Google's new AI guidelines removed a promise not to use AI for weapons or surveillance.Some employees have been reacting on the company's internal message board.Google said it's important for businesses and governments to work together for "national security."After Google retracted its promise not to use artificial intelligence for weapons or surveillance, some employees posted their reactions on the company's internal message board.The company said on Tuesday that it had updated its ethical AI guidelines, which lay out how Google will and won't use its technology. The new version removed wording that vowed Google wouldn't use AI to build weapons, surveillance tools, or "technologies that cause or are likely to cause overall harm."Several Google employees expressed dismay at the change on the company's internal message board, Memegen, according to posts shared with Business Insider.One meme showed CEO Sundar Pichai querying Google's search engine for "how to become weapons contractor?"Another employee riffed on a popular meme of an actor dressed as a Nazi soldier in a TV comedy sketch. "Google lifts a ban on using its AI for weapons and surveillance," it read. "Are we the baddies?"Another post showed Sheldon from "The Big Bang Theory" asking why Google would drop its red line for weapons, seeing reports about Google working more closely with defense customers including the Pentagon, and responding, "Oh, that's why."The three memes were among the top-voted among employees on Wednesday. However, these were shared by just a handful of Google staffers. The company has more than 180,000 employees; these comments reflect a fraction of the workforce. Some Googlers may support tech companies working more closely with defense customers and the US government.In recent years there has been a shift among some tech companies and startups toward offering more of their technology, including AI tools, for defense purposes.While Google didn't directly acknowledge the removal of the wording, Demis Hassabis, the CEO of Google DeepMind, and James Manyika, a senior vice president for technology and society, wrote a blog post on Tuesday in which they described an "increasingly complex geopolitical landscape" and said it was important for businesses and governments to work together in the interest of "national security.""We believe democracies should lead in AI development, guided by core values like freedom, equality, and respect for human rights," they wrote. "And we believe that companies, governments, and organizations sharing these values should work together to create AI that protects people, promotes global growth, and supports national security."Reached for comment, a Google spokesperson pointed BI to the company's Tuesday blog post.In 2018, Google employees protested a program with the Pentagon that used Google's AI for warfare. The company abandoned the contract and laid out AI principles that included examples of things it wouldn't pursue, explicitly mentioning weapons and surveillance tools.The blog post about the 2018 principles now includes a link at the top pointing users to the updated guidelines.Google's decision to draw red lines around weaponry has left it out of military deals signed by other tech giants, including Amazon and Microsoft. Huge strides in AI have been made since 2018, and theUS is now competing with China and other countries for supremacy in the technology.Are you a current or former Google employee with more to share? You can reach this reporter using the secure messaging app (+1 628-228-1836) or secure email (). We can keep you anonymous.

A group of more than 100 organizations has published an open letter calling on the AI industry and regulators to mitigate the techs harmful environmental impacts just days before leading industry CEOs, heads of state, academics, and nonprofits descend on Paris for a major AI conference. The letter, which bears the signatures of prominent advocacy groups including Amnesty International and the AI Now Institute, notes theres increasing evidence of AI systems driving up emissions, locking in reliance on non-renewables, and exhausting critical resources. Yet little is being done to address these negative externalities as the tech sector and governments justify further investments in AI, according to the letter.AI can never be a climate solution if it runs on fossil fuels, the letter reads. We, the signatories, demand that AI systems be made compatible with our planetary boundaries.The signatories lay out clear demands, calling for among other things AI infrastructure, including data centers, to be fossil fuels-free. The rush to build infrastructure to develop and run AI has strained electric grids to the breaking point, forcing some utilities to lean on coal and other environmentally unfriendly sources of power, the letter notes.Global data center electricity consumption could double to over 1,000 terawatts by 2026 equivalent to Japans annual electricity use, reads the letter, citing data from the International Energy Agency. In parts of the world, this rising demand is pushing