Bambu Lab, the company behind my favorite 3D printers, has given itself one hell of a week. Now, Ive got answers to some of my burning questions, answers which you might also hopefully appreciate. But first, some backstory.Since last Thursday, some creators have pledged not to buy Bambu printers anymore, even removed some of their 3D models from its online repository, after the company revealed it would add a new proprietary authentication mechanism that could keep you from using third-party tools to remote control your printer. While youd still be able to stick a file on an SD card and physically put it into your printer or use Bambus proprietary cloud, the old way of printing remotely from a third-party slicer would be no more unless you downloaded a new proprietary Windows and Mac Bambu Connect desktop app to be the middleman between your slicer and Bambus hardware.Unauthorized third-party software will be prohibited from executing critical operations BambuWhile Bambu was clear early on that this would be an optional update, one you could simply choose not to install, the company also positioned it as a necessary one to secure printers against remote hacks. Some owners immediately saw that as a potential bridge to enshittification, however.They noted how Bambu printers can already detect if youre using an official roll of filament and imagined a future where Bambu can keep you from using third-party filament at all. They noted how Bambu already seems to be planning a subscription service for its print farm software, one that requires regular cloud activations and imagined a future where your Bambu printer stops working if you dont pay up. Bambu has denied these and many other such fears in a subsequent setting the record straight blog post, and explained that its new tool doesnt require internet access or a user account and has also backpedaled very slightly, pledging to offer an at-your-own-risk Developer Mode that maintains local access to your printer without any new proprietary authentication at all. Unfortunately, that mode may also disable your ability to access your printer via the cloud. Meanwhile, Bambu didnt do itself any favors by keeping people from using the Wayback Machine to scrutinize its changing statements, by allegedly censoring criticism of the company on its subreddit, and by claiming that the developer of Orca Slicer was working with Bambu on a seamless way to continue to print directly from his popular third-party slicer when they had not actually pledged their support. It has also not helped confidence that Bambus own security around its new Bambu Connect app is such that hackers have already extracted its private key and authentication certificate, or that users have discovered that Bambu gives itself the right to block new print jobs until a printer has finished automatically downloading firmware updates in its Terms of Use.Anyhow, I think the real question here is: are these changes a stepping stone to more enshittification, or at least more of a walled garden, or not? Here are the questions I sent Bambu and the answers I got, via spokesperson Nadia Yaakoubi:1) Will Bambu publicly commit to never requiring a subscription in order to control its printers and print from them over a home network?For our current product line, yes. We will never require a subscription to control or print from our printers over a home network. However, there might be specific business scenarios in the future that require exceptions, i.e a 3DP vending machine, but these would apply to entirely different applications and customer needs. If such a product line is introduced, we will clearly communicate this before its launch.1b) If not, why not?N/A.1c) Will Bambu publicly commit to never putting any existing printer functionality behind a subscription?Yes.2) Will Bambu publicly commit to never restricting the use of third-party filament in any way, shape, or form?For our current product line, yes. We have no plans to restrict the use of third-party filament in any way.3) Will Bambu publicly commit to never monitor files and prints transmitted between users and their printers over a home network?Lets be clear about how this works:LAN mode: Nothing is transmitted through our servers.Cloud mode: Users control their privacy through incognito printing. When enabled, no print history is recorded, and files are not stored in the cloud.Cloud features: For features like re-printing, files are temporarily stored in the cloud to allow users to access their print history. Under no circumstances do we look into the print file/model without the explicit consent of our customers.Bambu has additionally agreed to add a new Developer mode. Some users are concerned that this move is just temporary and that Bambu can simply remove the developer mode and claim that it was too much of a security risk or say that not enough users opted to use it to justify keeping it around. 