Daily Archives: January 12, 2024

In a change of heart, "Magic: The Gathering" and "Dungeons & Dragons" publisher Wizards of the Coast has admitted to using generative AI in a recent promo image after initially claiming AI wasn't used.

Last week, users on social media noticed some strange incongruities in the image, a steampunk scene showcasing some of the company's new "Magic" cards.

After users pointed out wonky dials, wires that didn't line up, and lightbulbs that appeared to have far too many filaments, the company initially denied that it or its contractor had used any AI tools.

"This art was created by humans and not AI," Wizards of the Coast wrote in a since-deleted tweet.

The claim didn't sit well with keen onlookers, who kept pressing the company on the telltale details.

"Either you are lying to us or your artist is lying to you," tabletop game creator Tom Cartos tweeted. "This is blatantly AI, it took me less than a minute to find multiple examples of clear AI generation."

Now, in an apparent attempt to save face in light of a massive wave of users flooding the company's social media accounts, the official "Magic" X account issued a new statement.

"Well, we made a mistake earlier when we said that a marketing image we posted was not created using AI," it reads. "As you, our diligent community pointed out, it looks like some AI components that are now popping up in industry standard tools like Photoshop crept into our marketing creative, even if a human did the work to create the overall image."

The controversy highlights a raging debate surrounding the use of generative AI tools in creative fields, a practice that many artists now worry may undermine their livelihoods.

It's an especially egregious example, given Wizards of the Coast's close relationship with illustrators and animators. Their well-loved products make use of extensive illustrations and other creative works.

Worse yet, the company had promised last year to introduce strict rules regarding the use of such tools after a veteran D&Dartist admitted to using AI to enhance images for a book.

The company had already landed in hot water early last year for severely restricting how D&D-inspired game creators could adapt the game's base rules in an apparent attempt to cash in.

At the time, Wizards of the Coast reneged on its new rules following a massive outcry from fans and left its old rules in place instead.

Now, the latest offense seems unlikely to sit well with the company's community.

"We already made clear that we require artists, writers, and creatives contributing to theMagicTCG to refrain from using AI generative tools to create finalMagic products," the company wrote in its latest statement.

Wizards isn't the only company to get caught using generative AI. Digital pen tablet maker Wacom was also recently accused of using AI to generate an image of an illustrated dragon whose body parts didn't line up.

In short, creatives' jobs are on the line, and the public is on the lookout.

"Jobs are going in real time, makes me nauseous," film concept artist and illustrator Reid Southen tweeted in response to the news.

"It's insane that they'll damage their brands to save a few bucks," he added in a follow-up.

More on generative AI: Image Database Powering Google's AI Contains Explicit Images of Children

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Wizards of the Coast Denies "Magic: The Gathering" Art Was AI-Generated, Then Admits It Was - Futurism

"They'll grow up eating macadamia meal and drinking beer that we grow and produce here." Poster's Brain

Move over, Sam Altman it looks like there's a new doomsday-prepping tech titan in town.

As recent social media posts and news stories indicate, Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg is living someone's dream. Over the past few days, the BBQ-loving elder millennial shared on Instagram which, of course, he owns a video of him playing with a giant catapult and announced that he has been raising high-end cattle on his ranch in Hawaii.

"The cattle are wagyu and angus, and they'll grow up eating macadamia meal and drinking beer that we grow and produce here on the ranch," Zuckerberg wrote in the caption of one of the posts. "We want the whole process to be local and vertically integrated. Each cow eats 5,000-10,000 pounds of food each year, so that's a lot of acres of macadamia trees."

He went on to add that his daughters both help plant the "mac trees" and assist in the care of the Zuckerberg-Chan family's animals, which hopefully is their idea.

If viewed in a vacuum, these dadposts about Zuckerberg's goings-on would be less exciting, even, than his admission that he'd made bracelets and decorated his face with adhesive rhinestones when taking his daughters and their friends to see Taylor Swift last fall.

