The Washington Post

The Washington Post Salesforce laid off 262 employees from its offices in San Francisco, the latest in a string of cuts as CEO Marc Benioff champions AI as a driver of productivity and efficiency. Benioff has said AI already handles up to half of Salesforce’s work, reducing the need for thousands of customer support roles. […]

The Washington Post U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has resumed its $2-million contract with Paragon Solutions, a spyware company previously sidelined under an executive order from the previous administration targeting unethical surveillance vendors. A government filing on Aug. 29 lifted the stop-work order imposed last year, though ICE has not explained the reversal. Paragon […]

The Washington Post Alpha School, an AI-driven private school, is opening a Northern Virginia campus this fall, charging up to $65,000 annually. Students will spend two hours daily on academics via adaptive apps like IXL, then focus on life skills and workshops. Instead of teachers, AI “guides” oversee learning and activities. Backed by billionaire investors, […]

The FBI and other law enforcement and intelligence agencies around the world warned Wednesday that a Chinese-government hacking campaign that previously penetrated nine U.S. telecommunications companies has expanded into other industries and regions, striking at least 200 American organizations and 80 countries. The joint advisory was issued with the close allies in the Five Eyes […]

The pitch by Alpha School is as innovative as it is sensational: For $65,000 a year, students study for just two hours a day using adaptive apps and personalized lesson plans and spend their afternoons on life skills such as learning to ride a bike or financial literacy. Instead of teachers, the students have “guides.” […]

As researchers scrutinize Big Tech’s utility bills, artificial intelligence has earned a reputation as a thirsty, energy-hungry beast. A single Q&A session with a large language model (LLM) can consume more than a half-liter of fresh water to cool servers. Asking ChatGPT one question reportedly consumes10 times as much electricity as a conventional Google search. […]

The Washington Post The White House’s new chief design officer, Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia, plans to revamp U.S. government websites through the National Design Studio (NDS), aiming for Apple Store-like aesthetics and user experiences. Established by executive order, the NDS will advise agencies on standardizing design, reducing costs, and improving usability for services like passports, […]

The Washington Post Labor unions are working with state lawmakers to place guardrails on AI’s use in workplaces. In Massachusetts, for example, the Teamsters labor union is backing a proposed state law that would require autonomous vehicles to have a human safety operator. Oregon lawmakers recently passed a bill supported by the Oregon Nurses Association […]

The Washington Post Meta has taken down more than 6.8 million WhatsApp scam accounts that were often linked to organized crime in Southeast Asia, targeting people online around the world. Using technical signals, Meta identified many of the accounts before they were able to execute their scams. Meta linked several scams to a criminal center […]