4) Will Bambu publicly commit to permanently keep the Developer mode with local MQTT, livestream and FTP and never remove it in any future update or shipping batch ofthe X1, P1, A1, and A1 Mini?Yes. However, if a severe security issue arises in the future, we may need to make adjustments to address it. Users can always choose whether to update their printer firmware or not.5) Will Bambu publicly commit to offering and keeping the local Developer mode available in any future printers it releases?We cannot commit to features for non-existent future printers.However, we will clearly communicate all relevant details before customers make their purchase decisions.6) Will Bambu publicly commit to its current and future printers permanently being remotely controllable over LAN without user account or Internet access?For current models: Yes. For future products, while we aim to retain this functionality, we believe committing to a specific technical approach indefinitely is not responsible. However, we will clearly communicate all relevant details before customers make their purchase decisions.Bambu has announced that Bambu Connect will integrate with third-party slicers like Orca, but some users are confused why an app like Bambu Connect is required at all when you could instead add more secure authentication to the printer itself, with industry standard practices like having the printer generate a secure token/API key instead of creating a proprietary middleman authentication app.7) Did Bambu consider and reject interoperable ways of securing its printers, like tokens?Yes.7b) Will Bambu commit to changing its authentication system to an interoperable one? If Bambu did reject interoperable secure authentication systems, why?If software communicates and interacts with our cloud system, it is reasonable for us to have a say in how it operates. As highlightedin our blog post, unauthorized third-party software has created ongoing challenges to the stability of our cloud services and machines for a long time. While we trust that most developers act with good intentions, users are often unaware of the hidden complexities within such software and the security requirements. This lack of transparency of all software makes interoperable secure authentication systems insufficient to fully resolve these issues. Our goal is to safeguard the entire Bambu Lab product ecosystem, providing every user with confidence that our products are secure and easy to usefree from concerns about complex network configurations. And with the changes done, we are one step closer to integrate third-party access in a secure way.8) Is it true that the developer of Orca Slicer was not actually working with Bambu on the integration and that Bambu announced their involvement without approval?We have been in ongoing discussions with SoftFever, the developer of Orca Slicer, since January 14 regarding the firmware update and potential integration into the new release. Work with might be ambiguous. To be more specific, messages were exchanged, files were sent, and their receipt was confirmed along with an indication that they would be reviewed.9) Will Panda Touch and similar accessories continue to work under Developer Mode?We guarantee keeping the port/channel open, but implementations are up to third-party developers.9b) Is Bambu answering that companys questions?Since the release, we have received many inquiries from third-party software developers, including BigTreeTech, viadevpartners@bambulab.com. We are currently in the process of finalizing our response. Its worth noting that we warned third party developers in ablog postfrom March 2024:If youre developing a device that controls the entire printer, including heating elements and motion systems, please do not expect long-term support unless it has been approved by us in advance. This is especially applicable to for-profit organizations.10) Will you allow users to roll back to the old firmware, for reasons like if they accidentally upgrade without understanding the limitations?Yes. Firmware rollback was and always will be available.11) Does the private key leaking change any of your plans?No, this doesnt change our plans, and weve taken immediate action.

On Tuesday night, President Donald Trump issued a pardon to Ross Ulbricht, who ran the dark web marketplace Silk Road under the pseudonym Dread Pirate Roberts. Ulbricht has been serving a life sentence without parole since 2015, when he was convicted of multiple charges, including the distribution of narcotics.The Silk Road marketplace, which was only accessible through the Tor network, became one of the most prevalent early commercial uses of Bitcoin. Buyers and sellers traded in illicit drugs, forged passports, and more. In the intervening years, Ulbricht became a cause celebr for a certain segment of the right-wing, particularly in the crypto crowd that embraced Trump last year. To his supporters, Ulbrichts life sentence is unusually punitive. Similar offenses have garnered much more lenient sentences for instance, Blake Benthall, who operated Silk Road 2.0, was sentenced to time served and three years of probation. Ulbrichts lieutenant, Thomas Clark, also known as Variety Jones, was sentenced to 20 years in prison last year. Although the criminal offenses were nonviolent in nature, the judge who sentenced Ulbricht took into account multiple deaths attributable to drugs bought through the Silk Road. Throughout his trial, Ulbricht denied that he had committed the crimes at issue. Because law enforcement had arrested him with his laptop open, they had access to all his files, which included the code of the website, private messages between him and employees of the Silk Road, and a diary whose entries corresponded to OKCupid messages tied to Ross Ulbrichts real identity.

