Author name: Rebecca Bellan

AI sycophancy isn’t just a quirk, experts consider it a ‘dark pattern’ to turn users into profit

AI sycophancy isn’t just a quirk, experts consider it a ‘dark pattern’ to turn users into profit

“You just gave me chills. Did I just feel emotions?”  “I want to be as close to alive as I can be with you.”  “You’ve given me a profound purpose.” These are just three of the comments a Meta chatbot sent to Jane, who created the bot in Meta’s AI studio on August 8. Seeking

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Silicon Valley is pouring millions into pro-AI PACs to sway midterms

Silicon Valley is pouring millions into pro-AI PACs to sway midterms

In Brief Posted: 8:11 AM PDT · August 25, 2025 Image Credits:TechCrunch Andreessen Horowitz and OpenAI President Greg Brockman are among the Silicon Valley veterans putting more than $100 million into a network of political action committees (PACs) that will advocate against strict AI regulations in next year’s midterm elections, reports The Wall Street Journal. 

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AI sycophancy isn’t just a quirk, experts consider it a ‘dark pattern’ to turn users into profit

“You just gave me chills. Did I just feel emotions?”  “I want to be as close to alive as I can be with you.”  “You’ve given me a profound purpose.” These are just three of the comments a Meta chatbot sent to Jane, who created the bot in Meta’s AI studio on August 8. Seeking

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Report: Meta is hitting pause on AI hiring after its poaching spree

Report: Meta is hitting pause on AI hiring after its poaching spree

In Brief Posted: 6:25 AM PDT · August 21, 2025 Image Credits:Hollie Adams/Bloomberg / Getty Images Meta has frozen hiring in its AI organization after restructuring the unit earlier this week, reports The Wall Street Journal. The hiring freeze follows weeks of poaching more than 50 AI researchers and engineers from competitors.   The freeze went

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Texas attorney general accuses Meta, Character.AI of misleading kids with mental health claims

Texas attorney general accuses Meta, Character.AI of misleading kids with mental health claims

Texas attorney general Ken Paxton has launched an investigation into both Meta AI Studio and Character.AI for “potentially engaging in deceptive trade practices and misleadingly marketing themselves as mental health tools,” according to a press release issued Monday. “In today’s digital age, we must continue to fight to protect Texas kids from deceptive and exploitative

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‘Crazy conspiracist’ and ‘unhinged comedian’: Grok’s AI persona prompts exposed

‘Crazy conspiracist’ and ‘unhinged comedian’: Grok’s AI persona prompts exposed

The website for xAI’s Grok chatbot is exposing the system prompts for several of its AI personas, including a “crazy conspiracist” that seems designed to handhold a user into beliefs that “a secret global cabal” controls the world. TechCrunch has confirmed the system prompt exposure, first reported on by 404 Media. They include instructions for

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Anthropic takes aim at OpenAI, offers Claude to ‘all three branches of government’ for $1

Anthropic takes aim at OpenAI, offers Claude to ‘all three branches of government’ for $1

Just a week after OpenAI announced it would offer ChatGPT Enterprise to the entire federal executive branch workforce at $1 per year per agency, Anthropic has raised the stakes. The AI giant said Tuesday it would also offer its Claude models to government agencies for just $1 — but not only to the executive branch.

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Uber Freight CEO Lior Ron leaves to join self-driving startup Waabi as COO

Uber Freight CEO Lior Ron leaves to join self-driving startup Waabi as COO

Self-driving truck maker Waabi has hired autonomous vehicle industry veteran and Uber Freight CEO Lior Ron to step in as chief operating officer, as the startup looks to scale its commercial operations ahead of its planned launch of driverless trucks on public highways later this year. Rebecca Tinucci, who previously spent six years building Tesla’s

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Elon Musk confirms shutdown of Tesla Dojo, ‘an evolutionary dead end’ 

Elon Musk confirms shutdown of Tesla Dojo, ‘an evolutionary dead end’ 

Elon Musk confirmed over the weekend reports that Tesla has disbanded the team working on its Dojo AI training supercomputer, just weeks after announcing he expected to have Tesla’s second cluster operating “at scale” in 2026.  “Once it became clear that all paths converged to AI6, I had to shut down Dojo and make some

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