AI and society Archive

Dec 14, 2025

Deepmind co-founder Shane Legg puts the odds of achieving "minimal AGI" at 50 percent by 2028. In an interview with Hannah Fry, Legg lays out his framework for thinking about artificial general intelligence. He describes a scale running from minimal AGI through full AGI to artificial superintelligence (ASI). Minimal AGI means an artificial agent that can handle the cognitive tasks most humans typically perform. Full AGI covers the entire range of human cognition, including exceptional achievements like developing new scientific theories or composing symphonies.

Legg believes minimal AGI could arrive in roughly two years. Full AGI would follow three to six years later. To measure progress, he proposes a comprehensive test suite: if an AI system passes all typical human cognitive tasks, and human teams can't find any weak points even after months of searching with full access to every detail of the system, the goal has been reached.

Comment Source: YouTube

Matthias Bastian

Dec 13, 2025

AI and society

AI is reshaping the media landscape. Some companies are striking partnerships, others are fighting back against alleged copyright infringement, and some are doing both. To keep track of this shifting terrain, Columbia University's Tow Center has launched an "AI Deals and Disputes Tracker." The tool, part of the center's "Platforms and Publishers" project, monitors the evolving relationship between news publishers and AI companies by documenting lawsuits, business deals, and financial grants based on publicly available information.

The tracker lists major agreements and disputes between publishers and AI companies. | Image: Tow Center

The Tow Center says the overview gets updated at the start of each month, with the most recent data from December 12, 2025. The goal is to give readers a clear picture of the legal and economic shifts happening across the industry. Klaudia Jaźwińska compiles the data and welcomes tips on missing developments to keep the tracker up to date.

Comment Source: Tow

Matthias Bastian

Dec 12, 2025

AI and society

Pangram 3.0 AI text detector claims up to 99.98% accuracy, even for subtly AI-assisted content

Maximilian Schreiner

Dec 12, 2025

AI and society

On Thursday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order threatening to withhold federal funding from states whose AI regulations impede American innovation. Speaking to reporters, Trump argued that a patchwork of state-level rules slows down the industry.

The order directs the Secretary of Commerce to review state laws and, in cases of conflict, block access to the $42 billion broadband fund. Previous attempts to enforce such bans had failed.

The directive specifically targets anti-discrimination rules in states like Colorado, which the administration claims lead to "ideological bias." While tech giants like Google and OpenAI welcomed the move toward national standards, Representative Don Beyer warned that the order could create a "lawless Wild West" and potentially violates the Constitution by undermining state-level safety reforms.

Comment Source: Reuters