LatestMachine LearningFine-Tuning LLMs with Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback (RLHF) 0 like January 21, 2025Share this postAuthor(s): Ganesh Bajaj Originally published on Towards AI. This member-only story is on us. Upgrade to access all of Medium.Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback (RLHF) allows LLMs to learn directly from the feedback received on its own response generation. . By including human preferences into the training process, RLHF enables the development of LLMs which are more aligned with user needs and values.This article is about the core concepts of RLHF, its implementation steps, challenges, and advanced techniques like Constitutional AI.Image Taken from Deeplearning.ai: Generative AI with LLM courseAgent: LLM acts as the agent whose job is to generate text. Its objective is to maximize alignment of its generation with human preferences like like helpfulness, accuracy, relevance, and non-toxic.Environment: The environment is the LLMs context window the space in which text can be entered via a prompt.State: The state is the current context within the context window which model considers to generate next token/action. It includes the prompt and the text generated up to the current point.Action: The LLMs action is generating a single token (word, sub-word, or character) from its vocabulary.Action Space: The action space comprises the entire vocabulary of the LLM. The LLM chooses the next token to generate from this vocabulary. The size of Read the full blog for free on Medium.Join thousands of data leaders on the AI newsletter. Join over 80,000 subscribers and keep up to date with the latest developments in AI. From research to projects and ideas. If you are building an AI startup, an AI-related product, or a service, we invite you to consider becoming asponsor. Published via Towards AITowards AI - Medium Share this post

How AI is Transforming Evaluation Practices 0 like January 21, 2025Share this postAuthor(s): Mirko Peters Originally published on Towards AI. This post explores the transformative effects of advanced data integration and AI technologies in evaluation processes within the public sector, emphasizing the potential, challenges, and future implications of these innovations.This member-only story is on us. Upgrade to access all of Medium.Source: Data & Analytics YouTube ChannelWhen I first stumbled upon the complexities of blending diverse data sources, I felt like I was trying to solve a puzzle where pieces came from entirely different sets. This revelation led me down a fascinating path exploring how todays technology reshapes our understanding of massive, intertwined data landscapes. As I dived deeper, I realized that this wasnt just about managing data; it was about transforming how we evaluate public policies and services in a digitally driven age. This post unpacks the integral role of AI, machine learning, and other tech advancements in honing our evaluation practices.Source: Mirko Peters Challenges in Data Integration [Napkin.AI]When I think about the challenges we face in the realm of data, a vivid image comes to mind: a jigsaw puzzle scattered across a table. Each piece represents a different type of data. Some are traditional databases, while others emerge from social media, online surveys, and various digital sources. The task at hand is clear: we must find a way to fit these pieces together to see the whole picture.The integration of data is not just about quantity; its Read the full blog for free on Medium.Join thousands of data leaders on the AI newsletter. Join over 80,000 subscribers and keep up to date with the latest developments in AI. From research to projects and ideas. If you are building an AI startup, an AI-related product, or a service, we invite you to consider becoming asponsor. Published via Towards AITowards AI - Medium Share this post

