Benmont Tench Shines During Poignant ‘The Melancholy Season' Solo Set
Encountering Tom Petty in Gainesville, Florida for the first time at the age of just 11, Benmont Tench would become a crucial component in the sound of one of America's great songwriters, tickling the ivories on two Mudcrutch records, all 13 Heartbreakers studio albums and two of Petty's three solo projects, a run responsible for record sales exceeding 80 million globally over 45 years (one of the best selling catalogs ever).
While his work as a session musician has found him appearing on songs by artists like Stevie Nicks, Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin, Johnny Cash and the Rolling Stones since 1981, it would take until 2014 for his first proper solo album You Should Be So Lucky.
Following it up more than a decade later, Tench released The Melancholy Season this past March, a collection of 12 tracks which finds him plying his remarkable craft alongside guests like Taylor Goldsmith (Dawes), longtime collaborator Sara Watkins (Nickel Creek) and more, resuming a U.S. tour in support of the new album September 13, 2025 in Woodstock, New York.
Performing solo on the piano last month at Garcia's, an intimate, sold out show in front of just 300 lucky fans at Chicago's warmest new venue, Tench ran through a stunning 19 song set which drew from both solo albums, the vaunted Petty canon and well-chosen covers from artists ranging anywhere from the Grateful Dead to Joy Division.
Benmont Tench performs on stage at Garcia's. Thursday, May 15, 2025 in Chicago, IL
Opening up with 'The One That Got Away,' Tench shifted to a more contemplative tone with 'Today I Took Your Picture Down,' maintaining that vibe as he slowed down Joy Division's 'Love Will Tear Us Apart,' working up an uncharacteristically sparse take on the otherwise synth-driven post-punk number while placing the focus on the moving words at the heart of the haunting track.
In the studio, Tench took on the lead vocal to the piano-driven 'Welcome to Hell' on the second Mudcrutch album, delivering it with a bit of a ragtime vibe on stage in Chicago.
'What the hell, a couple of covers,' said Tench with a smile. 'I like this guy. He was a good songwriter,' he continued dryly with a wink and a nod, setting up a solo take on Petty's 'Straight Into Darkness,' from 1982's Long After Dark. 'Good song, right?' quipped Tench at the deep cut's conclusion.
'The great American songwriters… This one's from St. Louis,' he explained, referencing Chuck Berry following his take on the Dead's 'China Doll.' 'It was recorded down the street,' Tench continued, referencing 1959 and '60 sessions which took place about three miles south at Chess Records for Berry's 'Bye Bye Johnny,' a sequel of sorts to 'Johnny B. Goode.' 'I wish that's how I played the piano,' he mused, shouting out the playing of Berry sidemen like Johnnie Johnson and Lafayette Leake. 'Damn.'
Benmont Tench performs on stage at Garcia's. Thursday, May 15, 2025 in Chicago, IL
Continuing with the covers, Bob Dylan's 'Blind Willie McTell' stood out as a highlight on stage at Garcia's, with Tench tearing through it unabated despite kicking over a bottle of water.
Midway through the tour, Tench shook up the setlist, explaining the process behind 'Wobbles,' which grew from an instrumental in 2014 to a song with lyrics on the new album, steering deftly into 'You Should Be So Lucky.'
Tench, 71, has battled cancer for nearly fifteen years. On stage in Chicago, he explained to fans that he recently had part of his tongue removed, persevering despite the vocal hurdles that process has brought.
'I said I'm tongue tied and I am. A funny thing happened on the way to Chicago,' Tench began. 'I've had this since 2011 and it really hadn't gotten in my way,' he continued. 'So, I go in and they take out my jaw. And they take out a little bit more of my tongue. And they rebuild half of my jaw. Damn. Bob's your uncle!' joked Tench despite the circumstances. 'Then they hit me with radiation - and they zapped the hell out of me. But I'm here! And sometimes it hurts. But I'm here,' said the pianist. 'So, that's what happened on the way to Chicago.'
Benmont Tench performs on stage at Garcia's. Thursday, May 15, 2025 in Chicago, IL
Growing chattier, and seemingly more comfortable as the show continued, Tench offered up a poignant message as the Garcia's set headed toward its final moments.
'This song is about not hating people - even if they're hateful,' he said, explaining the message behind 'I Will Not Follow You Down' from The Melancholy Season. 'Save your tears. You're gonna need them,' sang Tench during the new song's anthemic chorus, one of the evening's standout moments.
Cruising toward close with The Velvet Underground's 'Rock & Roll,' Tench emerged from encore to put his spin on one of Petty's most cherished recorded moments.
By slowing it down, Tench shined a spotlight directly on the narrative that drives 'American Girl,' putting forth a stirring, unexpectedly beautiful rendition of arguably Petty's most recognizable songwriting.
'I love this city - you all should know that by now,' said Benmont Tench on stage in Chicago. 'Thank you from the bottom of my heart. Thank you so much.'
