Wes Davis

Former Weekend Editor

Most of ESPN’s accounts went dark after Disney dropped advertising on X

Wes DavisNov 19, 2023

Wes DavisNov 18, 2023

Sam Altman says he has a new venture in mind.

The Information reported today that, fresh off being forced out of OpenAI, Sam Altman is spreading the word among investors that he has a new project in the works, possibly with the company’s former president, Greg Brockman.

Not long ago, rumors said Altman and Jony Ive would partner on an “iPhone of Artificial Intelligence” project, but later he said whatever ideas he has are “very nascent.”

OpenAI Co-Founder Altman Plans New Venture

[The Information]

Meta disbanded its Responsible AI team

Wes DavisNov 18, 2023

We do love our Half-Life, don’t we?

The 25th anniversary update of Half-Life hit Steam yesterday with some significant upgrades (and a limited-time free download!).

Unofficial player count tracker SteamDB showed more than 31,000 concurrent players at one point this morning. That peak is about twice as high as the highest one in the graph below. Guess I’m not the only one eager to take up Gordon Freeman’s crowbar again.

A graph showing very small peaks over a decade with a couple of higher outliers, then a higher peak at the end, of around 15,000 players.

Note: This graph’s data ands on November 6th — the post-release peak is twice as high.

Graph: SteamDB / Screenshot: The Verge

Wes DavisNov 18, 2023

Google is working to fix Nest Protect smart smoke alarms that are showing as “offline.”

Users have been reporting the outage on Google’s forums since around November 15th. A Google community manager replied, saying some 2nd gen Nest Protects are losing connection, and it’s working on a fix.

Some members have posted today that they’ve gotten the devices back online but that there are still issues. The Nest status page doesn’t reflect an outage as of this writing.

Nest Protect P009(0.80) error

[www.googlenestcommunity.com]

Wes DavisNov 18, 2023

OpenAI’s COO told employees that Sam Altman wasn’t fired for “malfeasance.”

That’s according to a memo Axios saw that chief operating officer Brad Lightcap sent out. Lightcap ruled out some of the possible reasons why Altman was let go:

“We can say definitively that the board’s decision was not made in response to malfeasance or anything related to our financial, business, safety, or security/privacy practices. This was a breakdown in communication between Sam and the board.”

After OpenAI announced Altman’s firing, company president Greg Brockman quit, as did three senior researchers.

Scoop: No "malfeasance" behind Sam Altman's firing, OpenAI memo says

[Axios]

Nothing Chats has already been pulled from Google Play over privacy issues

Wes DavisNov 18, 2023

Cruise didn’t tell the California DMV the full story of its robotaxi’s pedestrian strike at first.

Vice Motherboard reported yesterday that Cruise’s email summary of the accident said the car “hard-braked but was unable to stop” before hitting a pedestrian. But it didn’t mention that the car then pulled over, dragging the person with it.

California’s DMV revoked the company’s self-driving license. Cruise then halted robotaxi operation, later expanded the pause to include supervised and manually-driven Cruise trips for safety review.

Cruise Exec Omitted Pedestrian Dragging In Summary of Self-Driving Car Incident to California DMV, Email Shows

[vice]

Wes DavisNov 18, 2023

Three high-level OpenAI researchers have quit.

The Information has the story. The outlet says Research director Jakub Pachocki, AI risk evaluation head Aleksander Madry, and longtime researcher Szymon Sidor resigned following Sam Altman’s surprise firing yesterday.

The article notes that Pachocki and Sidor had worked with Greg Brockman (who also left the company yesterday) on OpenAI’s Dota 2-playing AI bot, while Madry joined the company in May 2023, later forming a team to mitigate AI risks.

Three Senior OpenAI Researchers Resign as Crisis Deepens

[The Information]