AI is getting smarter. But are we?
Check out our Memorial Day Sale to subscribe to the Washington Post. It's just $2, every four weeks, for your first year.
Additional reading from our columnists:
Megan McArdle: Don't be fooled. This is the calm before the AI storm.
Megan McArdle: If you haven't been worrying about AI, it's time to start preparing
Molly Roberts: AI is forcing teachers to confront an existential question
And here's a link to an article mentioned in the episode:
Everyone Is Cheating Their Way Through College (New York Magazine)
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Wall Street Journal
an hour ago
- Wall Street Journal
IPO Market Shows Signs of Renewed Vigor
The market for initial public offerings seems to be improving after the stock selloff linked to tariff concerns in early April. Shares in Voyager Technologies rose sharply in their debut on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday. Other recent signs of success include a blockbuster debut for crypto from Circle Internet Group and upsized IPOs from Aspen Insurance and trading platform eToro Group. Read more:
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Goldman Sachs wants students to stop using ChatGPT in job interviews with the bank
Goldman Sachs is cautioning its young job-seekers against using AI during the interview process. Instead, the $176 billion bank is encouraging applicants to study up on the firm in preparation. Other businesses like Anthropic and Amazon have also warned candidates against deploying AI—and if they're caught, they could be disqualified. While many companies are boasting about all the efficiencies that will come with AI, some are dissuading potential hires from using it to get a leg up in interviews with recruiters and hiring managers. Goldman Sachs' campus recruitment team for the bank's private investing academy in EMEA recently sent out an email to students reminding them of its expectations for interviews, as reported by eFinancialCareers. Goldman uses video interviewing platform HireVue to pre-assess candidates and maintains a set of best practices for job-seekers. Based on the best practices guidelines, the young applicants are encouraged to prepare for interviews by studying the $176 billion firm's financial results, business principles, and core values. But they can't bank on AI to help them out. 'As a reminder, Goldman Sachs prohibits the use of any external sources, including ChatGPT or Google search engine, during the interview process,' the email noted, according to someone who saw the message. HireVue is an AI-powered talent evaluation platform, known for asking behavioral questions that reveal applicants' skills. Gen Z job-seekers might be tempted to use ChatGPT or other chatbots to game the recruitment process—but it's discouraged, and isn't the most viable option. The typical Goldman Sachs virtual interview allows for 30 seconds of prep after the question, followed by a two-minute response time, according to research from eFinancialCareers. That makes it hard for job-seekers to quickly type a prompt into the chatbot, churn out an answer, and decide what the line of attack is. Plus, the responses aren't tailored and unique to the individual, potentially hurting the interviewee more than helping. Goldman's job-seeker AI policy could seem ironic, as half of the firm's 46,000 employees have access to the technology. But other companies are navigating that same paradox as they try to fully flesh out their AI strategies in an ever-changing technological environment. Goldman Sachs isn't the only major company warning its applicants not to use AI during recruitment. The $61.5 billion AI giant Anthropic went on a hiring spree last month, but told job-seekers that they can't use the advanced technology to fill out their applications. The company argued that it wants to test the communication skills of potential hires, and AI use clouds that assessment. 'Please do not use AI assistants during the application process,' Anthropic wrote in the description for its hundreds of job postings. 'We want to understand your personal interest in Anthropic without mediation through an AI system, and we also want to evaluate your non-AI-assisted communication skills.' Retail giant Amazon also doesn't like it when potential talent uses AI tools during the recruitment process. Earlier this year, the $2 trillion behemoth shared guidelines with internal recruiters, stressing that candidates who are caught using AI during job interviews should be disqualified. According to Amazon, the tools give an 'unfair advantage' that masks analysis of someone's 'authentic' capabilities. 'To ensure a fair and transparent recruitment process, please do not use gen Al tools during your interview unless explicitly permitted,' the guidelines, as reported by Business Insider, noted. 'Failure to adhere to these guidelines may result in disqualification from the recruitment process.' This story was originally featured on
