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A ProPublica investigation is raising serious questions about Microsoft's role in national security. The report alleges that so-called digital escorts — Microsoft personnel embedded in Defense Department facilities — may have inadvertently created vulnerabilities that Chinese hackers were able to exploit, putting sensitive government systems at risk.
Turning to a question a lot of developers are wrestling with right now, Princeton's Arvind Narayanan gave a talk at ICML arguing that AI should be understood as normal technology — powerful but bounded — and asking what meaningful work remains for humans when so much can be automated. It's a grounded counterweight to the maximalist claims dominating the conversation.
And on the subject of bubbles, a video circulating on Hacker News is drawing comparisons between the current AI investment surge and the dot-com crash of the early two thousands. With thirteen points and climbing, it's clearly striking a nerve among developers who watched that era unfold and are wondering whether the pattern is repeating itself in a new form.
Keep surfing. Tech Beat out.