power infrastructure to its limits, prolonging and intensifying our dependency on fossil fuels, the pollution from which is linked to public health issues.The letter also urges governments and tech companies to ensure that new data centers dont deplete water and land resources, and maintain transparency about AIs environmental impacts throughout the entire AI lifecycle.Most data centers, which can span millions of square feet, require lots of water not only to cool the chips within, but to maintain safe humidity levels for computing equipment. By one estimate, if 1 in 10 U.S. residents asked OpenAIs AI-powered chatbot ChatGPT to write an email a week, itd cost more than 435 million liters ofwater. The letters signatories assert that their demands represent the bare minimum needed to mitigate the ongoing harm from unchecked AI expansion. Countries and communities most vulnerable to rapid climate change are first to be impacted by the harms of AI and its computational demands, and they have less say in its development, the letter reads. We must move beyond viewing technological progress as inherently beneficial or limitless, and instead prioritize AI processes that contribute meaningfully to society while minimizing environmental and human harm.Unfortunately for the undersigned, the U.S., where most major AI companies are based, has signaled that it intends to embrace growth at any cost. President Donald Trump has said that he will use an energy emergency declaration to quickly approve new power stations for AI data centers, including those that use coal for backup power. Trump has also promised to fast-track environmental approvals and other permits for any company making an investment of $1 billion or more domestically.

Despite all the buzz last week that DeepSeek would herald in an era of lower AI budgets, there is zero sign that Big Tech is slowing down. Instead, theyre ramping things up.Amazon is the latest tech giant to announce a massive AI spending plan with well over $100 billion in predicted capital expenditures for 2025. The vast majority of that $100 billion will go toward AI capabilities for its cloud division AWS, CEO Andy Jassy said during Amazons fourth-quarter earnings call Thursday.(More specifically, Jassy said Q4 2024s capex spending of $26.3 billion is reasonably representative of what to expect on an annualized basis in 2025. Multiplying that quarterly spend by four gets a cool $105.2 billion.)Thats a huge jump from the $75 billion in capex that Amazon expected spend in 2024. Amazon brushed aside concerns about AI getting so cheap that it would harm its revenue. Instead, Jassy said lower prices would just lead to increased demand for AI. And AWS, which has AI offerings galore, stands to benefit, he argued.Sometimes people make the assumption that if youre able to decrease the cost of any type of technology component that somehow it leads to less total spend in technology. Weve never seen that to be the case, Jassy said, comparing the boom in AI demand to the early days of the Internet and cloud.Other Big Tech companies are making the same point this earnings season as worries mount about the returns on their skyrocketing AI expenses.Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg declared last week the company would spend hundreds of billions on AI in the long term, citing rising inference demand across its billions of users. Meta is slated to spend at least $60 billion on capex in 2025, mostly on AI.Meanwhile, Alphabet just boosted its capex for 2025 by a whopping 42% to $75 billion, with CEO Sundar Pichai justifying the spending by saying that decreased AI costs will make more use cases feasible.And Microsoft announced last month that it would spend $80 billion on AI data centers in 2025 alone. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella even tweeted the Wikipedia page for Jevons Paradox (the concept in economics that lower prices leads to increased demand) right as the DeepSeek discussion was heating up.Whether Jevons Paradox pans out for Big Tech this time remains to be seen. But for now, theres no signs of any AI spending slowdown just yet.Topics

Vine VFX has just shared with AWN and VFXWorld details of their work delivering 115 shots for the climactic Season 2 finale on Prime Videos supernatural thriller, The Rig. The Cambridge-based visual effects studio created the breathtaking mycelium forest and eerie underwater environment, producing shots on a new USD pipeline they created for the show.In Season 1, when an ancient parasite was let loose on the ocean oor, the crew in The Rig found themselves in peril. Season 2 introduced even more suspense, betrayal, and terrifying consequences, culminating in a cliffhanger that required the Vine FX team to create growing mycelium trees as part of an underwater alien world.The Rig has been one of the most rewarding projects for us to work on, says Kaitlyn Beattie, VFX Producer at Vine FX. Season 1 was an instant hit, and Season 2 has pushed the boundaries for the show, which gave us ample opportunity to create something incredible.Among