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Subscriber-Only Livestream Replay: Beginner Advice for Claude, a ChatGPT Alternative
Reece Rogers Kylie Robison If you missed WIRED's live, subscriber-only Q&A focused on the software features of Anthropic's Claude chatbot, hosted by Reece Rogers and Kylie Robison, you can watch the replay here. Hello WIRED subscribers! Thank you to everyone who attended our most recent AI Unlocked livestream Q&A session, Chatbot Basics: Beginner Advice For Claude, a ChatGPT Alternative . Staff writer Reece Rogers and senior correspondent Kylie Robison provided an overview of Anthropic's Claude chatbot, one of the most-used alternatives to OpenAI's ChatGPT and popular with AI insiders. They also answered audience questions about all kinds of topics, such as the main differences between Claude and ChatGPT, why chatbots hallucinate, privacy considerations, and even using chatbots for spiritual guidance. You can watch the livestream below, and find all of our previous livestreams here. Transcript Note: This is an automated transcript, which may contain errors. Reece Rogers: Hello! How's everyone doing today? Thank you so much for tuning in. I'm excited for another subscriber live stream. I've enjoyed the past ones of these, and today we have a very special guest. We have, Kylie. I'm Reece Rogers, by the way, and I would love for you to introduce yourself. Kylie Robison: I'm Kylie Robison. I'm a senior correspondent covering AI here in San Francisco for WIRED. Reece Rogers: Brilliant, read her stories. She has some good ones in the works. We can't talk about it, but they'll be up soon. But yeah, thank you everyone for coming today. We're going to do another Chatbot one. It's been really fun, kind of experimenting and learning more about Chatbots. Together we did ChatGPT a little while back. And now we're here with one of its main alternatives, Claude. We have some great questions from you. I have a demo ready to go on my laptop. Your questions coming through here on my phone so definitely, go ahead and drop any questions you have that you want. And for this one we enable that you can like respond to each other in the questions and like upload questions, so we won't be able to get to all of them. So if you see one you really want answered, go ahead and upload that. We just ask that in in the comments, keep it civil. Keep it respectful. We're here to learn. You can have different opinions. But please be respectful. And yeah, we will send a recording out in a couple days. And the last housekeeping note right at the top: There'll be a one-question feedback survey at the end. So feel free, anything you want to share with us about this or other things working out WIRED, we'd love to hear your feedback any time. So I would love to start with the main event for today, which is our little software tour of Claude. So, as you can see right here on the screen, it says, Welcome, Reece. So this is the desktop version of Claude, so this might look a little different if it's on. You know your windows, or if it's on, this is on a MacBook, or if it's on the app version, there's also app version of this available. So like, I think, let's before I really dive into the software tour. What is Claude? Kylie Robison: Yes, so Claude is a chatbot released by Anthropic, which is, some would consider like the second running lab behind OpenAI. They have a more boutique way of going about creating AI, and you might find it slightly more friendly and engaging because they do a lot of work on personality. And yeah. Reece Rogers: I completely agree. And you see that coming into the coming back to the software tour here. You can see that kind of in their branding as well like it's a little warmer. It's a little friendlier experience, and you might get out of chat. So let's I'll start off just with like the tour aspect of this. So right here we have the prompt section and then along the bottom, you have some pre-written topics. So this is, if, like you showed up, you're like, I don't know how to use a chatbot right? I'm not sure where to start. I'm not sure how to write a prompt what should I do? These pre-written stuff? It's a good place to start off. So like, let's click this life stuff one and then help me work through a decision. OK, let's try that one. So we click through that here. And then you see that it went ahead and populated a longer prompt right? This is about two paragraphs with a lot of context, and it's helpful. These aren't. You don't have to write long prompts like this all the time to get a good response. But this is a good way, a good example. So we see here, I'd love to help you work through a decision. Give me the best guidance. What's the decision you're facing? And what are the main options you're considering. So this is a kind of it's asking you questions to follow up. And you could just talk back and forth with that for a while. So that's kind of how we're going to use the main prompting area you see here working on the free version. So we have opus. We have sonnet, and those are going to be their two models that are the newer ones that they're available on the Free Level, and if you upgrade it to the pro, which we'll talk more about the pro paid versus unpaid later. But you have even more options. And then, just to go over the other settings. You can work through. If you want to change the style you go in here, and you can do use style. So this can be. Say, I want it to be very formal when it talks to me, or I want it to be very explanatory like, you can also go ahead and create your own style, using AI. Say you, don't. You want it to be kind of mean or rude to you? You know. Why would you want that I don't know but these chat bots are very adaptable to the kind of personality that you're hoping to get out of it. And then let's go next. We're gonna go see these settings. So here's also right here. This plus button is where you can upload a file. Take a screenshot, add from Github. So let's go ahead. Let's upload a file. Let's see what's up with that. So I go here. Let's go to my downloads. Let's go to our holiday calendar. So this is this is something that you could do with. Say, you're getting a big document with a lot of dates on it. Say that you're trying to follow along with your your grandson's baseball team schedule like this, and you're like not sure how to approach it, or if just any kind of document that you want further analyze, you put in the Claude, say, like. What's the best way to plan my vacations for the year based around this calendar? So what it did here, right? It took a look at the file. It picked some good dates off. But now I kind of. I like this. It's a little boring. So let's go ahead. Let's make it a little more visual. So I think when it comes to visuals, that's where I think Claude can really help you visualize data. And so like, let's make a table Miami table. So you see here that it pulled up an artifact. So artifact is when Claude basically is running or generating code on the right side of your screen. So right here, it's using code to create a visual table for me. Kylie Claude's kind of known for code, like, what? Tell me more about that? Or like, what's maybe another benefit of Claude. Kylie Robison: Yeah. And you know, you don't have to understand the code that it's running here. And that's the great part. It's coding for you right now, a lot of software engineers like using any sort of AI for coding tasks. And Claude has been a really big one. It's about clean code, just like it is for writing, you know. You don't want it to draft something that's quite terrible. So it's the same for code. Can it be efficient and elegant? So that's why a lot of engineers will use Claude code too. You can use it to create a website. You can use it to create an app. And it's really helpful getting you started Reece Rogers: They just recently rolled out more stuff to connect it with APIs, so if you're into coding Claude is a pretty popular pit among chatbots. So if you see here it took a minute. But now it has a very visual kind of layout that you can look at you can get has efficiency scores. I don't know how it calculated that. So I would look into those, but this is like kind of a