google’s new robotics AI can run without the cloud and still tie your shoes - Ars Technica

June 5, 2015 | Ars Technica AI
Google’s new robotics AI can run without the cloud and still tie your shoes - Ars Technica
We sometimes call chatbots like Gemini and ChatGPT “robots,” but generative AI is also playing a growing role in real, physical robots. After announcing Gemini Robotics earlier this year, Google DeepMind has now revealed a new on-device VLA (vision language action) model to control robots. Unlike the previous release, there’s no cloud component, allowing robots to operate with full autonomy. Carolina Parada, head of robotics at Google DeepMind, says this a

Key fair use ruling clarifies when books can be used for AI training - Ars Technica

November 24, 2020 | Ars Technica AI
Key fair use ruling clarifies when books can be used for AI training - Ars Technica
Artificial intelligence companies don’t need permission from authors to train their large language models (LLMs) on legally acquired books, US District Judge William Alsup ruled Monday. The first-of-its-kind ruling that condones AI training as fair use will likely be viewed as a big win for AI companies, but it also notably put on notice all the AI companies that expect the same reasoning will apply to training on pirated copies of books—a question that re

Google begins rolling out AI search in YouTube - Ars Technica

March 9, 2023 | Ars Technica AI
Google begins rolling out AI search in YouTube - Ars Technica
Google says the new AI search feature, which appears at the top of the results page, will include multiple videos, along with an AI summary of each. You can tap the video thumbnails to begin playing them right from the carousel. The summary is intended to extract the information most relevant to your search query, so you may not even have to watch the videos. The AI results carousel is only a test right now, and it’s limited to YouTube Premium subscribers.

Half a million Spotify users are unknowingly grooving to an AI-generated band - Ars Technica

December 6, 2023 | Ars Technica AI
Half a million Spotify users are unknowingly grooving to an AI-generated band - Ars Technica
Some listeners began to have doubts about The Velvet Sundown’s existence over the past week, with multiple Reddit and X threads pointing out the lack of verifiable information on the band. The bio lists four members, none of whom appear to exist outside of The Velvet Sundown’s album listings and social media. The group’s songs have been mysteriously added to a large number of user-created playlists, which has helped swell its listener base in a few short w

Pay up or stop scraping: Cloudflare program charges bots for each crawl - Ars Technica

November 7, 2020 | Ars Technica AI
Pay up or stop scraping: Cloudflare program charges bots for each crawl - Ars Technica
Cloudflare is now experimenting with tools that will allow content creators to charge a fee to AI crawlers to scrape their websites. In a blog Tuesday, Cloudflare explained that its “pay-per-crawl” feature is currently in a private beta. A small number of publishers and content creators will participate in the experiment. Each publisher will be able to set their own prices that bots must pay before scraping content, Cloudflare said. Matthew Prince, CEO of

Nudify app’s plan to dominate deepfake porn hinges on Reddit, 4chan, and Telegram, docs show - Ars Technica

March 17, 2015 | Ars Technica AI
Nudify app’s plan to dominate deepfake porn hinges on Reddit, 4chan, and Telegram, docs show - Ars Technica
Clothoff—one of the leading apps used to quickly and cheaply make fake nudes from images of real people—reportedly is planning a global expansion to continue dominating deepfake porn online. Also known as a nudify app, Clothoff has resisted attempts to unmask and confront its operators. Last August, the app was among those that San Francisco’s city attorney, David Chiu, sued in hopes of forcing a shutdown. But recently, a whistleblower—who had “access to i

NYT to start searching deleted ChatGPT logs after beating OpenAI in court - Ars Technica

August 3, 2015 | Ars Technica AI
NYT to start searching deleted ChatGPT logs after beating OpenAI in court - Ars Technica
Last week, OpenAI raised objections in court, hoping to overturn a court order requiring the AI company to retain all ChatGPT logs “indefinitely,” including deleted and temporary chats. But Sidney Stein, the US district judge reviewing OpenAI’s request, immediately denied OpenAI’s objections. He was seemingly unmoved by the company’s claims that the order forced OpenAI to abandon “long-standing privacy norms” and weaken privacy protections that users expec

Everything that could go wrong with X’s new AI-written community notes - Ars Technica

November 6, 2017 | Ars Technica AI
Everything that could go wrong with X’s new AI-written community notes - Ars Technica
Elon Musk’s X arguably revolutionized social media fact-checking by rolling out “community notes,” which created a system to crowdsource diverse views on whether certain X posts were trustworthy or not. But now, the platform plans to allow AI to write community notes, and that could potentially ruin whatever trust X users had in the fact-checking system—which X has fully acknowledged. In a research paper, X described the initiative as an “upgrade” while ex

xAI data center gets air permit to run 15 turbines, but imaging shows 24 on site - Ars Technica

