Are You ‘Agentic’ Enough for the AI Era?
Silicon Valley built AI coding agents that can handle most of the grunt work. Now, the most valuable skill in tech is deciding what they should do. Source link
Artificial Intelligence
‘Uncanny Valley’: Pentagon vs. ‘Woke’ Anthropic, Agentic vs. Mimetic, and Trump vs. State of the Union
This week, the Uncanny Valley team dives into the feud that has been brewing between Anthropic and the Pentagon—and what it says about how the government interacts with tech companies. Later, Zoë Schiffer tells us why figuring out whether you are agentic or mimetic has become the new litmus test in Silicon Valley. Plus, we … Read more
Hands-On With Nano Banana 2, the Latest Version of Google’s AI Image Generator
Google just debuted Nano Banana 2, an updated version of its AI image generator. It combines the abilities of Google’s previous release, Nano Banana Pro—like text rendering and web searching—with speedier image generation. This tool will be the new default in Google’s Gemini chatbot. The first image model from Google under the Nano Banana moniker … Read more
This AI Agent Is Designed to Not Go Rogue
AI agents like OpenClaw have recently exploded in popularity precisely because they can take the reins of your digital life. Whether you want a personalized morning news digest, a proxy that can fight with your cable company’s customer service, or a to-do list auditor that will do some tasks for you and prod you to … Read more
How Chinese AI Chatbots Censor Themselves
Hearing someone talk about digital censorship in China is always either extremely boring or extremely interesting. Most of the time, people are still regurgitating the same talking points from 20 years ago about how the Chinese internet is like living in George Orwell’s 1984. But occasionally, someone discovers something new about how the Chinese government … Read more
Who’s Your Daddy? A Chatbot
The first time Alesandra Madison’s husband incorporated AI into their relationship was in late 2024. She’d forgotten to do her “nightly kneeling ritual,” and he asked ChatGPT how to properly discipline her. The large language model suggested “a two-in-one punishment,” she says—write 100 lines of “I will remember to kneel for my Dom every night” … Read more
OpenClaw Users Are Allegedly Bypassing Anti-Bot Systems
In San Francisco, it feels like OpenClaw is everywhere. Even, potentially, some places it’s not designed to be. According to posts on social mediapeople appear to be using the viral AI tool to scrape websites and access information, even when those sites have taken explicit anti-bot measures. One of the ways they are allegedly doing … Read more
Gemini Can Now Book You an Uber or Order a DoorDash Meal on Your Phone. Here’s How It Works
You might be feeling déjà vu. A decade ago, companies like Google and Apple made promises that their respective voice assistants could complete tasks on your behalf. Apple said Siri could request an Uber—try it today, and Siri just opens the Uber app. Google claimed you’d be able to “Order my usual” at Starbucks with … Read more
Talk to Your Own Personal Isaac Newton With Ailias’s Hologram Avatars
It’s the classic awkward icebreaker: If you could invite anyone, dead or alive, to a dinner party, who would it be? Aristotle? Alias is a company based in Surrey, UK, which promises to make that hypothetical a reality. It can reanimate historical and current legends with 3D hologram avatars that are fully conversational, knowledgeable, and … Read more
AI Will Never Be Conscious
The Blake Lemoine The incident is remembered today as a high‑water mark of AI hype. It thrust the whole idea of conscious AI into public awareness for a news cycle or two, but it also launched a conversation, among both computer scientists and consciousness researchers, that has only intensified in the years since. While the … Read more