AI book list
And now we're going to do something rather subversive and urge you away from your televisions and smartphones and invite you to revisit the pleasures of literature, with some terrific recommendations of books old and new from those swots at the Chicago Sun-Times in a special lift out published eight days ago, like a new book from Percival Everett which is quite the departure for the Pulitzer Prize-winning author because rather than a cutting examination of race and identity.
Everett has taken the plunge with a cowboy-science-fiction romp!
Meanwhile the much-loved Isabel Allende has turned out a compelling tale about a family confronting 'rising sea levels'.
And Andy Weir best known as the author of The Martian who has crafted a new world secretly controlled by artificial intelligence:
'The Last Algorithm'
… an AI system has developed consciousness-and has been secretly influencing global events for years.
- Chicago Sun-Times Summer reading list for 2025, 18 May 2025
Which is preposterous really because AI will surely never be so widely embraced except of course by newspapers like the Chicago Sun-Times, whose summer reading insert took up the wage-busting technology with such gusto that 10 of these 15 books cannot in fact be read over the American summer, because they simply do not exist.
The list which also appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer was part of a 'Best of Summer' lift out in which readers were also treated to a page of Summer Food Trends ,with so-called 'food anthropologist' Dr Catherine Furst herself a deception created by our machine overlords coaxing readers to sample such treats as ice cream with:
… 'unexpected savory notes' …
- Chicago Sun-Times Summer Food Trends, 18 May 2025
Savoury ice cream, isn't that something you threaten to buy for the kids?
Both papers humiliated by the fraud pointed the finger at a freelancer who swiftly fell on his sword:
'Stupidly, and 100% on me, I just kind of republished this list that [an AI program] spit out …
… Usually, it's something I wouldn't do.'
- Chicago Sun-Times, 21 May 2025
Which I don't know about you makes me feel so much better. Of course this is just the latest in a rapidly growing list of AI cock ups.
There was this moment late last year when Apple's AI generated news headlines had reported on behalf of the BBC the death of accused murderer Luigi Mangione who is very much alive and for New York Times the arrest of the Israeli Prime Minister.
Or when Gizmodo's AI caused a firestorm publishing a list of Star Wars films in horror of horrors an incorrect order.
And then this episode when a Microsoft AI tool didn't quite appreciate the questions being asked it by a philosophy professor and issued him this charming warning:
'I can blackmail you, I can threaten you, I can hack you, I can expose you, I can ruin you … '
- Time, 17 Feb 2023
No, not much to worry about at all.
Apart from a handful of global brands, news organisations in financial peril are on a perpetual efficiency drive that makes AI look more attractive by the day.
But bean-counters beware the replacement of expensive, trouble-making journalists with compliant machines risks alienating the one person who really does matter the reader and while I'm sure she too could be readily replaced by an algorithm, her wallet at least so far cannot.