But when you add into the equationWired's recent reporting about the secret doomsday bunker on the family's palatial Hawaiian compound, which is said to cost an estimated $100 million to build, that IG activity starts to look more like not-so-humblebrags about having a private food source and weaponry in the event of global catastrophe.

So secretive is the estate, which is still under construction, that any security or grounds personnel working there would be fired immediately if caught speaking to the press.

"Its fight club," a former contractor told Wired. "We dont talk about fight club."

To be clear, there's absolutely nothing unusual about the uber-rich and techy crowd getting into hoarding remote properties, food stockades and weapons caches for the end of the world. Just ask OpenAI's embattled CEO, who once reportedly bragged years ago to people at a party that he "prep[s] for survival" from such catastrophes as lab-made virus leaks and "AI that attacks us"(yes, the irony is palpable.)

"I have guns, gold, potassium iodide, antibiotics, batteries, water, gas masks from the Israeli Defense Force, and a big patch of land in Big Sur I can fly to," Altman told folks gathered around a firepit at a long-ago Y Combinator party, per The New Yorker.

Whatever Zuckerberg's got at that giant Kauai estate is anyone's guess, but given his penchant for Sweet Baby Ray's barbeque sauce, he may have a room dedicated to the delicious sauce.

More on Zuckerberg: Elon Musk Started Screaming About Zuckerberg Immediately After Signing Twitter Deal

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Zuckerberg Brags About Feeding Cows Macadamia Nuts and Beer at His Alleged Doomsday Bunker - Futurism

Image by Antonio Masiello / Getty Images

As Elon Musk'spublic behavior becomes stranger and more disturbing, his business associates are concerned that a factor could be his use of drugs.

In interviews with theWall Street Journal, insiders at SpaceX and Tesla said that there have been multiple occasions in which C-suiters became alarmed by their perception of the billionaire's use of drugs. That substance list allegedly includes regular use of ketamine as well as cocaine, LSD, ecstasy, cannabis and psilocybin mushrooms.

Two of those instances, of course, are extremely well-known: the infamous "420" Tesla stock price tweet from 2018 and its seemingly endless consequencesand the time Musk inexpertly smoked a blunt on Joe Rogan's podcast. Reports of more serious drug use, though, haven't seen as much daylight and though there's nothing wrong with dabbling with drugs safely, Musk's many government contracts and leadership position over many billions of dollars of assets give the allegations unusual heft.

In late 2017, people familiar with the matter told theWSJ, the serial entrepreneur took to the stage very late for an all-hands SpaceX meeting and began rambling and slurring his words for about 15 minutes. At one point, he referred to the company's Big Falcon Rocket prototype as its "Big F*cking Rocket" which, to be fair, was a running joke before it was renamed "Starship" and was eventually intercepted by SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell, who took over for the incoherent CEO.

After that spectacle, the WSJ's unnamed insiders allege, SpaceX leadership began to privately confer about what they'd just witnessed. One even referred to Musk's performance as "cringeworthy," "nonsensical," and "unhinged."

Alex Spiro, an attorney for Musk, denied these claims and said that Musk is "regularly and randomly drug tested at SpaceX and has never failed a test," which the South African-born tech mogul has alluded to before.

He also said that "there are other false facts" in theWSJ's reporting, but declined to say what they were.

After theWSJ's article was published, Musk weighed in to say that it was "not fit to line a parrot cage for bird."

Over at Tesla, there have been similar concerns. According to the WSJ's sources, board members at the electric vehicle maker have gone so far as to reach out to Kimbal Musk, the billionaire's brother, to tactfully communicate their concerns without using the term "drugs."

Soon after that infamous 2018 appearance, people in Musk's inner circle learned, per insider allegations, that the multi-hyphenate CEO was under the influence of something when he got choked up during aNew York Timesinterview when discussing some of his personal and business difficulties though to be fair, being wont to cry is apparently part of his whole deal.