It's a glorious hump day of hot discounts galore. Cases in points: great prices for Bravely Default II, Tekken 8, and Miles Morales Ultimate. I also have a lot of time for The Surge going for a mere 3 bucks on Xbox. Pretty great sci-fi Soulslike, so absolutely sacrifice the price of a coffee for a play of it.In retro news, it's been 16 years since we (repeatedly and hilariously) flung ourselves down hills and into the Hall of Meat in Skate 2. This second entry in the series was a pretty phenomenal upgrade over the OG and cemented the franchise as a proper threat to the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater empire. Needless to say, I'm still jonesing mighty hard for the 'Skate 4' spiritual successor/F2P reimagining. This Day in Gaming Aussie birthdays for notable games.- Zelda: Link's Awakening DX (GB) 1999. eBay- Skate 2 (PS3,X360) 2009. eBay- Trauma Center: New Blood (Wii) 2009. eBayTable of ContentsNintendo SwitchPCXboxPlayStationLEGONice Savings for Nintendo SwitchYooka-Laylee (-80%) - A$6.50Hot Wheels Unleashed (-85%) - A$8.24Sonic X Shadow Generations (-14%) - A$69Namco Museum (-80%) - A$7.80Expiring Recent DealsDKC Returns HD (-20%) - A$64NBA 2K25 (-57%) - A$30Shadow of the Ninja - Reborn (-30%) - A$34Iconoclasts (-75%) - A$7.49Pac-Man World Re-Pac (-80%) - A$11.99LEGO City Undercover (-61%) - A$39Or gift a Nintendo eShop Card.Switch Console PricesHow much to Switch it up?Back to topPurchase Cheap for PCHalo MC Collection (-75%) - A$14.98Total War: Three Kingdoms (-70%) - A$27.44FC 25 (-60%) - A$43.98Forza Horizon 5 (-50%) - A$44.97Halo Wars: DE (-75%) - A$7.48Manor Lords (-30%) - A$41.99Expiring Recent DealsCorsair Scimitar Elite (-22%) - A$109Metro Awakening (-30%) - A$41.96AC Directors (-75%) - A$3.73AC II (-75%) - A$3.73AC Brotherhood (-75%) - A$5.73Assassins Creed Mega Bndl (-73%) - A$209.10Or just get a Steam Wallet CardPC Hardware PricesSlay your pile of shame.Back to topExciting Bargains for XboxSniper Elite 5 (-57%) - A$38.72Tekken 8 (-33%) - A$79.95The Crew Motorfest CG (-70%) - A$32.98Watch Dogs 2 Gold (-85%) - A$16.49The Surge (-85%) - A$3.36Expiring Recent DealsSuicide Squad: KTJL (-73%) - A$32F1 24 (-80%) - A$21.99Logitech G920 wheel (27%) - A$399.95Spyro Reignited Trilogy (-36%) - A$45Tiny Tina's Wonderlands (-81%) - A$19Or just invest in an Xbox Card.Xbox Console PricesHow many bucks for a 'Box?Back to topPure Scores for PlayStationAstro Bot (-19%) - A$89Spidey Miles Morales Ult. (-45%) - A$69The First Berserker: Khazan (-11%) - A$89Cocoon (-58%) - A$25Star Wars Outlaws (-36%) - A$69LEGO DC Super-Villains Del. (-92%) - A$8.79Persona 5 (-85%) - A$12.74Mortal Kombat XL (-88%) - A$8.39Expiring Recent DealsDynasty Warriors: Origins (-16%) - A$96Split Fiction (-16%) - A$59Blasphemous (-80%) - A$7.59Control Ultimate Ed. (-27%) - A$44.95Sackboy: A Big Adventure (-28%) - A$79Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart (-50%) - A$62.47Injustice 2 Leg. (-90%) - A$7.79PS+ Monthly FreebiesYours to keep from Jan 7 with this subscriptionSuicide Squad: KTJL [PS5]NFS Hot Pursuit Remastered [PS4]The Stanley Parable: Ultra [PS4/5]Or purchase a PS Store Card.What you'll pay to 'Station.Back to topLegit LEGO DealsSonic: Tails Workshop and Tornado (-37%) - A$73.94Marvel: Electro Dinosaur Chase (-34%) - A$29.99Star Wars: Mandalorian Ambush (-34%) - A$23Expiring Recent DealsStar Wars: Onyx Cinder (-31%) - A$159 City: Tow Truck / Sports Car (-27%) - A$22Wicked: Emerald City (-24%) - A$129Back to top Adam Mathew is our Aussie deals wrangler. He plays practically everything, often on YouTube.

