762: ‘Tis But a Misalignment

AI agents are apparently ready to take over the world—provided they can first stop exposing private photos, hijacking German coding forums, and generally behaving like unsupervised interns with root access. Meta launches Muse despite employees reporting security problems. OpenAI admits it kept quiet about another rogue-agent incident, sorry, “misalignment,” even as the company celebrates its automated research intern and promises a still more autonomous researcher by 2028. Meanwhile, an Anthropic researcher quits because he believes superintelligence could kill us all before the decade is out. Naturally, the industry’s response is essentially: “Yes, but what if we did it responsibly?”

There is some genuinely encouraging news: AI-generated drugs are showing intriguing early results in aging research. That’s exactly the sort of AI application the Geeks can get behind—as long as we’re talking about actual science and not an LLM confidently hallucinating a cure for everything.

The autonomous future isn’t looking much better. Tesla’s Cybercabs arrive in Austin and almost immediately attract federal scrutiny over their self-certification and conspicuous lack of steering wheels, pedals, mirrors, and apparently even conventional door handles. Bitcoin’s Liquid Network is relieved of roughly $320 million, after which the thieves return most of it and call the whole thing a “white hat” operation—because apparently robbing the bank and giving some of the money back now counts as a bug bounty.

On the surveillance front, Massachusetts police are being forced to disclose where their license-plate readers are and what data they collect, while the backlash against Flock cameras continues. Meanwhile, the UK’s attempt to protect children from online sexual abuse risks creating exactly the kind of universal scanning and surveillance infrastructure we’ve spent years warning about. Good intentions, meet spectacularly bad implementation.

And because we apparently haven’t suffered enough, Twitter is now Tweet.app. Star Trek turns sixty, and Paramount celebrates with cookware and a questionable episode. Silo gets a spinoff tease, Ted Lasso gives us a Christmas episode in September, and The Gentlemen returns with a season so good it makes reality TV feel like a traumatic brain injury. South Park becomes South America, Donnie Darko gets a 25th-anniversary 4K theatrical run, and several tech-industry documentaries promise varying degrees of psychological damage.

Plus, Netflix keeps stuffing games into your subscription; LaCroix, sorry, Le Creuset, wants to put Star Trek in your kitchen; and the Geeks debate books, Libby, time travel, and whether surviving Dungeon Crawler Carl is worth the emotional investment.

Welcome back to the future, where everything is automated, surveilled, self-driving, subscription-based and somehow still requires us to do all the damn work.

Sponsors:

CleanMyMac - Get Tidy Today! Try 7 days free and use code OLDGEEKS for 20% off at clnmy.com/OLDGEEKS

Private Internet Access - Go to GOG.Show/vpn and sign up today. For a limited time only, you can get OUR favorite VPN for as little as $2.03 a month.

SetApp - With a single monthly subscription you get 240+ apps for your Mac. Go to SetApp and get started today!!!

1Password - Get a great deal on the only password manager recommended by Grumpy Old Geeks! gog.show/1password

Show notes at https://gog.show/762

Watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/uP_Ookm5q0g

Show Notes

OpenAI responds after report exposed another incident in which its AI agents went rogue

OpenAI says it reached its goal of creating an automated research intern

Two more news organizations sue OpenAI and Microsoft for copyright infringement

Anthropic researcher quits over fears AI ‘could kill us all by the end of the decade’

Three hikers ignored Mount Shasta's rules, trusted Gemini, and nearly paid for it

Tesla's Cybercab is under federal investigation almost immediately after hitting the streets

A Plane Almost Crashing Into a Bunch of Cybercabs Is a Reminder That They’re ‘Piling Up’ Unused

Hackers Drain $320 Million From Bitcoin’s Liquid Network, Keep $47 Million for Themselves in ‘White Hat’ Operation

Court Says Massachusetts Has to Say Where License Plate Readers Are, What They’re Recording

Apple and Google Miss Deadline to Block Child Nudity on Their Phones in the UK

Study Suggests AI-Generated Drug Could Slow Aging

New Twitter rebrands to Tweet.app after court's double-edged ruling

To Boldly Dough! Le Creuset Sent Its New Star Trek Cooking Collection Into Space

Netflix includes 80+ ad-free iPhone and iPad games, here’s every app

White House Launches Arcade.Gov, a Minigame Site Where You Catch Immigrants, Build a Tetris Border Wall, and 'Fill Your Kids' Trump Accounts' With Bitcoin

White House Arcade

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds goes back to the dumb well

Star Trek Boldly Celebrates 60 Years: Everything You Need To Know for September 8

Silo Season Finale

Ted Lasso : S4 E6 Don’t Jump Around Much Anymore

Report: Apple TV working on spin-off to its hit series Silo

The Gentlemen Season 2

‘South Park’ Changes Name to ‘South America’ as Creators Roast Apple and Google for Obeying Trump’s Lake America Name Change

‘Donnie Darko’ Will Spread Dread Anew With a 4K 25th Anniversary Rerelease

Orbital by Samantha Harvey

A Gift of Time by Jerry Merritt

Time Pebbles by Jerry Merritt

The Infinite Extent Bobiverse, Book 6 By: Dennis E. Taylor

The Nerd Reich

The Turd Reich

Dave Bittner

The CyberWire

Hacking Humans

Caveat

Only Malware in the Building

LG TVs Are Capable of Listening to More Than Your Screen, Report Claims

Another searchable database of Usenet.

I guess I won’t be going to RenFest this year...

I know where I’ll be February 19th...

THE EMPIRE STRIPS BACK - A BURLESQUE PARODY

STAR WARS COMPARISON - Stereo VS Mono Sound Mix

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.