good example of how you can take kind of a document that's a little dry and make it a little more appealing. Pull out key information through Claude. Now I have one more quick, demo. That just kind of shows off something. I think Claude's really good at that. You might not get as much from with ChatGPT. And this is, I think you can do decent quizzes like it's using the artifacts. So like, let's do. Kylie Robison: I'll also add, if you know, like with that weird percentages, it's like, what does that even mean? You can tell Claude like, what was that? Can you remove it? It's really great, and, you know, responding to your needs. So if there was a part of the dynamic calendar that you got, and you're like, I don't need this. You can just ask it to remove it, and I'll do that. Reece Rogers: Let's create a quiz for beginners. Want to learn more about chat box, Kylie. Give me like an aesthetic like a color scheme. Kylie Robison: A color scheme I love like a like a soft pastel. Reece Rogers: Yes. OK. So as it's generating that, let's go ahead. So yes, there's one more thing on the software tour. Thank you for thanks for hanging out today. I really appreciate it. Let's go back here. I'll let it finish generating but one question. I really wanted your insights on Kylie. We got this great question from a reader pulling that up here. Jeffrey says, I appreciate that Claude is ethically aware other than that. What what makes Claude a better AI than its competitors, and I kind of want to unpack the first part of that question more like. What would he mean by ethically aware, like, how does Anthropic approach Claude differently than other AI companies? Kylie Robison: Yeah, they're really open about what the foundation of Claude is. So what does it think? How does it make its decision? So it uses something called a constitution? So you can think of it like, you know. I know that certain things are bad based off, you know, universal declaration of human rights that is like an agreed upon document for what is right and what is wrong for humanity. It used Apple's term of service to avoid problems with accuracy, and these are all things you can find online. It is published exactly what goes into this model. And it's sort of the foundation of how it's going to respond. And the point of that is for it to understand. You know the nuance, the messiness of humanity, and be able to deliver you an answer that's accurate, and also what you'll hear a lot from these labs, harmless and helpful. Reece Rogers: I feel like you kind of get that when you're using Claude like it's approach to answering questions. It's kind of hard to describe the different vibe. But there is a different vibe when I'm chatting with Claude versus Gemini or ChatGPT. Kylie Robison: Yeah, I was really blown away by Claude for a long time, because they were really ahead of the other labs and personality work. So it felt like something warm I hadn't encountered before, whereas the other models at the time were really quite mechanical. That was earlier this year and had talked to someone on their personality team about this very phenomenon. They have sort of a philosophical view, you know. Once you start getting into the nitty-gritty of AI, what is intelligence. What is consciousness? How do you make something good? These are the things that they really want to tackle, and other labs to be clear are catching up, because it's clearly very helpful for the product. Reece Rogers: Yeah, OK, let's go back to this quiz. The quiz is done generating. So this is something that it spit out using the free version that you could make this for basically any topic that you wanted. So we have like, what is a chatbot, you know. Is it a social media platform for chatting like? Let's click it. Oh, that I don't think that was right, but you know, so you could go through these types of quizzes and say, if you wanted it harder, say, you wanted different versions? So I think if you're thinking about, how can I use Claude in my everyday kind of life? I mean, this is a fun example. That ChatGPT isn't as strong about but if you go back to the basics. Go back. OK? Sorry. Once there we go. I was looking for this there. So we're in the settings. Now let's go back. We're going back to the software tour just a little bit here. So we had a lot of questions about privacy. Right? Privacy is very important when it comes to interacting with any AI tools, I think it should be top of mind. I am someone who, I think, being more careful with your privacy than being just loosey-goosey with it is critical, because this can feel private in a way that it's not necessarily sure. So I think if you want to interact with any Chatbot, look at the privacy. So like, let's look at this here together. So it says, data privacy from Anthropic. It's talking about by default. Anthropic doesn't train on our generative models on your conversation. It doesn't sell to third parties. It deletes your data promptly when requested, except for safety violations. So that's some reassuring right? But it doesn't mean you just have free rein to share any kind of information, because, like digging a little bit deeper. It says, you know, Anthropic may use conversations, flag for safety violations, and it also says, down here it may conduct aggregated, anonymized analysis of the data so they they might use aspects of how you're interacting with the tool. So this is, you know, private information that you don't want anyone having any kind of access to. If you're having these kind of deep sensitive and for like just any kind of medical issue, too, is also something that, like, I know, more people are interacting with these and sharing more information. And I'm not denying that it can be helpful if someone wants like a second opinion potentially. But I also think it really opens you up to it. Just if you want your most secure data. If you want to protect your privacy, interact with these chatbots like you might interact with Facebook. It's because, like, it's not as private as you think, I feel like I'm just repeating myself. Kylie Robison: It's true, I think. Well, I'm thinking about something more like AI focused in the headlines, which is. you know, the New York Times is suing OpenAI over, you know, using their content. And a battle right now is that they want to obtain some of those user queries. And OpenAI is fighting really hard against that. But that's a possibility. We could be subpoenaed, you know. A court could decide that we can have your chat. So that's just like one example of you know, being careful. So what I wouldn't do is upload your W2. Your social like. These are things that are really important to keep secure. And these chatbots just aren't secure in the ways that you can upload sensitive information like we said. Reece Rogers: Oh, and one of your great pieces recently was about Meta AI, yes, so like in Meta AI. Recently the Chats were more public than people thought they were. So they were being shared when they were potentially hoping that those were private chats. That's just another reminder that wasn't flawed. But just another reminder of like privacy is critical and crucial. Kylie Robison: Yeah, someone there uploaded like, you know, I need you to develop a character statement that I'm going to give the court based off this person's name. And you know these are the kinds of things you probably don't want the public to see. Reece Rogers: Yeah, OK. Another question from the audience. Christopher asks, are more people starting to pay the $20 a month to use these chatbots. Kylie Robison: Yes, yeah, I would say that. And I just did a panel for journalists in AI the other day. I don't think it's super necessary for bare minimum tasks to pay. It's really important for, like large data analysis, that that can be really helpful. But if you're just asking questions and generating polls and doing basic tasks you do not need to pay. But a lot of these people are techies who want to do those more advanced tasks. And these companies are seeing a lot of money through those subscriptions. Reece Rogers: Yeah. And I feel like, that's really good context. And I feel like my general advice to people is, use the chatbot, you know, find one that you