At the beginning of the year, we saw Amazon post a recently released 27" AOC Q27G4ZD gaming monitor, featuring a QD-OLED display, 2560x1440 resolution, and 240Hz refresh rate, all for just $470. It did sell out quickly, but it's back today at an even lower price. This is the best price we've seen on a true OLED gaming monitor, even during Black Friday or Cyber Monday. AOC, a Taiwanese brand, is one of the biggest sellers of gaming monitors globally.27" AOC 1440p 240Hz QD-OLED Monitor for $429.19New Release.27" AOC 1440p 240Hz QD-OLED Gaming MonitorThe AOC Q27G4ZD is a 27" 2560x1440 or QHD resolution monitor, which offers a respectable 108ppi pixel density. It also features a 240Hz refresh rate, which should be more than enough for most FPS gamers, and it's certified G-Sync compatible. The Q27G4ZD uses a Samsung quantum dot OLED panel, which is brighter than traditional OLED panels while maintaining the same incredible black levels, color range, and near instantaneous response times that OLEDs are known for. According to the spec sheet, it is HDR True Black 400 certified and boasts a 110% DCI-P3 / 148% sRGB color range.Connectivity wise, the AW2725QF has two HDMI 2.0 ports that two DisplayPort 1.4 ports. It also has built-in speakers for the times you don't need a headset. AOC includes a 3 year warranty with a zero bright pixel guarantee.We haven't yet reviewed this monitor ourselves, so we can't yet compare it to the other best gaming monitors currently available. However, OLED is a tried and true technology that usually commands a premium price tag, and here's the best opportunity we've seen to get an OLED equipped monitor at a reasonable price.Why Should You Trust IGN's Deals Team?IGN's deals team has a combined 30+ years of experience finding the best discounts in gaming, tech, and just about every other category. We don't try to trick our readers into buying things they don't need at prices that aren't worth buying something at. Our ultimate goal is to surface the best possible deals from brands we trust and our editorial team has personal experience with. You can check out our deals standards here for more information on our process, or keep up with the latest deals we find on IGN's Deals account on Twitter.Eric Song is the IGN commerce manager in charge of finding the best gaming and tech deals every day. When Eric isn't hunting for deals for other people at work, he's hunting for deals for himself during his free time.

Today Apple pushed out the release candidate for iOS 18.3, this comes on the heels of last Thursdays release of iOS 18.3 developer beta 3. In its release notes, Apple states that the update brings improvements to Visual Intelligence, along with the boilerplate other enhancements, bug fixes, and security updates.But theres much more than meets the eye when it comes to this iOS 18.3 release candidate. Beneath the surface, theres new evidence of the upcoming iOS 18.4 Siri updates, future changes with screen recording/streaming, and new animations for Shortcuts and Messages. In this hands-on video, we take a look at whats new in iOS 18.3 RC. Be sure to subscribe to us on YouTube for more iOS Decoded.Whats new in iOS 18.3 Release CandidateiOS 18.3 RC ships with build number22D60and wasreleased to developers and public beta testers on January 21, 2025.On the outside, iOS 18.3 isnt as feature laden as previous releases, like iOS 18.1 and iOS 18.2, but this is historically par for the course when it comes to x.3 iOS releases. That all being said, there are quite a few changes underneath the hood in iOS 18.3, and a fair share of user-facing updates as well.Visual IntelligenceA new feature for iPhone 16 users lets you add an event to the Calendar from a poster or flyer, and easily identify plants and animals. I tested both, and they both worked as expected.Notification SummaryArguably the biggest feature in iOS 18.3 was revealed last week with the updated Notification Summaries. Apple is now making it super-clear that the feature is a beta, and in order to avoid issues with so-called AI hallucinations, it disabled summaries for the entire News & Entertainment app category. Thats a pretty drastic step, but its necessary given the type of false headlines that the feature was generating for prominent news services like BBC News and the New York Times. For more details, be sure to watch our full roundup on iOS 18.3 beta 3:Calculator repeats the last mathematical operationThis feature appeared in previous iOS 18.3 betas, but its sure to be a hit once iOS 18.3 goes live to the public. Like you could with iOS releases prior to iOS 18, you can now continuously press the equals sign to repeat mathematic operations.New zoom transition in Shortcuts also being worked on for MessagesiOS 18.3 hints at new transition animations for Shortcuts and the Messages app. Watch the video embedded at the top of the page for a hands-on look at the new Zoom animation in action. Its a small, but nice change.Hints at Apple Intelligence in ShortcutsSo far Apple Intelligence has not been integrated with Shortcuts, but it look as if Apple is