San Francisco Chronicle
an hour ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Nvidia chief calls AI ‘the greatest equalizer' — but warns Europe risks falling behind
PARIS (AP) — Will artificial intelligence save humanity — or destroy it? Lift up the world's poorest — or tighten the grip of a tech elite? Jensen Huang — the global chip tycoon widely predicted to become one of the world's first trillionaires — offered his answer on Wednesday: neither dystopia nor domination. AI, he said, is a tool for liberation. Wearing his signature biker jacket and mobbed by fans for selfies, the Nvidia CEO cut the figure of a tech rockstar as he took the stage at VivaTech in Paris. 'AI is the greatest equalizer of people the world has ever created,' Huang said, kicking off one of Europe's biggest technology industry fairs. Huang's core argument: AI can level the playing field, not tilt it. Critics argue Nvidia's dominance risks concentrating power in the hands of a few. But Huang insists the opposite — that by slashing computing costs and expanding access, 'we're democratizing intelligence' for startups and nations alike. But beyond the sheeny optics, Nvidia used the Paris summit to unveil a wave of infrastructure announcements across Europe, signaling a dramatic expansion of the AI chipmaker's physical and strategic footprint on the continent. In France, the company is deploying 18,000 of its new Blackwell chips with startup Mistral AI. In Germany, it's building an industrial AI cloud to support manufacturers. Similar rollouts are underway in Italy, Spain, Finland and the U.K., including a new AI lab in Britain. Other announcements include a partnership with AI startup Perplexity to bring sovereign AI models to European publishers and telecoms, a new cloud platform with Mistral AI, and work with BMW and Mercedes-Benz to train AI-powered robots for use in auto plants. The announcements underscore how central AI infrastructure has become to global strategy — and how Nvidia, now the world's most valuable chipmaker, is positioning itself as the engine behind it. As the company rolls out ever more powerful systems, critics warn the model risks creating a new kind of 'technological priesthood' — one in which only the wealthiest companies or governments can afford the compute power, energy, and elite engineering talent required to participate. That, they argue, could choke the bottom-up innovation that built the tech industry in the first place. Huang pushed back. 'Through the velocity of our innovation, we democratize,' he said, responding to a question by The Associated Press. 'We lower the cost of access to technology.' As Huang put it, these factories 'reason,' 'plan,' and 'spend a lot of time talking to' themselves, powering everything from ChatGPT to autonomous vehicles and diagnostics. But some critics warn that without guardrails, such all-seeing, self-reinforcing systems could go the way of Skynet in ' The Terminator ' movie — vast intelligence engines that outpace human control. To that, Huang offers a counter-model: layered AI governance by design. 'In the future,' he said, 'the AI that is doing the task is going to be surrounded by 70 or 80 other AIs that are supervising it, observing it, guarding it, ensuring that it doesn't go off the rails.' He likened the moment to a new industrial revolution. Just as electricity transformed the last one, Huang said, AI will power the next — and that means every country needs a national intelligence infrastructure. That's why, he explained, he's been crisscrossing the globe meeting heads of state. 'They all want AI to be part of their infrastructure,' he said. 'They want AI to be a growth manufacturing industry for them.' Europe, long praised for its leadership on digital rights, now finds itself at a crossroads. As Brussels pushes forward with world-first AI regulations, some warn that over-caution could cost the bloc its place in the global race. With the U.S. and China surging ahead and most major AI firms based elsewhere, the risk isn't just falling behind — it's becoming irrelevant. Huang has a different vision: sovereign AI. Not isolation, but autonomy — building national AI systems aligned with local values, independent of foreign tech giants. 'The data belongs to you,' Huang said. 'It belongs to your people, your country... your culture, your history, your common sense.' But fears over AI misuse remain potent — from surveillance and deepfake propaganda to job losses and algorithmic discrimination. Huang doesn't deny the risks. But he insists the technology can be kept in check — by itself. The VivaTech event was part of Huang's broader European tour. He had already appeared at London Tech Week and is scheduled to visit Germany. In Paris, he joined French President Emmanuel Macron and Mistral AI CEO Arthur Mensch to reinforce his message that AI is now a national priority.