the standout shots from the nale was a sprawling, living mycelium forest, its canopy looming 400 meters above the seabed. These parasitic trees were more than decorative; they had to glow, evoke an emotional response from the characters, and add layers of depth to the underwater ecosystem.According to the studio, they began with concept art created by Scott McInnes, capturing the forests vibrant and organic forms. Moving from concept to full CG proved challenging; the scale and density of the mycelium structures required the use of simulation techniques to grow the structures in an organic way, all while establishing a new USD (Universal Scene Description) pipeline to handle asset volume and complexity.This was a long process, says Pedrom Dadgostar, Head of 3D at Vine FX. We created several tree designs which we could then instance and propagate the scene with. The great thing about procedural growth simulations like these is that they look different from any angle, so by carefully rotating and placing assets we were able to build a dense forest with no repetitions. We recruited the largest CG team weve ever had just to work on this project. The teams approach to procedural textures and lighting provided the trees with an ethereal, bioluminescent quality that further enhanced the underwater environment. Using Houdinis Solaris, the trunks were equipped with internal illumination through mesh lights, which added a ghostly, otherworldly presence.In addition to generating an entire forest of alien, parasitic trees, Vine FX needed to build an entire underwater world, augmenting live-action shots with CG and 2D assets to create a sense of being beneath the waves.That meant slow movements, particulates, and depth. Bringing together environment extensions and mycelium trees was important, but those smaller and at times hidden details were just as important.Light plays a critical role in dening space and scale, explains Dadgostar. We carefully placed oating particulates that helped establish that sense, leading into darkness throughout the environment and around the trees. The idea was to envelop the characters in an expansive, claustrophobic world.When the characters interact with the parasite, we had to make sure the light from it reected off their suits and any other elements, comments Ole Aleksander Norby, Compositing Supervisor at Vine FX. The visual representation of being underwater and interacting with a decaying organism was shown by the oating particulates seen throughout the episode. Compositing artists ensured that the trees and their bioluminescent glow meshed seamlessly with the live-action footage. While Vine FX was tasked with creating a mostly CG environment, the comp team worked closely with the client to establish a look that met evolving creative preferences, from light intensities to color grading.Work on The Rig was completed in USD, which required an entirely new pipeline as work progressed, rened to suit not only the project but the entire studio. The new USD pipeline streamlined the process, says Dadgostar. It allowed us to manage the integration of assets across shots and maintain consistency throughout the sequence as a whole.With USDs ecient handling of multi-shot workows, the new pipeline enabled a unied environment that could be rendered across shots without extensive re-rendering, ultimately saving time while delivering high-quality visuals.Source: Vine FX Dan Sarto is Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network.

Located next to the Assumption Roman Catholic Church of Chicopee, this handsome Second Empire style residence is significant not only architecturally, but as the residence of a Massachusetts Governor. This house was built around 1870 for a Frank D. Hale, who resided here until 1878, when the property was purchased by George Dexter Robinson (1834-1896), who moved to Chicopee and eventually got engaged in politics, in 1873 winning election to the Massachusetts House of Representatives, and was elected to theMassachusetts Senatein 1875. In 1876, Robinson was elected to theUnited States House of Representatives, where he served most of four terms, buying this home about half-way through his time as a Representative in Washington. While serving in Congress, Robinson was nominated to run for Governor of Massachusettsin 1883, he won and served three, one-year terms. After his time as Governor, he went back to his law practice, and in 1892, Robinson took on his most famous client,Lizzie Borden.During the infamous trial, Robinson was also able to cast significant doubt on the reliability of several witnesses to the events surrounding the murders. Lizzie Borden was ultimately acquitted of the criminal charges, and Robinson was a highly visible presence in themedia circusthat attended the trial. In the 20th century, this handsome property was acquired by the Assumption R.C. Church of Chicopee, who used the house as a rectory for its new church next door. It remains a well-preserved example of the Second Empire architectural style with slate mansard roof crowned by iron cresting.