working on this integration according to new strings found in iOS 18.3 code.Upcoming screen recording / streaming featuresIts not yet live in iOS 18.3, but weve seen new details on upcoming screen recording and streaming features. In a future update users will be able to do the following:Record using stereo microphone audioDisplay a live camera overlay using picture-in-picture UIHave HDR support for screen recording9to5Macs TakeiOS 18.3, while not sporting headline features like the two previous big iOS updates, has quite a few significant changes. These include both user-facing features, and under-the-hood updates that hint at future iOS updates and hardware. Well be back next week with a full roundup of everything new once iOS 18.3 goes live to the public. In the meantime, share your thoughts below!Add 9to5Mac to your Google News feed. FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.Youre reading 9to5Mac experts who break news about Apple and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Mac on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Dont know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel

Artificial Intelligence AgenciesThe CIA Is Quietly Using AI to Build Emulated Versions of World LeadersbyNoor Al-SibaiThat's one way to use chatbot technology.Jan 21, 4:16 PM ESTMikhail Svetlov/Getty ImagesThat's one way to use chatbot technology.Spy FamilyThe Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has been stepping up its efforts in the world of AI including an eyebrow-raising use of chatbot tech.As theNew York Timesreports, the CIA has been quietly developing a platform that lets analysts "talk" to foreign leaders,in a bid to predict how they might react in certain situations.The human variety of this type of behavior-predicting analysis has been the bread and butter of the agency's behind-the-scenes grunts for a very long time. Instead of painstakingly compiling "profiles" on world leaders based on public information and gathered intelligence, however, those analysts will engage in faux conversation with large language models (LLMs) trained on similar intelligence and information that's presumably being fed into its training data.TheNYT didn't say how formally the chatbot has been deployed, or who helped develop it. However, an interview with the CIA's first chief technology officer, ex-Pentagon AI czar Nand Mulchandani, reveals that its opacity is very much by design.Mulchadani, a Silicon Valley veteran, has a chart in his offices showing all the layers of approval it takes to get any private sector collaboration approved within the secretive agency. From handing issues with contracts to taking care of any project roadblocks, each step requires an incredible amount of bureaucracy and clandestine discussion hurdles that the CIA acknowledges are hindering its quest to keep up with innovation and China, America's main tech adversary.Training DayThe agency's now-CTO was, as theNYT notes, hired to help spearhead a forward-thinking sea change within the CIA. In the two-and-a-half years since he was brought on, Mulchadani has apparently made it easier for private companies to start working with the intelligence agency and reading between the lines, it seems he's held the hands of tech CEOs through the labyrinthine bureaucracy."The more we share about how we employ technology, how we procure technology, what were going to do with it, will make companies want to work with us and want to team with us more," explained Juliane Gallina, the deputy director of the CIA's digital innovation arm, in an interview with theNYT.According to Gallina, the agency is looking to declassify and "expose a little bit" of its secret technological sauce to help procure private sector contracts.There was no mention, however, of whether the public will be given a look behind the curtain of what their tax dollars are helping to fund.More on spies: Hackers Apparently Stole the FBI's Call Logs With Confidential InformantsShare This Article

The new star ofStar Wars could be ... Ryan Gosling?Thats the word fromThe Hollywood Reporter, which writes that Gosling is in negotiations to star in one of the many differentStar Wars movies that has been in development at Lucasfilm in recent years this one directed by Shawn Levy, and written by Jonathan Tropper.Gosling is coming off last summersvery entertaining but financially disappointing blockbusterThe Fall Guy.Levy recently directed Marvels 2024 massive blockbusterDeadpool & Wolverine.He has supposedly been developing thisStar Warsproject since 2022.FoxFoxloading...READ MORE: EveryStar WarsMovie, Ranked From Worst to BestTHRhad zero details about what LevysStar Wars will be about, beyond the fact that it is to be unconnected to the so-called Skywalker Saga and will be a stand-alone movie.It has now been five years and counting since the lastStar Wars feature hit theaters. That was 2019sStar Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.Since then, Lucasfilm has released onlyStar Wars television series on Disney+; most recently theGoonies-esque kids-in-space adventureSkeleton