Microsoft's published a blog post saying that people are using the new Bing chatbot in ways "we didn't fully envision". Like, hello, did you not think that people would get all freaky with the AI? Did you learn nothing from Tay's adventures in 2016?! New York Times columnist Kevin Roose is one of many journalists poking Bing's chatbot to get a headline worthy response, but he poked it so hard that "it declared, out of nowhere, that it loved me", then "tried to convince me that I was unhappy in my marriage, and that I should leave my wife and be with it instead". The whole experience left him worried "that the technology will learn how to influence human users, sometimes persuading them to act in destructive and harmful ways, and perhaps eventually grow capable of carrying out its own dangerous acts". Apparently Kevin's experience is not uncommon and Microsoft told the New York Times that AI models going "down a hallucinatory path" is "difficult to fix".
YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki is resigning after 25 years at Google, telling staff that she wants to "start a new chapter focused on my family, health, and personal projects I'm passionate about". Susan has been involved with Google since day one, renting her garage to Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin in 1998. Chief Product Officer Neal Mohan will take over after a transition period and Susan will stick around indefinitely as an "advisor" at Alphabet. The new boss, Neal, worked at Doubleclick before it was acquired by Google and was the VP of video and display ads before his current role as CPO. Hopefully his ad background doesn't mean YouTube Premium dies off because without it I can't stand watching YouTube.
One of the key features of iOS apps are push notifications - something "web apps" (better known as Progressive Web Apps, PWAs) can't do. With the beta release of iOS 16.4, Apple finally blessed Safari with the ability to show notifications for web apps installed on the device's home screen. This means many "apps" can be published outside of the App Store without Apple's blessing and work pretty much like an app on the Store would if they're not doing anything too fancy. There's no reason Apple couldn't have done this a decade ago. Wouldn't surprise me if the pile of App Store investigations and looming regulation motivated Apple to finally release it.
Here's five interesting discussions over on The Sizzle's paid subscriber forum for you to enjoy over the weekend. If you are not a paid subscriber but want to get involved, visit https://thesizzle.com.au/payme to get onboard.
A screen shot from an computer game which displays anti-Osama Bin Laden sentiments October 4, 2001 at an internet cafe in London, England. Companies offering the games have been inundated with hits on their websites, with one company reporting 340,000 users on their site in eight days. (Sion Touhig / Getty Images)
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