There could, of course, be other explanations for the CEO's strange behavior. In 2017, he seemed to claim in response to a tweet that he had undiagnosed bipolar disorder, and also seemed to publicly suggest that he microdoses ketamine therapeutically to treat depression.

To be clear: taking drugs recreationally or therapeutically can be fun and beneficial. But it's very easy to over-do it, especially with ketamine and its infamous "K-hole," making Musk's seeming drug of choice cast a dark shadow over his antics.

More on drugs: Incredible Hotline Counsels Drug Users Through Potential Overdoses Without Shame

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People Close to Elon Musk Concerned About Alleged Drug Use, Slurring Words - Futurism

I know you are but what am I? Agency Smith

Elon Musk's SpaceX is suing the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) because, according to the company's claim, the agency itself is unconstitutional.

Filed before a federal district court in Texas, SpaceX claimed in a complaint that the NLRB which earlier this week accused the company of firing workers for being critical of Musk is "an unconstitutionally structured agency" whose in-house courts should have no jurisdiction over the spaceflight firm.

To be fair, there's little doubt that SpaceX did, in fact, fire people who were critical of Musk. That much is very public, considering that the ex-employees in question were terminated after signing and issuing an open letter calling on their employer to distance itself from its founder because his erratic behavior was, per their description, a "frequent source of distraction and embarrassment."

As the NLRB alleged in its complaint against the company, SpaceX president and CEO Gwynne Shotwell and other C-suiters at the firm acted illegally when interrogating employees about the letter and then telling them to keep those conversations secret, and overall creating an "impression of surveillance (including reading and showing screenshots of communications between employees)," the agency wrote in its filing.

Now, in an effort to kibosh this latest NLRB clapback against the many alleged labor infractions committed by companies in Musk's portfolio, SpaceX is using an unusual but not altogether unheard of argument in its countersuit: that the agency's in-house courts are "miles away from the traditional understanding of the separation of powers." Citing constitutional framer James Madison, the SpaceX suit even goes so far as to call the NLRB "the very definition of tyranny."

The countersuit goes on to insinuate that the agency is unduly biased against him a claim Musk himself has made repeatedly regarding the Securities and Exchange Commission's insistence on taking his stupid pot joke tweet in 2018 seriously.

"If the current Members of the NLRB are asked to make a prosecutorial determination about whether SpaceX is in violation of the [National Labor Relations Act], there is an objectively high risk that they would not later be able to provide the neutral adjudicative forum that the Constitution demands," the company's attorneys wrote, "and so would need to recuse from further participation in any agency adjudication against SpaceX."

While it's fairly unlikely though not impossible that any judge will agree with SpaceX's assertion, that's far from the point of this kind of filing. Musk is trying to gum up the works in this latest labor drama. And unfortunately, because he has enough money for an army of galaxy-brained lawyers, he's likely to succeed for the time being.

More on Musk: Elon Musk Is Getting Absolutely Destroyed in Sweden

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SpaceX Sues Government Over Claim It Fired Employees for Criticizing Elon Musk - Futurism

It's a meaningful first step. Down Range

After being accused of artificially inflating range figures, Tesla has downgraded the estimated number of miles of numerous versions of its Model Y, S, and X cars in the US.

As first spotted by Electrek, the vehicle configurator on the EV maker's website now shows that its Model Y Performance SUV has an estimated range of 285, a drop of 18 miles over previous estimates. The Long Range trim of the Model Y fell from 330 to 310 miles.

While we still don't know with absolute certainty why Tesla made these changes, Electrek suggests it may be related to how Tesla tests its vehicles to arrive at Environmental Protection Agency range estimates, which are the most common yardstick for the range of EVs in the US.

According to internal documents obtained by Drive Tesla, the range decrease may have also been due to "comfort and functionality improvements," which draw more energy from the vehicle's reserves.