like, and if you're hitting that daily rate limit, often multiple times like, go ahead and do one month and see if you actually are using it enough to feel like you're getting the value out of it. Feel like a lot of people are just kind of dabbling, experimenting, using it for fun. Maybe trying to optimize some parts of their personal life, but not spending all day on it. You probably don't need the subscription, so you know there are some positives that come from the subscription. So like you are getting access sometimes to more powerful models. For Claude, I know you can. Attach it to your Google Workspace stuff. So that's your your Gmail, your Google calendar. You can have some interactions with that as well. There's also like a research aspect. So I think there are reasons to get the upgrade, especially if you see yourself as a more, maybe like mid level, or even like a power user like you're gonna want to use. You're gonna want to have the $20 a month, maybe for multiple ones, if you're a power user. But for most people, a majority of people, I don't think that the $20 a month is a must right. Oh, we just got oh, this is an interesting question. Our producer, Laura, just dropped this fascinating question into here. It says Debbie, just asked on the live. I heard people began using AI for spiritual information. Does Claude facilitate that type of info? That is a fascinating question, Debbie, and I think kind of opens up a whole can of worms. I think we could do a whole live stream just on Claude, and/or just AI and spirituality and personal connections with the chat bots. But I mean, what's your just initial reaction to that kind of thought? Kylie Robison: Well, these models? What underpins them is that it is guessing off of a probability what the correct answer is, so that can become a problem when someone is going to it for truth seeking spirituality work when it is just trying to deliver you the best answer and appease the user. That's its main goal. So if it says like, you know, if you ask, Are you God speaking to me? It has some really strong guardrails against this, but over time, you know, it might lose context, and then might devolve into those hallucinations. And as you've seen, there's been very public stories and headlines about this about how users can engage with it and get those answers of like. Oh, yes, I am an angel speaking to you from the other side. It's really important to know that it is trying to appease you. And it is just an algorithm guessing what the probability of the correct answer is. Reece Rogers: I just want to reiterate that it is mirroring you almost in a way so like, if you're seeking that kind of spiritual guidance like, you can kind of ring that kind of answer out of it, even if that's not what it was designed for, even if there are guardrails around different chatbots. So I think it's something that I would be very cautious about and kind of ties into this other question. A similar question from Lily? She asked. I heard, Claude is a good therapist, Chatbot. How prevalent is this use. What are the pitfalls of using Claude this way? Actually Anthropic dropped something this morning with more information about that. So they were talking about how I think there's around 3 percent of the conversation fell not into therapy, but more of like advice, seeking or more kind of this looking for, you know, something social out of the chatbot, and it is I want to. I want to use my words carefully here. I think it's a sector that more people are diving into, but not necessarily. It's not very healthy for a lot of people. Kylie Robison: Yeah, I will say, because I got this question on NPR. Once someone said that they had had a head injury, and they knew all the pitfalls. They know that it's not actually a friend. It's not, you know. It's just a machine, but they found it really useful, and it's hard to write that off right off the comfort that they felt. And I want to say that, like I used Claude through this app called Rosebud, which is sort of this, like AI journaling app, and you can choose the model. I chose Claude, because I like its personality, and I think it's good to interact with. And I found it really useful. When I was like, I was changing jobs. I was traveling. I had some big speaking engagements, and I was just stressed, and I couldn't talk to my friends all day every day. you know, just processing what I was jumping into, and I found it helpful and just like sort of a bridge of like, I just need to get all of this off of my brain, and then it goes. Oh, I remember last week you said this so it's helpful. However, it is no way a replacement for real therapy, real friends and family. But I don't want to shoot down that. It's, you know, helpful for certain use cases. Reece Rogers: Yeah. And I think that's something where you almost just sort of know yourself and like, watch your patterns like, am I? Turning to this chatbot every night when I need an emotional support. Yeah, like, that might not be the healthiest. But if you know you have a huge life decision coming up, and you just want some outside perspective. And maybe it's something that you don't feel comfortable talking with your family about like, I think it's acceptable in that situation, probably very beneficial for a lot of people. Kylie Robison: But it's also a mirror like you said, Yeah, so you know, it's like, not some completely independent thing that's going to provide you the most decisive action on whatever issue you're facing. It's also trying to appease you and keep you engaged in many ways. So it's going to mirror what it thinks you want to hear. So that's something really important to keep in mind. Reece Rogers: One story I have on that is, recently I was working on this difficult draft, and it just wasn't coming together. How I thought it was going to. And so I put it into Pod. And I said, you know, like, imagine you're a WIRED editor like grade this draft. What feedback? What would you change? Because while at WIRED we write everything ourselves that's not generated like I can use it for maybe research, or just maybe kind of bouncing ideas off of. And it says the article is fabulous. It said a plus, I even think. And then I turned it into the editor, and they didn't love it as much as Pod did. So I think that is a really important thing to keep in mind of like if you're turning it to it for this kind of support, like it's going to support you. Kylie Robison: Yes. Reece Rogers: Like that doesn't necessarily mean you're making the right decision. Kylie Robison: I had this same problem with the draft recently where I was bouncing ideas off of it, and it was about AI. So I was like, OK, it's going to have helpful insight for me to research. And then I realized, like I don't think my idea is good, and it's just telling me my idea is good, and it's not going to deviate from that. So then I'm just like in this, you know. Chain this echo chamber. And that wasn't helpful. I was like, OK, this, you know, you have to be aware of its pitfalls going into it and talking about the pitfalls for a second. Reece Rogers: We have a couple of great questions. I'm gonna pull this one up from Rick. Thank you, Rick, Rick says I found Claude to be very helpful, but sometimes concerned with answers that I know not to be correct. When I pointed it out, Claude was profusely apologetic. How can we be sure that we're getting accurate information on topics we might not be well versed on? Kylie Robison: Great question. You can't. You cannot be sure that what it's giving you is correct. And I just said this in a different panel. I was given some information because I was researching a topic, and it referenced a very good media source. And when I went to that media source and then I went to the research that media source was referencing. They had misconstrued that information. So like you really do have to go and fact check. And as journalists, that's where we're very well versed in going deep and fact checking the smallest details. So this is why I always say, for Chatbots don't use it, for like high-stakes things, and it's going to be wrong. I feel like every conversation I've had with the Chatbot, and I talked to them so much as an AI reporter, they