You’re Thinking About AI and Water All Wrong
Fears about AI data centers’ water use have exploded. Experts say the reality is far more complicated than people think.
Category: Backchannel
The Man Who Invented AGI
Everyone is obsessed with artificial general intelligence—the stage when AI can match all feats of human cognition. The guy who named it saw it as a threat.
Inside the Messy, Accidental Kryptos Reveal
After 35 years, the secretive CIA sculpture finally gave up its mystery, thanks to a novelist, a playwright, and some misplaced documents. But the chase to decode continues.
Can AI Avoid the Enshittification Trap?
Cory Doctorow’s theory of “enshittification” explains how tech platforms rot from within. As AI grows more profitable—and powerful—it risks the same fate.
Sam Altman Says the GPT-5 Haters Got It All Wrong
OpenAI’s CEO explains that its large language model has been misunderstood—and that he’s changed his attitude to AGI.
YouTube Thinks AI Is Its Next Big Bang
On its 20th anniversary, YouTube is venturing into an era of AI-generated video, and may never be the same.
The Doomers Who Insist AI Will Kill Us All
Eliezer Yudkowsky, AI’s prince of doom, explains why computers will kill us and provides an unrealistic plan to stop it.
Inside Jeffrey Epstein’s Forgotten AI Summit
Long before ChatGPT, a group of AI luminaries gathered on an island to discuss the future of artificial intelligence. Their funder ultimately cast a shadow on all who attended.
Trump’s Anti-Bias AI Order Is Just More Bias
The Trump administration says it wants AI models free from ideological bias, as it pressures their developers to reflect the president’s worldview.