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Don’t Want Chatbots Using Your Voice To Train AI? Opt Out — If You Can (Maria)
The author writes, “Be careful what you tell a chatbot. Your conversation might be used to improve the artificial intelligence system that it’s built on. If you ask ChatGPT for advice about your embarrassing medical condition, beware that anything you disclose could be used to tweak OpenAI’s algorithms that underpin its AI models. The same goes if, for example, you upload a sensitive company report to Google’s Gemini to summarize for a meeting. … [But some companies let you] stop any of your chatbot interactions from being used for AI training.”
The 47 Seconds That Saved Kamala Harris’s Political Career (Russ)
The author writes, “Nearly 14 years ago, Kamala Harris’s opponent in the California attorney general’s race gave an answer at a little-watched debate that was frank — and fateful for the future Democratic presidential nominee.”
In Tim Walz’s Rural Hometown, His Democratic Politics Are an Awkward Fit (Reader Steve)
The author writes, “Though the Trump campaign branded Walz “a West Coast wannabe,” Democrats are betting Walz will help them broaden their appeal in overwhelmingly white swaths of rural America, where the party has been trying to claw back voters after two decades of steep losses.”
Inciting Rioters in Britain Was a Test Run for Elon Musk. Just See What He Plans for America (DonkeyHotey)
From The Guardian: “While Kamala Harris is enjoying her hot girl summer and liberal America is sighing with relief, it’s to Britain that the US needs to look. To rioters in the streets and burning cars and contagious, uncontained racism spreading like wildfire across multiple platforms. To lies amplified and spread by algorithms long before the facts have been reported, laundered and whitewashed by politicians and professional media grifters.”
PODCAST: In the Dark Season 3 (Dana)
From The New Yorker: “On November 19, 2005, a small group of U.S. Marines killed twenty-four civilians in Haditha, Iraq. The case against them would become one of the most high-profile war-crimes prosecutions in American history, and then it would all fall apart. On Season 3 of the New Yorker investigative podcast, Madeleine Baran and the In the Dark team examine what happened that day in Haditha — and why no one was held accountable.”
Arizona Residents Fear What the State’s Mining Boom Will Do to Their Water (Laura)
The author writes, “Nearly 80 percent of Arizona lacks any form of groundwater regulation, allowing big users like the copper mines supplying the energy transition to consume vast amounts of the scarce resource.”
EVs Are Starting To Overtake Gas-Powered Cars in a Surprising Place (Mili)
From CNN: “Long lines have been forming at gas stations in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, amid fuel shortages and a price spike in recent months. But electric vehicle driver Mikial Belayneh avoids them completely. ‘I no longer line up for petrol on the road,’ Belayneh, an Addis resident, told CNN. A full charge of his imported Toyota bZ4X — a popular EV in the country — ‘is more than enough for two days.’”
A Terrorist Plot Canceled the Show. But We Swifties Found Each Other on Cornelia Street. (Bethany)
The author writes, “I went to Vienna to see the Eras tour with my 13-year-old niece. When she heard Taylor Swift wouldn’t be playing, her response was awe-inspiring.”