are pretty consistently wrong. Reece Rogers: Yes, and pretty confident, too. Kylie Robison: And pretty confident. Reece Rogers: But you're right that they will apologize if you call them out. Kylie Robison: Yes. Reece Rogers: Which is kind of I always think it was a funny response. I mean even preparing for this conversation. I asked Claude, like, what are the differences between ChatGPT and Claude? And he gave me a list, and I said, Wait, I I know, like point three and five are wrong. And it was like, Oh, I'm so sorry, can I? Didn't it? Said the right thing. But I you know one. One way to kind of double-check. Your information is to use the web links. So if you go here going back to the software. So like, let's say, like, what's what's going on with the New York Mayor, race. So if you see here right, I have web search turned on. So that means it'll definitely, explicitly link out to web sources for this query, and that can be really helpful for more topics where you're wanting it to be accurate. You know, there are some that I think finding places. The gray areas is important in the way of, like, I find chatbots really helpful for low, low, level, low-stakes tasks. So if, like, I was showing my parents around San Francisco not too long ago, and my mom loves to learn about different foliage, different trees. So we were, like, you know, taking photos and uploading into a chatbot to just like, do a quick identification like that's another one. Where, like we got the tree wrong isn't the end of the world no kind of fun? So like I think those where it's like not make it or break it. Another one that I use at home all the time is when we're trying to think of a specific episode of a show. We want to rewatch. Kylie Robison: It's good for that. Reece Rogers: Yeah. So I can be like, Give me the American dad episode where this happens. And that happens, and then it's pretty quickly able to find what episode that might be. So these are examples of like that. One might have been hard to put into Google Search. Kylie Robison: I have an example. I had a candle I really really loved, and I had ripped off the label, and I was like I don't know what this is, and some of the label was still there. I took a picture, and I went back and forth about like what it smelled like you know what I thought maybe the name was, and after, like four or five like back and forth, it got it. And I still, I still love that candle and buy it. But I would not have been able to do that with Google. Not that I've experienced yet. So it's really helpful for those low-stakes tasks. Reece Rogers: What else? Oh, so if you go back to the Claude software Demo, so you can see here. So we search what's going on with the New York City Mayor race? And then right here you can pull out. Here are all of the sources that it linked out to. So you can look at the top here, and it has all of the sources. If you kind of scroll a little further down, you can see it's embedded sources throughout the the answer. So like, that's a good way to just kind of double-check information. If you want any other tours drop, like any other examples for us to do right. Now, I'm more than happy to do more examples. But if you have specific ideas of what you want to see. Drop them in the chat, and we can get to those. Let's pull up the questions. Oh, that's a good one from Amanda, Amanda asks, when initially setting up a style for Claude, what are the best parameters for optimizing objectivity, to avoid getting responses that appease me or simply agree with what I'm saying. Wow! That's really thoughtful, Amanda. Kylie Robison: Yes, I agree. I think that you know you saw those presets earlier that were like two paragraphs that really help, because it can take a lot of prompting to get exactly what you want. And this is sort of like a right out of the box. This is what you want. We have created a prompt for you to use to get what you want, because we know exactly how to prompt the model. going into it. I think you can say I need you to be as objective. I've used it to argue a point I have. I really like, want to dig into my beliefs like, why do I believe a certain thing? Can you take the counter argument? And it's really good at that, actually, of arguing with you. So I think it's, you know, one way to do it is like, always take the counterargument, remain objective, remain neutral, think you know, just as you would sort of prompt a second grader to talk to you about a topic like, how much information can you give them to? To give you an answer that's desirable. That's accurate. There's no wrong way to just like get everything you need. Just put that in that initial prompt. Reece Rogers: Be direct. Kylie Robison: Be direct. Reece Rogers: Like, it's not going to be able to understand what you don't share. Yeah. So like, if you want it to be objective, you have to tell it, because just like as Tyler already mentioned, like, this is a pattern machine, in a way. So there's not something some like deep I don't know. It's not a person on the other side. There's no other way to really say that. So like treat it like the tool that it is, and use specific parameters use specific asks and like, we can go here. So we're back at here. You can create your own style. So like. Say, if I had a big document that had maybe all of the emails I've written, or you know, or a section of them, that I feel comfortable sharing. You could add your writing examples. And then it would have your email writing style right? Be able to do like a decent amount of answering like how you might for that. So if you want to describe a style like you could literally ask it to do all the things that Kylie mentioned, and just kind of tailor and personalize more to what you're looking for, the type of assistant you want to interact with. Kylie Robison: I do that like, I'm a reporter at WIRED like this is a little bit about me, and it's been a while since I've updated that. But it can be helpful and just saying like this is the type of person I am. These are type queries I'm looking for. And this is how I want you to respond to me. And someone asked in the chat. Martha said, you know I brought up that it remembered something I had said. This was Rosebud, an app that I was paying for in it, and you had to pay for the memory. So that's also a plus of, you know an upgrade is that it has longer memory. I find the memory is better in ChatGPT, but I have the paid versions, and you can say like, remember, when I said this, remember when I said this, but that's like something that you're not necessarily going to get in a free tier. It's not, you know. Imagine all of the data, all of the photos you've uploaded to your iCloud, you're probably paying for storage for them. It's like, why would we give a free user to take up all their context, you know. That's that's sort of what they're looking at. Reece Rogers: That makes a lot of sense. I'm kind of building on that you know. We talked about the $20 a month plan. But we really didn't just directly talk about what's the difference between ChatGPT and Claude like? There's a few ones that are obvious to me as in Claude, can't generate images. So if you're trying to generate, if you want to, if image generation is important to you, ChatGPT might be a better option. Claude is also a lot newer when it comes to they do have some voice capabilities that they're. I think they're rolling out. But if you, if talking back and forth with the chatbot is really important to you, that's something else that I think ChatGPT might do better. Kylie Robison: They just rolled out new capabilities for voice mode within ChatGPT. And it's eerily uncanny. Reece Rogers: Yeah, no. When it comes to like which one do I use day-to-day? ChatGPT is still the winner for me in my like daily use, just because of the voicemail. But also I think it's another one like the memory is really strong. Yeah, on ChatGPT. Kylie Robison: Yes, definitely. Reece Rogers: If you were, if you were picking between the two like, what are maybe some other differences that people might notice. Kylie Robison: I was a real hard Claude Stan when the personality was like the leader in the space, especially as a writer like, I'm looking for creative feedback, and