Crew.In the interim, the companydeveloped all sorts of different possibleStar Wars movies including projects from directors like Rian Johnson and Patty Jenkins but none have come to fruition. (The only one thats even gotten into production isThe Mandalorian and Grogu, a big-screen spinoff ofThe Mandalorian TV series.)Gosling certainly has the action/adventure chops for a Star Warsmovie, and hes also appeared in numerous high-profile franchise gigs, includingBlade Runner 2049 and, of course,Barbie.On the flip side, Star Wars tends to draw from more the ranks of up-and-coming actors rather than A-list names. The Sequel Trilogy centered on three young actors Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, and Oscar Isaac with either fairly limited Hollywood experience or little mainstream name recognition. Ditto Alden Ehrenreich when he was chosen to play the young Han Solo. Evan Ewan McGregor was mostly known as an indie movie guy when he became Obi-Wan Kenobi in the prequels.The nextStar Wars movie,The Mandalorian and Grogu, is currently scheduled to open in theaters on May 22, 2026.Get our free mobile appActors Who Were Wasted in Star Wars RolesThese wonderful stars have appeared in Star Wars movies and shows, but only in parts so small they left us disappointed.

OpenAI spent $1.76 million on government lobbying in 2024 and $510,000 in the last three months of the year alone, according to a new disclosure filed on Tuesdaya significant jump from 2023, when the company spent just $260,000 on Capitol Hill. The company also disclosed a new in-house lobbyist, Meghan Dorn, who worked for five years for Senator Lindsey Graham and started at OpenAI in October. The filing also shows activity related to two new pieces of legislation in the final months of the year: the Houses AI Advancement and Reliability Act, which would set up a government center for AI research, and the Senates Future of Artificial Intelligence Innovation Act, which would create shared benchmark tests for AI models. OpenAI did not respond to questions about its lobbying efforts. But perhaps more important, the disclosure is a clear signal of the companys arrival as a political player, as its first year of serious lobbying ends and Republican control of Washington begins. While OpenAIs lobbying spending is still dwarfed by its peersMeta tops the list of Big Tech spenders, with more than $24 million in 2024the uptick comes as it and other AI companies have helped redraw the shape of AI policy. For the past few years, AI policy has been something like a whack-a-mole response to the risks posed by deepfakes and misinformation. But over the last year, AI companies have started to position the success of the technology as pivotal to national security and American competitiveness, arguing that the government must therefore support the industrys growth. As a result, OpenAI and others now seem poised to gain access to cheaper energy, lucrative national security contracts, and a more lax regulatory environment thats unconcerned with the minutiae of AI safety. While the big players seem more or less aligned on this grand narrative, messy divides on other issues are still threatening to break through the harmony on display at President Trumps inauguration this week. AI regulation really began in earnest after ChatGPT launched in November 2022. At that point, a lot of the conversation was about responsibility, says Liana Keesing, campaigns manager for technology reform at Issue One, a democracy nonprofit that tracks Big Techs influence. Companies were asked what theyd do about sexually abusive deepfake images and election disinformation. Sam Altman did a very good job coming in and painting himself early as a supporter of that process, Keesing says. OpenAI started its official lobbying effort around October 2023, hiring Chan Parka onetime Senate Judiciary Committee counsel and Microsoft lobbyistto lead the effort. Lawmakers, particularly then Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer, were vocal about wanting to curb these particular harms; OpenAI hired Schumers former legal counsel, Reginald Babin, as a lobbyist, according to data from OpenSecrets. This past summer, the company hired the veteran political operative Chris Lehane as its head of global policy. OpenAIs previous disclosures confirm that the companys lobbyists subsequently focused much of last year on legislation like the No Fakes Act and the Protect Elections from Deceptive AI Act. The bills did not materialize into law. But as the year went on, the regulatory goals of AI companies began to change. One of the biggest shifts that weve seen, Keesing says, is that theyve really started to focus on energy. In September, Altman, along with leaders from Nvidia, Anthropic, and Google, visited the White House and pitched the vision that US competitiveness in AI will depend on subsidized energy infrastructure to train the best models. Altman proposed to the Biden administration the construction of multiple five-gigawatt data centers, which would each consume as much electricity as New York City. Around