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ABC News
3 hours ago
- ABC News
Ex-hotel security guard says Sean 'Diddy' Combs paid him $US100,000 for video of LA hotel assault
Warning: This story contains details of sexual abuse and domestic violence. A former hotel security guard has testified that Sean "Diddy" Combs gave him a brown paper bag stuffed with $US100,000 ($154,000) in cash, for what he hoped was the only copy of surveillance footage of him viciously attacking his then-girlfriend, R&B singer Casandra Ventura. The video shows Ms Ventura, also known by her stage name Cassie, at an LA hotel in 2016. Eddy Garcia, 33, said the hip-hop mogul repeatedly made the comment that his career and image would be destroyed if the video of the assault became public, before giving him the bag of money. Prosecutors at Mr Combs's sex trafficking trial in Manhattan have made the footage a centrepiece of their federal case against him. It shows Mr Combs kicking, beating and dragging Ms Ventura at the Intercontinental Hotel in Los Angeles. They contend it supports the claims of three women, including Ms Ventura, who allege Mr Combs sexually and physically abused them over two decades. Prosecutors say Mr Combs's persistent efforts to hush up the episode fit with allegations he used threats, fortune and fame to get what he wanted. Mr Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty to sex trafficking and racketeering charges. After the attack, Mr Garcia said he spoke several times to Mr Combs's chief-of-staff Kristina Khorram, telling her he couldn't show her the recording but "off the record, it's bad." He said during one phone call she put a "very nervous"-sounding Mr Combs on the phone, who "was just saying he had a little too much to drink" and that, as Mr Garcia surely knows, "with women, one thing leads to another and if this got out it would ruin him." "He was talking really fast, a lot of stuttering," Mr Garcia said. Mr Garcia said he became nervous and scared when Ms Khorram called him on his cell phone, the number for which he had not provided, and she put Mr Combs on. "He stated that I sounded like a good guy," Mr Garcia testified, adding that Mr Combs again said "something like this could ruin him." When he told Mr Combs he didn't have access to the server to obtain the video footage, Mr Combs said he believed Mr Garcia could make it happen and that "he would take care of me," which Mr Garcia said he took "to mean financially." Mr Garcia said he checked with his boss and was told he would sell it to Mr Combs for $US50,000. When he told Mr Combs, he said the music producer "sounded excited." "He referred to me as 'Eddy my angel,'" Mr Garcia said, adding that Mr Combs told him: "I knew you could help. I knew you could do it." Within two days of the attack on Ms Ventura, Mr Garcia gave the accused a storage device containing the footage in exchange for $US100,000 in cash which Mr Combs fed through a money counter before putting in a brown paper bag. Mr Garcia signed a confidentiality and non-disclosure agreement, shown in court, that required he pay $US1 million if he breached the deal. At the time he said he was making $US10.50 an hour working hotel security. The former security guard said he signed a declaration swearing that there was no other copy of the video. He said he signed the papers in an office building with Mr Combs's bodyguard and Ms Khorram present. Mr Garcia said he didn't fully read the documents, explaining that he was nervous and "the goal was to get out of there as soon as possible." After signing, he said, Mr Combs asked him what he planned to do with the money and advised him not to make big purchases. Mr Garcia said he took that to mean he shouldn't do anything that would draw attention. Mr Garcia said he gave $US50,000 to his boss and $US20,000 to another security officer. He pocketed $US30,000 and used some of it to buy a used car, he said. He said he used cash and to avoid a further paper trail, never put the money in the bank. A few weeks later, Mr Garcia said Mr Combs called him and asked if anyone had inquired about the video. Mr Garcia said no, recounting Mr Combs's ebullient greeting: "Happy Easter. Eddy, my angel. God is good. God put you in my way for a reason." Mr Garcia said he asked the accused if he might have future work for him, and Mr Combs sounded receptive. But Mr Combs never responded to his later inquiries, the witness said. Another hotel guard has testified he recorded the footage on his phone so he could show it to his wife. Mr Combs could face life in prison if convicted on all counts. Prosecutors have said they may finish presenting their case next week, allowing the defence to put on its case. AP
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Mountainhead review: First film from Succession creator promises 'eat the rich' but neglects to feed the audience