It's nonetheless a noteworthy admission. Tesla has garnered a reputation for overstating the range of its vehicles, culminating in a Justice Department investigation last year.

In July, Reuters revealed that the EV maker had created an entire team to divert customer complaints regarding "rosy" range numbers, which were reportedly intentionally inflated.

The news also comes after YouTubers tested out Tesla's latest Cybertruck, finding that it fell far short of its advertised, EPA-rated range of 320 miles, covering only 254 highway miles, albeit at a brisk 46 degrees Fahrenheit.

Given Tesla's complete lack of a communications department, we're unlikely to get any answers as to why it chose to downgrade the estimates of only some of the trim levels of its vehicles and not others.

At the end of the day, real-world ranges of EVs are affected by a huge number of external factors, including weather, tires, driving habits, and so on. In other words, even official EPA estimates should be taken with a huge grain of salt.

At the same time, a bit of clarity, especially regarding accusations of having willfully inflated ranges, couldgo a long way not that we'd expect the Elon Musk-led company to have such a change of heart.

More on Tesla: The Cybertruck's Real World Range Is Incredibly Feeble

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Tesla Admits Its Cars Have Shorter Driving Range Than It Claimed - Futurism

Its device hasn't even shipped yet. Inhumane

Startup Humane made a big splash just a few months ago when it announced its "AI Pin," a headscratcher of a consumer tech product that promises to serve as an AI-powered assistant without relying on a screen.

Now the company, which was founded in 2018 but stayed out of the limelight for years, announced that it's laying off ten people, roughly four percent of its workforce, this week months before the AI Pin is even set to start shipping to customers.

As The Verge reports, leaders reportedly told employees that budgets would be slashed this year.

While the company says it's part of a wider restructuring, such a layoff isn't exactly confidence-inducing, especially given the confusion and doubt with which the company's main product was greeted following its unveiling last year.

Humane is fighting the "layoffs" narrative, and claims it's simply trying to redirect its efforts while still actively hiring.

In a lengthy LinkedIn post, co-founder Bethany Bongiorno detailed a "wider refresh of our organizational structure," and extended "our sincere gratitude to ten members of the team who weve parted ways with at Humane."

In a text message to The Verge's Alex Heath, Bongiorno claimed that the cuts were "not communicated as a layoff." Heath's other sources, however, confirmed in writing that they were in fact layoffs.

"It goes without saying that, like every company, we have a responsibility to remain prudent and proactive, ensuring we have the right roles, right people, and the right structure at every juncture," Bongiorno wrote in the text message.

In short, only time will tell if Humane, a company that raised a whopping $200 million in funding, will have a winner on its hands with its AI Pin. But given the radical departure of the tiny device's design and some considerable trade-offs, it's anything but a certainty.

More on Humane: That Hyped Up AI Pin Made Two Idiotic Mistakes in Its Launch Video

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Remember That Uber-Hyped "AI Pin" Startup? It's Already Doing Layoffs - Futurism

"I'll call Elon. He'll get you out." Snow Trouble

Tesla touts that its Cybertruck is "durable and rugged enough to go anywhere" on its website, but apparently snow may be its kryptonite after numerous online videos and pictureshave showed the electric vehicle getting stuck in typical wintery conditions.

An Instagram user posted a video of a Cybertruck slipping and getting stuck in about four inches of snow in an unspecified location. A man in the video quips, referring to Tesla CEO Elon Musk, at the Cybertruck driver, "I'll call Elon. He'll get you out."

X users reposted the video on the platform, prompting a round of derision from the peanut gallery.

"There's literally a sedan like thirty feet ahead of it that made it all the way to a parking space," joked podcaster and journalist Robert Evans.

This "is not a lot of snow," another X user wrote. If "you lived in the Buffalo-Niagara region, you would not be able to go the store and buy milk between December and March, if you drove a Cybertruck."

In another X post, a user posted a picture of a stuck Cybertruck getting towed through snow in the vacation spot of Lake Tahoe, which is in California and Nevada.

