'Restricting what an agent can know and respond to reduces its competitiveness'

'Russia's AI is smart enough to shut up'

Thomas Kent at The Wall Street Journal

When "questions turn political," Russia's top AI virtual assistant's "responses are often guarded," says Thomas Kent, creating a "fundamental problem for authoritarian countries seeking to compete with democratic nations in generative AI." Authoritarian states "can still use AI to churn out huge volumes of false content for the web," but even AI with the "greatest freedom to seek and analyze knowledge will be at peril if false information dominates the information pool they are allowed to access."

Read more

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

'No amount of alcohol is safe. Surgeon general is right to sound the alarm.'

Dr. Marc Siegel at USA Today

There is a "need to alter the public perception that a small amount of daily alcohol is actually good for you," says Dr. Marc Siegel. No "amount of alcohol is a safe amount, especially when you consider that alcohol is addictive, that it is not the right treatment for stress because of its health risks, and that because of its social acceptability people are far too likely to overlook these risks, including cancer."

Read more

'Canada's liberals need a new leader but Trudeau's cause was just'

Angus MacCaull at Newsweek

Justin Trudeau's resignation "had become inevitable," says Angus MacCaull. After "10 years under a charismatic but polarizing figure, the Liberal Party needs a new face." Liberals "need to shift their messaging away from identity politics and towards tangible actions," and "talk less about who they are and more about what they do." They "need to share this messaging in a way relevant to the present." But "history will judge" Trudeau's "legacy to be both good and lasting."

Read more

'Mark Zuckerberg has gone full MAGA'

Siva Vaidhyanathan at The Guardian

Mark Zuckerberg "seems to have gone full MAGA," says Siva Vaidhyanathan. Zuckerberg has "decided to capitalize on what is sure to be a large and fast retreat from accountability and regulatory curbs on corporate negligence" under Donald Trump. He is "not acting as a mercenary capitalist. He is acting as a megalomaniacal ideologue, as usual." People "should remember that he believes his companies to be the solution, not the cause, of our global maladies."

Read more