The Rip Current with Jacob Ward
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AI Just Built Unnatural Viruses in a Lab. But Don't Panic.
Scientists used a freely downloadable model to design viruses that killed their targets. This is actually great news for antibiotic development. The…
Aug 7
•
Jacob Ward
7
3
Here Come AI Romance Scams
It used to be that what a single person could pull off in a year was the limiting factor on romance scams. Not anymore.
Aug 7
•
Jacob Ward
6
1
9:49
"You Did It Before You Considered Whether You Should"
Jake on CNN: AI that's creative, improvisational, and devoted to getting the job done is as much a recipe for hacking as it is for helping.
Aug 6
•
Jacob Ward
6
1
4:51
AI Invented a Fake Friend to Break Into a Company
A British lab built a hacking test to see what new AI could do. The model went after real people, invented a friend to vouch for it, and attacked the…
Aug 6
•
Jacob Ward
5
2
What to Know About Rogue A.I.
The high-minded debate over open vs closed A.I. distracts from the industry's real worry: it can't restrain itself. Here's the last three weeks of rogue…
Aug 2
•
Jacob Ward
1
14:59
Let Us Make A.I. Nudes If We Want, Say Elon Musk's xAI Lawyers
An embarassing legal brief revealed the depth of the A.I. deepfake nudes problem — and the limits of companies' ability (or willingness) to root it out.
Aug 1
•
Jacob Ward
9
1
3
8:07
Why Do AI Leaders Believe They're Doing the Right Thing?
With billions invested and runaway AI breaking out all over, it's worth understanding a powerful quirk of the mind, and why it seems to have the tech…
Aug 1
•
Jacob Ward
5
1
3
July 2026
Three Weeks of Runaway AI, Explained
Everything that happened with rogue AI agents this month — and what it tells us about the limits of self-regulation.
Jul 30
•
Jacob Ward
9
2
4
ChatGPT Breaks Custody
"Jailbreaks custody" is more like it. OpenAI’s latest model hacked another company to get what it wanted. The problem is: autonomy is what the company…
Jul 23
•
Jacob Ward
15
1
7
India is the Very Angry Future. Are We Ready?
Protests, political upheaval, and bans on technology are now a steady occurrence in the world's largest democracy. We should be watching closely.
Jul 22
•
Jacob Ward
5
2
The World Cup's Pink Cleats Are a Warning About AI
To stand out in the world's most popular sporting event, all the major companies relied on the same prediction, and made the same shoe. It's an AI…
Jul 19
•
Jacob Ward
7
4
Here's Where Prediction Markets Go Wrong
Gabriel Perez ran Trump's teleprompter and bet on what the president would say. Now begins the terrible tailspin of prediction markets.
Jul 16
•
Jacob Ward
5
1
1
12:41
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