UC San Diego: Governments May Shape What AI Chatbots Say by Shaping the Web They Learn From. “Ask an AI model the same political question in two different languages, and you may get two very different responses. A new study in Nature suggests one reason why: governments can indirectly influence large language models (LLMs) by shaping the online media environment, and thus the text those systems […]

https://rbfirehose.com/2026/05/15/uc-san-diego-governments-may-shape-what-ai-chatbots-say-by-shaping-the-web-they-learn-from/

Ars Technica: The newest AI boom pitch: Host a mini data center at your home. “Data centers may be coming to your neighborhood as side installations associated with new homes—and in exchange would offer subsidized electricity and Internet access along with backup batteries to homeowners. The company behind the plan has already begun pilot testing in preparation for a 100-home trial run this […]

https://rbfirehose.com/2026/05/13/the-newest-ai-boom-pitch-host-a-mini-data-center-at-your-home-ars-technica/

Ars Technica: Chrome’s 4GB AI model isn’t new, but you’re not wrong for being confused. “Some desktop Chrome users have also noted that the browser appears to suddenly want more storage space for AI. This is true—Chrome does download a 4GB AI model for on-device processing. It’s been doing that for years, though. Google hasn’t actually changed anything about Chrome’s on-device AI, […]

https://rbfirehose.com/2026/05/09/ars-technica-chromes-4gb-ai-model-isnt-new-but-youre-not-wrong-for-being-confused/

Associated Press: The rapid embrace of AI in China, its biggest testing ground, may shape how AI is used globally. “More than a year after OpenAI’s Chinese rival DeepSeek stunned the world with its advanced AI model, China has become a testing ground for mass use of AI tools. AI models built in the United States still dominate in raw computing firepower, but Chinese people and businesses have […]

https://rbfirehose.com/2026/05/07/associated-press-the-rapid-embrace-of-ai-in-china-its-biggest-testing-ground-may-shape-how-ai-is-used-globally/

The Register: Yet another experiment proves it’s too damn simple to poison large language models. “Unlike search engines that let you judge competing sources, search-backed AI chatbots can turn shaky web material into confident answers. Case in point: A security engineer convinced several bots that he was the reigning world champion of a popular German card game, even though no such […]

https://rbfirehose.com/2026/05/07/the-register-yet-another-experiment-proves-its-too-damn-simple-to-poison-large-language-models/

TechSpot: Google Chrome has been silently pushing a 4GB AI model to your device without asking. “Google Chrome users who have noticed unusual disk activity or unexplained drops in available storage should look for a folder called ‘OptGuideOnDeviceModel’ inside their Chrome directory. It holds roughly 4GB of weights for Google’s Gemini Nano LLM, downloaded by the browser without user consent.”

https://rbfirehose.com/2026/05/06/techspot-google-chrome-has-been-silently-pushing-a-4gb-ai-model-to-your-device-without-asking/

Mashable: OpenAI rolls out ChatGPT 5.5 Instant as the new default model for everyone. “According to OpenAI, GPT-5.5 Instant produced 52.5 percent fewer hallucinated claims in internal testing than GPT-5.3 in ‘high stakes’ topics like law, finance, and medicine. In addition, the new model ‘reduced inaccurate claims by 37.3% on especially challenging conversations users had flagged for factual […]

https://rbfirehose.com/2026/05/06/mashable-openai-rolls-out-chatgpt-5-5-instant-as-the-new-default-model-for-everyone/

Gizmodo: Talkie Is a ‘Vintage LLM’ Trained on Pre-1930 Data to Help Facilitate ‘Time Travel’. “In the case of Talkie, aka 13B 1930 LM, the cutoff is, as the name suggests, the year 1930. This choice of year might seem arbitrary, but it’s not: as we discussed here back in January, many forms of copyright expire on January 1 of the year that comes 95 years after the copyrighted material […]

https://rbfirehose.com/2026/05/04/gizmodo-talkie-is-a-vintage-llm-trained-on-pre-1930-data-to-help-facilitate-time-travel/

Georgia Tech: Transformer Explainer Shows How AI is More Math Than Human. “Georgia Tech researchers are making AI easier to understand through their work on Transformer Explainer. The free, online tool shows non-experts how ChatGPT, Claude, and other large language models (LLMs) process language, improving AI literacy.”

https://rbfirehose.com/2026/04/29/georgia-tech-transformer-explainer-shows-how-ai-is-more-math-than-human/

Associated Press: Trump administration vows crackdown on Chinese companies ‘exploiting’ AI models made in U.S.. “The Trump administration is vowing to crack down on foreign tech companies’ exploitation of U.S. artificial intelligence models, singling out China at a time that country is narrowing the gap with the U.S. in the AI race.”

https://rbfirehose.com/2026/04/25/associated-press-trump-administration-vows-crackdown-on-chinese-companies-exploiting-ai-models-made-in-u-s/