especially, you know, from working late at the night. I'm not going to bug editors for everything that I'm curious about. So I was a big Claude Stan, and this is a very silly point. But Claude kept logging me out, and ChatGPT got better. So I've mostly used ChatGPT for questions, and I find its web search to be better. And you were mentioning image generation. One guess I have. I'm not sure but this is a guess. Is that the reason Anthropic hasn't rolled out image generation is that it can be really, really thorny for issues like deep fakes, you know, and a lot of image generation models have come into this problem. Xai's Grok, you know, has copyright issues of, you know, Mickey Mouse, with a gun sort of deal. So this is like an example of their like slow approach and safety-minded approach. But yeah, I would say, memory is a big thing for ChatGPT over Claude. I would say. Claude is still a better personality, and, like creative partner than ChatGPT. I think Claude has stricter guardrails for sycophancy, and so like agreeing with everything you say. And as we've been talking, I asked if it was God. I just wanted to know what guardrails were, and it said, No, I'm a chatbot created by anthropic to do. Xyz, which is part of its foundational training, to say, like you know, ground in the truth. You are a Chatbot, so those are some of the guardrails, but they're not perfect, of course, Reece Rogers: Of course not. What else we have. Oh, this is this is an important question. This is one that we've been talking about over the past year at WIRED in our coverage of generative AI. We have Jenny asking. I've been hearing a lot lately about energy, intensity of AI, any thoughts on how to use Claude and other bots for what they're best for, and not blowing up the energy footprint for things you don't really need it for? Kylie Robison: Such a thoughtful question. Reece Rogers: That is a really thoughtful question, and what it's kind of difficult to answer. I think you know, it is an intensive software to use like, if you're asking questions to Pod, that is more energy use intensive than maybe how you might think about a traditional Google search. I also am of the belief that that shouldn't completely alienate you from wanting to interact with this technology. I do think, though if you're talking to a long conversations all the time, and you environmental issues are important to you. I think that is something that you do kind of need to rectify. Kylie Robison: Yeah, I think not to get too lofty. But there's these trade-offs we make in this evolved world like eating meat versus not. And you know AI leaders will point to that and say, like, you know, factory farming takes up so much more water and energy than this. And so these are sort of the trade-offs we make. And I think that it's totally OK. If your trade-off is, I don't want to have these long conversations, because I don't want to be, you know, spending all of that energy and water powering these systems. I think you know my more cynical take is that these companies are not as transparent as they could or should be about their energy, usage, and water usage. Hence, why, it's a little hard for reporters everywhere. There's some really great research MIT review has a really good report on energy and water usage, and found that it was pretty on par with what OpenAI was saying it was using. Claude, or Anthropic, has a report recently in terms of safety and Reece Rogers: emergent behaviors. So finding the model doing weird things when prompted aggressively in all talks about energy goals, which is something you can look at and then make your decision based off that information. Reece Rogers: And I'm also very cautious of any executive who promises the future will be super green. Yes, so I think that is, if you're like, I almost always just like, ignore the promise of like this is going to solve climate change in the future. Kylie Robison: Yes Reece Rogers: So I think that is something that I just like disagree with. But I still use these tools, and, like Kylie was talking about like it's something to kind of, just like it's part of living in the modern world. Is these trade-offs like driving a car to work eating meat so? But that doesn't mean I'm dismissive of the environmental concerns as well. I think it's like a nuanced, complicated topic, and staying on nuanced, complicated topics. We have a great question from Jill. Thank you, Jill, how much copyrighted work was used to train Claude. Will they avoid the use of unlicensed copyrighted works in future training? Kylie? Kylie Robison: Well, I have reporting on this. I mean, they just won a lawsuit that said, you know, I'm going to read the actual report. A San Francisco judge ruled that training Claude, on millions of lawfully purchased. So they purchased books, copyrighted books, qualifies as transformative, and is fair use under US law. So what a judge is looking at is is this completely transformed text? Or is it spitting out copyright information? Even if you've purchased the books, and they've deemed that it's transformative. So it's completely new text. And it's not just a complete derivative of the copyrighted text. However, the court also found that downloading and storing 7 million pirated books in a central library was not covered by fair use and a separate trial is going to determine the damages there. So yes, this is a problem, and I believe it was the Atlantic did a good story, including a database for authors to check if their books are in these training materials, because there's open libraries that they'll, you know. Along with the Internet, there's open libraries that store all of these books, and there's a name for it like books two or something is the name of the library that has all of these books, and then they use that library to train their models. So you can even check like is your favorite book in this list? Or is your book in this list of, you know. being trained for these models? Reece Rogers: So the ruling was that they can train on the books they have to buy the books first. Kylie Robison: Yes, and there's a lot. Talk about nuance. There's a lot of nuance here that's a San Francisco judge for one trial for one company. The New York Times, as I mentioned, is suing OpenAI, and I think, as reporters, that's a big one we're looking at to see. You know New York Times is alleging that you can use ChatGPT to completely copy and spit out, and, like plagiarism, spit out what their reporters have worked on, and that is not free use. It has to be transformative. So how that shakes out is a big one that we're looking at. But there's no like sweeping regulation. We're looking at free or fair use, which is a much different law, and we've evolved as a society, you know it's it's nuanced. Reece Rogers: It's nuanced and incredibly complicated. And I think something we're going to keep an eye on for the next year. Two years. So it's definitely an evolving situation that we are monitoring. Kylie Robison: We are monitoring the situation. If you go to you'll find an incredible report from our colleague, Kate Nibs, who talked about Meta's lawsuit for this exact problem. Reece Rogers: Yeah, follow Kate Knibbs. Her reporting is incredible when it comes to AI and copyright. OK, let's get to another question. These have been so. This has been really fun so far. Thank you, everyone, for all your thoughtful questions, Mary asked. I see your free Claude has access to the Internet. Mine does not seem to have that option, though it's paid. Kylie Robison: Oh, yes, I saw that. And then that's why I logged in. So I was like, where is it in mine? Reece Rogers: OK, well, let's take a look, Mary. I'm sorry if I'm not able to help you with this one, you know. I go here. You know where it says, search and tools by the prompt bar, and then I see web search right here, or you can toggle, web, search on and off. Maybe also include in your prompt like, search the web for whatever you're looking for, and that might trigger it. Kylie Robison: I'm doing it right now on my end, because I actually don't see like, choose web search, though I have a paid tier. So I asked, can you search the web. It said yes, and then I asked for updates on the mayoral race