Want to keep up with the latest AI developments? This event is essential viewing.

A trademark application surfaces the ChatGPT maker's hardware plans - and the company has so many plans.

Taylor Swift with boyfriend Kansas City Chiefs Tight End Travis Kelce heading back to the Super Bowl ... [+] for a possible threepeat | Photo by Erick W. RascoSports Illustrated via Getty ImagesDestined to go down as the AI Super Bowl, more AI-themed content and AI advertisers are on tap this year with a few surprise reveals, Fox Sports Sales Chief Mark Evans told the The Hollywood Reporter.With 30-second spots selling for $8 million, its been game on for tech giants who have been flocking to the Super Bowl as a cost-effective way to make a huge splash with a massive audience. Doing the math, 200 million viewers means Super Bowl spots are costing less than a nickel per viewer. At an equivalent $40 CPM, it actually can be cheaper than many sports shows. Of the first-timers taking the plunge, ChatGPT-maker OpenAI is expected to make its Super Bowl debut with its first television commercial, according to the Wall Street Journal. The company has neither confirmed nor denied th report. Google is returning to the game to promote its large language model, Gemini, and already has edited the ad after a cheese fact went viral for being overstated. Doesnt get more generative AI than that. Two years ago, Geminis predecessor Bard did exactly the same thing during its launch when it hallucinated a space fact in a live demo. Meta is advertising its AI Ray-Bans, Salesforce is dining with AI, and GoDaddy is showing off its AI design features. But Amazon-backed Anthropic has decided to sit this one out, a spokesperson told me, having debuted a 5-second mic drop ad last year that simply read Claude is AI for all of us. Anthropic."Your Super Bowl Bingo CardWill Microsoft, Waymo and Deepseek be next to reveal their Super Bowl AI ads? Tune in this Sunday 6:30pm ET on Fox, and Tubi for free, to watch the all the drama unfold as the Kansas City Chiefs faceoff against the Philadelphia Eagles at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, as they attempt a historic threepeat win. Watch for epic celebrity cameos from Successions Kieran Culkin & Jeremy Strong, Eugene & Dan Levy, Casey & Ben Affleck, Chris Pratt, Chris Hemsworth, Glen Powell, Billy Crystal, Meg Ryan, Sydney Sweeney, Shania Twain, Kris Jenner, Catherine Ohara, Willem Dafoe, Gordon Ramsey, SNLs Pete Davidson, Heidi Gardner, Chloe Fineman, The Muppets, sloths, a much loved potato plant and a very funny Doritos fan. Halftime performances from Kendrick Lamar and SZA. And Taylor Swift in the stands cheering on her boo, Chiefs Tight End Travis Kelce. In addition, there are expected to be Disney, Universal and Paramount movie trailers for Alien: Earth, Elio, How To Train Your Dragon, Jurassic World: Rebirth, Lilo & Stitch, M3gan 2.0, Mission: ImpossibleThe Final Reckoning, Novocaine, Smurfs, Snow White, The Fantastic Four: First Steps, and Thunderbolts. And Fox will be promoting its own shows alongside NFL and local ads. Below are all the Super Bowl LIX ads spotted so far with the count hovering around 60. Comment with your favorite.MORE FOR YOUAngelsoft - Super Bowl champ Julian Edelman gets stuck on toilet paperBooking.com - Muppets check in but they dont check outBosch-Antonio Banderas, WWE Randy Savage are opposites that attractBounty - NFL Rob Gronkowski and Drew Brees get messy with wingsBud Light - Post Malone and comic Shane Gillis party in the burbsBudweiser - Baby Clydesdale makes first beer deliveryBusch Light (regional) - NASCAR driver Ross Chastain goes campingCirkul - Adam Devine helps water bottle make a splash.Coffee-Mate - Shania Twain rocks a beat with Cold FoamCoors Light - Sloths have a case of the MondaysDoorDash - Nate Bargatze does DashPass mathDoritos - Sci-fi fan that created ad is abducted by aliensDove - Bruce Springsteens Born to Run delivers body positivity messageDunkin - Casey & Ben Affleck recruit Jeremy Strong to Dunkings bandDuracell - Comedic scientist