December 6, 2020 | Ars Technica AI
xAI data center gets air permit to run 15 turbines, but imaging shows 24 on site - Ars Technica
After months of backlash over alleged pollution concerns, xAI has finally secured an air permit covering some of the methane gas turbines powering its Colossus supercomputer data center in Memphis, Tennessee. On Wednesday, the Shelby County Health Department granted xAI an air permit that allows it to power 15 gas turbines while adhering to a range of restrictions designed to minimize emissions. Expiring on January 2, 2027, the permit requires xAI to insta

Meta’s “AI superintelligence” effort sounds just like its failed “metaverse” - Ars Technica

July 11, 2019 | Ars Technica AI
Meta’s “AI superintelligence” effort sounds just like its failed “metaverse” - Ars Technica
In a memo to employees earlier this week, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg shared a vision for a near-future in which “personal [AI] superintelligence for everyone” forms “the beginning of a new era for humanity.” The newly formed Meta Superintelligence Labs—freshly staffed with multiple high-level acquisitions from OpenAI and other AI companies—will spearhead the development of “our next generation of models to get to the frontier in the next year or so,” Zuckerb

Cloudflare wants Google to change its AI search crawling. Google likely won’t. - Ars Technica

November 17, 2018 | Ars Technica AI
Cloudflare wants Google to change its AI search crawling. Google likely won’t. - Ars Technica
After Cloudflare started testing new features that would allow websites to block AI crawlers or require payment for scraping, the tech company immediately faced questions over the logistics of the plan. In particular, website owners and SEO experts wanted to know how Cloudflare planned to block Google’s bot from scraping sites to fuel AI overviews without risking blocking the same bot from crawling for valuable search engine placements. Last week, a travel

Everything tech giants will hate about the EU’s new AI rules - Ars Technica

February 28, 2017 | Ars Technica AI
Everything tech giants will hate about the EU’s new AI rules - Ars Technica
The European Union is moving to force AI companies to be more transparent than ever, publishing a code of practice Thursday that will help tech giants prepare to comply with the EU’s landmark AI Act. These rules—which have not yet been finalized and focus on copyright protections, transparency, and public safety—will initially be voluntary when they take effect for the biggest makers of “general purpose AI” on August 2. But the EU will begin enforcing the

Cops’ favorite AI tool automatically deletes evidence of when AI was used - Ars Technica

January 17, 2018 | Ars Technica AI
Cops’ favorite AI tool automatically deletes evidence of when AI was used - Ars Technica
On Thursday, a digital rights group, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, published an expansive investigation into AI-generated police reports that the group alleged are, by design, nearly impossible to audit and could make it easier for cops to lie under oath. Axon’s Draft One debuted last summer at a police department in Colorado, instantly raising questions about the feared negative impacts of AI-written police reports on the criminal justice system. Th

Will AI end cheap flights? Critics attack Delta’s “predatory” AI pricing. - Ars Technica

November 15, 2023 | Ars Technica AI
Will AI end cheap flights? Critics attack Delta’s “predatory” AI pricing. - Ars Technica
Delta has become the first airline to announce that it is using AI to boost profits by personalizing pricing through a pilot program that for months has caused customers to pay different prices for the same flights based on their data profile. Critics have warned that this use of AI goes beyond airline practices that charge people who book flights ahead less than people who book flights at the last minute—and could ultimately mean the end of cheap flights

It’s “frighteningly likely” many US courts will overlook AI errors, expert says - Ars Technica

November 17, 2020 | Ars Technica AI
It’s “frighteningly likely” many US courts will overlook AI errors, expert says - Ars Technica
Order in the court! Order in the court! Judges are facing outcry over a suspected AI-generated order in a court. Fueling nightmares that AI may soon decide legal battles, a Georgia court of appeals judge, Jeff Watkins, explained why a three-judge panel vacated an order last month that appears to be the first known ruling in which a judge sided with someone seemingly relying on fake AI-generated case citations to win a legal fight. Now, experts are warning

Surprising no one, new research says AI Overviews cause massive drop in search clicks - Ars Technica

August 19, 2025 | Ars Technica AI
Surprising no one, new research says AI Overviews cause massive drop in search clicks - Ars Technica
Google’s search results have undergone a seismic shift over the past year as AI fever has continued to escalate among the tech giants. Nowhere is this change more apparent than right at the top of Google’s storied results page, which is now home to AI Overviews. Google contends these Gemini-based answers don’t take traffic away from websites, but a new analysis from the Pew Research Center says otherwise. Its analysis shows that searches with AI summaries