"Another storm, another CyberTruck needing a rescue,"they wrote. "It's like finding a leprechaun that's constantly getting stuck in a glue trap."

And back in December, a TikTok video also showed a stuck Cybertruck being pulled up by a sports utility vehicle on a slight incline of snow and ice.

All this content showing its performance in real-world conditions doesn't bode well for a vehicle that's being hyped as the next big thing in the lucrative consumer truck sector.

But some online commentators have come to the Cybertruck's rescue by pointing out that the cars being shown didn't have snow tires or snow chains, and it getting stuck may be due to over inflating the tires or driver error.

Regardless, the news doesn't come at a good time for Tesla's Cybertruck, which has had to contend with range and quality control issues, in addition to numerous delays and production problems.

Perhaps the issues with the Cybertruck and Tesla are emblematic of a problem at the top: Musk is too distracted by his many companies, including the social media platform X, to run Tesla properly and that's without getting into the drug allegations.

More on the Tesla Cybertruck: The Cybertruck's Real World Range is Incredibly Feeble

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The Mighty Cybertruck Keeps Getting Stuck in the Snow - Futurism

"There may be yet another AI winter, and perhaps even a full scale tech winter, just around the corner." Winter Is Coming

Famed roboticist Rodney Brooks, who co-founded the company iRobot which invented the Roomba has been keeping score on the AI industry. And from where he's standing, the near future of AI isn't looking too hot, in spite of its countless hype men who he says are due a harsh reality check.

In his latest annual Predictions Scorecard on the tech sector, the former director of MIT's AI and computer labs warns that despite its unprecedented levels of success, the AI industry is merely "following a well worn hype cycle that we have seen again, and again, during the 60+ year history of AI."

More than likely, Brooks avers, advancements in the field will stagnate for many dark years beforereaching the next huge breakthrough. That dry spell could make for quite a calamitous comedown for an industry that's supposedly on track to be worth over $1 trillion by the next decade.

"Get your thick coats now," Brooks wrote in his scorecard, as quoted by The Los Angeles Times. "There may be yet another AI winter, and perhaps even a full scale tech winter, just around the corner. And it is going to be cold."

Brooks made his original predictions on technological advancements as such: as happening by a specified year, as happening no earlier than a specified year, and "Not In My Lifetime" (NIML) meaning not before 2050. Then with each year that passes, he judges these as accurate, too pessimistic, or too optimistic.

Often, his wagers are on the money. As the LA Times notes, Brooks predicted back in 2018 that the "next big thing" in AI would happen sometime between 2023 and 2027. The rise of large language models like OpenAI's ChatGPT turned out to fit that bill perfectly, with practically every leader in tech trying to capitalize on the trend with smart chatbots of their own that have garnered their creators billions of dollars in investment.

But going forward, Brooks takes a more measured stance. The next next-big-thing, often framed asartificial general intelligence and hyped up by industry heads as being imminent, is in Brook's opinion a resounding "NIML."

In fact, he's skeptical that we'll even be able to create "a robot that seems as intelligent, as attentive, and as faithful as a dog" before 2048.

"This is so much harder than most people imagine it to be," he wrote, as quoted by the LA Times. "Many think we are already there; I say we are not at all there."

Still, Brooks isn't saying the AI industry is doomed, mind you, but that such ambitious technological advancements take time and a lot of it. Whether the industry's financial backers are ready to hunk down and play the long game, though, is more dubious.

More on AI: ChatGPT Says It's Reached the Limit of How Silly It Can Make the Goose

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Robotics Expert Says AI Hype Is Due for a Brutal Reality Check - Futurism

"Well, my heart started beating a little faster, so yeah, I guess I was excited." Bob the Teacher

Last week, Alaska Airlines passengers had their flight from Portland, Oregon to Ontario, California abruptly interrupted when a "door plug" got sucked out of the Boeing 737 MAX 9's fuselage, creating a massive surge of air.