explains power boost nickel-lithium battery FanDuel - Peyton and Eli Manning place bets in Kick of Destiny challengeFetch Rewards - $10,000 giveaway every second of 4Q 2 minute warning Foundation to Combat Antisemitism-Snoop Dogg, Tom Brady battle hateGoDaddy - Fallouts Walter Goggins AI makes websiteGoogle - Gemini AI: 50 stories in 50 states (updated)Haagen-Dazs - Vin Diesel and Ludacris not so fast and furiousHe Gets Us - Faith-based cinematic Hellmanns - Meg Ryan, Billy Crystal, Sydney Sweeney When Harry Met SallyHexClad - Gordon Ramsey cooks for aliens, including Pete Davidson Hims & Hers - 74% of Americans are overweight, obesity drugs plugHomes.com - Dan Levy, Heidi Gardner shocked to find theyre in an ad Instacart - Brand icons unite, Energizer Bunny, Jolly Green GiantJeep Stellantis - surprise reveal expected Lays - Little Farmer girl tends to her fledgling potato plant, winner!Little Caesars - Eugene Levys eyebrows are not worthyLiquid Death - Stay thirsty Killer Cola and Cherry Obituary Meta - Chris Pratt and Chris Hemsworth eat Kris Jenners bananaMichelob Ultra - Willem Dafoe and Catherine OHara pickleball for beerMountain Dew - Mystery celebrity brings big guy for Berry BlastMSC Cruises - Drew Barrymore, Orlando Bloom revive Music & LyricsNerds Gummy Clusters - Shaboozey sings What a Wonderful WorldNerdWallet - Kieran Culkin is a Beluga of a whale in financeNovartis - Wanda Sykes, Hailee Steinfeld raise breast cancer awarenessNYT Games (regional) - The Athletic debuts Sports Connections puzzle Oikos - Juno Temple races NFLs Myles Garrett through airportOpenAI - surprise reveal expected, per WSJ Poppi - Love Island stars at a pool party, drive-through, dinerPringles - Adam Brody summons James Harden, Andy Reid and Nick Offerman mustaches with a catchy Batman nanananananananaRAM Trucks - Glen Powells Goldilocks has an adventureReeses - Lava beds tourists clamour for the taste of new Reeses lavaRitz - surprise reveal expected Rocket Mortgage - No Anna Kendrick Barbie Dream House this year Salesforce - Matthew McConaughey, Woody Harrelson dine with AI Skechers - Coach Andy Reid loves slips onsSpruce - Who let the dogs out for a pool party with pet-safe weed killer Squarespace - Barry Keoghans adventure begins with a donkeyStella Artois - David Beckham learns of a twin brotherTaco Bell - Doja Cat is photobombing the drive-thruTotinos - Tim Robinson, Sam Richardson eat pizza rolls in outer spaceTubi - Known for past stunts, expect surprise reveal Turbo Tax - Issa Raes found a better way to do taxesUber Eats - Martha Stewart tripping with Charlie XCXWeatherTech - Golden Girls Born to Be Wild off to the Super Bowl

Goosebumps House of Shivers: The Last SleepoverCredit: ScholasticIve recently been busy covering Goosebumps: The Vanishing on Disney+, even talking to David Schwimmer last week about his role in the aged-up reboot based on everyones favorite '90s middle grade horror novels. All the while, Bob Stine was apparently hitting the keyboard hard every morning (10 AM on the dot, if memory serves) churning out the latest entry in his House of Shivers series.Its Goosebumps for a new generation, and the fifth book, which is due for publication on August 5 this year, is titled The Last Sleepover. You can pre-order it today, and heres the synopsis, for those curious:Lily and her brother Rory have just moved into a new house after their family spent months renovating it. The formerly rundown, creepy old house is now totally transformed into a tech lovers dream. Rory has installed a smart device called Mastermind that can turn on lights, lock doors, and even open the windows, among other things. He and Lily love showing off what the Mastermind can do. But someone doesnt love the changes -- the ghost of the girl who died in the house. Shes angry -- and ready for revenge.Ive always wondered what would happen if my Amazon Echo speaker became possessed by an angry spirit, and it seems Ill get to find out in The Last Sleepover this summer. Its no secret that Ive been a lifelong Goosebumps fan, and Ive had the privilege of