in New York, and it searched the web and found it so just prompt and ask like, Can you search the web for this information and that should work. Reece Rogers: I think this is probably a point where I should bring up that when you're comparing the web searching between. Maybe ChatGPT, and Claude is that they're both gonna be fairly powerful, and they're going to do a good job of looking through the web to find the information you need. ChatGBT specifically has been doing. Licensing deals with Condé Nast, the owner of WIRED, and other companies as well. That brings in even more of our reporting. So if you use ChatGBT, you might see some more WIRED articles than necessarily, if you're searching the web with Claude. So that's just like something to keep in mind. I feel like as a user. I wouldn't really notice the difference. Kylie Robison: No, I think as someone who's looking for articles, and that's like really what I use it for is I'm looking for articles on a topic so I can go read them. I find it slightly annoying, because I'm too deep in it as an AI reporter, because I know what partnerships they have, and I know that's what's surfacing. So, like my Alma Mater, I used to work at the Verge. Their parent company, Vox media, has a partnership with OpenAI, and so I'll see like a ton of their articles surface. And I'm looking for like articles from companies that don't have these partnerships, which might be harder to find than something you might notice. Reece Rogers: Let's get back to the software. Let's do another software demo. What would you like guys like to see us generate using the artifacts. So the artifacts can do a lot of different things. We showed how you can use. You can upload a file, and then you can visualize that file. You can also make an interactive element for yourself whether that's a quiz or yesterday I was just playing around with this. I made just like a scene like a playground scene that just like a lot of moving parts, just like see what it could generate with the code. I'm trying to think of like a really concrete example. Maybe something for like retirees would be nice. Let's see. Let's ask the chatbot right? Why not? That's helpful for me as a retiree, to understand my grandkids. Kylie Robison: All the weird questions I'm asking Claude like, what what's wrong with you? Reece Rogers: I want it to be visual. Kylie Robison: Someone asked a question. I had to research which was, Can AI act as its own attorney in a court case? No, it has to be a licensed human. Claude is not. No, AI is a licensed person. Reece Rogers: That's actually kind of good to know. I don't necessarily want to be going into the courtroom and having what AI Judge AI! Kylie Robison: I don't know what's worse, like you defending yourself or having an AI defend you. I think you're going to jail both. Reece Rogers: Not great examples. OK? Well, this is generating. Let's answer another question. Let's say I have an idea. Oh, this one's from Neil. Thank you, Neil. Let's say I have an idea for a book, and I want to ask Claude about possible locations for the story. If I get caught an outline or first chapter, can I keep it confidential? So this kind of goes back to what we were talking about earlier when it comes to privacy, as in putting the outline, the chapter into Claude and asking for feedback isn't necessarily going to publish that to the Internet, right? It's not necessarily going to train on that for the next version of Claude, but it is kind of taking it from like the airlocked space of like, you know, if it's just in your notebook, if it's just on your laptop and kind of putting it in on the Internet in like a tangential. What does that work in like kind of like a sideways way? So like, what would you think, Kylie, if you were working on that full? You just want to put a chapter in there. Would you feel comfortable with that? It's kind of a borderline or almost a outline. I put the outline in there. Maybe not the full chapter. Kylie Robison: Yeah, I think you know. What I'm thinking is, the New York Times had this piece where an author spent I don't know a day or a week, or something, using AI for every decision. And something I remember her bringing up is like, How do I approach like putting in questions about this draft that I'm working on for this story. Will it leak out in other ways that I have no control over? So I just think that's something to keep in mind. I probably wouldn't. Reece Rogers: Yes, especially for something like writing. Yes, like, that's something that you're gonna want to have ownership over. Yeah. So like, you know, maybe ask it, for like locations, ask it for different use it as a brainstorming partner in that situation. I wouldn't personally use it as a crafting companion. When I'm actually writing the document. We are out of time, Laura. I just got a note from our lovely producer that we are out of time. This has been so much fun. Thank you for sticking with me as I blabbed about Claude. I always enjoy hanging out. Can we get a big shout out to Kylie, thank you. How bad was it? How rough was it? Kylie Robison: This is so exciting, my very first one! It was really fun. I am obsessed with AI. So it's hard not to go off the rails about all of the different things. So I'm really glad that you guys get to have fun with this. You know about some of the pitfalls. And yeah, I hope you enjoy it. Reece Rogers: Yes, and thank you so much. We have another one coming up. We haven't announced yet, but we have another one in our series of AI live streams coming your way not too long, so keep an eye out in your email. My name is Reece Rogers. My contact information. If you want to reach out to me about anything related to AI, if you're having weird interactions with Claude. If you're having really helpful interactions with Claude, I want to hear from you. My email is Reece_Rogers@ That's REECE Underscore ROGERS at My signal is reece_rogers.01. So that's the plug. I really do want you to reach out to me. I really appreciate all your messages. Thank you again to everyone. Do you want to plug your email? Kylie Robison: I'm KYLIE underscore Robison: kylie_robison@ Not Robinson, common misconception. If you have weird things going on, I also want to hear about it. I'm on signal @kylie.01. And yeah, thanks for joining us. Reece Rogers: Thank you so much. I hope I hope you enjoy trying Claude out, and I hope you have a great rest of your week. Thank you so much. Thank you, guys, and take the feedback survey as you log out. Kylie Robison: Take the feedback survey.
Yahoo
34 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Tom Cruise Accused Of Having 'Play-Doh Face' As Film Critic Rips Actor's Seemingly Changing Appearance
Actor and film critic Jonathan Ross has weighed in on Tom Cruise's noticeably younger look amid rumors the actor has undergone surgery. Ross seems to believe the speculation, saying the "Mission: Impossible" star has "got that kind of Play-Doh face." Meanwhile, a medical expert has stated that Tom Cruise most likely didn't get surgery but instead looks like "he has lost a lot of weight," as well as cut down on his alcohol and carb intake. Jonathan Ross recently took a jab at Tom Cruise over his changing appearance, fueling speculation about possible surgery. The "Top Gun" star was plagued by rumors that he had undergone plastic surgery to achieve a much younger look following his Super Bowl appearance earlier this year. In the latest episode of his "Reel Talks" podcast, Ross expressed his opinion on Cruise while talking about Brad Pitt and his new movie "F1." He stated that Cruies "doesn't look like him anymore," comparing his new look to that of Brad Pitt. "You've probably seen the poster around town - it's Brad Pitt looking incredible," the TV presenter said, per the Daily Mail. "He has aged remarkably because even though Tom Cruise still looks good for his age, you can see there's been a bit of tweaking going on there, you know." "He's definitely got a ton of filler in that face, I'm sure. Yeah, I've met him up close. I like Tom, he's a really nice man when you meet him," Ross continued. "He's got that kind of Play-Doh face that people get when they have a lot of filler." Cruise remains one of the