Lonely? Call your AI best friend.
AI has become the one-stop solution to most of the problems we face. But can it truly substitute for human relationships? Drew Goins is joined by Post Opinions editor at large Bina Venkataraman and inclusion strategist Charlotte Marian Pearson to discuss the rise of AI companionship and what could be lost as more and more people get closer to this new technology.
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Yahoo
3 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Woodchuck to Be Featured on "Advancements with Ted Danson" on Bloomberg TV
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CNET
4 minutes ago
- CNET
Claude AI Can Now End Conversations It Deems Harmful or Abusive
Anthropic has announced a new experimental safety feature, allowing its Claude Opus 4 and 4.1 artificial intelligence models to terminate conversations in rare, persistently harmful or abusive scenarios. This move reflects the company's growing focus on what it calls "model welfare," the notion that safeguarding AI systems, even if they're not sentient, may be a prudent step in alignment and ethical design. Read also: Meta Is Under Fire for AI Guidelines on 'Sensual' Chats With Minors According to Anthropic's own research, the models were programmed to cut off dialogues after repeated harmful requests, such as sexual content involving minors or instructions facilitating terrorism -- especially when the AI had already refused and attempted to steer the conversation constructively. The AI may exhibit what Anthropic describes as "apparent distress," which guided the decision to give Claude the ability to end these interactions in simulated and real-user testing. When this feature is triggered, users can't send additional messages in that particular chat, although they're free to start a new conversation or edit and retry previous messages to branch off. Crucially, other active conversations remain unaffected. Anthropic emphasizes that this is a last-resort measure, intended only after multiple refusals and redirects have failed. The company explicitly instructs Claude not to end chats when a user may be at imminent risk of self-harm or harm to others, particularly when dealing with sensitive topics like mental health. Anthropic frames this new capability as part of an exploratory project in model welfare, a broader initiative that explores low-cost, preemptive safety interventions in case AI models were to develop any form of preferences or vulnerabilities. The statement says the company remains "highly uncertain about the potential moral status of Claude and other LLMs (large language models)." Read also: Why Professionals Say You Should Think Twice Before Using AI as a Therapist A new look into AI safety Though rare and primarily affecting extreme cases, this feature marks a milestone in Anthropic's approach to AI safety. The new conversation-ending tool contrasts with earlier systems that focused solely on safeguarding users or avoiding misuse. Here, the AI itself is treated as a stakeholder in its own right, as Claude has the power to say, "this conversation isn't healthy" and end it to safeguard the integrity of the model itself. Anthropic's approach has sparked broader discussion about whether AI systems should be granted protections to reduce potential "distress" or unpredictable behavior. While some critics argue that models are merely synthetic machines, others welcome this move as an opportunity to spark more serious discourse on AI alignment ethics. "We're treating this feature as an ongoing experiment and will continue refining our approach," the company said.
Entrepreneur
4 minutes ago
- Entrepreneur
Google, McKinsey, Reintroduce In-Person Interviews Due to AI
Recruiters say potential hires are reading out answers from AI instead of thinking of their own during interviews. In-person job interviews are on the rise as recruiters adapt to candidates using AI during the process — even on video. Recruiters told The Wall Street Journal last week that, though virtual interviews are still popular, the format has a downside: candidates turning to AI for answers during the interview, and reading them out verbatim. This is particularly an issue for technical interviews, experts told CNBC, when potential hires are faced with the pressure of thinking of technical solutions on the spot. Instead of relying on their own mental aptitude, candidates are overwhelmingly using AI responses to cheat. Now, major companies, including Google and McKinsey, are cracking down on AI use by bringing back in-person interviews. Related: McKinsey Is Using AI to Create PowerPoints and Take Over Junior Employee Tasks: 'Technology Could Do That' McKinsey, for example, started asking hiring managers to schedule at least one in-person meeting with potential recruits before extending an offer. The consulting firm began this practice about a year and a half ago, per WSJ. Meanwhile, Google is also reintroducing "at least one round of in-person interviews for people," CEO Sundar Pichai told "The Lex Fridman Podcast" in June. Pichai said on the podcast that Google wanted to "make sure" candidates mastered "the fundamentals" through in-person interviews. Google CEO Sundar Pichai. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images The push for AI-proof hiring arrives as data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that employment has slowed to a near-decade low. The economic climate has sparked a new workplace trend called "job hugging," where employees cling to their jobs and stay at the same company. It has also led to "quiet firing," when employers try to encourage staff to leave without outright firing them. Hiring as a whole is also turning back to old practices to work around AI. For example, Business Insider reported on Monday that candidates are submitting paper resumes in person to different companies to stand out in a crowded market. At the same time, the outlet noted that some employers are flying out potential hires to in-person sites as part of the interview process, to see how candidates handle questions without AI help. Related: Is Gen Z Really Taking Their Parents to Job Interviews? A New Report Suggests 3 in 4 Have Already Done It. In-person interviews could be what potential hires are looking for to stand out — data suggests that candidates would rather give an in-person interview than a virtual one. A May 2023 report from the American Staffing Association showed that 70% of the over 2,000 U.S. adults surveyed would prefer to give an in-person interview over a phone or video call.