interviewing Bob Stine not once, but twice. I dont think the books will ever be as popular as they were back when I was originally reading them, but Id like to think theyre still finding their audience of young readers, who are now coming to them for the first time.When he revealed the cover on X, I immediately messaged Bob, saying how the cover looks a lot like that of The Haunted School, one of the last mainline Goosebumps titles (#59) to be published back in 1997. By that year, I had moved on to other hobbies, like practicing drums, playing video games and worrying about who I had a crush on, but my passion for Goosebumps never truly died. It meant too much.I do wish Tim Jacobus was creating the cover art for these newer House of Shivers books, as his eye-catching interpretation of Bobs middle grade horror world still cant be beat. That said, I just appreciate that Bob is still writing, and the world is continuing to receive a steady dose of safe scares, even if its not at the breakneck speed the prolific New York writer somehow kept in the mid '90s.Im looking forward to reading about R.L. Stines spectral smart house when The Last Sleepover hits bookstores and online retailers later this year. Until then, Ill refrain from asking my devices any creepy questions.Alexa, are there any disgruntled ghosts haunting my app-controlled toaster oven?

In a nutshell: The MIDI 2.0 standard was introduced in 2020, nearly 40 years after the original version. MIDI remains a crucial technology for musicians and music producers, and its utility on PCs is set to expand as Microsoft plans to enhance support in Windows. Microsoft recently released Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27788 to users in the Canary Channel. This update could be a significant milestone for musicians using Windows, as it introduces major improvements to the Musical Instrument Digital Interface MIDI standard.MIDI, a foundational music technology dating back to 1983, defines a communication protocol, digital interface, and electrical connectors that allow multiple musical instruments to work together. Microsoft is undertaking a complete rewrite of MIDI support for Windows, delivered through the open-source Windows MIDI Services project.If you've ever played an electronic instrument or arranged music in MIDI format, you may find the new Windows MIDI Services technology particularly exciting. Microsoft states that the new stack supports both MIDI 1.0 and the more advanced MIDI 2.0 standard. It is compatible exclusively with 64-bit operating systems and finally extends full MIDI support to all modern Windows architectures, including Arm64-based Copilot+ PCs.The MIDI 2.0 standard introduces high-speed data transmission, high-fidelity messages, endpoint discovery and negotiation, and more. Windows 11's new MIDI stack further enhances performance with improved timing, reduced jitter in data exchange, and a faster MIDI driver that supports both MIDI 1.0 and 2.0 devices. It also features automatic API translation between the two versions, ensuring seamless compatibility.Microsoft is making a concerted effort to provide first-class MIDI support in Windows 11. The standard remains widely used, not just in music production but also in certain industrial applications. The new USB MIDI 2.0 class driver, included with Preview Build 27788, was developed in collaboration with the Association of Musical Electronics Industry of Japan and AmeNote. According to Microsoft, it ensures compatibility with both MIDI 2.0 and legacy MIDI 1.0 devices. // Related StoriesHowever, the latest Windows 11 preview isn't just about MIDI improvements. Microsoft is also introducing a "seamless" 1-click resume feature for OneDrive, allowing users to quickly pick up where they left off when switching between devices. Additionally, the Microsoft Store now supports selective installation for certain games, enabling users to save SSD space by skipping unwanted components, such as single-player campaigns or high-resolution textures in multiplayer-focused titles like Call of Duty and Halo.