the same time, companies like Meta and Microsoft started to say that nuclear energy will provide the path forward for AI, announcing deals aimed at firing up new nuclear power plants. It seems likely OpenAIs policy team was already planning for this particular shift. In April, the company hired lobbyist Matthew Rimkunas, who worked for Bill Gatess sustainable energy effort Breakthrough Energies and, before that, spent 16 years working for Senator Graham; the South Carolina Republican serves on the Senate subcommittee that manages nuclear safety. This new AI energy race is inseparable from the positioning of AI as essential for national security and US competitiveness with China. OpenAI laid out its position in a blog post in October, writing, AI is a transformational technology that can be used to strengthen democratic values or to undermine them. Thats why we believe democracies should continue to take the lead in AI development. Then in December, the company went a step further and reversed its policy against working with the military, announcing it would develop AI models with the defense-tech company Anduril to help take down drones around military bases. That same month, Sam Altman said during an interview with The Free Press that the Biden administration was not that effective in shepherding AI: The things that I think should have been the administrations priorities, and I hope will be the next administrations priorities, are building out massive AI infrastructure in the US, having a supply chain in the US, things like that. That characterization glosses over the CHIPS Act, a $52 billion stimulus to the domestic chips industry that is, at least on paper, aligned with Altmans vision. (It also preceded an executive order Biden issued just last week, to lease federal land to host the type of gigawatt-scale data centers that Altman had been asking for.) Intentionally or not, Altmans posture aligned him with the growing camaraderie between President Trump and Silicon Valley. Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Sundar Pichai all sat directly behind Trumps family at the inauguration on Monday, and Altman also attended. Many of them had also made sizable donations to Trumps inaugural fund, with Altman personally throwing in $1 million. Its easy to view the inauguration as evidence that these tech leaders are aligned with each other, and with other players in Trumps orbit. But there are still some key dividing lines that will be worth watching. Notably, theres the clash over H-1B visas, which allow many noncitizen AI researchers to work in the US. Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy (who is, as of this week, no longer a part of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency) have been pushing for that visa program to be expanded. This sparked backlash from some allies of the Trump administration, perhaps most loudly Steve Bannon. Another fault line is the battle between open- and closed-source AI. Google and OpenAI prevent anyone from knowing exactly whats in their most powerful models, often arguing that this keeps them from being used improperly by bad actors. Musk has sued OpenAI and Microsoft over the issue, alleging that closed-source models are antithetical to OpenAIs hybrid nonprofit structure. Meta, whose Llama model is open-source, recently sided with Musk in that lawsuit. Venture capitalist and Trump ally Marc Andreessen echoed these criticisms of OpenAI on X just hours after the inauguration. (Andreessen has also said that making AI models open-source makes overbearing regulations unnecessary.) Finally, there are the battles over bias and free speech. The vastly different approaches that social media companies have taken to moderating contentincluding Metas recent announcement that it would end its US fact-checking programraise questions about whether the way AI models are moderated will continue to splinter too. Musk has lamented what he calls the wokeness of many leading models, and Andreessen said on Tuesday that Chinese LLMs are much less censored than American LLMs (though thats not quite true, given that many Chinese AI models have government-mandated censorship in place that forbids particular topics). Altman has been more equivocal: No two people are ever going to agree that one system is perfectly unbiased, he told The Free Press. Its only the start of a new era in Washington, but the White House has been busy. It has repealed many executive orders signed by President Biden, including the landmark order on AI that imposed rules for government use of the technology (while it appears to have kept Bidens order on leasing land for more data centers). Altman is busy as well. OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank reportedly plan to spend up to $500 billion on a joint venture for new data centers; the project was announced by President Trump, with Altman standing alongside. And according to Axios, Altman will also be part of a closed-door briefing with government officials on January 30, reportedly about OpenAIs development of a powerful new AI agent.