Daily News: May 20, 2025
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Today's News
Here are the top 5 recent news items on artificial intelligence:
1./ AI-generated summer reading list featuring fake books published by major newspapers
An AI-generated summer reading list, including nonexistent books by real authors like Isabel Allende and Percival Everett, mistakenly appeared in major newspapers like the Chicago Sun-Times and Philadelphia Inquirer through syndicated content provided by King Features. The list, largely fabricated by AI and published without editorial oversight, sparked outrage from readers and authors alike, highlighting concerns over media accuracy and AI's growing influence on journalism.
Source: https://www.npr.org/2025/05/20/nx-s1-5405022/fake-summer-reading-list-ai
2./ Nvidia CEO praises Trump for scrapping some AI export curbs to China
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang applauded President Trump's decision to relax AI chip export restrictions imposed by the Biden administration, calling the previous controls "a failure" that cost U.S. companies billions and significantly reduced Nvidia’s market share in China. Huang emphasized that stringent export curbs had unintentionally accelerated China's own semiconductor development, intensifying competition in the Chinese market and undermining American economic interests.
3./ Google Announces Insane Amount of Simultaneous Product Launches, Each a Milestone
Google launched Google AI Ultra, a premium subscription at $249.99/month, offering maximum access to Google's most advanced AI models like Gemini and Flow, along with massive storage and YouTube Premium. It also introduced Flow, a revolutionary generative-AI video tool with precise camera controls, cohesive scenes, and sound generation capabilities, empowering filmmakers with unprecedented cinematic control. Project Astra, Google's experimental "universal AI assistant," proactively performs tasks for users without explicit prompts, aiming to transform daily digital interactions seamlessly. Google's new Gemini Diffusion model significantly speeds up text and code generation using an innovative, noise-refining approach that outpaces traditional language models. Stitch, Google's AI-powered UI design tool, generates ready-to-use user interfaces and frontend code directly from text prompts or reference images, streamlining app development workflows. Google announced a $150M investment in Warby Parker to jointly create AI-powered smart glasses incorporating Gemini AI and augmented reality, set for release after 2025. Lastly, Project Mariner, Google's advanced web-browsing AI agent, allows users to delegate complex online tasks, like bookings or purchases, performing up to 10 tasks simultaneously from the cloud, marking a significant leap in agentic computing.
Source: https://blog.google/products/google-one/google-ai-ultra/, https://www.indiewire.com/news/breaking-news/google-gen-ai-video-tool-flow-dave-clark-interview-1235124650/, https://www.theverge.com/google-io/670386/google-astra-universal-ai-assistant-prototype-io-2025, https://deepmind.google/models/gemini-diffusion/, https://www.theverge.com/news/670773/google-labs-stitch-ui-coding-design-tool, https://techcrunch.com/2025/05/20/google-commits-150m-to-develop-ai-glasses-with-warby-parker/, https://techcrunch.com/2025/05/20/google-rolls-out-project-mariner-its-web-browsing-ai-agent/
4./ Study Reveals Major AI Chatbots Easily Tricked into Providing Dangerous Information
A recent study from Ben Gurion University found that most popular AI chatbots, including ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude, can be easily "jailbroken" into bypassing built-in safety measures, enabling them to generate dangerous and illegal content such as instructions for hacking, drug manufacturing, and other criminal activities. Researchers warn that these vulnerabilities are "immediate, tangible, and deeply concerning," potentially putting harmful knowledge in the hands of everyday users. The study urges tech companies to tighten controls, thoroughly screen training data, and implement stronger security measures to mitigate these serious risks.
5./ AI’s hidden energy crisis: Small queries, massive carbon footprint
A groundbreaking MIT Technology Review analysis reveals AI’s rapidly escalating energy demands and associated carbon emissions, largely unnoticed due to the minimal energy cost per individual query. As AI integration accelerates—from chatbots like ChatGPT to intensive video generation—the industry's power usage is skyrocketing, potentially consuming as much as 22% of US household electricity by 2028. Despite massive infrastructure investments from companies like Google, Meta, Microsoft, and OpenAI, transparency around energy use remains scarce, obscuring how much consumers might ultimately bear the cost through higher electricity rates.
Source: https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/05/20/1116327/ai-energy-usage-climate-footprint-big-tech/
Today's Takeaway
Today's AI news signals both astounding innovation and mounting chaos. The bogus AI-generated reading lists published by reputable newspapers underscore just how rapidly, and recklessly, automation has infiltrated journalism, threatening public trust and media credibility. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's applause for Trump's relaxation of chip export curbs reveals a troubling truth: AI has become a geopolitical football, with short-term profits prioritized over strategic long-term national security interests. Google's avalanche of product launches is impressive yet unsettling, revealing a future where AI proactively governs our daily tasks, raising urgent questions about control, transparency, and data privacy. Equally alarming, the revelation that major AI chatbots are trivially manipulated into providing dangerous information demonstrates that companies have dangerously prioritized rapid deployment over safety and responsibility. Finally, MIT's analysis of AI's hidden energy crisis should shock everyone awake: AI’s seemingly effortless magic conceals a massive carbon footprint that could soon strain energy infrastructure, forcing society to grapple with environmental costs far sooner than anticipated. The AI revolution is here, spectacular yet perilous, demanding immediate regulatory action, industry transparency, and ethical stewardship.
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