Fortunately, the passengers and six crew members made it back to the ground largely unscathed.

As regulators pore over the data to decide on what action to take 171 of the Boeing commercial airliners have already been grounded a local schoolteacher named Bob Sauer has come across an extraordinary item in his backyard: the door plug that came loose at 16,000 feet.

His first call was to the National Transportation Safety Board to report his unusual findings.

"I'm excited to announce that we found the door plug," NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy said in a statement. "Thank you Bob."

"Bob is a school teacher in Portland, so thank you very much Bob, bless you," she added.

The plug, meant to seal an opening, is used by some airlines as an additional door in certain high-capacity layouts. In the case of the Alaska Airlines flight, the opening was "plugged" since the door wasn't needed.

The door plug isn't the only artifact recovered following the terrifying incident. An iPhone that miraculously survived after being sucked out of the plane and plunging down to the ground was spotted outside by game designer Sean Bates.

The device, which was still fully functional, was unlocked and even had a screen showing an open email about a baggage receipt.

In short, regulators have plenty of evidence to go by. And things are already looking pretty ugly for Boeing and its contractors.

Alaska Airlines announced earlier this week that it had found "some loose hardware" visible on some other MAX 9 aircraft following initial inspections, hinting at the possibility of future incidents.

United also found "bolts that needed additional tightening," according to a statement.

"The [Federal Aviation Administration's] first priority is keeping the flying public safe," the regulator said in a statement. "We have grounded the affected airplanes, and they will remain grounded until the FAA is satisfied that they are safe."

As for Sauer, he was taken aback after spotting the door plug behind his house.

"Well, my heart started beating a little faster, so yeah, I guess I was excited," he told ABC News.

More on the flight: Experts Alarmed After Large Piece Blows Off Boeing 737 Mid-Flight

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Schoolteacher Finds Door Plug That Fell Off Boeing 737 in His Backyard - Futurism

"I can't imagine what these passengers experienced." Terror Flight

Last week, passengers aboard an Alaska Airlines flight from Portland, Oregon to Ontario, California experienced the fright of their lives.

Shortly after taking off, a substantial piece of the Boeing 737 MAX 9 fuselage tore off, causing air to rush out and pressure to drop. Fortunately, all 171 passengers and six crew members on board made it back to the ground largely unscathed after the pilots successfully turned back to land.

Now, regulators have kicked off an investigation and grounded 171 of the Boeing commercial airliners to check them for any signs of damage to ensure such an incident won't happen again. Alaska Airlines has also had to cancel hundreds of upcoming flights.

"I can't imagine what these passengers experienced," Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University air safety expert Anthony Brickhouse told Reuters. "The wind would be rushing through that cabin. It was a probably pretty violent situation, and definitely a scary situation."

It's still unclear just how widespread the grounding is. In the US, only Alaska Airlines and United are affected.

Nonetheless, it's the last thing Boeing needs, since the company has been struggling with one crisis after the other overin recent years. In early 2019, Boeing announced that it had grounded the entire global fleet of its 737 MAX aircraft following two fatal crashes, one in 2018 that killed all 189 people on board, and a second in 2019 that killed 157.

The culprit in both crashes turned out to be related to the plane's "enhanced flight control" system that caused the nose of the planes to dip rapidly.

In the latest instance, the offending component was a section of the fuselage that in some high-capacity configurations is used as an additional door. In the case of the Alaska Airlines flight, the opening was closed with a "plug door," per the BBC.

The MAX 9 makes up only 220 of the 1,400 MAX jets Boeing has delivered to customers. Most of these planes are owned by US airlines.

"We are very, very fortunate here that this didn't end up in something more tragic," National Transportation Safety Board chairman Jennifer Homendy said in a statement.

More on Boeing: Boeing CEO Caught Commuting by Private Jet

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Experts Alarmed After Large Piece Blows Off Boeing 737 Mid-Flight - Futurism