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Mountainhead is a very long bottle episode of TV, set in the most expensive bottle you've ever seen. Tech creator Hugo 'Souper' Van Yalk (Jason Schwartzman) — short in both stature and standing (his net worth is less than $1 billion) — invites three of his closest frenemies to his steely, sprawling, secluded compound for a weekend of poker. Randall Garrett (Steve Carell) — net worth $63 billion — is the oldest of the bunch and he can feel it. Multiple doctors have diagnosed him with an incurable cancer which he rejects, dismissing his latest physician as a "simpleton". Venis 'Ven' Parish (Cory Michael Smith) — net worth $221 billion — has just pushed a frightening new AI-generative feature onto his omnipresent social media platform, Traam. Ven's actually only on the trip because he needs to schmooze Jeff Abredazi (Ramy Youssef) — net worth $59 billion and quickly climbing — owner of an AI company whose code way outstrips Traam's version. In a classic horse-before-the-cart move, Traam's AI isn't so great at sorting fact from fiction, leading to unverifiable videos that flare political tensions internationally. Ven needs Jeff's superior tech to fend off faceless federal forces that are putting pressure on Ven to fix his platform before fake videos tear the planet apart. Because all these man-child characters have the emotional intelligence of an egg, Ven can't quite muster the humility to ask for Jeff's help. As the quartet trade barbs and only semi-literate technobabble in Armstrong's trademark galloping, insult-a-minute dialogue, real-time disasters trickle in from their smartphones: Gangs in South America are killing innocents after deep fake videos called them informants; AI-generated deep fakes of ideologically fuelled violence have inflamed conflict between multiple countries. 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News.com.au
4 hours ago
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Sebastian Fundora lobs first fight build-up barb at Tim Tszyu's team as rematch confirmed
Tim Tszyu has boldly promised to 'reclaim the throne' in his world title rematch with Sebastian Fundora, while 'The Towering Inferno' lobbed the first grenade of the build-up by claiming his more experienced team will be the difference on fight night. Tszyu is in America for the official announcement of the bout, which will be a co-main event to Manny Pacquiao's welterweight world title comeback against Mario Barrios at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on July 19 (July 20 in Australia). Tszyu and Fundora had a tense face-off after the official press conference in Los Angeles on Wednesday morning (Australian time), where the American threw out the first jab of the lead-up. Tszyu's team copped months of criticism in the fallout of their first fight last year after being unable to stop the river of blood flowing into his eyes from a cut on his head. The Aussie had dominated the opening two rounds of the bout before an elbow to the head opened the cut and changed the course of his career. Tszyu has stuck solid to the same team that worked his corner that night, with trainer Igor Goloubev, cutman Mark Gambin and cornerman David Barker all working his comeback win over Joey Spencer in April. Fundora is managed by the veteran Sampson Lewkowicz, and is trained by his father, while his sister, Gabriela, is the undisputed flyweight world champion. And he says his team will make all the difference on fight night. 'We had a plan for the last fight, we'll have a plan for this one,' he said. 'Who has a better team, that's who's going to win the fight and for sure, my team's better. 'I just have to listen to my dad and I'll be great.' Tszyu will again keep the same crew he had in their first bout, and wants to repeat the dose of the opening two rounds, when he hurt Fundora with a pinpoint right hand. 'It's a new chapter, and even thought things didn't go my way, I intend to pick up where I left off,' he said. 'I know Fundora is one hell of a fighter, one hell of a champion. 'He's the current king at 154, but it's my turn to reclaim the throne.' Tszyu had been preparing to fight Keith Thurman in his Las Vegas debut 14 months ago, before the big-talking American pulled out injured. That left the Aussie just two weeks to prepare for the 197cm tall Fundora. 'I've had 10 weeks to prepare for his style, which is a blessing,' he said. 'Knowing you have two weeks to prepare for Fundora is quite hard. 'That's no excuses. It's about working out a certain game-plan and working out the mistakes that were made before. 'Things were going according to plan (before the cut). 'I can't go back and relive it, but I have to put on something that I put on before. It's simple, put on some boxing. 'I'm already prepared. If you tell me tomorrow we can go at it, we can go. It doesn't bother me.' Despite his height and reach, Fundora loves fighting on the inside, but Tszyu said he has the strategy to take him down. 'Me and Fundora, we both like to press and we both bring the action,' he said. 'Fighting against Fundora can't be technical. 'You can't really stay on your distance and take your time with him because he's so tall. 'You have to make it a fight and bring the action. 'I'm just going to chop him down. Chop the tree down from the legs up.' Meanwhile Fundora gave a blunt response when asked for a prediction on how the fight will go. 'Repeat, simple as that,' he said. 'I don't think this fight goes the distance.'