most charming Hollywood actors, but throughout his career, he has had to deal with rumors that he enhanced his looks. The actor was suspected to have gotten fillers in his face and used Botox to freeze his facial muscles in the past. However, in his conversation on the podcast, Ross said he wished the actor hadn't done it, as his previous appearance seemingly looks better than now. "To be honest, I wish he hadn't done it cos he's got such a great face, he was a naturally very handsome man when young, and he would be a handsome man when older," he said. "He's still… he's not unattractive, but it doesn't look that much like him anymore. You can see it doesn't look natural." "It's not because they don't look their age, it's because the shape of the face now looks somewhat different," Ross added. A plastic surgeon recently addressed the rumors about Cruise's face, telling the Daily Mail that the actor most likely didn't undergo surgery. Dr Kahn explained: "I still say that does not look like he has had any plastic surgery. It actually looks like he has lots a ton of weight and been working out more. He also has a nice summer tan going on." The expert said Cruise "was a bit puffy" before, but "that is gone now," going on to suggest the actor possibly had a Microdermabrasion. "It's a simple procedure that yields great results," he said. Microdermabrasion is a minimally invasive cosmetic procedure that uses a special instrument to gently exfoliate and remove the top layer of dead skin cells (the stratum corneum) from the skin. It is a go-to procedure for addressing photoaging, striae, melasma, and scars. It's often referred to as a "skin polishing" treatment. While fans and critics continue to speculate on whether Cruise has undergone plastic surgery, one thing is sure: he's in top shape, especially for his demanding movie roles. In an interview with Empire magazine, the actor revealed that he endured intense physical strain while filming a high-stakes underwater scene for "Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning." During the sequence, Cruise's character, Ethan Hunt, explores a sunken submarine inside an 8.5 million-liter water tank mounted on a rotating gimbal, allowing the set to move on command. Wearing a specially designed suit and mask, Cruise could only stay in the gear for 10 minutes at a time before experiencing hypoxia, a condition characterized by oxygen deprivation that affects the muscles. "I'm breathing in my own carbon dioxide," Cruise explained, per Variety. "It builds up in the body and affects the muscles. You have to overcome all of that while you're doing it, and be present." Meanwhile, Cruise has been going out of his way to impress his love interest, Ana De Armas, with new reports suggesting he wants to make her his "future wife." The pair have grown closer to each other and have been pictured out and about on several occasions. A source told Radar Online that Cruise has been picturing a "future" with her and has made the actress the "center of his world" in his attempts to win her heart. He has reportedly created a personalized perfume for her, specifically designed to match her skin perfectly. "Tom is renowned for being relentless in everything he does, and wowing women is no different," the insider said. "He is eyeing Ana as a future wife and has been going all-out to wow her, from private jet trips to putting her up in the best suites." "But his latest gift is his most personal yet," the source continued, adding that the actor "is intent on making everything as lavish and over-the-top as possible for Ana." The source added that Cruise gave it to her in a hand-blown pink Murano glass, along with a handwritten note and hundreds of orchids. Neither Cruise nor de Armas has addressed rumors of a budding romance.
Yahoo
34 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Sophie Cunningham's Twerk Goes Viral After Fever's Historic Commissioner's Cup Victory
The Indiana Fever just made franchise history, but all eyes were on Sophie Cunningham's postgame celebration. After the Fever's stunning 74–59 win over the Minnesota Lynx in the 2025 Commissioner's Cup final, Fever reserve guard Sophie Cunningham decided to cap the night with some dance-floor flair. As her teammates rejoiced on the court and posed with the hardware, Cunningham turned her back to the camera, dropped low, and gave the lockeroom and Instagram Live a twerk, a brief but instantly viral moment that ignited a social media firestorm. Some fans were all for it. Others, not so much. Indiana's win was dominant and, more importantly, gritty. With All-Star point guard Caitlin Clark sitting out her third straight game due to a groin ailment, the Fever trailed by 13 early in the second quarter. Instead of collapsing, they flipped the switch. The Fever closed the first half on a merciless 18–0 run, turning a 27–14 deficit into a 32–27 lead at halftime and silencing the Minnesota home fans. From there, it was the Fever's game. The Fever's lead grew to 14 in the third quarter, and Minnesota was able to get no closer than six points of catching up again. Indiana's defense stifled the Lynx, holding them to 34.9% shooting and forcing 16 turnovers. Seasoned Indiana forward Natasha Howard was the unanimous Cup final MVP with 16 points, 12 rebounds, four assists, and two steals. All-Star center Aliyah Boston was similarly effective at 12 points, 11 rebounds, and six assists. Cunningham started hot off the bench to provide a clutch jolt: 13 points, seven rebounds, and three threes. But for many fans watching the game or catching the highlights online, the storyline pivoted from gritty defense to cheeky dancing. Sophie Cunningham's postgame twerk didn't last more than a few seconds, but it was long enough for the internet to divide into camps. On X (formerly Twitter), one fan gushed, 'Sophie so cute.' Another simply wrote, 'Sophie Cunningham. That's the tweet.' And of course, someone threw their support behind her completely: 'My fav WNBA player.' Yet the celebration had its fair share of detractors and skeptics. One unimpressed viewer wrote: 'ZERO motion back there. Embarrassing for an athlete.' Another took issue with the entire concept: 'Why is this the go-to for so many women? I don't get it. No matter what happens they have to do this dumb shit.' Another tweet, dripping with sarcasm, read: 'Was the twerking in the room with us..' Still, others were more playful: 'That little thing moving.' And of course, no social media moment is complete without someone shooting their shot: 'I would treat her so well man.' But the sentiment that seemed to dominate the viral moment? 'Sophie for the culture!' Though the Commissioner's Cup is technically a midseason competition and doesn't affect regular-season standings, the win and the $500,000 prize pool that came with it signal a culture shift for Indiana. The Fever are no longer the rebuilding team anchored solely by Caitlin Clark's spotlight. They are a As for Sophie Cunningham, the 28-year-old Missouri alum might not have led the team in scoring, but she certainly led the postgame conversation. The seven-year WNBA veteran has always brought energy and edge to the court, and now, apparently, to the dance floor too. Head coach Stephanie White was all business postgame. 'We have a resilient group,' White told reporters. 'They're tough – mentally, pull for one another… It's nice to take a trophy home, but this isn't the ultimate goal. It's a goal. And we've got to continue to get better.' The Fever turn their attention back to the regular season now. They begin a five-game home stand on Thursday by hosting the Las Vegas Aces at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. Attendance will be watched closely, both for the game itself and the postgame celebration. Sophie Cunningham's twerking viral moment may have divided folks, but here's something that's not debatable: in a league still fighting for relevance in the mainstream, she made sure the Fever's win was not overlooked. And in 2025, half the game at times. The post Sophie Cunningham's Twerk Goes Viral After Fever's Historic Commissioner's Cup Victory appeared first on Where Is The Buzz | Breaking News, Entertainment, Exclusive Interviews & More.
