What if Yellowstone exploded right now…

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People training OpenAI’s AI fired for using AI to train the AI

“OpenAI has an army of contractors who read real ChatGPT users’ prompts and other data to help improve the chatbot’s responses. The idea is that the contractors provide an, obviously, human touch to OpenAI’s models. Well, not all of the contractors are doing that. 404 Media has found multiple contractors hired to improve OpenAI’s models have been fired for using AI to train the AI. That’s not great for the models themselves, but there is also obviously a great irony in AI training companies working for OpenAI firing people for using AI when OpenAI’s whole thing is to make people use AI at work. Some AI models already exhibit signs of ‘model collapse,’ which is where AI models further trained on AI-generated text can become worse and worse…”

The household expenses your insurance policy won’t cover this fall

Unexpected repairs have a way of feeling personal, especially when the furnace quits during fall’s first real cold snap and your homeowner’s policy stays exactly as quiet as always. A dead washer counts too, along with most of the major systems that policy conveniently ignores. That’s the specific gap Choice Home Warranty covers, with claims filed whenever you need them and $100 off now for their Fall Savings event. [Ad]

What the equinox ‘henge’ effect tells us about U.S. cities

“The fall equinox brings shorter days and the change of seasons. In some U.S. cities, it’s also a chance to witness the striking alignment between the sun and Earth, as sunrises and sunsets align with city streets running east and west. It’s a modern version of ancient observances of a celestial shift, like sunrise at Stonehenge. ‘Humans still connect with how special it feels,’ says Geoff Boeing, who studies city design as the chair of the Department of Urban Planning and Spatial Analysis at the University of Southern California. ‘The things we built helped us to frame the universe in a certain way,’ Boeing adds. In this case, that framing is literal. Take Chicago, for instance…”

When the eyes play tricks, the brain builds consensus

“Have you ever seen something that doesn’t quite add up? Maybe a shape in the dark resembles a face, or an orange momentarily looks like an apple. Scientists now have a new idea about how different brain regions may work together to resolve these visual mix-ups. In a study … [of] two neighboring regions of the visual cortex… When the regions agreed, their shared activity lasted longer. But when they disagreed, the mismatch quickly faded within a fraction of a second. This shift offers a glimpse into how the brain forms a consensus for reaching conclusions.”

AI can find you a cheap flight. Can it get you money back?

Ask any chatbot for a cheap flight to Lisbon, and it’ll hand you a decent answer. Ask what happens when that fare drops two weeks later, and it gets quiet. OneAir picks up where the search ends. Once you’ve booked, its AI keeps checking your hotel and flight reservations against current rates, and when something lower appears, it rebooks the room or walks you through re-ticketing the flight so the difference comes back to you. Lifetime access, so it keeps watching trips you haven’t even planned yet. [Ad]

End of humanity? Blow-by-blow account of what would happen if the Yellowstone supervolcano erupted now

“Around 631,000 years ago — a geological blink of an eye — catastrophe unfolded in what is now northwestern Wyoming, U.S. During what is thought to have been a series of immense volcanic eruptions, life within hundreds of kilometers of the blasts was shattered. Ash was dispersed across much of North America, and the effects were felt worldwide. This was a super-eruption of the massive volcanic system located in what is now Yellowstone National Park. Despite the scale, no known human witnessed the cataclysm. As far as we know, early humans had not yet reached the continent. … Today, humanity would certainly notice. We already know that a super-eruption on this scale would threaten civilization as we know it. So what exactly would we experience if Yellowstone erupted?”

@sarashakeel

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