Author HubMatthias Bastian

Matthias is the co-founder and publisher of THE DECODER, exploring how AI is fundamentally changing the relationship between humans and computers.
AI and society

The long-predicted deepfake dystopia has arrived with Sora 2

AI and society
Update

Anthropic settles landmark AI copyright lawsuit for at least $1.5 billion

AI and society

Google downplays AI's environmental impact in new study

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AI in practice
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The New York Times has signed a multi-year deal with Amazon, allowing the tech company to display content from the Times, NYT Cooking, and The Athletic on Alexa and use it to train its AI models. In return, Amazon is paying a licensing fee. The Times says the agreement expands its reach and gives Amazon customers direct access to its journalism. This comes as the Times continues its lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft, filed in late 2023, over alleged unauthorized use of its content for AI training. The lawsuit with OpenAI is still ongoing.

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AI in practice
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Meta is splitting its AI department into two groups: "AI Products" led by Connor Hayes, focused on the Meta AI Assistant and features inside Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, and "AGI Foundations" led by Ahmad Al-Dahle and Amir Frenkel, working on Llama models and advanced reasoning and multimedia models. FAIR, Meta's AI research lab, will continue, though one multimedia team is moving under the new structure. Meta says the change should accelerate product development and give teams more freedom. No layoffs are planned.

The reorganization comes as Meta faces strong competition from Deepseek in open-source models. Llama 4 has not met performance expectations, and its largest version has been delayed.

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AI in practice
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The full system prompt for Claude 4 has been leaked by X user "Pliny the Liberator" and is now available on GitHub. The document, over 60,000 characters long, sets detailed rules for tone, roles, source handling, and banned content. It controls the model at the system level, before any user prompt is processed. I find it strange that large language models often fail to follow short user instructions, yet seem able to follow complex internal prompts like this one. If you know the reason for that, shoot me an email.

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AI and society
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Deepmind CEO Demis Hassabis told the New York Times’ Hard Fork podcast that coding and science are still worth learning, even as AI becomes more powerful. He said people who understand basics like math and programming will be better prepared for the changes AI will bring over the next ten years. While AI tools can boost users to near "superhuman" ability, Hassabis believes "learning to learn" is an important skill.

"I think whatever happens with these A.I. tools, you'll be better off understanding how they work and how they function and what you can do with them. "

Demis Hassabis

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AI and society

OpenAI restructures under new foundation, Microsoft takes 27 percent stake

AI and society

ChatGPT's memory could turn personal details into ads OpenAI CEO Altman once called dystopian

AI and society

The long-predicted deepfake dystopia has arrived with Sora 2

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